Trowel and Error

[Mountain Goat]

That's a really good idea, I wish I had done that. It also makes me think I might get another if I can manage it like that.

[absley]

I have a black elder that seems to have been pruned to resemble a tree (it has a single stem) so I'm going to encourage it to grow tall like that (hoping the fact that it's within a meter of the house is not an issue ) .

I've missed garden chat, due to work silliness, but wanted to say how amazing your garden efforts are Dics, I also remember the early days of you creating all of that.

Wrt foxgloves, are they meant to be pruned back or dug out after flowering, or do they come back again every two years? I don't really understand biennials.

Ages back I was asking for help ID'ing some leaves - turns out they're verbascum, which I'm enjoying - some smaller delicate ones (dirty peach amd pink colours) nd others which are much larger (white) I also have a bed full of waist high nipplewort that needs weeding out now i know what it is, it's almost as extensive as the green alkanet was (same bed) so will create huge gaps, but needs must.

Eta, at the front LHS of the picture (next to one of the aforementioned weeds) you can see the lone cerinthe I grew, hardly the picking flower I thought it would be!

[Mountain Goat]

It looks really lovely! Properly mature. I wonder if it's just been a bad year for cerinthe, because I ordered some (after you mentioned them earlier) and they were delayed and delayed and then they sent me stocks (which I love, but do not work in location I had planned) instead.

As far as I understand - and please correct me if I'm wrong! - biennials are just like slow annuals, they take two years to reach the point of flowering, and then set seed (if you let them) and die back. So they don't need digging out, and you can either let them set their own seed or collect it and grow them on yourself.

Here things have suddenly shot up in the past week or so. Several plants that had just frozen at the same stage/size have suddenly doubled, and some of my salvia have buds, as do all three hydrangeas (the established one has had buds for a while, but the two new ones have only just done this). I have also noticed a massive gang of sunflower seedlings around my bird feeder. (which I responded to by throwing a handful of the seeds from the bird seed into a difficult area on the side of the house which is full sun and down a dip (ending in a manhole), with a thin layer of soil - they might work there, will be tall enough to be visible, cost nothing and will be cheery for the whole street if they work).

Great tomato experiment: unsurprisingly, the one I planted indoors (in the kitchen, which has windows on three sides and is basically a motherfucking greenhouse) is thriving and twice the size of the other four, with several flowers/buds. It's just shot up. The one outdoors in all day direct sun is the least happy (it's fine, but hasn't grown as much), the three in the raised bed are somewhere in the middle.

Abs, my enormous (absolutely a tree!) sambucas was about a metre from the house and I was worried about it and enquired about getting it cut back before we put the house on the market (but no-one got back to me and there were too many other jobs to do to bother chasing) - but there was zero mention of it by agents or survey so maybe it's ok???

[absley]

That's reassuring, Goat. I was looking and the trunks are quite slender so hopefully it's not an issue. And thanks for foxglove info, that makes sense.

Well done with your tomatoes, mine are not happy at all and barely growing - i think i need to plant them into larger pots and maybe that will help. Plus some of my flower seedlings (incl beloved verbena bonariensis) seem to have been zapped by the heat/ sun which is really frustrating. Scabiosa ping pong seedlings are looking okay, though, just need to find out what conditions they like so I can use them to fill some gaps. Plus my lovely neighbour gave me a baby heuchera which needs a shady home.

[emma_p]

We also have a black elder tree and haven't cut it back significantly since we got here. It smells amazing at the moment! We recently had a gardener take out a very old wobbly pear tree that and patch of bamboo and he's going to come back to cut back the remaining (huge!) pear tree in the autumn so hopefully he can advise.

Your garden looks amazing Abs!

[Mountain Goat]

Your poor seedlings! Verbena bonarithingy might come back, it's quite tough? I hope so.

I just got a notification that 10 Cosmos seedlings are being delivered today. I need to actually keep note of what I order.

