Hobbies and Crafts

Over a week since we heard from Kandj. Hope all is well there. <3 <3

Should really get out into the garden and do some tidying up. OH is playing around altering the water feature though so don't want to get in his way. Maybe it can wait for a bit. :-D

Nipped into the village supermarket for a couple of bits yesterday and I bought a
greatly reduced yellow Antirrhinum (Snapdragon) with 3 buds but dry compost for
39p....... that has got to be my bargain of the week!!

Vera that happened to me yesterday and it is mega irritating.

I looked the tree up and don't remember seeing one of those , they are huge but
very interesting to see their brackens. Good Luck with the outside painters.

We have our teenage Granddaughter with us for almost two weeks in Summer hols.
Katie is a gem and keen to help either of us in any way that she can.
Today the two of us have been cutting off the low long leaves of Cordyline Australis
(Cabbage Tree) that we brought back from the Isle of Man too many years ago now
to remember. It suffered badly with heavy snow a few years ago and our Son in Law sawed through the coconut type trunk and it has sprouted several more and
I keep digging them up and passing them on to family, friends and neighbours.

Grrr ....... :-|

I just spent ages typing a post only for it to disappear into the ether before I could press Submit. So here goes again with a slightly shorter version.

Glad your sunflower survived Kandj. I understand how you feel about the nettles; they are great for the butterflies but a nightmare to control. We are currently waging war on bindweed which has come through from next door's garden.

We have painters in at the moment to redo our external walls, so OH has spent the morning moving all the pots and troughs out of the way so they can put up scaffolding. He has grouped a lot of the pots in front of the garage and they make a very colourful display for the neighbours to look out on.

Yesterday we were in Bury St Edmunds and in the Abbey Gardens there we noticed a huge tree with a very wide canopy and long fronds hanging down. Passing the Park Rangers Office we popped in and asked him about it. He told us that it is a Caucasian Wingnut tree, a relative of the walnut. Have you come across this tree before? It was certainly a new one on us.

I planted a few supposed to be short stemmed sunflowers in large tubs. They are a real disappointment, tall and straggly with very tiny flowers on top. We have had a few red Admirals on our Buddleia and a small Tortoiseshell.

That was good to be given professional advice Vera, I hope it is dong the trick.
Buddleia plants do give lots of pleasure as many butterflies are attracted to them.

I had a walk down the bottom of the garden today and the nettles are growing again!
What actually pleased me was seeing the sunflower had recovered from whatever
had feasted on the leaves and there is new large healthy leaves and a bud there too.

I found we bought our sarcococca with a couple of trees at a specialist tree and shrub nursery so OH rang them this morning for advice. They said these bugs are in the air all the time but if an outdoor plant gets infested it is usually because it is stressed in some other way so doesn't fight off the attack. But they were quite reassuring. They said to spray the plants with Bug Control Ultra and give them a dose of Miracle Gro round the base and roots and with luck the plants will recover OK.

It goes against the grain a bit as I try not to use too many chemicals in the garden but the natural bug spray I usually use isn't man enough for the job, so we have been out this afternoon and bought the suggested stuff. OH will spray the plants when the sun is not so strong.

I am really pleased that the mini buddleia I put in a half barrel has attracted its first butterfly, a Comma :-D

Good, glad I could help Vera.

I think you've cracked it Ann. I think it is red spider mite. I had read a bit about that but the article I read gave the impression they only cause problems in the greenhouse. After seeing your suggestion I went out and picked a couple of leaves that were still on the plant and looked at them under a magnifying glass. What looked like dust was definitely moving about :-0

Thanks for your help. I am now going to google and see what, if anything, I can do about it.

The only thing I could find on google is the possibility of red spider mite Vera.

I know you have had rain but could it be lack of water?

Thanks for the suggestion Ann but It isn't that. The disease is box blight but is doesn't affect sarcococca confusa, which we have. I have seen box blight and it doesn't look like this. It was just so sudden. One day I was looking at healthy plants and the next they were nearly bare of leaves. We buy quite a few of our plants at a garden centre some 20 miles from where we live, partly because their staff are very knowledgable. I might give them a ring and see if they know what it is. Otherwise I shall just have to leave them and hope they recover.

