yarrow2

Leeks and beetroot

Hi Loz.

I wouldn't be able to recognise leaks but here's a pic of my beetroot seedlings when they first came up a couple of months ago.  Hope it helps.

Anemone Blanda

Alina W - thanks for that.  Grateful for the advice and will replant at leaf die-back stage. 

Yes - I suppose I did go a bit overboard with the drainage effort!   Beginners knee-jerk reaction to sometimes tricky clay soil conditions and sometimes misinterpretation of the emphasis on 'drainage' in the ever-increasing second-hand gardening book collection.  Being still  lacking in natural 'garden sense', I'm sometimes a bit over-cautious and can end up causing as many problems as I attempt to correct in order not to lose precious plants.

Reading gardening literature with a sometimes over-serious or dilligent attitude can have it's hilarious consequences and that's another fun aspect of being new to something.  I know this is a completely different subject but it neatly illustrates a beginner's psyche.  I put off moving a medium sized shrub for a year thinking I'd kill it if I didn't get it right.  I was so concerned about losing it that I read a lot of seemingly complicated and cautious advice.. THEN - when reading an old Geoff Hamilton book purely for pleasure, I came across a couple of inspiring sentences on the subject of moving a shrub.  I can't remember which book it was so can't quote the exact wording, but he merely said throw a bucket of water over it before you move it and throw another bucket of water over it when you replant it.  Worked perfectly - beginner's angst over in that instance.

It's a great thing for new gardeners to get straightforward advice or hear of other's experiences - and dare I say very calming and confidence-building when little things can get blown out of proportion when we have a less than perfect gardening day.

Sorry for the thinking-aloud digression and drifting off topic.  I imagine new gardeners are as annoying to experienced gardeners in the same way that people who have just stopped smoking become an irritant to their continuing smoking friends.

Anemone Blanda

Can anyone advise me what to do with these plants?  I bought 4 small plants on offer  in 3" pots in March.  They were the last leftover in the shop and had flowered for quite some time when bought.  I knew they wouldn't be in flower for much longer but they were so pretty and offered cheaply at that time so I couldn't resist buying and planting them in a bare patch which I made into a tiny makeshift rock section.  I planted them in a mixture of loam, sharp sand and grit.  I then surrounded them with leftover grit and left them to it.  Flowering stopped end of April and each plant remained much as when bought - i.e. no new growth.  TThey are also in partial shade and it looks as if the soil doesn't ever dry.

Now, June 6th, the plants are still tiny, no new growth - but was assuming they are relatively dormant and are supposed to be as they are.  They don't look greatly healthy but I didn't know what to expect after their flowering time is over.

Today I noticed that these round black tubers(?) have pushed up through the grit to the surface and I'm wondering if this is normal.  I'm not sure I planted them in the right conditions and if I ought to be doing somethin!g to rescue them now - if it looks as if they are not going to make it to next year.  Can anyone tell me from these pictures what you think I ought to be doing with them?  The tubers feel solid enough but never having seen them before I'm not sure if I should be re-planting them or if they should even be black!

Advice would be much welcomed.  I hope I'm not going to lose them by having boobed with the planting conditions.  Thanks.

Sweet Peas

Hi figrat.  Thanks for that.  Yes I pinch them out before I harden them off and put them in the ground.  But - after I've planted them out each year, they grow up up up and bend over and down when they reach the top of the canes.   The last 2 years I pulled off the tendrils and sideshoots - which I imagine is why they just continued up and up.  The stalks were about 12" with about 7 buds on each stem.  They were lovely, but they all seem to bloom so high up.   I'd settle for shorter stalks and less buds if I knew how to make them look lovely and natural with blooms lower down.  I was thinking I should maybe just leave them to do their own thing and stop tying them into the canes once they reach a certain height so that they just wander in a more bush-like fashion on the cane/plastic mesh support.  Not sure if that affects getting as many blooms as you should expect though.  Planted them out couple of weeks ago.  Here's what they look like at the canes just now.  I'd like the ones on the little obelisk just to look like a bush but as it's a small obelisk I wondered how to stop them growing higher and higher and just be more bushy and messy looking - a straggle of colour if you will.

Sweet Peas

Summary:  New to gardening (3 years).  Small garden so space very limited. 1st year - grew up one line of canes in front of border fence - grew to about 7ft, good weather that year, lots of blooms. 2nd Year - used 8' canes in a line (no room for any other type of support).  Peas grew to top of canes and wouldn't stop growing so the tops were hanging down.  Rained for weeks and weeks, hardly any blooms and were so high up not easily accessible and looked a mess.

