taxi4ballet Posted June 27, 2012 Author Share Posted June 27, 2012 Enough of the pests! We have the most wonderful shrub rose bush with literally hundreds of small pink flowers on it at the moment. It is absolutely beautiful, the variety is called... Ballerina. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiz Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 I attacked the nettles last night and this morning and all the plants are now out. I shall only buy petunias for hanging baskets in future! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 SALT, SALT AND MORE SALT! No!!! Have you ever seen what it does to a slug? Ugh. It's about the cruellest way possible of killing them - I wouldn't want to inflict a death like that on my worst enemy. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ann Williams Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 I throw them out into the road where I know they will be run over, which may be cruel but not as cruel as the salt method. Incidentally, I found one in my front garden the other day which had a Tippex mark on its shell; I did laugh - this is what some people do to test the old wives' theory about about snails always returning to their place of irigin! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxi4ballet Posted June 30, 2012 Author Share Posted June 30, 2012 It isn't an Old Wives' Tale, snails really do have a homing instinct - a few years ago we did a test (don't ask!) using nail varnish. We dumped them at the bottom of the field near our house, and most of them made it back in a couple of days. Each time we found one, we would put another blob of varnish on. One of them managed to get back eleven times! The test was scuppered by a local thrush, who used to bash the life out of them on a stone in our rockery. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anjuli_Bai Posted June 30, 2012 Share Posted June 30, 2012 I'm beginning to feel sorry for the snails/slugs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxi4ballet Posted June 30, 2012 Author Share Posted June 30, 2012 Anjuli, don't feel sorry, most of them get away... If you could see the size of some of them ! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiz Posted July 2, 2012 Share Posted July 2, 2012 So it has rained for a good deal of today and I found a good many slugs and snails which needed up in the pond or down the loo! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porthesia Posted July 4, 2012 Share Posted July 4, 2012 I would really love to have a thrush in my garden but I have cats. Our garden has been neglected as this house had been rented out for 4 years before we bought it. There were not many slugs/snails in the gardens - until i started buying plants to brighten up the plethora of shrubs - my garden is green, green and yet more green. I also have the wind to contend with and my hanging basket is suffering. After having torn down a climber of unspecified variety (it was trying to get inside the house) I now think replacing the space with a hanging basket was not such a good idea - ho hum I'll learn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiz Posted July 5, 2012 Share Posted July 5, 2012 It's heart breaking, isn't it? They don't like rough walls and if you can afford it, sharp grit or small gravel around plants also cramps their style! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxi4ballet Posted July 7, 2012 Author Share Posted July 7, 2012 If anyone is interested in an easy (and very humane!) way to deter cats - either your own or other people's - from digging in your garden, try leaving all your orange peelings scattered on the flower beds. They don't like the smell. Another idea is to add a tablespoon of garlic puree to a watering can of water and water the plants with it, sprinkling it on the foliage as well as the ground. The plants take up the garlic, which cats dislike, and it also helps to stop greenfly; they don't much like it either. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porthesia Posted July 7, 2012 Share Posted July 7, 2012 Not heard of the garlic puree - I may try that for the greenfly. My cats are very naughty and won't use the garden - they prefer the dirt tray! The eldest cat has really bad arthritis and as the garden hasn't been turned over for years the younger one has decided it's ok for her to use the dirt tray as well! Really really hate dirty trays. These are the first cats I've had who do this 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxi4ballet Posted July 8, 2012 Author Share Posted July 8, 2012 Porthesia, with more than one cat, it could be a territorial thing. They need to 'mark' their space, and will go on top of another cat's business to do this. If it is a nice sunny day (haha, fat chance), have you tried putting the tray just outside the door? Sometimes it works if you move it an inch or two towards the door each day, so they don't notice too much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiz Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 I've been digging up weeds for an hour and a half. I may do a half gainer into the bath Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Macmillan Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 After this week's rain, the moats that I see I reported back on 13th June are once again back in place - and I'm cutting off waterlogged rose heads these days at a rate I can't recall ever before. Mid-July! (Speaking of which, today's Sunday Times has a front page piece on the possibility of the Olympic Beach Volleyball ladies having to cover up on their Horseguards sandpit if the weather stays as it has been lately! Not what those who paid for expensive tickets had in mind, I imagine.) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxi4ballet Posted July 16, 2012 Author Share Posted July 16, 2012 Perhaps it's so they don't frighten the horses! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxi4ballet Posted August 2, 2012 Author Share Posted August 2, 2012 Is anyone else having trouble with their roses this year? Mine are flowering really well but they seem to be really suffering with rust and blackspot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiz Posted August 2, 2012 Share Posted August 2, 2012 We only have four but they seem to be all right so far. :::Crosses fingers::: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiz Posted August 2, 2012 Share Posted August 2, 2012 Years ago, we eviscerated a pink mallow type plant in our garden. So we thought! It has sent out little ones all over the lawn and is very invasive. I am after the roots - they go down about three feet, split off and and create even more! Argh! I hate it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxi4ballet Posted August 4, 2012 Author Share Posted August 4, 2012 Talking of mallows, we used to have one in our garden (a shrubby-type one) with white flowers tinged with pink. It was rather short-lived and died nearly 20 years ago. Well - it is back, in the very same place! It's roots must have been hanging round dormant for years waiting for the right moment... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiz Posted August 4, 2012 Share Posted August 4, 2012 They really are bloody awful! I dug up three separate areas of root last evening and more are awaiting me now! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxi4ballet Posted August 4, 2012 Author Share Posted August 4, 2012 Mine is actually rather pretty so I'll leave it where it is for now. I think it is a hybrid so it won't seed everywhere! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MargaretN7 Posted August 4, 2012 Share Posted August 4, 2012 A shrubby mallow, white tinged with pink? Sounds like Lavatera Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiz Posted August 5, 2012 Share Posted August 5, 2012 It was bright pink with large trumpet shaped flowers on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Macmillan Posted August 8, 2012 Share Posted August 8, 2012 We had a Flying Ants Day some three weeks or so ago and I'd assumed that was it for this year. Not so! With the return of the sun and some humidity today, they have emerged in the last hour or so in their hundreds - far more than last time - with lots coming from colonies in the grass. Quite apocalyptic to look at in some ways - and I'm hoping that this will be an end to it for 2012. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxi4ballet Posted August 8, 2012 Author Share Posted August 8, 2012 Flying ants...UGH!!!!!! I had them in my kitchen once. I got home from work, opened the kitchen door and found thousands of them all flying about - they'd got in all the cupboards and everything! It was totally disgusting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiz Posted August 8, 2012 Share Posted August 8, 2012 Yuck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxi4ballet Posted August 9, 2012 Author Share Posted August 9, 2012 I bought an Aloe Vera plant yesterday - does anybody know the best way to look after it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ann Williams Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 Speaking of roses, I'm having a problem with my lovely 'ballerina' rose - it's first flush was beautiful and as soon as the blooms faded I pruned carefully for a second flush. This hasn't happened, or at least only two heads have opened, leaving several groups of tightly closed buds - they've been like that for about three weeks now. Does anyone think I'm just being impatient? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxi4ballet Posted August 9, 2012 Author Share Posted August 9, 2012 I deadheaded my 'ballerina' rose this morning, there were several more heads coming along, much the same as yours, Ann. Over the last few years mine has produced quite a lot more flowers, but not all at once in a second flush. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxi4ballet Posted January 17, 2013 Author Share Posted January 17, 2013 Help! I am looking for some seeds or a cutting - I need to grow a money tree! otherwise we'll have to turn down this place at Tring 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxi4ballet Posted June 6, 2013 Author Share Posted June 6, 2013 Went down the bottom of the garden this morning to discover my asparagus is now 5 feet tall! This year, I decided to keep an eye on it - we don't cut it for eating, there aren't enough spears, usually only about 5 or 6 - so we leave it to grow, it is beautiful and ferny, and lasts for months. So, this year I measured it and it grew from nothing to five feet tall in nineteen days It's still going and has now reached next door's garage roof. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted June 11, 2013 Share Posted June 11, 2013 Remembering ours, that doesn't surprise me at all. I've had to absent myself from this thread: I currently don't have any garden worth speaking of, and it's really sad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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