Trowel and Error

[baargain]

They're so pretty!

I went to a cheap nursery today, it's down a long dirt track randomly in the middle of nowhere/Norfolk.

I got a load of white lobelia and some yellow bacopa for my baskets. Some red begonias for garden pots/my old fireplace/bits of chimney, four fuscias to replace mine that got hammered by the frost, some calibrachoa and bidens for the pots of the garden steps, and a bleeding heart plant. All for £29!

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I had some yellow and white begonias from a previous online order, I ended up with too many, obviously, so was flinging them all in whatever pot I could find.

In vegetable news, I picked another kilo of asparagus I made the asparagus soup that emma_p put in a daily thread.

I bought a niwaki weeding hoe! I love it beyond all things.

[emma_p]

Another kilo Did you like the soup?

The nursery sounds amazingly cheap!

[baargain]

I did like the soup! I would like it a bit thicker, but I think I put too much stock in it. Ah well, next kilo I'll make some tweaks I ate it with hash browns (no bread in the house), rather than a croissant

The bleeding hearts was £4 and the lobelia £5,and so all the other plants were £1.25!

[absley]

Let's see the hoe, Baa! Would you recommend it over a more traditional hoe, for sometime who has neither?

Eta, I'm v jealous of your abundant asparagus, although I was pleased with the 3 jars of rhubarb jam I made yesterday, with fruit from the garden.

[Disco]

Those Delia asparagus and fontina feuillettes are delicious.

[baargain]

https://www.niwaki.com/weeding-hoe/?cou ... E#P00327-2 here is my hoe! It's good for in between crops. So I could weed my asparagus without accidentally chopping it all down.

For larger areas, I have this hoe. This one has the bonus of not needing to bend down. https://www.crocus.co.uk/product/_/dewi ... 9abea36aa4

Both have their place, I would get both

[Cerise]

I don’t think I really know how to use a hoe.

[absley]

Turns out I did buy a Dutch hoe, so that had plenty of use yesterday as I finally had chance to clear the veg bed where the potatoes are going, so they were planted. They've still barely sprouted so let's see.

I also found new potato plants in the bed that I'd obviously not properly cleared of the previous years plants - I'm guessing they will be okay?

Cerise, it trims weeds off from their roots, just below the surface, so you kind of scrape back and forth with the Dutch one (second link from Baa).

[Cerise]

So you leave the roots in?

I’ve made decent progress weeding over the last week but the enthusiastic weed I was clearing has gone to seed so I’ll probably manage to plant a million more in the process.

[absley]

Yes, and the thing I read said you don't need to clear the green you trim off either, unless you want it to look neat. Best used when the weeds aren't too big apparently and I found that it wasn't good for more deep rooted weeds so there was second job of going back over the area and digging up those which had the leaves trimmed but would just sprout again.

That's what I learnt from a single use and bit of research!

[Disco]

I spent some time yesterday repotting my growing tomato, artichoke and courgette seedlings. I say seedlings but they are quite well established but not enough to go in the ground. Although I had done some plugs of Swiss chard so a few of those have now gone into the ground as well as one tomato plant.

My herbs were eaten by slugs so more seeds in pots that will remain in the house until they’ve grown big enough.

[Cerise]

After my mammoth weeding sessions, I put out two beer traps last night. Just checked them and they were very successful!

[Disco]

Oh for the slugs?

I had a load of razor clam shells so I’ve crushed those up and spread around my strawberry patch.

[Cerise]

Oh for the slugs?

I had a load of razor clam shells so I’ve crushed those up and spread around my strawberry patch.

Yes, the slugs. I might do the bucket and tongs method this evening too.

[Mountain Goat]

That reminds me I read about the scourer thing you mentioned for slugs in passing Baa, where you get a normal metal scourer, put it round the seedling/root ball before you plant it out? Is that right (it was a very brief article my phone thought I would like to read) and is it working for you? I guess you could also just make a cut and put it round an existing plant? In the meantime I need to put some cat hair around some of my troubled plants (the purple sage is being chomped a bit too much too).

I also read that fucking fennel is a bad companion to everything and to plant it in a pot by itself just after I relocated it. The lovage next to it isn't as happy as I'd like and maybe it's a coincidence but lovage is my favourite herb. I might move the fennel again, it will tantrum but will be ok.

I didn't realise how hoes worked either! I used them as a child but under instruction rather than thinking about it, and haven't had the sort of clear spaces between rows as an adult to think about them since.

I weeded the front/side bit yesterday - it is madness there, it's somehow perfect fertile ground for thistles. So because I live in a new build, it has this stupid annoying bit of "garden" that is public facing, it bends around the front and side of the house. Because my house is on a corner, my space like this is very long and wide (and big dips/slopes). So it's a huge (relatively speaking) space, but of little actual benefit to me, I can't sit out there and I can't really see it, only other people look at it. Plus there is still work being done which means men tread on it (it has the manholes for some services to the street), so I am not planting anything I am emotionally attached to out there until they're done stamping on my stuff. I do want to make it quite flamboyant in time though (but relatively low maintenance). Anyway I spent bloody ages weeding (as I did last weekend, it's just big and fertile). It's not a bad job on a nice day because you end up chatting to everyone at least.

Oh and my radishes and fancy Italian lettuce seeds are starting to pop up.

[Mountain Goat]

About an hour ago I finally got round to putting the cat hair round my poor plants. Just went back out, some bird's nabbed it all. Two lessons: 1. find new slug deterrent 2. Donate spare hair to local birds rather than to the compost heap.

[baargain]

The scourers are not working for me, as they are still in the dining room I need to get my shit together and protect the dahlias

Lucky birds

[absley]

Oh Goat

I'm v excited - my first peony has opened, and a first rose.

Like Disco, I need to repot things that have out grown their small pots but aren't ready for the ground. I'm up silly early this morning so may head out and do that.

In the meantime, any ideas what this might be? It's growing in a fan shape on a south-facing wall, had white flowers v early and now these sprouting buds/ fruit.

[Disco]

What colour are your peonies, Abs? Mine has an impressive amount of buds. I counted them the other day as it's never had so many.

I had a load of primroses in what had been a sparse bed. They went mental so I dug them all up the other day and repositioned under my huge xmas tree as that can be the "woodland area" . They were obscuring the light from my wile garlic. I found lots more w garlic under the leaves/ in the shade of these ever growing primroses so I am hoping for a much larger yield next year.

[absley]

Are your peonies all the same, Disco? I think we have a few diff types (based on bud size!). This is the first but there also much smaller buds that look like they may be a pale pink.

I have really loved the primroses we've had, but prefer the cowslips, so I'm hoping for more of those in future - need to work out how. I'm also intrigued by auricula, but not if they require pots.