Rob Stevens

May In Your Garden

It's going fairly well for saying I'm making it up as I go along!

I don't know if you have one near you, but small independent nurseries are worth looking at for cheap starter plants. I got my delphiniums, digitalis and saxifrage from one at 70p each.

May In Your Garden

GW being usurped by snooker truly is criminal.

I've managed to get a bit of planting done in between downpours - got some delphiniums and brunnera planted in our front garden. I've got some digitalis, saxifrage and hostas sitting in pots waiting to go out in the back, but we're suffering something of a fencing issue and I'm holding off on planting anything in the bed next to it until it's fixed. My sweet peas are in and I've got nasturtiums coming up in a few places, as well as my fine selection of pound shop bulbs 

Not sure how the veg bed is doing - it got fairly seriously waterlogged. There's some beetroot, sprouts and psb coming up, and potatoes starting to sprout.

This is the first year I've had a garden, so all pretty exciting!

Festuca Glauca (Elijah Blue) - Remove Seed Heads

I'm probably being over cautious, but I'm new to this gardening lark and thought I'd check before I started snipping Thanks for the answer.

Festuca Glauca (Elijah Blue) - Remove Seed Heads

I have 3 Festuca Glaucas that were planted last year and they have started producing seed heads. I like them where they are, but I have no desire to have them seeding around the place. Is it ok to snip the heads off?

Talkback: Taking geranium cuttings

I'm curious about the bit that says to put the cuttings around the edge of the pot. Why is this? I've also heard (or read - can't remember where) that this doesn't matter any more when using modern pots? Something to do with the materials used to make them.

Can anyone shed any light on this?

Tasty things

steephill wrote (see)

I make cider from my apples - between 5 and 20 gallons each year depending on cropping. Images from last year's batch here if the link works http://www.sussexhill.net/Events/Making_Cider/index.html#K7008014

That's an impressively industrial looking setup!

Get thrifty

Foil take-away cartons (thoroughly washed) - either with holes in for seeding trays, or without used as trays for seeding pots on window sills allowing plenty of water to be added from the base. The circular ones are the perfect size for 6 small decomposeable pots.

Tasty things

I've just bottled up my first attempt at home brewed blackberry and elderberry wine from wild berries, which I'm hiding from myself in the garage for a few months before I try it. I've also just opened a jar of the spicy apple chutney that I made in the autumn from the windfall apples in my garden and it's fantastic. Very pleased with it.

Has anyone else been up to anything similar? Any interesting results/tips/recipes?

lettuce

I've just sown mixed salad leaves for the first time this year. I sowed them in lines in the space where I intended them to stay and then thinned out the seedlings once they'd sprouted. I'm intending to use mine as baby leaf so I've thinned them to a couple of inches apart, but you'd need to increase this if you're intending to grow them to full size.

One thing I have learnt this first time around - don't leave the seedlings too long before thinning or the ones you leave in may end up with skinney, unsupportive stalks. I also put in far too many seeds and ended chucking more seedlings than I kept, so best to be more sparing I guess.

Pound shop plants- any success stories?

I live in a rented house and because of this am reluctant to sink too much money into someone else's garden. I'm fairly new to gardening, but I've been having a reasonable amount of success with cheap plants. Reduced stuff from B&Q or Homebase seems to do ok - I've got some nice heathers that I got 6 of for 50p, and very rapidly growing African violet in the house that was nearly dead when I bought it. I'm also seeing the first batch of Poundland summer bulbs and seed mixes starting to come up. My Poundland sweetpeas are doing brilliantly! As previous posters have said, Morrisons seem to be quite good for cheap stuff.

Plant ID Help Please

Is it a weed 

Building a Compost Heap

Should I line it? 

Name that plant!

A fun game for all... 

Festuca Glauca (Elijah Blue) - Remove Seed Heads

Is it OK? 

Tasty things

Using what you grow or forage