Trowel and Error

[Mountain Goat]

Good work! :)) We went to see J's parents on Sunday and were explicitly instructed not to bring a courgette. :lol:

[baargain]

Haha! One of my friends has a courgette plant already, it did seem like an act of aggression to give more to her :lol:

[absley]

I spent all of yesterday in the garden, focusing on the veg patch - mostly removing weeds, giving up on my decimated brassicas :cry: and harvesting my first batch of pink fir apple potatoes. They are SO good - I will definitely buy them again. I wonder I need to dig them all up though. The leaves have developed black spots and I know they're prone to blight - I've removed the most damaged leaves but noticed a few of the potatoes had little black marks on them, which I think means I'm best getting them up?

I'm also troubleshooting my pumpkins - two of the plants are covered in dead and wilting leaves. I have two c15-20cm ones and a third smaller one appearing, so one per plant. Am trying watering them more and hoping that's the solution. Borlotti pods are turning properly pink.

Courgettes and tomatillos seem to have stalled. I need to look up what I can do with the empty beds. I have a vague memory about something that's good to sow pre-winter to hold the soil together/ poss also support health of the soil more generally, rather than just leave it to the weeds.

Today I'm going to tackle some of the grass-filled flower beds, having repopulated various baby foxgloves from the veg patch into a few of them. It feels a bit endless atm, esp as I know I'm not yet at the (scary) point when moving and dividing various congested plants needs to take place.

[absley]

I dug up all my potatoes last night and harvested most of the borlottis as I noticed the snails were at them again. Just the corn left to go, plus my pumpkins. Oh, and many tiny unripe.tomatoes.

Looks like two of the pumpkin plants have some sort of disease which means most of the plants are dead and might be the sort of thing that stays in the soil. Have cleared all the debris and am hoping there is still a bit of life left in the plant for them to grow/ ripen more. Also hoping the other plant (in a different bed) stays healthy.

I got very confused this week by seeing crocus shooting up under some of the trees - turns out there is an autumn flowering version. :lol: Doesn't explain why my magnolia had flower buds on it again though (and my neighbour's tree has flowers, which is what prompted the inspection!)

[absley]

My veg patch has mostly been put to bed for winter, there's one crown prince hanging out and still growing, plus a few cavolo nero/ perennial broccoli which are mostly providing pigeon food. :lol:

I have sown green compost in the veg beds and am now working out what autumnal dividing/ moving of plants I need to do. Rhubarb is one, plus many flowers - geum, iris, asters, persicaria.

I also need to prune my fruit - tbc ehat I do and when with blackberries etc; raspberries need pruning and staking; gooseberries are in the new year and I think the plum is in spring.

How is everyone else getting on?

[Cerise]

I bought my first cucumber in absolute MONTHS yesterday. There’s still a couple on the plant but they aren’t as good now and it needs taking out.

I need to find time for some general tidying out there too.

[Mountain Goat]

My indoor tomato is still going strong, still getting newly ripe tomatoes! The outdoor ones are long ripped out, as is the courgette which was still producing valiantly to the end but just masses of small ones that didn't grow much beyond that. I've replaced with cavolo nero, cauliflower and purple sprouting broccoli (seedlings) - two thirds of the raised bed is under a purchased net dome which is great and things are reasonably valiant under there - the cavolo nero is doing well, the cauliflower and broccoli less so but there are a few survivors of each. The final third is my under my own netting/canes construction and that has proved no match for the cabbage whites and just features dying stalks. :lol: I've got some spring onions still ploughing onwards, and lettuce and rainbow chard is still good. The rocket got cabbage white-d as did the radishes.

My nasturtiums that were almost entirely eaten to stalks by caterpillars have come back and are all flowering madly again. In the mixed border, the rudbeckia, salvia amistad, dahlias, zinnias, cosmos and verbena bonariensis are absolute stars and showing no signs of slowing down, even though I would like to get bulbs planted under them and was counting on having a bit of space soon.

I've started work on the (north facing) front of the house, pulled up some of the existing planting and added some additional plants -we have acanthus, hydrangeas (3), astrantia, geranium, snowdrops, daffodils, hellebores (4 types), vibernum tinus, a nandina and Japanese anemone as well as some of the skimmia and heuchera which was previously there (some of these haven't arrived/been planted yet). It's mostly white with some dark reddy purples and lime green. Oh and on the corner, some euphorbia, agapanthus and grasses. The next step is the side of the house which is full sun, very hard to water, so I'm going for drought tolerant planting. I need to clear some of the existing planting first. I've got some grasses and alliums for it so far, and a long list.

[Mountain Goat]

I need to take cuttings of my salvia amistad and verbena and a couple of other things - there's a cosmos with a particularly beautiful colour next to the hydrangea limelight it ended up near by chance, so I want to try cuttings of that in case seeds don't come out true to colour. I've lifted and divided some heuchera to move them around, and need to divide the massive amounts of catnip too. But I don't have any suitable compost for cuttings at the moment. And I also can't find suitable bits of plant, all the stems have flowers.

