My Garden

Idle chat

Last post 22-11-2009 1:24 PM by EvaInNL. 4424 replies.

• 30/10/2008 04:02 PM
  sue1002 Location: Ipswich, Suffolk Joined on: 06 Sep 2005 Posts: 5,200	Reply | Contact  I don't lift the Dahlias here digger, and even after a couple of hard frosts, they are still in full flower. sue1002

• 30/10/2008 04:36 PM

  Digger Location: Northern UK Joined on: 18 Jul 2005 Posts: 4,743

  Reply | Contact All my dahlias were blackened by frost on wednesday night, the few hundred miles distance from your place to here makes the world of difference! you do seem to get more snow from the North though, but here we just get the wet stuff from the west, and i think it's sitting in the wet that does for the tubers, I rinsed them in a bucket of new jeyes fluid solution and now they are in the greenhouse and yes dahlia Sue1002, is in there it has made some tremendous tubers, so I can see exactly wht colours it gives next year i think it should be the lovely yellow, once I've preserved the stock of tubers, we're in business. digger

• 30/10/2008 04:43 PM

  Beebee Location: Warwickshire Joined on: 29 Jan 2008 Posts: 176

  Reply | Contact Here in Warwickshire I had the best sweet peas this spring and summer I've ever had and they were from autumn planting.  They were actually in part of the raised veg bed all last winter, covered with a bell cloche during the worst of the winter.  They bloomed v early and just kept on going until the recent frost. I now have my autumn sowings for next year out in the greenhouse and may well leave some in there as well as plant outside again.

• 30/10/2008 05:29 PM
  Digger Location: Northern UK Joined on: 18 Jul 2005 Posts: 4,743	Reply | Contact yes I imagine that in warwickshire you can get away with early sowings, it's just not worth the bother this far up, the lack of light is the main problem but spring sowings do usually produce good flowers as always, the cultivar has to be an exhibition one to produce the best blooms. digger

• 30/10/2008 05:29 PM
  sue1002 Location: Ipswich, Suffolk Joined on: 06 Sep 2005 Posts: 5,200	Reply | Contact  Do you save your own sweet pea seeds Beebee or start again with a fresh packet?   I've been lucky with the Dahlias digger, they haven't blackened yet but when they do I will cut them down.  It's good to hear the yellow ones have made good tubers, you should get some nice root cuttings from them. sue1002

• 30/10/2008 05:44 PM
  Phot's-Moll Location: The sunny South coast. Joined on: 06 Jan 2007 Posts: 3,347	Reply | Contact I think autumn sown plants are better - if they're looked after well. If you haven't got somewhere suitable to put them, or will forget to water them, or they'll get eaten etc (as usually happens to mine) then spring sown ones will probably do at least as well. Whether you think you can do a thing, or think you cannot, you are right.

• 30/10/2008 05:58 PM

  Digger Location: Northern UK Joined on: 18 Jul 2005 Posts: 4,743

  Reply | Contact The problem I had with the Autumn sowing is that even in the cold frame they got so cold that the growth stopped for a while and the light level was so poor they were straggly moth eaten exhibits by the time I planted them out, however in the expert book on sweet peas it recommends that in the North sowing should should wait until into the new year. I have tried both ways of sowing and Autumn sowing in this locality does not produce a superior plant, and Kevin Preston won the national finals at the lakelend rose show with spring sown sweetpeas, however where you are Phot's is much warmer and drier than up here and if i was down south I would make an autumn sowing as well. digger

• 30/10/2008 06:54 PM

  sue1002 Location: Ipswich, Suffolk Joined on: 06 Sep 2005 Posts: 5,200

  Reply | Contact  The only plants I have started off before in autumn were the Aquilegia seeds that digger sent me a couple of years ago, I sowed half in autumn and the rest in spring.  I found the autumn sown ones had a stronger root system when they were planted out but I had a better germination rate with the spring sown ones and they all flowered at the same time. I will try an autumn sowing of broad beans directly into the ground this year but I think to be on the safe side, I will cover them with plastic drinks bottles to keep them a bit warmer as I don't have a coldframe or the room to put one. How's the eye now Susiq, I think it was yesterday that you were going for a checkup? sue1002

• 30/10/2008 07:50 PM

  Gardenbabe Location: Northampton Joined on: 02 Apr 2008 Posts: 30

  Reply | Contact Anything that was still looking good in my garden has been flattened by snow on Tuesday night!!!  arghhh - I don't like snow at the best of times, but October??  We had a fair bit settle so the autumn flowering plants are now either flat, or mush!!  Mind you, my mahonia is about to burst into full flower, as is my Viburnum bodnatense "Dawn", which is by the path and smells gorgeous on sunny days.

• 30/10/2008 10:16 PM
  sue1002 Location: Ipswich, Suffolk Joined on: 06 Sep 2005 Posts: 5,200	Reply | Contact Snow is unusual at this time of year down here, but they did say on our local news that the last time it snowed here in October was back in the 70's. We had a thunder storm with a good lightning show about an hour ago. sue1002

• 30/10/2008 10:44 PM
  filippo lippi Location: Nottingham Joined on: 25 Feb 2005 Posts: 297	Reply | Contact Allotments = no go.  [:'(] ------------------- Ow! My most of me!

• 30/10/2008 10:45 PM
  filippo lippi Location: Nottingham Joined on: 25 Feb 2005 Posts: 297	Reply | Contact Smileys work well :( ------------------- Ow! My most of me!

• 31/10/2008 11:25 AM

  miranda Location: Oxfordshire Joined on: 17 Nov 2004 Posts: 2,976

  Reply | Contact Watch out for mice with those beans, Sue! They may get eaten. That happened to us this year with beans and sweetcorn and they were sown into modules and they were under cover on a bench. Had to keep re-sowing.  We've been planting out overwintering onions and garlic in our new garden, which should be ready in early summer. Looking forward to that as it's the first vegetable thing we've put in.  I love autumn and winter flowering shrubs, Gardenbabe, they always smell so wonderful. I came across a huge Osmanthus delavayi in full flower the other day and the perfume was incredible. Elaeagnus are good for scented flowers too.

• 31/10/2008 12:27 PM
  Digger Location: Northern UK Joined on: 18 Jul 2005 Posts: 4,743	Reply | Contact Hi all, It's sunny today but cold as well I've been chopping down the last of the sweet peas and cutting off the dead marigolds, it's too cold for more than an hour outside, at a time. digger

• 31/10/2008 01:10 PM

  sue1002 Location: Ipswich, Suffolk Joined on: 06 Sep 2005 Posts: 5,200

  Reply | Contact I will keep a lookout for the mice Miranda, touch wood - we haven't seen any around this year (yet), we had a lot last year which we managed to get rid off so hopefully they don't have any rellies to come back to visit this year. It's pretty cold here too, and even though it was raining heavily when I went to bed last night, I had to scrape the ice off the car this morning.  The sun is out now so I might put on an extra jumper in a little while and give the apple tree a slight prune and strip off the rest of the scabby leaves that haven't yet fallen so they can be disposed of. sue1002