Not so long ago all Box plants were succombing to something, couldn't be connected to that I assume? Otherwise can't help you.

Lovely photos as always Ann. My garden is also very overgrown but I think I prefer that to the too tidy look.

Years ago I bought a few lily plants from the milkman. Over the years they have expanded so by the time we moved nearly 3 years ago we had two half barrels full of them and a lot in a garden bed. We got the odd red lily beetle but nothing we couldn't deal with.

When we moved here I brought the two tubs with me and the red lily beetles went berserk. Each year they have covered the plant with the gungy mess that is their larvae. It looks terrible, is very unpleasant to clean off and needs cleaning up very regularly. So yesterday I decided. The lilies have to go!

Today I have cleared one half barrel, moved some oregano into that from a better half barrel and in the better one I have planted a dwarf buddleia. I've bought another dwarf buddleia for the other lily pot. So I am hoping that instead of disgusting red lily beetle larvae I will get some lovely butterflies :-D

I've got another problem now. We have three sarcacocca plants (Christmas box) in one bed. These are tough plants - don't mind a bit of air pollution, or being neglected. So why have two of the three suddenly dropped most of their leaves? This has happened within a couple of days. I've googled of course and most of the sites I have looked at say that these plants are generally disease and pest free and none of them mention leaf drop. They also appear to be planted in the right spot. It's as though they have had a sudden shock to the system but I can't think what it can be. Any ideas folks?

I have just put a few photos on the blog of our very overgrown garden. So much rain alternated with hot sun has forced the growth on. It looks colourful but untidy. :-D

What a shame about your sunflowers Kandj. Perhaps they will pick up again. I think they are fairly hardy.

I think I will try your suggestion about deadheading the salvias. There are 5 big clumps of them so I might just deadhead one clump this year and see what happens.

Sorry Vera, I'm like Ann and not sure what is best to do with your salvia.
We had some several years ago but I never thought of ever dead heading
them. Perhaps you could try doing just half and leave half untouched and see which fairs the best. You did well with your 69p bargain..... we all like those.

The three sunflower seeds that I grew from seed and potted up were getting
quite tall and very healthy looking. I said previously that I decided to plant them
in the back garden border and they were "attacked" by possibly slugs, not sure?

I have had a wander down the garden and on closer inspection they look a really
sorry sight. If I didn't know better I would think that a rabbit is feasting on them!!

Sounds like a good buy Vera. Hope it does well. My OH likes growing dahlias, for me they produce too many leaves. Sorry I know nothing about Salvias, have you looked on line?

I have a very blowsy garden out there. Lots of flowers all going mad and so windswept, not a tidy garden at all but very colourful.

I found a good buy yesterday, an orangey coloured dahlia reduced from £3 to 63p. I think it had been allowed to dry out and some of the leaves had gone brown but it had 3 flowers open and lots of buds. I took off the dead bits, gave it a really good soak and planted it out and it is looking better already. I do like a bargain.

I'd like a bit of advice please. Should I deadhead my salvias or not? I've googled but as usual there are conflicting views. I don't mind leaving them as the spent flower spikes are quite attractive anyway but I wondered if I would get a new flush of flower spikes if I took the old ones off.

I did have a picture of them as my avatar till a couple of weeks ago. I tried to put it back on so that you could see which plants I am talking about but I've had no luck with doing it. The system keeps telling me my profile picture has changed, but it has removed the old one without uploading the new one. I am doing it on the iPad but I've changed it several times before on the iPad with no problems. Any idea what I am doing wrong?

No Kandj, Not seeing the babies for a while. Luke is three today, bet there is excitement in his house. We don't see Inara until about October - such a long drive for OH up there. and we have yet to find somewhere reasonable to stay in Hampshire to see Adam and Luke. We are however, going to see the two youngest grandchildren next weekend, James will be home from Uni and it is near to Sophie's birthday. :-) :-)