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

[reddebs]

Something's eating my begonias.  Not slugs/snails I think it's possibly mice and the last 2 mornings I've woken up to rabbits deciding my potato patch would make a nice new home for them. 

Thankfully they're burrowing along the trench so haven't dug anything up 😁

[reddebs]

The issue with the rabbits isn't going away.  Every morning I've had to fill in where they've re-dug their burrow in the potatoes and this morning they'd had a go in the bed with my beans, marrows and cabbage but fortunately not damaged anything.

I've ordered some cloches today in the hope I can protect the newest stuff.

I thought my spuds had blight today as a few of the plants had started wilting badly and quickly, with the stems seemingly rotting at ground level. 

Thankfully having dug up one plant that had totally gone, the spuds were perfectly fine so we had our first, homegrown new taties for tea 😁 

I can only think that it's natural dieback happening as we're past the 10wks and they're pretty much all flowering now.

Oh and our first tomatoes have emerged overnight and the beans are shooting up quicker than Jack's 😁

[fowlermagic]

Haha - a goat (or sheep) will probably cost you more in the long run - great fun, but can be a right pain in the ass!

SNIP

Cheers as great stuff I can work from as the grass is really taking off the past few weeks. Tempted to go wild and let the grass and wild flowers take over too

[Red Raw]

Cheers as great stuff I can work from as the grass is really taking off the past few weeks. Tempted to go wild and let the grass and wild flowers take over too

We are keeping our small back garden short(ish) but have let the grass in the much larger front garden get really long.  We never use the front for BBQs or anything and it has some mature trees and bushes so it seemed only right to leave as much of it as possible for the wildlife.

There are yellow, white and purple flowers in it (no idea what they are) as well as different types of grass and it is so much more interesting to look out on than some ridiculous billiard table lawn.

I have cut a couple of curved pathways through it (about 2-3 deck widths) and cut a bit around the raised beds for access which highlights that the rest has been left deliberately (rather than out of neglect!) Some of the neighbours probably think ours is a bit of a mess, although to be fair one or two have made positive comments.

There have certainly been no complaints from the insects and birds which, anecdotally at least, seem to have flourished and really bring the garden to life.

[reddebs]

You know what to do 👍

https://e-activist.com/page/76784/petition/1?ea.tracking.id=WCL&s=04&fbclid=IwAR1-rx4GTSJ5M3aOPoGQZwa9LeTbSbi1zgkyL9UwdAibjAoSBn3a7urH6xo

[Slippers]

You know what to do 👍

https://e-activist.com/page/76784/petition/1?ea.tracking.id=WCL&s=04&fbclid=IwAR1-rx4GTSJ5M3aOPoGQZwa9LeTbSbi1zgkyL9UwdAibjAoSBn3a7urH6xo

Done.

[jack witham]

So a couple of months ago I posted on this thread to say inspired by my fellow Rawkites I decided to grow all my own bedding plants from seed.
I am a complete novice and was not quite sure how things would work out.
I now have plenty of plants on the go and its fair to say some have worked out better than others.
It has given me a purpose and I have enjoyed watching my plants grow.
The garden has been my sanctuary during lockdown and has kept me sane and I would encourage
others to get out and have a go.
Anyway gonna post a few pics of my efforts good and bad.

[reddebs]

They're looking great mate, it's so satisfying seeing them grow when you've no idea what you're doing 😁

Are you going to try and propogate from your own seeds next year? 

[cormorant]

 

So a couple of months ago I posted on this thread to say inspired by my fellow Rawkites I decided to grow all my own bedding plants from seed.
I am a complete novice and was not quite sure how things would work out.
I now have plenty of plants on the go and its fair to say some have worked out better than others.
It has given me a purpose and I have enjoyed watching my plants grow.
The garden has been my sanctuary during lockdown and has kept me sane and I would encourage
others to get out and have a go.
Anyway gonna post a few pics of my efforts good and bad.

Loving that. In exactly the same boat here. Never been bothered about gardening before, but lockdown and working from home has given me the impetus to give it a go. Starting off small here as I share mine with another property. Got 5 container plants going, a petunia in particular is thriving on my/our patio. Had a wildflower experiment going that failed on the first attempt (see previous posts). Can't believe that I'm actually invested in it. Great effort and I really do hope that you continue to enjoy the journey 

[Sarge]

Good stuff they look great.

