Topic: The RAWK Gardening Thread. (All Questions Answered)

[Nobby Reserve]

Yeah I've got some climbers, honeysuckle and clematis ready to go and for now I've put an old chimney pot with a photinia in a container there which has helped fill the space.

I've ripped out a load of old ivy that had taken over and found a straggly pyracantha cutting I'd put in years ago.  Maybe now it's got some space and light it might thrive.

Anyone else noticed the masses of Hawthorne blossom this year?  Don't know if it's just our area but I can't remember ever seeing it like this

My Japanese Cherry had an amazing display of blossom this year - I'm thinking a cool/damp winter/early spring quickly turned into a mild/warm & sunny late spring, with a distinct lack of strong winds.

[reddebs]

My Japanese Cherry had an amazing display of blossom this year - I'm thinking a cool/damp winter/early spring quickly turned into a mild/warm & sunny late spring, with a distinct lack of strong winds.

It is very late this year mate.  I barely noticed the cherry blossom here this year like it just forgot to bother so you're lucky to have a good showing.

My pyracantha is only just flowering where normally it's early April and occasionally as early as Jan/Feb in mild winters.

The cotoneaster has never been this splendid either but my spirea was pathetic this year.

At least spring is finally here.

[Nobby Reserve]

It is very late this year mate.  I barely noticed the cherry blossom here this year like it just forgot to bother so you're lucky to have a good showing.

This was taken on 6th May - blossom obviously long gone now

[reddebs]

Beautiful that mate.

[L8Craig]

Quite lucky myself

[John C]

Quite lucky myself

There's magnificent potential for your own open world there mate. My strong advice, I'm sure against many others, would be to reclaim your space entiely.
Get a skip or a van, take all the concrete on the right to the tip and grass over it. Remove all of the concrete features at the top and grass over it. Cut back the tress that over hang and obscure the vastness of your world. Create narrow borders down both sides and at the top of the garden that can host a wealth of colour all year round.
And cut back that hideous bush on the left forefront. Make it small and neat so that it knows it's place rather than dominates that area.

Oh, and nurture that Flame of the Forest on the mid-left. That's a lovely, well-established beaut which has probably lost its bloom by now.

Paint the fences.

All achievable at a low cost.

[L8Craig]

Thanks for the advice John! Definitely need to get it sorted. This warm weather is giving me a kick to get it sorted as we have spent a lot of time out there in the past week.

I’ll paint the fences eventually. Done the ones in the front garden which seemed to take forever so there are 3x the amount in the back so will rope some help in.
I’d like to make a lawn of it all. I’m off for 2 weeks in the middle of June so hoping I will get some time then to evaluate how it can look. Been pricing turf up recently

The bottom of the garden looks like it will be labour intensive. It definitely needs sorting as it’s just land which isn’t used at the moment which is a shame. Plenty of gnats down there as the other side of the fence is the railway with plenty of brambles with a huge drop.

The gigantic round thing in the foreground definitely needs a trim. I’ve been debating wether to put paving there on top of the soil. Would be ideal for a table and chairs so I can chill before work in the morning. The sun hits it from the right side of the picture but it ends up in shade as the day goes on before getting sunlight about 6ish. Problems of a north facing garden but there’s plenty of land to catch the sun

[Filler.]

Good few hours in the garden today. 3. 5, if you include scratching your chin. Plus looking after kids, so 45 mins. Looking better tho

[Filler.]

Twice now I've come across a cockchafe. Never seen one before. Beautiful creatures whose larvae is apparantly destroying all my 'crops' right now.




Not sure where the name came from, but I reckon Garsonite could tell me.

[The Gulleysucker]

They're wonderful things, quite magnificent in their complexity though a severe pest in historical times and maybe again if we aren't too careful.

I never saw one, certainly not up in Liverpool, until we moved to Devon and they are called May Bugs here and sure enough, this last month they've been around bumbling into external lights in the late evening, but are less frequent now. They're very clumsy, their flight is more a loosely controlled fall and crash, and they have a pernicious grip if you pick them up (don't worry, they don't bite) their feet I think having lots of tiny small hooks to grip onto things.

Their population seems to go in cycles, for the last few years we've had very few, about 25 or so years ago we used to have hundreds of them each night flying around and clumsily bashing into our windows in the late evenings throughout May, but we've still had a few this year.

After May, they seem to disappear for the rest of the year.

Strangely enough, things I remember seeing in Liverpool/Merseyside often as a kid like big Rove Beetles (Devils Coach Horses) and the Large Black Beetles, the ones that have an odour of sour milk if you touch them, we just don't seem to get down here. But we also don't get Stag Beetles, something we used to get when we lived near Burnham Beeches and later in Old Windsor. Now they are seriously impressive creatures! I can only guess it's because we don't have too many Beech trees down here.

