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Seadog
Save the planet. It's the only one with rum!
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Sergei Slovenija
Member
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from 30 sweet medlar seeds, 3 pcs sprouted, after 50 days of waiting. The seeds were taken from a tree that always gives a sweet fruit (medlar from Italy, in stores, watery and not rich in taste). These seeds are already grandchildren, 3 iterations of an old tree. Most likely, I will not see fruits in our area, here we need a warmer climate or the sea nearby. But let it be.
But... If you eat that little thing raw, it will remind you of how carrots used to taste when you were a lad! Hard to get a sweet and 'carotty' carrot these days. If they sold those thinned out carrots in a restaurant they would probably cost the same as white truffles!
Greeves246
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Not a garden as such, actually a Paludarium, Tillandsia is flowering
dobbslc
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I might have put this on here before but here it goes.
I think it's a Black Walnut tree, I stole the seed from Winston Churchill's house when we visited a few months ago, there were hundreds laying on the ground.
It seems to be growing quite well and also seems to be immune to the slugs.
I think it's a Black Walnut tree, I stole the seed from Winston Churchill's house when we visited a few months ago, there were hundreds laying on the ground.
It seems to be growing quite well and also seems to be immune to the slugs.
Onoff
In the land of the unfinished project I am King!
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My veg patch soil "smells".
That's the only way I can put it. Not a rich, earthy smell but a manure 'ish, something has died in it type smell. Disturb it and it proper chucks up. It's very light in colour too:
There was a dead fox a few months back that leached a bit and I did rake in a couple of bags of manure that had been sat in plastic bags for a couple of years but hadn't rotted down.
Is it that it needs turning over or something adding?
I've a near flat, tiled roof needs clearing of moss. I was considering spreading that (the moss) over it now.
That's the only way I can put it. Not a rich, earthy smell but a manure 'ish, something has died in it type smell. Disturb it and it proper chucks up. It's very light in colour too:
There was a dead fox a few months back that leached a bit and I did rake in a couple of bags of manure that had been sat in plastic bags for a couple of years but hadn't rotted down.
Is it that it needs turning over or something adding?
I've a near flat, tiled roof needs clearing of moss. I was considering spreading that (the moss) over it now.
Onoff
In the land of the unfinished project I am King!
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- 11,567
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I've this stack of railway sleepers for future raised beds. Traditional, proper sleepers a bit tarry still. I dumped them on what was a bramble patch.
Under that doubled up seed tray with the block on, is a rotting fox that died in the garden (daughter wants the bones for something).
Will the berries be safe enough I wonder to make some "Dead Fox" vodka?
Under that doubled up seed tray with the block on, is a rotting fox that died in the garden (daughter wants the bones for something).
Will the berries be safe enough I wonder to make some "Dead Fox" vodka?
They'll be fine, it'll just add to the flavour and give a little more bite.
DAPPH
as dyslexik as I'm daft
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You need to manure in Autumn after the crops are harvested dig it in well & over winter it will leach out the main easily had nutrients and then the rest of thbe matter slowly decays at different rates over th nerxt seven years . Do a three or five year crop rotation cycle ( the five year cycle of manuring is perhaps the b est for it allows five different crop types in their own beds , perhaps do a soil acid test with a cheap test kit , lime as needed to keep the high acids down .
Usually if you can grow nettles in the veg bed ground you will be able to grow most UK veg with ease .
The moss might be a mistake it grows on clean wet places absorbs all sorts of pollution and put in your beds appears to rob them of something as well as giving them a damp musty stink , I shoved a bucket of roof moss in each of four of my 4x4 square foot beds they seem to be in need of getting a lot of air in , so this winter I'm bunging in a bale of Irish sedge peat and loads of 7 yrs or more well aged fine chopped leylandii hedge cuttings .
Lightly dig /fork over the hard ground that stinks from over manuring and use a lot of buckets of water to dilute the chemicals that make it stink . The nutrients will leach out into the ground and the stink will disappear after a couple of sessions of turning & watering .
You can fan train your brambles as they don't grow on this years wood , so all new growth is tied to wires in a fan shape and the old wood is done on the opposite side of the fan , then after harvesting cut the old wood down and shred it , use as mulch or burn it for potash.