[Sarge]

Loving that. In exactly the same boat here. Never been bothered about gardening before, but lockdown and working from home has given me the impetus to give it a go. Starting off small here as I share mine with another property. Got 5 container plants going, a petunia in particular is thriving on my/our patio. Had a wildflower experiment going that failed on the first attempt (see previous posts). Can't believe that I'm actually invested in it. Great effort and I really do hope that you continue to enjoy the journey 

The garden is great.

[reddebs]

Spent the last couple of days building a rockery and creating a new flower bed/border. 

Quite pleased with how it looks but more importantly how much more colour and fragrance we'll have once everything's planted and in flower when we're sat outside. 

[Trada]

Had one of these come this morning, only £40 from screwfix. Because I had a £10 off code that will sort my front lawn out ready for planting wildflower seed in a few months

Plus I can also sort out the back garden now

[McrRed]

Had one of these come this morning, only £40 from screwfix. Because I had a £10 off code that will sort my front lawn out ready for planting wildflower seed in a few months

Plus I can also sort out the back garden now

nice one trada, that'd scratch that itch!
I'm wondering if that'd help me out, what do you think? My mum's back garden, small piece of grass that is lumpy - she's getting on and I'm scared she's going to trip or twist her ankle on the hollows.
Somehow it all needs levelling out.
I was thinking lift the top layer of grass and use sand/soil to level but maybe I should just rake the thing to fuck and start over?
She said she fancied a chamomile lawn!   

[royhendo]

Spent the last couple of days building a rockery and creating a new flower bed/border. 

Quite pleased with how it looks but more importantly how much more colour and fragrance we'll have once everything's planted and in flower when we're sat outside.

I've just finished another bit here too Debs. It's funny if you get the hard landscaping right sometimes you could almost just let it go wild and it'd look fine (that's what it's like in our garden anyway).

[reddebs]

I've just finished another bit here too Debs. It's funny if you get the hard landscaping right sometimes you could almost just let it go wild and it'd look fine (that's what it's like in our garden anyway).

Agreed Roy.  We're so lucky here with how much natural, wild flora we have. 

Even without what's in the garden the hedgerows are full of hawthorn, gorse, wild plum, wild roses, honeysuckle, elderberry, broom and fuscias.

Then there's all the flowers, some that we're still discovering as they come into flower, as well as dozens of different varieties of grasses.

It really is a joy to see how uncultivated the verges and hedgerows are.

[royhendo]

The weather up here has somehow made the Hawthorn go mad this year Debs. It's been flowering for months all over the place round our village. Same was true of the Cherry and the apples/plums. They seemed to like the cold snap, then the rainy season, then the long long spell of dry sunny weather. It's weird though - we're in a woody enclave in the middle of the village (like a hidden glen) and everything happens later in our little microclimate. So our foxgloves and oxeye daisies (mostly wild) just started coming a couple of weeks ago, where if you walked through the dog paths, they were out about a month and a half ago everywhere else. Same for the papavers (loads growing wild - the big red ones with the black eyes).

I've spent the year thus far using a biodegradable membrane to re-do the bottom half of the garden - we've done about a third of it and the theory is that in 3 years it'll fade away and the creeping buttercup/ground elder nightmare that was there before will at least have receded to the boundary. I'm using a good wide coverage of thick black polythene round the perimeter and weeding anything that looks suspicious as I go. It'll be worth it eventually - we now have actual bedding plants in and doing well in their infancy - the other years when I tried to grow anything they just got overwhelmed.

[reddebs]

Can't say I've noticed the hawthorn being anything other than a bit later than normal this year where we are Roy but that's the beauty of our climate.

It sounds like you've taken on a mammoth job there but sometimes you spend more time faffing around doing bits instead of going in bold and doing it properly.

My other half still can't get his head round all the maintenance and general upkeep of having a garden, even one that's reasonably low maintenance.  Everytime I cut stuff down he moans about needing to burn it as we can't let it build up.  I laughed saying it's never ending with a garden this size, especially when nobody's done anything for about 3yrs so it's all overgrown.

I've finished my new border and rockery now and I'm dead chuffed with how it's turned out.  It just needs a few more plants in it though I'm not buying any more, I'm planning on moving stuff from elsewhere instead.

I really need to work out how to upload pictures to the forum now I can't use Tapatalk.

