taxi4ballet Posted June 12, 2013 Author Share Posted June 12, 2013 We can use this thread for houseplant and flower arranging news too!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinMM Posted June 12, 2013 Share Posted June 12, 2013 I love my garden and it was to have a garden which was one of my main motives in moving out of London after 30 years without one. It's not that big but has a lovely view looking to the southeast down to the sea and northeast over the downs so I am very lucky. At the moment the bindweed has just got to that point where it's about to get the better of me and the garden unless I get out there every day. We've just dug up what seems like thousands of forget-me-nots which found their way there somehow....we let them flower and then clear them out but there are still more each year! In the front we are just waiting for the seven big herbaceous peonies to come into bloom.Peonies actually LIKE chalk which is why we invested in them but they are very rewarding to grow as again each year they get bigger and more floriferous.....disappear to nothing in the winter and then the joy of the lovely red shoots coming through in Spring. There are a lot of fledgy starlings and great tits at the moment which may mention on the catalogue thread because of yesterday!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted June 16, 2013 Share Posted June 16, 2013 We can use this thread for houseplant and flower arranging news too!! Thanks I love my garden and it was to have a garden which was one of my main motives in moving out of London after 30 years without one. I had an 80 (or 70 - depends on which estate agent you believe)-foot garden, and that was within the London postcodes. Am currently having to make do with a front garden of about 12 feet, I'd guess, and nothing else At the moment the bindweed has just got to that point where it's about to get the better of me and the garden unless I get out there every day. We've just dug up what seems like thousands of forget-me-nots which found their way there somehow....we let them flower and then clear them out but there are still more each year! In the front we are just waiting for the seven big herbaceous peonies to come into bloom.Peonies actually LIKE chalk which is why we invested in them but they are very rewarding to grow as again each year they get bigger and more floriferous.....disappear to nothing in the winter and then the joy of the lovely red shoots coming through in Spring. Bindweed - glyphosate. I've never found anything else which works (and that's having neighbours on either side who couldn't care less about the stuff). Otherwise, you just end up digging up the roots like crazy, and you always miss a bit, and then the little blighter starts all over again. Forget-me-nots - yes, really pretty, but need to be dug up the minute the flowers fade if you don't want a garden full of the things. Peonies - love them. Stunning. Trouble is, as soon as they start blooming it always seems as though it's the cue for wind, rain, and occasionally hail, to ruin them just when they've got really attractive. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinMM Posted June 16, 2013 Share Posted June 16, 2013 So true about peonies such a nuisance! And worse with tree peonies which tend to have just one or two very large blooms. The ones in the front garden have just started coming out so guess the wet and windy scene will be in full force by the end of week!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinMM Posted June 16, 2013 Share Posted June 16, 2013 Forgot to say the robins are now fledged saw two babies in garden this morning. At least now the starlings re getting a bit more independent it's not quite so noisy at 5am!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted June 18, 2013 Share Posted June 18, 2013 Ugh, don't talk to me about fledgling robins! They made a nest in my shed a few years ago. Horrible mess - and of course you're now prevented by law from even disturbing the little darlings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinMM Posted June 18, 2013 Share Posted June 18, 2013 Oh Alison!! They're so sweet!! I must admit if in an awkward place so you feel you can't go,about your normal business could be a nuisance but ah.....those little spotty cross looking faces....wasn't that worth just a little bit of a mess!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinMM Posted June 21, 2013 Share Posted June 21, 2013 http://www.kelways.co.uk/product/buckeye-belle/21/ Ive posted this link to one of the peonies in my garden which is spectacularly in bloom at the mo. I wish I could post my own pictures as they are better than this. First time posted a link so hope it works! Bit worried as its not blue! We got all our peonies from Kelways because they sell such a wide selection and some more unusual ones. Luckily the rain has held off so far(but not the sea mist though) but its getting windier and more rainy over weekend just what peonies don't need! When all of the seven bushes are out they do look good and occasionally get people knocking on the door to ask what they are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinMM Posted June 21, 2013 Share Posted June 21, 2013 Now it's posted the link is blue! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinMM Posted June 21, 2013 Share Posted June 21, 2013 https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=snow+swan+peony&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-gb&client=safari#biv=i%7C1%3Bd%7CfpyyS4XWAP5I_M%3A This is another one that is out called Snow Swan!! Really is a gorgeous peony. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted June 21, 2013 Share Posted June 21, 2013 Oh Alison!! They're so sweet!! I must admit if in an awkward place so you feel you can't go,about your normal business could be a nuisance but ah.....those little spotty cross looking faces....wasn't that worth just a little bit of a mess!!! Firstly, it wasn't "just a little bit" of mess Secondly, while I wasn't allowed to go in and disturb them, one of the poor fledglings fell into an open container of water I'd forgotten was in there (not that I'd have been allowed to go in and retrieve it, anyway) and died what I suspect was an excessively protracted death. I found its body once the others had fled the nest, and gave it a decent burial Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinMM Posted June 21, 2013 Share Posted June 21, 2013 Actually that happens quite a lot with both frogs and birds unfortunately. There were a couple of baby robins who died in a tub of water on an adjacent allotment recently. Because this happened in our garden with a dunnock and a frog last year I am now neurotic about making sure there are no buckets of water etc that birds etc can't climb out of! And neurotic about fledgy birds being got by a cat or a crow! So bit of an exhausting time of year. In Rottingdean there is a village pond and every year just about the ducklings there either get taken by foxes or seagulls! So now our lovely local wildlife man takes them into "custody" until they are bigger and stand a better chance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinMM Posted June 22, 2013 Share Posted June 22, 2013 https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Claire+de+Lune+peony&client=safari&hl=en-gb&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=Cc3FUbeIBoqsPe3dgcAI&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAA&biw=1024&bih=644#biv=i%7C6%3Bd%7CNnCnGEU6Xj-LbM%3A Another one just out Clair de Lune. Again wish I could post my own piccies but finding piccies as near to mine as poss. Of course a couple of peonies we have seem no longer available or maybe temporarily unavailable. Because we don't seem to have any "flaming Junes" any more it's difficult in some years to see the overall affect when they are all out together .....often the wind or rain destroys the first ones out before the others come out etc! Sorry if people don't like peonies but we grow them as an alternative to roses which on the whole are not that enamoured with chalky soils. Most of soil in our garden has a PH of 7....VERY alkaline. Can't do lovely maples here because of the soil and the wind!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxi4ballet Posted June 22, 2013 Author Share Posted June 22, 2013 Actually that happens quite a lot with both frogs and birds unfortunately. There were a couple of baby robins who died in a tub of water on an adjacent allotment recently. Because this happened in our garden with a dunnock and a frog last year I am now neurotic about making sure there are no buckets of water etc that birds etc can't climb out of! If anyone has a swimming pool, either an above-ground frame pool or an inflatable, please please make sure that you pick up the ladder and swivel it round (so that the steps are from inside the pool) when you are not using it. Not only does this stop stray toddlers from climbing in, it also helps adventurous cats etc to climb out... Alternatively, float a plank of wood in it, with the end of the plank attached to the side. A friend of mine is a swimming pool engineer, and he's told me of several animal tragedies Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxi4ballet Posted January 18, 2014 Author Share Posted January 18, 2014 The first snowdrop is in flower in my garden As well as that, still flowering: two rose bushes, my rosemary, several marigolds, a periwinkle and a petunia! Last week I brought in a budding fuchsia which had been sitting in a pot on the patio (I felt a bit sorry for it)and it is now in full flower in the porch. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinMM Posted January 18, 2014 Share Posted January 18, 2014 Wow! I'm ashamed to admit haven't ventured into the garden since the end of November!! So perhaps I'd better get out there tomorrow to see what's afoot!! It's about time I tidied up the peonies from last year and other seed heads which don't look so attractive any more!! I have noticed the birds have started chasing each other around and a few boxes being looked at probably because the weather has been comparatively mild. On the way back from my ballet class today right in Churchill Square.......the sort of central point of all the shopping activities....I heard a blackbird singing loudly. At first I thought it must be one of those people who sell "bird" whistles but then there he was on the top of one of the few shrubs growing around the edge of the Square singing at full throttle oblivious to all the crowds around him! I can see I'll be taking a little bag of dried mealy worms with me to ballet class next week!