Lots of photos - lots of questions

Hi all

OK, so I have been doing some pottering and tidying round the garden and I noticed a few things that I would like help and advice with. So I hope that all you experienced folks won't mind the long post and all the pictures, I thought it'd be easiest this way!

A) Is it a weed or not?





The plant with the big leaves - is it a weed? If not, what is it? At the moment, I am inclined to remove it, as it does not look nice. But maybe it gets better?



I have several of these. Are they weeds?
(This is my first spring in this garden, so I can't tell what's what yet)

B) Plants that are not thriving





Last year, my parents planted a few azaleas and a couple of rhodondendron for me. Apparently, the Oxfordshire soil is not to their liking, so they added loads of peat to the planting holes. And I fed them with a liquid feed for ericaceous plants last summer. But as you can see, this azalea is not happy, dropping leaves and looking as bare as a baboon's bottom. What can I do to perk it up?

I have a very large rose which was here when we moved. It has oldfashioned single petal blooms in a sort of orangey red and it is quite pretty. But it seems to be unwell, as it is dropping leaves as thoughit's getting ready to go to a nudist's convention.


Here are a few close ups of the leaves, some of them are curled up and they sort of look burnt & blotchy.





Could it have been the late snow which damaged them? Or is it a disease? I have been spraying them like mad (i.e once a week) with that Rose Clear Gun stuff. I have tried to pick all the fallen leaves off the ground, but more keep coming. :( What do I need to do to make the rose recover?

Last autumn, I planted a jasmin against a trellis.



It was from the Easy Gardening Collection and supposedly a nice'n easy climber. But I am v disappointed. Hardly any growth, no leaves, nothing. It's not dead, just not doing v much. I think plants need to earn their space in a small garden like mine. Should I kick it out and replace it with something more vigorous and more rewarding (both my clematis are doing well, as are my two climbing roses and the honeysuckle which I planted at the same time as the jasmin)? Or will it come into its own in the next few weeks?

C) Garden Planning

I have this space along a fence along a gravelly seating area:


It gets full sun from sunrise to about 4 pm. Are there any vegetables which will grow in those plastic trough type containers (for balconies and the like), which I could train up the fence for support (I am thinking beans). Or do they need a depper container for their roots? Any other ideas for what to do along there? The gravel comes right up to the fence, so there's no space for a narrow border for clematis and the like.

I have a flower bed which was neglected but established when we moved in. It contains mostly geraniums and (self-sown I think) aquilegias and something else (the light green plant with the red stems?)




As you can see, all the plants have grown into each other, but there are also bare patches, and it all looks messy and as though it needs a bit of a tidy up. Last summer, it was very hard to remove the weeds as the plants were just all kind of in a big clump, and it was hard to see what's what. I am inclined to dig them all out, separate them into individual plants, and then replant them in a nice and tidy fashion. Is it too late to do that now? Also, how easy would it be to see what's what once I'd dug a clump up? Would the plants suffer from being dug out and replanted?

D) Propagation

Finally, I have erected a makeshift cold frame from double-celled polycarbonate. I have put parsley and things which had already sprouted in there to make room on the window sills indoors for other things which have only just been sown. Will my seedling die in here do you think, or do you think it might work? It's a bit of a rickety construction.




Sorry this is so long - all advice will be much appreciated!!

 

Hi Rosie. Nice clear pictures - makes life so much easier - but I don't have many answers. I am not sure of the first large leaved plant - but I would assume it is a weed. It is growing through an Aquilegia, which is a good plant so keep that. The next weed is a Dandelion. You must dig a long way down to get all the root out. It grows from root cuttings, so if you break the root and leave half, it will regrow.

Quite honestly if your ground is not suitable for growing Azelias, its simpler not to bother. Or you could put it in a pot with ericaceous compost. But I would prefer to grow things that liked my soil.

I am not that impressed by Jasmine (many will howl at that). The most popular yellow one is Jasmine nudiflorum, but I found it was more nudi than florum, so I booted it! I have a red one Jasmine beesiamum - but you can hardly see the flowers. I think you attitude is quite right, there are so many good plants that you can afford to be ruthless.

Well done with the tempory cold frame, I am sure it will work, just make sure the wind doesn't blow the top off. I use several tempory ones, the advantage being that they can disappear when not required.

 

Both one and two are weeds, the top one is burdock, the second is not a dandelion, its willow herb.

Thje rose has blackspot, you need to spray it with rose clear or similar, possiblely also feed it with some rose food.

 

Thanks for the quick replies, guys! This forum is magic.

Re. the weeds: will dig them out pronto. As you can see, I neatly weeded around the willow herb, hahaha! Not knowing anything about gardening does make me feel like a right moron sometimes. But I'm Ok with it!

I'll keep spraying the rose. What exactly is black spot, is it a fungus? And does the rose actually recover?

Re. temporary cold frame: do you think it'll be possible to germinate sun flower seeds in there Peter? Or do you think it's too cold to achieve germination? I know I could theoretically sow them straight into the ground, but I thought if I grow them in pots to begin with, I won't pull them out by accident.

