General Gardening Discussion

Ta, v. enlightening! 'S good to keep learning!

Furry sometimes happens in a propagator with the vents shut after a few days...too humid encouraging fungal growths

You can take softwood cuttings or preferrably heeled cuttings from lavender now, as it starts into new growth.Find a healthy young bit of new growth - gently peel it back from the stem so that you have the stem with a bit of a tail where it joined the stem. Plant in 50-50 mix of compost and...

Not arf! :D

I think keep the trees and add a few more specimen plants in tubs then cover as much as poss with either bark chippings, pebbles or the red/blue/grey coloured gravel/slate chippings leaving perhaps an area or two for raised beds for such as alpines and herbs ...its one solution if you really...

Hi Swompy - it sounds like you've already done pretty much everything you can. Don't aerate or fork when the soil is soaking wet, because all you'll do is smear the soil with the tines, and that won't help at all - you'll just end up with lots of holes that fill with waterIf you can keep...

It could be aphids, check inside the curled leaves.

SteveW Guete an Abig, war sehr fleissig, den ganzen tag was haben sie neues im triebhus ?

If you grow crown imperials or any fritillaries of any kind look out for lilly beetles. I took at least 20 off of one plant today, they are bright red, no spots and a bit bigger than a ladybird. They destroy a plant in no time and once the maggots get going thats the end, so they need to be...

I've not reached 14 in pots yet they must be massive. I stress that if you put them outside it must be in the shade, strange maybe for a s. african plant, but I find the leaves burn very easily.

Yeah lupins have their own version of greenfly and they are massive, by our standards anyway.

We are looking for ideas for our garden. We are situated on the Somerset/Wiltshire border. Our back garden is approximately 10 metres wide by 15 metres long. It slopes downwards away from the house at approx 45 degrees(!)and faces NNE.Because of the slope, we can't actually see much of the...

Alder or willow are usually good in wet conditions

Thank you for your very helpful reply. I can raise the soil level and a rock garden sounds ideal. Thanks again.

Usually if you have ants on something they are there controlling/farming/moving the aphids around, this could explain the malformed leavesif this is the case a simple aphid spray will get rid

Thought as much, thanks Ladybird

I'd be more concerned that the carpet was preventing nutrients reaching the soil.From your post it seems that the carpets had been down for some time before you took over the allotment. I would therefore expect that any damage they could have done from the point of view of chemicals leaking...

I would advise caution but wouldnt put you off completely. There is a heck of a lot more to gardening work than muscle or even horticultural knowledge. Have you thought about public liability insurance for example, or tax.I dont know if this is any help but the council that i work for takes...

When I first met my husband his garden was clay and his shed constantly sat with a moat around it. The grass was like a jungle as it was always to wet to mow. Solution I moved in and we worked wonders.We built a concrete base and built a patio slightly raise at top of garden.Dug 4 or 5 long...

looks like a cymbidium alan. The flowers last a long time 2 to 3 months sometimes. I put mine outside after flowering, in dappled shade under trees is ideal, feed from july onwards with tomato food at half strength and bring into a frost free enviroment in autumn. They dont like high winter...