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiz Posted January 18, 2014 Share Posted January 18, 2014 I will have no flowers this year as one of the reasons our vendors gave for moving was that the garden was too big. Our new neighbour said it used to be huge. Apparently it swept round from the back wrapped around the side and into the front. The front garden is now bricked and the original flower beds there have pebbles in them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fonty Posted January 19, 2014 Share Posted January 19, 2014 I absolutely hate bricked front gardens, and I think I put them in Room 101. If I didn't, I will! Now is the time to get the digger out, Fiz. I haven't seen any snowdrops in London yet, but our geraniums have continued to flower through the winter, and have a lovely batch of new buds. And what can I see from my kitchen window? Could it be roses? Surely not. :putsonglasses: Yes, definitely roses. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiz Posted January 19, 2014 Share Posted January 19, 2014 I had geraniums, petunias and primroses out before we moved! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinMM Posted January 19, 2014 Share Posted January 19, 2014 Well inspite of the horrible wet and windy weather it has been incredibly mild so far!! Just hope there isn't a freeze just round the corner! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxi4ballet Posted January 19, 2014 Author Share Posted January 19, 2014 Just looked outside - freezing here tonight, all the cars are white already and freezing fog forecast for the morning. Oh well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiz Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 It is frosty here too. I don't mind it and bulbs and roses like a hard frost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxi4ballet Posted June 13, 2014 Author Share Posted June 13, 2014 Oi, slugs!!! LEAVE MY STRAWBERRIES ALONE!!! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sim Posted June 13, 2014 Share Posted June 13, 2014 Yes, I have lots of slugs and snails at the moment. Gardeners' World said to pour a can of beer into a bowl and leave it in the garden and it should attract the slithery snails and slugs. I use pellets in my plant pots but can use them in the ground because of my dogs, so will give the beer a go over the weekend and see what happens. I will report back! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinMM Posted June 13, 2014 Share Posted June 13, 2014 Yes there do seem to be billions of them this year. I must admit in bit of a strop yesterday because I bought some lupin plants and before I could put them in the slugs have got to them and eaten half the flower heads off grrrrr!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiz Posted June 13, 2014 Share Posted June 13, 2014 They aggravate me to death. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinMM Posted June 13, 2014 Share Posted June 13, 2014 Well I do try to be fair to all creatures but slugs definitely try my humanity!! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimi66 Posted June 13, 2014 Share Posted June 13, 2014 At least you could eat snails... Slugs, alas, no. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melody Posted June 15, 2014 Share Posted June 15, 2014 I don't know if this belongs here or in Room 101, but we've spent the last few years battling a lawn full of bare patches while the flower beds are happily growing grass like there's no tomorrow. Seems unfair somehow. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anjuli_Bai Posted June 15, 2014 Share Posted June 15, 2014 I don't know if this belongs here or in Room 101, but we've spent the last few years battling a lawn full of bare patches while the flower beds are happily growing grass like there's no tomorrow. Seems unfair somehow. Well, the answer to that problem is easy - just put the flower beds where the lawn is and then move the lawn to the flower beds. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxi4ballet Posted June 15, 2014 Author Share Posted June 15, 2014 I don't know if this belongs here or in Room 101, but we've spent the last few years battling a lawn full of bare patches while the flower beds are happily growing grass like there's no tomorrow. Seems unfair somehow. Do you have a dog? Bitch urine can cause bare patches in lawns. Also - we used to have a patch of grass like that at a previous house. We decided in the end to dig it out and get rid of the turf and replace it with new. Underneath, only a few inches down, was a mass of bricks and builders' rubble left over from when the houses had been built. They'd just flattened the whole area and dumped a few inches of topsoil over it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melody Posted June 15, 2014 Share Posted June 15, 2014 Nope, no dog, but lots of subterranean ant activity. Plus it's north facing so doesn't get much sun. We did manage to seed one area successfully but some of these other patches seem to be impervious. Anjuli_Bai, I have a feeling the grass would have contingency plans even if we did try to fake it out like that. But I must admit it's tempting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinMM Posted June 15, 2014 Share Posted June 15, 2014 Just the universe laughing at us Melody!! There must be a proper saying for this situation!! But Mary Mary quite Contrary comes into mind! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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