[Slippers]

Can't say I've noticed the hawthorn being anything other than a bit later than normal this year where we are Roy but that's the beauty of our climate.

It sounds like you've taken on a mammoth job there but sometimes you spend more time faffing around doing bits instead of going in bold and doing it properly.

My other half still can't get his head round all the maintenance and general upkeep of having a garden, even one that's reasonably low maintenance.  Everytime I cut stuff down he moans about needing to burn it as we can't let it build up.  I laughed saying it's never ending with a garden this size, especially when nobody's done anything for about 3yrs so it's all overgrown.

I've finished my new border and rockery now and I'm dead chuffed with how it's turned out.  It just needs a few more plants in it though I'm not buying any more, I'm planning on moving stuff from elsewhere instead.

I really need to work out how to upload pictures to the forum now I can't use Tapatalk.

The bottom half of our garden hadn't been touched for twenty years when we bought this place,the brambles were so thick we couldn't even get to the back gates.

The top half was nothing to write home about either;weird little walls dividing the lawn,a fuschia that had taken over a border that was almost 40ft long and a leylandii 'hedge' the height of the house.

[reddebs]

The bottom half of our garden hadn't been touched for twenty years when we bought this place,the brambles were so thick we couldn't even get to the back gates.

The top half was nothing to write home about either;weird little walls dividing the lawn,a fuschia that had taken over a border that was almost 40ft long and a leylandii 'hedge' the height of the house.

Ours has obviously been looked after previously with all the various shrubs and how the borders have been set out but they've been allowed to run wild for far too long but we're getting there now.

There's still stuff to cut back but I need to wait till autumn for some and spring for others.

[jackh]

I've got four tomato plants that are just about too tall for the growhouse shelf that they're on - need to take them out, get some bamboo canes, and get them on the floor.  Bit concerned about my cat liking the look of the soil for a dig/as a toilet - is slate the best thing to top the soil with for a bit of protection?

[Red Raw]

On the subject of letting things go wild.

Despite putting bird food out regularly we rarely saw goldfinches in our garden, although we would often see them around. Having left most of the grass in the front to its own devices over the last two or three months these three have become regular daily visitors. They seem to be enjoying the dandelions and stripping seeds off some of the grasses.

Brilliant to see while making tea in the morning, like little jewels. Quite uplifting.



The other thing that has struck me is the movement. When the sun is out everything opens up and, with a bit of a breeze, it is like the proverbial sea of green, interspersed with yellow, white and the odd bit of purple.

[royhendo]

It's amazing the impact the movement has, isn't it?

We can't coax many finches up into the garden cos there's too much nice wild ground just beyond our border. There are bullfinches and chaffinches who forage on the plum tree we have, but that's about it.

The BBC Hampton Court thing was good last night showing the feature garden by the No Dig guru Charles Dowding and another designer (just watched it). That's the route we've gone down, mostly because the weed cover in the bit we did this year was so mad - this was our third go at it - the first year we had no idea what we were doing, cleared bits, and planted - the plants we put in were dead soon after.

The second year, I put a few flat surfaces in (patio and some smaller 'pads'), and tried to plant stronger perennials. A few survived, but most of them were engulfed again. 

This year, I've completely relandscaped it with stone I've gathered over a few years, we've used cardboard, old wool carpet from my in-laws, and a load of gradually decomposing membrane we got off gumtree, and hey presto, we have a walk round plucking out creeping buttercup seedlings and hairy bittercress, and that's about it. Soil wise I did daily trips to the council tip for my regulation two bags of compost every day for about 2 months.

We have annuals sewn (everything happens late cos we're in a wooded area), we have seedlings and plugs in for a load of new perennials (echinacea, helenium, rudbeckia, salvias, erigerons, verbenas), stuff we've salvaged from other bits of the garden (astilbes, foxgloves, irises, alliums, hostas)... but all of them are babies bar the replanted ones. They're taking fine this year though without the rampaging force of the ground elder and creeping buttercup and sticky willie (not sure what the proper name for that is).   

Fingers crossed it'll bed in nicely and I can extend it year on year till the area's filled up - it was a big patch of wild ground that the previous owners said we'd never tame if we tried.

[royhendo]

I've got four tomato plants that are just about too tall for the growhouse shelf that they're on - need to take them out, get some bamboo canes, and get them on the floor.  Bit concerned about my cat liking the look of the soil for a dig/as a toilet - is slate the best thing to top the soil with for a bit of protection?

