Zoomer44

From Ivy to Sculpture

Doesn't answer your Q but my favourite has to be the one in the garden.

What's the weather like in your area?

The morning started off bright and cloudless.

I've been leaving the GH door open everyday and opening the plastic GH, closing both when I get home in the evening. Everything looks like it's itching to grow but just need's some heat and sun.  

Design Part of My Garden

Nice pot and in excellent condition, good idea to use it as a feature I did the same with mine when the chimney's were capped, I have four, filled them full of compost to plant stuff in....but eventually the plants out grew the stacks and I got bored with where they were placed but couldn't move them due to the weight and even if they could be moved all the compost would have fallen out the bottom.    

You can get pots which fit snugly in the stacks and then plant any number of alpines in the pots so you can change the display if you get bored.

My stacks this year started off with pots of rosemary and small conifers over winter, followed by daffs and now tulips. I'm thinking outdoor toms for them next  and have pots with gladioli and lillies to put in them later in the summer.

Being empty of compost you can move the stack anywhere in the garden.    

Runner Beans.

For pea's I'm trying canes crossed in the middle this year with a wooden rectangular frame at the top, which the canes are attached to, to strengthen the structure. This has two long wooden lattes nailed to the middle of the shorter sides and driven into the ground by about 1ft. Read about the idea in a book. There are 5 canes either side.

I also grow beans up one side of three arches over the garden path. The other side has a selection of climbers. Sounds like a lot of beans but I grew 2 to 3 plants of different coloured pods last year and had a colourful display of purple, green, yellow and red/cream pods reaching over the arches creating a lush green canopy.       

I've discovered some new varieties to try this year, Lablab beans have perfumed flowers which flower in different colours so ideal for growing by a path. Black eye cowpea's leaves are edible, can be cooked like spinach and the beans dried.  

Celeriac info

I'm no expert and happy to be wrong but depending on the variety it isn't to late to sow, I'm growing Monarch which can be sown indoors Feb to April. I sowed in a plastic GH in April and surprisingly nearly every seed has come up but they are not at the true leaf stage yet and still very tiny.

I'm growing it for the 2nd year as an over wintering veg and last year just got lots of top growth but very little underground. Me thinks this is a tricky veg to grow and going to depend on the weather we get over the summer.

I'd advise to sow in modules and under cover.

Saint or sinner?.....don't like annuals

I like to fill any gaps so it's a thumbs up for annuals from me.

All my annuals come as free seeds in gardening magazines so if they get to the stage where they can be planted out I try to find space although this year due to the bad weather, cool temps and poor light there aren't many to plant out.

My preference though, would be biennials although there's less of a choice.

By October time my veg beds are almost empty, so, as a first, last year, in modules sowed bellis, sweet william, foxglove and parsley in July, for planting out in a nursery bed, vacated by veg in September and October. Cornflower and sweet pea do well in a GH over winter.    

On the plus side and on sunny days, I get alot of bee's in the garden, especially round the bellis which has been a star performer. 

Potatoes

You can bypass chitting and just plant them out. You'll just have later spuds planting them out now. I plant out Christmas spuds in August which aren't chitted.

I'd be inclinged to plant 1st or 2nd earlies now though.  Others posters maybe able to give better advise regarding a main crop as it's possibly to late to plant those out. 

What's the weather like in your area?

It stayed dry here and was a lot warmer than yesterday.

Always nice to see the first flowers on toms, sadly they are on the plant's I bought, my home sown ones have a long way to go yet.

Planted out a sad looking lot of pea seedlings. Very disappointed with pea's this year, most seedlings have died, so another last lot has been sown.      

carrots

carrots

Carrots are similar to parsnips and have a tapered root. If the root is broken when transplanting, the carrots, if they survive will fork leading to misshaped carrots which is the reason most will advise to sow direct where you want your carrots to grow. 

I'm happy to be wrong but sowing carrots in stony ground leads to the same problem.

I prefer to grow carrots in pots, sowing then direct and harvesting as mini veg. If you sow in pots though you need to be ruthless when thinning out. The root needs room to grow, and it won't row to a size were it's worth harvesting if competing with other seedlings.

Painting a trellis...

Repotting a Christmas Tree...

Veg to sow in February...

Stored home made liquid seaweed feed...

Moving flowers...

Which spuds to get...

Clearing snow...

Hard wood cuttings...

Where have all my beans gone!.

Growing fennel bulbs...

Growingspuds for Chistmas...

Saving bean seeds...

Saving tom seeds...

Fruit bushes...

Rubard just won't die back...