Re. trellis / jasmin problem: that fence is east fencing, so it gets the sun from about 12 o'clock onwards right until the sun sets (but no sun in the morning). What would you suggest as a cheerful, reliable and vigorous climber, Peter? I am happy to chuck out the jasmin (or relocate it), but I am always overwhelmed by the choice of clematis etc, so I don't know what to choose instead. The trellis is 5 foot high. What could I plant now that'll look good this year and which'll be OK about the light conditions?

 

Black spot is a fungal disese, it wont kill the rose but spoils the look of the leaves and causes leaf drop, the important thing is to spray fortnightly throught the spring / summer.

 

The azaleas and rhododendron.
If you don't have many and the soil is not to their liking .
I would put them into large pots with the special soil you can get for them.
You can then bury them into the ground if you want.
They are lovely but is it really worth the effort.
Some can grow really big.
They might start to be more trouble than they are worth.

 

Pro Gard, - I am sure you are right about willow herb - I don't have it in my garden, so I don't recognise the emergent growth. But I have been pulling dandelions today with long thin crinckley leaves, but perhaps not as many as those.

Rosie, I agree with you about growing seeds in pots or a seed tray first. You could try a seed tray on a windowsill inside the house, but you need to cover it to keep the moisture in. Or you could do it in your cold frame. That would probably work fine. I only ever sow half of the seeds at a time, in case of disasters. I don't know anything about Clematis, although I have got quite a few. My attitude is £14 - not such a good variety, £6 much better, £1.75 in Morrisons for named varieties - first class. You might even afford two!

 

Ha Ha.
When I buy plants I always think he dearer they are the harder they are to grow.
Anyone can grow the cheap things.
So as far as I can see the cheaper the better.LOL

 

Lyn you'll get there in the end girl I still have to go round my sister-in-law's garden to sort what's a weed and whats' a plant as she doesn't like to dig anything up unless she's sure....most of the time she's saved a weed but we always have a good giggle about it and my fee is normally a nice cuppa on the patio! Hel.xxx.

 

I don't think much of Jasmine either. Mind you, I'm biased as when we moved a year ago it had taken over the garden and I spent much of last winter digging out frighteningly deep roots of the evil stuff. I'd take it out and grow something nicer. I have a quite ridiculous love of akebia quinata:

http://www.mousemat.f2s.com/BirdsandGarden/AkebiaQuinata.jpg

which has gorgeous flowers and an amazing scent. It's pretty vigorous though.

Or a climbing hydrangea, if you have room:

http://www.crocus.co.uk/images/products2/PL/00/00/00/16/PL0000001665_card.jpg

In regard to veg growing - I have v. successfully grown runner beans in shallow soil. Just fed them well and got plenty of crops.

 

The light green plant with red stems looks like some kind of euporbia to me.

 

Hi guys, thanks for the suggestions, keep them coming. I will look into akebia quinata, it looks pretty. Vigorous is good, I like vigorous. As long as people can be bothered to cut their plants back to keep them in check, i don't see what the problem is. I think it is a good idea if plants are pretty as well as scented, you get more bang for your buck that way!

I'll try some runner beans along that fence, thanks. Sowed some indoors only the other day, so now I know where I'll put them. (Assuming they germinate and all that.)

PeterS, I have seen some pictures of your garden, it looks amazing. If some of that is achieved by buying plants at the supermarket, then that's enough of a recommendation for me. I thought (stupidly, as it turns out), that the pricier it is, the nicer the plant!

Does anyone have views on the flower bed where everything is a jumble, kind of grown into each other and messy with bare patches in between - should I just try and fill the gaps or dig sections of it out, lift and separate the plants and replant them in a tidy fashion? (see the two pictures after the gravel photo)

 

I agree with the Euphorbia, I don't like them and I am slowly cutting mine back so thet it will eventually disappear without Hubbie even noticing! With the jumbled bed I'd dig the overcrowded bit up and replant them in the spaces.

 

Rosie, Hi, The rose def has blackspot fungus and i would advise pruning it. All the growth seems to be at the top and a good pruning will cause flowering shoots to break away lower down. Take care of the new shoots and they will flower this year. Burn all the leaves with the fungus as it spreads. The euforbia sap is an irritant so wear marigolds when cutting it back when they are well established, they make a lovely show but not everyones cuppa tea. The azalea looks as thogh it might be planted a tad too deep an if you raise it a little then top dress with compost and a good feed of fish, blood and bone it should hopefully recover.

 

Sounds like you've made up your mind about the jasmine - but it can take a couple of years to establish before taking off. I have an inverleith which I have had to shear to within an inch of it's death to control, but it's flowers do smell good enough to keep! I would leave it in, and plant another couple of things alongside it, so that you have interest for longer - a clematis and a honeysuckly perhaps?

There's tons of plants in that there patchy border pic. The red stemmed one is a euphorbia for sure - I like them! (Just take care if you do cut it back - the sap can cause nasty burns on the skin if touched). I too love aqualeigas - they should be coming into flower soon (definitely later this year!)

I also spot sedum (keep) - the fleshy succulent type will flower late in the summer. I think there is some alpine strawberries in there - they are sweet, if invasive, but the fruit is a perfumey delight! Could be a wee potentilla in amongst the strappy leaves, and other unidentified delights. I'd be inclined to leave it and see what you like and don't like. The gaps will fill in quicker than you believe, and that way you'll not lose any gems, and can dig out whatever you don't want.

Keep us posted!