I'm not sure but it does sound like it'd work!

[reddebs]

As you know Roy we've left a patch of garden to just run wild and it's unbelievable the amount of plants and grasses that we've had so far and new stuff is still appearing as we get further into summer.

I started an inventory last night to catalogue everything I can identify and we're at 33 already and I've not really done the grasses, thistles or nettles yet.

Thankfully we don't have ground elder but the creeping buttercups have recently made an appearance though they're still outnumbered by the tall meadow ones.

I agree on the birds too, we regularly have goldfinches and siskins feeding on dandelions but rarely on the birdtable which is permanently inundated with house and tree sparrows.

[Crosby Nick]

Goldfinches are great aren’t they. We have a couple that visit regularly.

[Red-Soldier]

My ox-eye daisies are finally going over now, along with yellow rattle and common cats-ear.  Starting to get wild carrot and black knapweed coming through, which is great.  Common bent (a beautiful dainty grass) is starting to flower now too - it's characeristic of poor fertility, acid grassland.

Got lots of Yorkshire fog too, which is velverty to touch a long the stem and leaves.

[Charlie Adams fried egg]

Anyone know anything about nature ponds?

We renovated an old one, filled it up and have enjoyed the various insect life it's attracted as well as how the oxygenating plants have flourished, but could do with a few tips on the wildlife.

[reddebs]

My ox-eye daisies are finally going over now, along with yellow rattle and common cats-ear.  Starting to get wild carrot and black knapweed coming through, which is great.  Common bent (a beautiful dainty grass) is starting to flower now too - it's characeristic of poor fertility, acid grassland.

Got lots of Yorkshire fog too, which is velverty to touch a long the stem and leaves.

Yorkshire fog is one of the grasses I've identified in our garden but my favourite is the aira caryophylla or silver hairgrass, I think it's beautiful.  So delicate 😁

[John C]

like little jewels. Quite uplifting.

Spectacular pic RR mate, love that. Goldfinches are one of my favourite birds. I'm blessed with them in my garden.

[Red Raw]

Spectacular pic RR mate, love that. Goldfinches are one of my favourite birds. I'm blessed with them in my garden.

Thanks John - it was the best I could do leaning over the kitchen sink without dropping the camera in the washing up bowl. These definitely seem to come and go as a threesome - assume they are from the same brood or something.

At the risk of straying into bird watch thread territory here but I do have a question on managing the long grass. At some point I assume it goes over, will it need to be cut back to prepare for the new growth next season? If so when would folk expect to do this?

It will be too long for the mower but I have a crappy old strimmer that will probably handle the worst of it, which I can follow up with a high cut to leave some cover for mice/voles etc.

I am thinking of buying or growing a load of grass/wildflower plugs to stick in the areas where the grass will be long to increase the diversity. Any advice on method, species or timing, or will they all just fail to outcompete the existing grass and die?

Thanks.

[royhendo]

Anyone know anything about nature ponds?

We renovated an old one, filled it up and have enjoyed the various insect life it's attracted as well as how the oxygenating plants have flourished, but could do with a few tips on the wildlife.

What kind of tips mate? The general things you see/read basically say 'give it time and the wildlife will come'.

The Butterfly Brothers are good to watch over time (although they've renamed themselves 'Wild Your Garden'). https://www.instagram.com/wildyourgarden

Beyond that though it's making sure there are easy slopes into the water (so there's a way to escape for things that want to), rocks for things to hide or hibernate under, and vegetation. Is that fair folks?

Good on you though - we've put in a lot of dry stone features and it's attracted more toads. Meanwhile the pond got jelly in it, but the jelly didn't turn into spawn sadly. The neighbours have frogs though so hopefully next year!

[reddebs]

Thanks John - it was the best I could do leaning over the kitchen sink without dropping the camera in the washing up bowl. These definitely seem to come and go as a threesome - assume they are from the same brood or something.

At the risk of straying into bird watch thread territory here but I do have a question on managing the long grass. At some point I assume it goes over, will it need to be cut back to prepare for the new growth next season? If so when would folk expect to do this?

It will be too long for the mower but I have a crappy old strimmer that will probably handle the worst of it, which I can follow up with a high cut to leave some cover for mice/voles etc.