[Filler.]

I also read that in the 1300's (a bit before my time), they were taken to court and tried! Victorian children used to make things out of them and/or use them as toys. I put this idea to my kids as a replacement for the Xbox : 'Nah' Also read that a scientist used them to invent something. And of course, the French ate them.


Enjoying the warm late evenings.

Good news! My dear old neighbour (86) is struggling now to mow his garden so I now have TWO gardens to maintain. Get in!

[Filler.]

Meant to ask Gully: Did your bees suffer in the arctic cold snap we had. Dug out my mason bee nest tonight... full of dead carcases. I didn't think they'd make it.

Also: can it be possible for a rose of one particular colour to suddenly change the next year into another colour? Some roses emerging, and never seen a yellow rose before on this plant that's sticking out of the earth somewhere - it's usually very pale pink.

[The Gulleysucker]

Meant to ask Gully: Did your bees suffer in the arctic cold snap we had....

They survived the cold snap fine and are very busy at the moment.

I never take all their honey out at the end of summer, I always leave them with a good few frames to see them over such things as provided they have food to keep their energy supplies up, they can survive some very prolonged harsh temperatures.

It's actually damp getting inside the hive that seems to be a bigger killer over winter.

But they do seem to be a tad behind at them moment though, this is the first time in several years I've not had any swarms in May.

I keep meaning to crack open the hives and have a check on them and possibly start drawing some honey but I'm just so busy right now doing other stuff.

Maybe next week.

I had an interesting experience yesterday, I was up from around 5am running on drinks of tea so around noon I had a light breakfast/lunch, some small croissants with a thick layer of honey on and immediately afterwards, went for a short nap.

The dreams I had were exceptionally vivid in detail, so much so that I did a bit of googling and it appears there is some anecdotal evidence that a large tablespoon or two of raw honey just prior to going to sleep does indeed increase the details in dreams.

Try it, though results do appear to vary. It must be raw honey..

[L8Craig]

Bit of progress made

[L8Craig]

Unsure if I have resized them a little too small in the above pictures due to the 200kb limitation. If so the resolution should be better on imgur

https://imgur.com/a/KHWxsyM

[CraigDS]

Really opens it up, bet it looks twice as large from the house.

[L8Craig]

Really opens it up, bet it looks twice as large from the house.

It does Craig. What sparked it all was the lady next door saying our blossom trees rather large branch was hanging over her greenhouse and her gardener said it was our tree to deal with.
So we got a bit carried away after getting the tools out but it looks a lot better now.
This afternoon will be spent cutting the branches up into smaller pieces and taking them to the skip then who knows what we will do to the bottom where it has all been cleared.

I've got some landscaping fabric on the way. A thought was to lay that down in the far left and have either bark or stones there then a small fence sectioning that off and the grass replacing.

In an ideal world a proper gardener would have been employed to sort it all out but we don't have the budget for that right now so it's labour in exchange for cups of teas with family members 
Quite lucky that I have family members who will lend a hand and I feel appreciative of that.

[Filler.]

That garden is about 4 times bigger than I imagined it Craig!



Pleased for bees Gulley. Have heard rumours about dreams and honey straight from source

[Sarge]

Few pics of my Garden.

https://twitter.com/Sarge1972

[John C]

I'm not looking until Nick has.

[Sarge]

I'm not looking until Nick has.

Ahh its my Twitter account scroll down. Cant upload them as files are too big.

[Filler.]

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/Py38cDvntII" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/Py38cDvntII</a>

As a lead in: 'He also pays homage to traditional Jamaican music with his rendition of “72 Weeds”, a song with a ridiculously funny list of local plants which, if recited correctly, will cure any illness.'
http://www.tamarindo.com/calypsonian-walter-ferguson-a-living-legend/

Here's to Costa Rica.

[Maggie May]

Your garden looks stunning Sarge.  A joy to see.   

[Sarge]

Your garden looks stunning Sarge.  A joy to see.   

Cheers Maggie, the others are just big meanies.

[Maggie May]

Cheers Maggie, the others are just big meanies.

Aye my lovely.  Shame they've got green eyes instead of green fingers. 

[Sarge]

Aye my lovely.  Shame they've got green eyes instead of green fingers. 

Did you see the pics of the flowers lower down? Lost a few in the extended Winter but its full of colour these days.

[Maggie May]

Did you see the pics of the flowers lower down? Lost a few in the extended Winter but its full of colour these days.

