General Gardening Discussion

Feed with half strength fertiliser every 10 days or so once the flowers have faded. Unless you want seed then remove the faded flowers, stems and all. Sow any saved seed fresh in standard seed sowing compost covered lightly with grit, Keep them cool and damp,outside somewhere. Other wise...

@portoman They are perfectly normal. Daffodils and tulips are spring flowering bulbs, so they produce leaves in early spring, then flowers and after the flowers have finished the leaves die down for the rest of the year. The bulb has been recharged for next spring. As you have planted in them...

My doorstep delight is Vinca minor variegata with Hellebores. The Vinca flowers in early summer but is decorative all year round, and Hellebores flower most winter if it's mild. Both do well in shade.Hardy Geraniums also flower well in shade, and the flowering period is longer than in full...

If intending to sow seeds direct, it might be better to sow in small pots or modules and plant those out to avoid small seedlings being smothered. Seeds needing to be sown direct could be sown in drills with the seedy topsoil scraped away and replaced with some potting compost.

Kids are soft nowadays, so are their parents! In my early days(the 60's) it was don't eat the worms, ok, don't eat any more. Don't touch the dog poo....no, I don't know why it's white. Go give that woolly bear caterpillar to your sister. I now teach the granddaughter to deeply inhale the...

I don't know if anyone is interested but this is the reply I got from the nursery, a few minutes ago."Good morning,With roots it does take quite a bit of time before any growth starts to show. We generally recommend waiting until at least the end of June.Kind Regards,Sophia"So I...

Rule of thumb: The first year of plant development doesn't count.I planted a lot of different trees and bushes. Some exploded after planting, others did a while year of nothing. This even varies between plants with the same type, shop and conditions. If they don't grow in the second year...

When I say the top third, its as near as possible. Obviously I can't do this for every pot and I should mention in the smaller pots we do completely change the compost and pot.

Thanks for all the help guys. We will take it on board and hope to have better looking plants next year.

Thanks @JWK much appreciated.

Welcome to GC It looks like honeysuckle to me as well. Either leave it or pull it out depending on whether it's a nuisance. You're unlikely to be able to dig it out but pulling it will keep it under control. If it flowers then you can pull/cut it out after it has flowered. It won't affect...

I always think of hoeing as a vegetable garden thing rather than a job you do much around ornamentals, cant say I've ever picked up the remains of the weeds. The idea is you do it so often that the weeds are only small.

Yeah cut it down to the base.

Well, I've been gardening for almost a decade here in Notts and it has just been the oddest year in a couple of ways, the first being the insanely high number of greenfly/blackfly! I stopped spraying everything with pesticides about 4 years ago and gradually the ladybirds, hoverflies etc. had...

Many thanks @mazambo I will contact then and see if they will sell me a decent “ chunk” as having a large garden small amounts of any plant just get a bit lost. Being a small nursery they might be obliging.

In the picture of the wall, in what direction exactly do the drains run?Are we talking sewers or rainwater drains.

100% with you on the cat question ;-) Re. the Helianthemums, snip out the dead wood and shear the scraggly remains by 1/3. They'll either rejuvenate or die. They're easy to propagate from seed or cuttings, though.

I think the best way to deal with the leaves and other detritus from above is to leave the area with soil open to let earth worms and other forms of soil life incorporate them into it and complete the normal cycle of material that makes healthy soil. I don't like plastic membranes and as you...

Bit more done today (and fast running out of room!)Celery on the left (with a wee rhubarb plant just on the end) and as many brassicas as I could squeeze in under the net and they are a lot tighter than I would have liked. The only wee bit of ground left now is between the Acer and...

Thankyou so so much for your suggestions. I have just googled Choisya ternata and Olearia haastii, and Ceanothus. Ceanothus has the most beautiful colour flowers, the blue is absolutely stunning. Photinia are such a unique beautiful colour. Soo many lovely suggestions here thank you! The tree...