This year, I have sweet peas planted in original position with a line of canes supporting mesh,  but also some planted around a small obelisk (5ft) and a few in a tub with a thin tall trellis behind the tub.

My question is - I would love my sweet peas to do their own thing, look natural (rather than straight up to the top of the canes).  I've never managed to get them to look that lovely bushy way they look in photographs with lots of blooms at eye level or lower.  Is it possible, once they've reached the top of the canes or obelisk, to just chop the highest point of the  main stem and stop them growing taller - or will this cut-off the bloom potential completely?

Sorry this is such an ignorant question.  Most people seem to be so experienced with sweet peas or find them easy.  I'd love mine for once to look more bushy and not so tall and slim.

The ones I have growing just now are Cupani, a Spencer mix and and an Old Fashioned Mix and probably some leftovers from last year of a Help for Heroes Mix .

Would love advice on this.  Thanks.

Gardeners told 'wash off compost'

Apologies if this subject has already been covered on the 'B&Q Compost Issues' forum thread.  (There are so many posts that my computer jams trying to get to the end of the large number of comments on that thread).

 BBC website (under Scotland tag) has article by Eleanor Bradford, one of the health correspondents about a health warning and  possible  (but not 100% proven)link with compost and strand of  legionnaires disease which seems to relate to Scotland only.  However, the report does briefly mention changes in manufacture of compost but not in detail.   It may turn out that the source will not be the actual compost (ie legionnaires carried on water droplets etc) but whether scaremongering or not, it's perhaps interesting that compost was linked with the report subject.  Perhaps it will open up further investigation into the compost production issues.

B&Q M.Purpose Compost Issues.

Hi marshmello -methinks they might as well have been eyeballs! 

B&Q M.Purpose Compost Issues.

I posted at the beginning of this thread about my B&Q Multi-P compost and maybe this isn't the place to show you this - because I'm not totally sure if what you'll see below is due to just the flower corms/seeds or has a connection with the compost.  In February I bought a box of what were supposed to be Chincherinchee corms/seeds/bulbs (see picture).  There were 20 or 30 (can't remember) corms. I put them individually into 3" pots in the B&Q compost and put some outside in the soil, probably way too early for outside but it said Jan/Feb on the box.  Below is what happened with the indoor ones.  1 looks like - I don't know.  2 looks like (and feels like) a stinging nettle. 3 - could this be an actual Chincherinchee?  None have come up in the garden and I've never seen Chincherinchee before - whim buy!   The corm is worn looking and wet because I washed the compost off it to take the picture.  You have to laugh at how I've 'nurtured' the stinging nettle.  I tipped out the pots and all the original corms/seeds came out - unattached any of the weeds which have grown.  Only one maybe looks like it might be Chincherinchee - picture 3 but I don't know as I've never seen them except in pictures of the fully grown plants on the bought box or on web photos.  You can tell I'm a beginner gardener. 

 Are stinging nettles any use for beasties in the garden - or should I ditch? 

My Baby Robin

Fantastic picture donutsmrs.  Never seen a baby robin before.  It's really good to see.

Making a cold frame and where to buy a manger.

Tootles and Skyesteve - my makeshift coldframe was scavenged, so free.  But it wouldn't rate in the fashion stakes.  Found a set of drawers out for local bin collection last year.  Ditched the drawers and kept the frame and knocked out the back.  Used it as a big planter last year.  Couldn't afford a coldframe so the drawer cabinet is now the temporary coldframe with an overlarge window frame also from the bin collection pile.  So has no bottom and I just lift off the windowframe when weather suitable.   I poured in an inch or so of sharp sand in the bottom and seem to have no problems with it.  Looks a bit of a mess but has been a multi-purpose freebie - and the seedlings and plants are doing brilliantly in it with plenty room for large plants too.  Stapled some carpet underlay foam inside which seems to insulate very well in low temps and doesn't seem to get dirty or harbour any bugs or germs.  Ok the widowframe isn't angled down for rain to run off and it can be heavy to lift off - but it's advantages have proved it as useful and I was desperate!  It's also ugly but works for me plus being free.

Can anyone identify?

Zaluzianskya 'Orange Eye'

Can any confirm identification please?

Skimmia japonica 'Thereza'

Fear of messing with old roses

Ice-cream Penstemons - 'Melting Candy'

Geraniums (not Pelargoniums)

Identify bug?

Identify these anyone?

Aruncus

Identify plant

Hydrangea macrophylla

Geum rivale 'Leonard's Variety'

Cabbage 'Greyhound'

Cistus Snowfire