Oh yes.  So lovely - a cottage garden in its glory.  I was very intrigued that you blended so many themes for the look you have achieved, and the huge cascading grasses form a perfect background to your dining area - which blend so well with your perfect choice of furnishings and drapery.  You clearly put a lot of hard work and considerable thought in the planning. Well done you.   

[Sarge]

Oh yes.  So lovely - a cottage garden in its glory.  I was very intrigued that you blended so many themes for the look you have achieved, and the huge cascading grasses form a perfect background to your dining area - which blend so well with your perfect choice of furnishings and drapery.  You clearly put a lot of hard work and considerable thought in the planning. Well done you.   

Oh you.




Been at it 4 years now to get it right but the Winter done a right job on many plants hence the gaps, but I have new Bulbs, Pennenials, Annuals and so on planted in the gaps. The Pampas grass was a fav of the missus so shes delighted. Its a cottage garden meets a shurbery kind of thing but its a garden in surburban Dublin that blocks out everything thats around us.

Around the perimiter of the garden are larger type shrubs, mini trees ie. Gum Tree, Sambuca, Buterfly tree (Buddleia). Down the bottom of the lagre shurbs i have smaller growing shrubs to give a border effect around the garden. Below the Pampas grass i have a mass of different plants and the colours are majestic right now.

Lot of work done but so worth it, the Gazebo and table are brown and black so blends in nice to its surrounding while the patio is a roman greco crazy paving style color, you get me surrounded by a gold colour square slab. Once you exit the house you're directly into the garden so it gives the feeling that its an extention of our house.

[Filler.]

Starting to panic about my water resevoirs. One of my most prized possessions is my blueberry bush which doesn't like tap water. Still haven't caged my strawberries but at least the birds are surviving eh.

[Sarge]

Starting to panic about my water resevoirs. One of my most prized possessions is my blueberry bush which doesn't like tap water. Still haven't caged my strawberries but at least the birds are surviving eh.

Hosepipe ban in Ireland from Monday. My plants will be in trouble I fear.

[Filler.]

A hosepipe ban in Ireland?

Stuck the sprinklers on today. Even the fly eating house plant has given up this year. He's been shite.

[Filler.]

The slugs are in rave mood right now.

[The Gulleysucker]

Once you've got your garden sorted and move on to keeping bees too, this is what you can look forward to..

Two of my hives have just started to go into full flow so I've been politely dibbing in and have collected just over 32lbs (around 15kg) of honey just this month, and expect the same over the next month.

It makes great Xmas presents.

I leave it on the comb, I did get a centrifuge to extract it but found it was more trouble than it's worth.

Amazingly, 'on the comb' honey is usually much more expensive to buy, see here, I suppose since it is obviously pure and has not been blended or watered down by unscrupulous sellers.

I split a frame into three of those boxes so each box in the photos could be around £20-30 worth if you ever wanted to sell it to trendies..

I can't be bothered selling it though, you really need a food hygene cert to sell commercially and I prefer to simply give it away to relatives, neighbours and friends, rather like you'd give away surplus vegetables if you'd been growing them.

It spreads a bit of good cheer, and natural sweetness, in these times of hardship for many.

[Mutton Geoff]

Does anyone know a good raindancer my allotment is turning into a desert. over 40c and 100f inside my new poly-tunnel this morning.

[Maggie May]

Hosepipe ban in Ireland from Monday. My plants will be in trouble I fear.

Sneak out at night - that garden's too lovely to dry out. 

[Sarge]

A hosepipe ban in Ireland?

Its too long a story to go into.

[redbyrdz]

Never knew how much honey came from a hive, thought it might just be a few handful, and felt guilty cos I love the stuff and can use quite a bit.

Reckon the on the comb honey is harder to store and ship, and since a lot of it comes from Mexico, blending it up is cheaper.

[Sarge]

Never knew how much honey came from a hive, thought it might just be a few handful, and felt guilty cos I love the stuff and can use quite a bit.

Reckon the on the comb honey is harder to store and ship, and since a lot of it comes from Mexico, blending it up is cheaper.

Have you not seen Bee Movie!!

[Maggie May]

How does your garden grow in the hosepipe ban Sarge?  I saw a tip on Gardeners World to keep slugs at bay using garlic water, so I chopped up two heads of garlic and brought them to the boil in about 1 litre of water and then simmered them for about 30 mins, let them cool and sprayed the strained liquid on my hostas.  They had been slightly munched which made me remember the tip.  Since the spraying, no more munching and my hostas thrive (first try at growing them).  I thought I'd pass on the tip.   

[richiedouglas]

Just on the hosta topic above - I planted mine in slightly the wrong place and they've been sunburnt. Is that the end of them or are they repairable?