I am thinking of buying or growing a load of grass/wildflower plugs to stick in the areas where the grass will be long to increase the diversity. Any advice on method, species or timing, or will they all just fail to outcompete the existing grass and die?

Thanks.

Late August, early September is the best time as by then everything has reseeded itself so leave it cut where it lies for a few days then put it on the compost.

Or if you have strawberry's, raspberry's or plants that need mulching over winter use it for that.  Alternatively if you have rabbits or know someone who has let them have it.

By that time the wildlife, wind etc will have distributed some seed naturally, the rest will stay put until it germinates and grows again for you next year.

It also gives cover for wildlife too.

[Red Raw]

Thanks Debs - good tip there to leave it for a few days before gathering up, will definitely do that.

[Charlie Adams fried egg]

What kind of tips mate? The general things you see/read basically say 'give it time and the wildlife will come'.

The Butterfly Brothers are good to watch over time (although they've renamed themselves 'Wild Your Garden'). https://www.instagram.com/wildyourgarden

Beyond that though it's making sure there are easy slopes into the water (so there's a way to escape for things that want to), rocks for things to hide or hibernate under, and vegetation. Is that fair folks?

Good on you though - we've put in a lot of dry stone features and it's attracted more toads. Meanwhile the pond got jelly in it, but the jelly didn't turn into spawn sadly. The neighbours have frogs though so hopefully next year!

Cheers Roy,
Lets just say the ecosystem is a little inbalanced at the moment!
Lot's of little flies and no frogs to keep them in check. I've read lots which says you shouldn't introduce frogs, but our garden is a bit higher than the road and it's a fairly long hop from the gate to the pond.
We've put some signage out for them but no takers yet  . Really I'm asking whether I should introduce a frog or whether it is a big no no.

On another note, 1st waterlily flower out today, it's stunning as are the red and blue damsel flies that land on the pads. Glad we did it.

[Red-Soldier]

Cheers Roy,
Lets just say the ecosystem is a little inbalanced at the moment!
Lot's of little flies and no frogs to keep them in check. I've read lots which says you shouldn't introduce frogs, but our garden is a bit higher than the road and it's a fairly long hop from the gate to the pond.
We've put some signage out for them but no takers yet  . Really I'm asking whether I should introduce a frog or whether it is a big no no.

On another note, 1st waterlily flower out today, it's stunning as are the red and blue damsel flies that land on the pads. Glad we did it.

It's not good to introduce anything like that.  All you need to do is create the pond and put the plants in - everything else will happen naturally.  Whatever is in your area will find it 

[royhendo]

Nice you've got damselflies! We've not got much but the beasties that live on and under the surface thus far.

[Red-Soldier]

Yorkshire fog is one of the grasses I've identified in our garden but my favourite is the aira caryophylla or silver hairgrass, I think it's beautiful.  So delicate 😁

Yorkshire fog is everywhere (hence the name).  Don't think I've seen silver hairgrass.  I've got lots of cock's foot in the back of the garden - not such a nice one.  Very tall and tussocky.  Also got meadow foxtail and sweet vernal grass - which is what farmers chew on  . They don't chew on it so much now, as rampant use of fertilisers and pesticides/herbicides over the past 70 years has destroyed much of the good quality, conservation grassland we had.

[reddebs]

Yorkshire fog is everywhere (hence the name).  Don't think I've seen silver hairgrass.  I've got lots of cock's foot in the back of the garden - not such a nice one.  Very tall and tussocky.  Also got meadow foxtail and sweet vernal grass - which is what farmers chew on  . They don't chew on it so much now, as rampant use of fertilisers and pesticides/herbicides over the past 70 years has destroyed much of the good quality, conservation grassland we had.

Haha we used to chew on it as kids and it is sweet.

Silver hairgrass is very small, probably only about 6-8 inches tall, and the flower head is cone shaped with thousands of tiny pinky red seeds that look like the slightest breeze would break them.

There's another grass that grew on the field margins where we used to live but I've not seen here.  They're a beautiful silver/bronze colour that when they sway on the breeze and the sun catches them, they're almost twinkling.

I've tried for years, unsuccessfully, to harvest various grass seeds that used to grow freely where I walked the dogs but then we didn't have a garden, just pots to grow things in.

[reddebs]

Quick question... If a plant is a perrenial but grown as an annual can I still take seeds to propagate next year and if so when do they appear?

I suppose I shouldn't keep deadheading them either if I want seeds?