Hobbies and Crafts

Yes I did mean pelargoniums Ann. I had hoped to get on outside today but it’s far too wet :-(

Our geraniums are looking really tatty now so not sure whether we will bother to keep them, they too were plugs a few years back. Maybe they only last so long I am assuming you are talking about pelargonium geraniums, not the hardy variety?

We don't have many holly trees near by but I have seen lots of shrubs full of berries this year and the hawthorn in our garden is covered with berries (haws?). I keep telling myself it just means we have had the right amount of sun and rain this summer but we could be due for a bad winter as the last few have been fairly mild.

Every time I try to get in the garden it rains again but I did eventually manage to do a bit early evening, just before it got too dark. I cleared a couple of troughs of annual stocks and then cleared another trough of geraniums and potted them up to overwinter. I've kept them going for a few years now and they are getting past their best so I got a bit vicious with them. I cut them back and then split them up into several rooted bits. I'm hoping to rejuvenate them but they might just give up and die. They started life as a few little plug plants and I have taken cuttings and divided them and had a good few years of colour from them so they don't owe me anything.

Hi Gwyn yes we have noticed that here as well. Ominous??

Not actually gardening, but I walked through a park near town today.

There are absolutely masses of berries ripening on the holly trees.

Nobody checkong in here lately so I assume nobody is gardening Lol!!! OH cut the lawn this afternoon, it needed doing and we are forecast rain up until the weekend so this was the only 'window' to do it. He has also cut back shrubs and an overhanging tree. Now the brown bin is full and so are several other containers. The next thing will be a trip to the tip I suppose. :-D :-D

Trying to get the garden tidy for winter and ready for next spring and it would be easier if we were not getting all the unseasonable wet weather. We bought iris reticulate last weekend and OH has planted those in a bowl having watched Mony Don do some last week. We have also cleared a patch of ground, actually dug up a red currant bush that seemed to be diseased, and OH has planted a selection of daffodils and Alliums. I was going to plant the latter but I hurt my back so he had to take over. Then we also bought a pink Japanese anemometer so that has gone near the white one. There are still a lot of flowers keeping going in the garden, Michaelmas daisies, Dahlias, large Sedum. (These came from my Dad’s garden when he moved into a residential home in the late 1990s. I planted a small piece and now have four large plants thriving out there.) we also still have fuchsias, four large hardy bushes and several baskets that have not gone over. But the cutting back of shrubs etc is never ending this time of year so it is annoying that I can’t help because of my back.

I don’t really know Vera but it does look as though it is reverting.. interesting isn’t it. Could there be anywhere on line you could ask the question.

Nothing posted on the gardening thread for a while I see. Well I’ve got a bit of a conundrum for you.

When we were remaking this garden 5 years ago I had a specific spot where I wanted to put a penstemon called Alice Hindley. After a bit of research I found a nursery with them in stock and they sent me 3. They were clearly marked Alice Hindley on a plastic label in each pot.

When they bloomed they were not the colour I was expecting. They were quite a dark maroon-purple colour but they were OK so we kept them and I’ve increased the stock with cuttings each year. I keep cutting off the dead flower spikes and they rebloom well into the autumn. Now one of them has thrown up a couple of flower stalks that are a bright scarlet red :-S. How has that happened? I’ve been looking online and these flowers look just like a penstemon called Polaris Red.

The only thing I could think is that my original 3 plants weren’t Alice Hindley but a hybrid of a red penstemon with something else and it is now reverting.

Any thoughts people?

That's a shame that you had to pull up your courgette plants Pippyn. When I had a big vegetable patch I used to do just 3 plants. I'm not a great fan of courgettes though I will eat them if I have to but OH liked them fried in butter and I would put them in all sorts of veg dishes. I've also got several cake recipes using them and they can go in soups and salads. I used to pick them at least every other day but why is there always one that you don't notice until it has grown into a large marrow?

I managed to do a couple of hours gardening this afternoon, mostly deadheading and cutting back stuff that has gone over. I have half a dozen large terracotta pots full of agapanthus and they are looking good at the moment. They are all blue ones except one which is white. I certainly didn't have any white a couple of years ago so I must have bought it in the last year or two but I can't for the life of me remember buying it or planting it. Am I going barmy? Please don't answer that.