[Derek Nimmo]

My Adam's Needle palms bloody love being in my North facing front garden, the weirdos (see the full flowering glory top left!).

There's still lots of things going on in my corner of suburbia. My Virginia creeper is juuust on the turn, the re-sited hibiscus (from the front to the back garden) is loving life, my new coronilla (aka yellow bastard as its Latin name is bastard senna citrina) is suddenly taking well, and even my summer-planed ceanothus is flowering which is a bit odd. Also, this seasidey plant is taking over a bit but it started off white and is now a lovely deep pink so I forgive it. No idea what it's called though

[Mountain Goat]

God they really do don't they?! I may need to squeeze one in.

Your ceaonthus is enthusiastic, it must think this nice spot of weather is spring. And that looks like a sedum? It's very pretty.

[Derek Nimmo]

It's (the ceanothus) also in quite a sheltered, sunny south-facing spot so you can see why it might be suffering from a little confusion!

I always forget the power of Google Lens - you're quite right, very impressive plant knowledge :zirk:

Hylotelephium telephium (synonym Sedum telephium), known as orpine, livelong, frog's-stomach, harping Johnny, life-everlasting, live-forever, midsummer-men, Orphan John and witch's moneybags, is a succulent perennial groundcover of the family Crassulaceae native to Eurasia

(says Wikipedia)

[Mountain Goat]

That is a fantastic range of common names. :lol:

[Mountain Goat]

My nasturtiums that got decimated by caterpillars and then came back flamboyantly are now covered in caterpillars again. :lol: It's still so mild!

[Lily]

It really is. One my roses - given to me by a great uncle who's just died :sad: - is going absolutely mental. I hope it not going to outgrow its strength. I also just had another strawberry, in October! Climate change has the occasional advantage I guess.

I've done lots of gardening in the summer and wanted to take photos to show you all but forgot. :ella: it gets really addictive doesn't it!

[Cerise]

I was out gardening in a vest top (and other clothes) because it was so warm today! Dug out the exhausted cucumber, tomato and sunflower plants.

[Lily]

Did you get a glut of tomatoes? Mine have only started doing their stuff in the last few weeks, which is disappointing as I was beating them off with a stick last year.

I went a bit mental pulling ivy off our fence, along with some of the panels... There are some hardcore roots still to yank out but I'll have to get someone in to deal with them. Then I'll paint the fence. My dad has given me some nigella/love-in-the-mist seeds from his garden to scatter in the thin border.

[Cerise]

My tomatoes were pretty steady and didn’t go too many at one time (unlike the cucumbers! :lol: )

[Mountain Goat]

Can you take photos now Lily? At least of the rose?

I pulled all my outdoor tomatoes a while back but my indoor are still going and the tomatoes have been so much better off that one (controlled watering rather than random mad rain spells I suppose) so I am just doing them indoors next year. Though actually I will probably get a cold frame or mini greenhouse for next year so that would change things. They only started ripening in September though.

What colour are you doing your fence Lily? I am still on the fence :)) about mine, essentially it boils down to laziness, I started looking at the best paints for fences the other day and saw many reviews where people were doing four or five coats and argh, too much work, I still have jangled nerves from painting the little room recently. I have already planted one climber so I'll need to hurry (but it's not going to grow big enough to hit the fence for a little while). Any fence paint brand recs enthusiastically accepted though.

I did more planting out the front this weekend but it's going to look a bit messy really until the new plants establish a bit which will ...maybe next summer? I have lots of winter interest but doubt those will get going in time for this winter. Also lots of stuff on order that hasn't yet arrived. Hurry up! They need to get in the ground soon. None of my bulbs are here.

[H1ppychick]

Also, this seasidey plant is taking over a bit but it started off white and is now a lovely deep pink so I forgive it. No idea what it's called though

If it’s the bottom right plant you’re referring to, it looks like a sedum to me.

https://www.gardenia.net/plant/sedum-crystal-pink

[baargain]

Good work, everyone. I felt overwhelmed by the garden and allotment recently, and this thread also made me feel overwhelmed I am BACK.

I have finally recovered from leaving the garden for two weeks in Sept, I came home and the weeds were GIANT :lol: now my kitchen and office/dining room are full of potatoes, the shed is full of onions, the third freezer is pretty much full, and the windowsills are colonised by winter squash. I've hit 211kg of veg harvest, and there's still a load of leeks, parsnips and various brassicas outside :))

I also put my big girl pants on and started uprooting the problematic nettles, brambles and creeping buttercup from the final bits of the allotment that need sorting.

I spent the weekend just forcing dahlias on people, to save them from potential frosts.

IMG20231014090303.jpg

IMG20231013145347.jpg