Come autumn any fruit trees , especially poorly producing cooking apples with canker , plums and cherries will immensely benefit next year from a brickies size wheel barrow load of well rotten dryish manure in a six foot dia circle round their trunk , just spread it on as a thin mat and let the worms take it down over winter , brickies size . If you can't get decent cow ,pig ,chicken muck with beddings manure several bags of spent mushroom compost is almost as good on each tree base area .
Onoff
In the land of the unfinished project I am King!
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I'm constantly weeding small nettles from the bean patch so they grow easily here.
Nettles here get to like 6' tall no problem.
Onoff
In the land of the unfinished project I am King!
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Once the sleepers are moved that patch will be mowed and but back to grass.
Onoff
In the land of the unfinished project I am King!
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- 11,567
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We put our cardboard loo and kitchen rolls into the compost. We don't tear them, just dump them in whole. They remain "springy" and ensure air pockets.
Kram
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Rotting plant matter can also smell awful depending on the bacteria present. Rotting birch will often smell of vomit.
The pots I had oak saplings in were also smelling foul, I believe it was from over watering/root rot and attempting to use coffee grounds to feed them, coffee grounds are bad for roots..
The pots I had oak saplings in were also smelling foul, I believe it was from over watering/root rot and attempting to use coffee grounds to feed them, coffee grounds are bad for roots..
Onoff
In the land of the unfinished project I am King!
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Interesting, I did use coffee grounds as a trial slug / snail repellent a while back. I know blocked coffee machines at work can smell like a mix of poo and vomit, on a whole other level.
Onoff
In the land of the unfinished project I am King!
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Two gardening questions:
1) Are there any pruning experts here, specifically fruit trees?
I have 5 apple, 1 plum, 1 fig and 1 cherry tree all left to their own devices over the years. Two or three of the apple are now so high the fruit is out of reach. Ditto the plumb that's also very old (SWMBO's grandfather grew it) and that I'd like to give some serious TLC to. Thinking to bring the height down on the apple and plum and hoping it'll start to sprout new growth but lower? The nicest tasting apple is the most straggly, ugliest looking tree with loads of dead branches and some sort of fungi/algae on it. The apple trees are what remains from when the place had more land and was a smallholding, with the apples being taken to (Maidstone?) market.
The fig tree was a rescue. Planted in a sheltered spot it not only survived but does well and fruits though they're a bit small. Could do with just reducing the fig all over tbh.
The cherry, it's huge. Overhanging the house roof and it's runners lifting the patio and popping up all over the lawn. Must be +18" diameter or more. Really it needs to go and be sent to @DAPPH to make pens or something!
I can post pictures if anyone can assist or has experience of such pruning.
2) Runner beans. What they grow up, the poles, strings etc, do they need to be taut? I've mine growing up hemp strings that are a bit slack. Cam't help but think the plants like to feel secure?
1) Are there any pruning experts here, specifically fruit trees?
I have 5 apple, 1 plum, 1 fig and 1 cherry tree all left to their own devices over the years. Two or three of the apple are now so high the fruit is out of reach. Ditto the plumb that's also very old (SWMBO's grandfather grew it) and that I'd like to give some serious TLC to. Thinking to bring the height down on the apple and plum and hoping it'll start to sprout new growth but lower? The nicest tasting apple is the most straggly, ugliest looking tree with loads of dead branches and some sort of fungi/algae on it. The apple trees are what remains from when the place had more land and was a smallholding, with the apples being taken to (Maidstone?) market.
The fig tree was a rescue. Planted in a sheltered spot it not only survived but does well and fruits though they're a bit small. Could do with just reducing the fig all over tbh.
The cherry, it's huge. Overhanging the house roof and it's runners lifting the patio and popping up all over the lawn. Must be +18" diameter or more. Really it needs to go and be sent to @DAPPH to make pens or something!
I can post pictures if anyone can assist or has experience of such pruning.
2) Runner beans. What they grow up, the poles, strings etc, do they need to be taut? I've mine growing up hemp strings that are a bit slack. Cam't help but think the plants like to feel secure?