Sounds wonderful Pippyn. But how sad to pull them because you can’t eat them you could do with sharingvwith someone who grows different veg. How big is your garden?
Island that is a good idea growing sweet peas with beans. I was really annoyed with whatever had the cue as I love a glut and cucumber relish.

This morning OH pulled three of the four courgette plants as we really can't cope with so much produce! Now we just have the one which will produce as much as we can cope with! Sweetcorn are doing well but won't be ready for a week or two. They are well worth growing as they're absolutely delicious and we usually have one each for lunch for as long as they last,
I picked cornflowers and sweetpeas this morning, cleaned the birdbath and pulled a few (?!!) weeds! OH is rotavating a strip ready for the leeks which are just about ready for transplanting! Again these are so much nicer that shop bought, so well worth the effort!
We have three ripe tomatoes in the greenhouse,!!!!!

I wish we had more space for veg here. My lovely big veg patch in our old house was the one thing I missed when we moved here 6 years ago. There's nothing like going into the garden, picking a few veg and cooking and eating them straight away.

All I've managed to do here are a few tomatoes in pots and some herbs. I did bring with me from the old house a couple of blueberry plants in big pots and they do well most years. This year they have done really well.

I managed to do a couple of hours in the garden this afternoon but I am struggling to keep up with it while OH is out of action. We've got a couple of those box plants shaped like large balls, only they were looking anything other than ball shaped so I got the clippers out and gave them a going over. Though I says it as shouldn't, for someone who can't see straight and is totally unco-ordinated, I think I made a pretty good job of them. At least they are now vaguely round shaped again.

Of course I am sorry that my Mr Crewcut is lacking mobility at the moment, but on the plus side at least everything isn't getting cut down to a few stalks :-)

We grow flowers and veg alongside each other, I like to see sweet peas entwined among the runner beans and the beans twisting round sunflowers.
It's so disheartening Ann, to discover something sluggie has chomped through stems and killed the young plants. Not very bright are they? destroying a food source.

I grow outdoor cues but the continuous rain a few weeks back put paid to 3/4 of my plants. I sowed more but they are very behind. No great hopes of cucumber relish this year :-(

We haven’t grown veg this year, normally we grow runner beans but we don’t really have enough room for veg and we both love flowers. We do grow tomatoes and cucumbers however not many cues this year as a snail got in the greenhouse while we were away and chomped one plant off at the base. Sometimes I grow carrots in a container and sometimes we grow postage’s in a container.nwe have tried courgettes without any success. Raised beds are a good idea Island I have thought about that.

I should say welcome Pippyn, hope you can freeze the extra or share them with somebody.

Hi All, I've not looked in here since.....forever but as veg has been mentioned :-D
We have raised veg beds in the garden - veg flowers are pretty too. Just thought I'd mention - freshy picked dwarf and broad beans for our evening meal today :-D We've had a err..... run on runner beans for the last week+.
Courgettes not so good, we're either over run or nothing. This year I've grown round ones, four plants, two yellow and two green and thus far we've only had one of each.

Toms and tiny cues are starting to appear. :-D

We have a lot of veg all coming at once!!! Anyone for courgette!!!! Usual flowers but nothing particularly interesting. The sweetpeas and Cornflowers have done really well though as have the roses. Our garden is quite sheltered which helps!!

I learned something today. My sister has a lawn that she has let go wild for a little while because it is covered in what we though was dandelions and looks really pretty. But somebody asked if they were in fact Hawkbit. Apparently that is what they are.

From Wikepedia

"Leontodon is a genus of plants in the dandelion tribe within the sunflower family (Compositae), commonly known as hawkbits.

Their English name derives from the mediaeval belief that hawks ate the plant to improve their eyesight. Although originally only native to Eurasia and North Africa,
some species have since become established in other countries, including the United States and New Zealand."

I suspect they are still invasive though so I would be careful of letting them seed.

R

Oh pretty isn’t it?

Oh good news Vera.not sure what it looks like will have to look it up.