I do like a heuchera in the right place. The developers gave us a whole bed of them which is really odd. They really liked planting in blocks. So if you look at my house from the front, on the left there is a solid block of a skimmia with an acid green flower, and on the right is a solid block of dark purpley/red heuchera. Both are lovely but both need a foil and look dull by themselves. I was going to move them around so both sides were skimmia AND heuchera, but they didn't make my pavement before growing season (and I didn't want to invest time or make any plants more vulnerable until the chances of them getting stood on dissipated). I'll do something next year to set them both off against something. The skimmia flowers are lovely/fragrant and got lots of passing comment but would be much nicer if they had something to contrast against.

[FiveO'Clock]

You have a beautiful garden, Abs!

[Disco]

Your garden is lovely, Abs.

[absley]

Thanks Five, Disco and emma Its all down to the previous owner but I do recognise how lucky I am.

I spent a few hours weeding this afternoon and one of the beds is looking bereft and about half of it is now just dirt. But at least it's (almost) weed free.

I didn't know skimmia, but having looked it up my neighbour has it along the base of if hedge and it looks lovely.My baby verbena seedlings were the tiniest so maybe never going to do well. I might start a new batch in the propogater.

[baargain]

Some of my onions are bolting in the heat, which means they won't store. Sooo...

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Oh dear

[absley]

What's the plan, Baa?

My cavolo nero and perennial broccoli were doing well but in 24 hours have lost most of their leaves to munchers. Is there much I can do?

Eta. The nasturtiums next to them remain untouched!

[baargain]

I have to net brassicas, pigeons will decimate them, and then the caterpillars will appear and finish the job! Netting is the only way forward really, or so many brassicas that you can lose some to the pigeons. Actually, that's a good point, can you see caterpillars? If the nasturtiums are OK, I bet its the flying slugs.

I've cooked the tops, and they're in the freezer. I'll do the same for the bottoms. I'm hoping these tubs are a good portion size.

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[absley]

No sign of caterpillars on the veg patch (dozens on my mulleins! ) so it must be the pigeons. F*ckers.

Different form of batch cooking there! I wonder if you could deep fry the bulbs, for crispy shallots.

[baargain]

I have about a thousand shallots to pull too I was planning on pickling them, but I think I'll keep some aside for deep frying!

[absley]

I love a pickle - I'm going to pickle some of my gooseberries. I did this with cherries a few years ago and they were fabulous.

[Cerise]

We have finally had some rain! It’s brought all the snails to my yard so I’ve just been out hand picking the arseholes and now there’s rancid snail soup out there.

[Mountain Goat]

Oh Baa! That's a bit unfortunate. I admire your quick thinking there. What will you do with all your onion tops, eating wise?

Abs, you and Monty Don are as one. On Friday's Gardeners World (it's possible I watched a slightly older one as I've got lost during Chelsea and Catch Up is not clear about dates) he explained what biennials are and then talked about what he was going to do with all his gooseberries. (nothing you won't have thought of, fool and pie and purees with yoghurt for breakfast).

I went a bit mad strulching before the rain but no sign of noticeable slug damage this morning. My veg bed has gone a bit mad and the chard is chardspreading over the lettuce, and the courgette is courgettespreading and annoying the basil. And SO MANY THINGS are in bud. Salvia, verbena bon thingy, chocolate cosmos, zinnias, ladys mantel, hydrangeas x 3, even a dahlia (the one that arrived with its tuber bashed in and severed along one side. I potted it with some mycorrhizal (?) funghi and treated it like my first born and now it's more advanced than the ones that arrived fine. AND I got my money back, which I feel guilty about now. Will have to reinvest it in more plants). I'm on the edge of my seat, it's going to be all go in a couple of weeks but will it be lovely or will it be a bit mad? It's certainly not the colour coordinated, height considered plan I started with, given all the things that arrived when their allocated spots were not ready and had to be jammed somewhere else).

[baargain]

I've cooked the onion tops down, and will just use them in stews/curries etc. I'll just treat them like spring onions or something.

[Mountain Goat]

That sounds good.

[baargain]

I cycled down with these to plant.

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