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Garden & Gardening Tips

Hope you are feeling better now Trevor as I know you do not like sitting around. I have been tidying up today and the fish are very active. Still have geraniums in pots that are flowering. The frost didn't affect them at all. Jean.
 
Hello Jean, I have asked my step brother about the tall geranium I lost in the winter twelve months ago. This man is 91 soon and he lost his wife recently but he got his son to phone me and the good news is that his other son who lives in Devon may have one. If he has I wll get a cutting or two from him when he next calls up to Birmingham. I am expecting a phone call in the next couple of days to tell me if he has or has not got a plant.
Trevor.
 
Because of my accident last year I am behind with everything in the garden but I have started. I have bought a few first early, second early and a few maincrop spuds. I have bought all new dahlias because I could not tend to last years in the autumn so they have died. As soon as this cold spell ends I will dig everywhere ready, and when I make my first trip down to see my old friend in Cross Hands near Llanelli, I will call into a garden centre where they sell a lot of different vegetable plants. From there I will get a few caui's and cabbage and a few tomato plants. I have already got some heritage runner bean seeds from the war years, and I will get a pcket of broad bean seeds. My tomato's grown upside down last year did very very well and i shall use the same method again this year.
 
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It's that time of year again so I haave made a start with my dahlia's. I posted on another thread that I had a fall in my garden last year and it stopped me from doing anything for a few weeks. As a result of that I left my dahlia's in the ground and lost them due to the frost. I purchased these a couple of weeks ago and you can see the cost on the green card above. That price is for three, I bought two different packs and you can see what I have done with them today to start them into growth. Don't plant them, just lay them on a shallow bed of compost, and ensure that the stem from last years growth is a little higher than the roots. Then sprinkle a little more compost over them and in-between the tubers. When they are looking like mine (above) gently water them a little, they need to be damp and not wet. I will follow this when the shoots have appeared
 
Hello Alf and all, we've just come out of a ten year drought and the snails are taking over but I just place short plastic tubes around the garden and tap them out a couple of times a week. Drink the beer, tip the pellets in the bin and stomp stomp stomp. Regards, David.
 
Hello David, here in England, and I should think where you are too there is a new slug control system. It is a living organism called 'Nematodes' invisible the human eye and harmless to you your pets and your plants and they actually eat the slugs and snails so there is no trace except empty snail shells.
 
I have already posted that I had a mishap last summer and as a result I was unable to lift my dahlias as I would normally have done. I also did not feel able to cut them down and give them some protection from the cold because they are definately not frost hardy. Because I felt sure they would be dead after such cold weather I have bought new ones, see post 155. Today I made a start and dug a narrow flower bed about 12' X 18" . I removed three of last years dahlias and was very surprised to find the tubers looking extremely healthy as well as very firm (hard almost). I have put them with the new ones to start them into growth and I have another 9 to get out. If they all start into growth as they would normally I will have a lot of plants so what I might do is just grow my normal amount of Runner Beans and Garden Peas, then put dahlias everywhere else.
 
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These two pics show how to cut the bottom off level so the clump will sit flat on a shallow layer of compost.
 
Thanks Stitcher, haven't heard of that one. We're a bit careful what we bring into Australia though, learned the hard way with rabbits, cane toads, camels and flaming donkeys not to mention blackberries and Paterson's Curse. Kind regards and thanks, David. PS I suppose it's the same as your grey sqirrels and mink
 
Hello David, can you get dahlias in Australia? I cant see why you should'nt be able to buy them. If you can get them and if the winters where you are, are not too severe you can leave them in the ground and after a frost has damaged the foliage, cut it off about six inches from the ground. Put a small square of plastic over it and place a bucket upside down on top of the plastic. The plastic will prevent the roots and tubers getting too wet and the bucket will keep the frost at bay as long as it is not terribly cold. When these ones of mine are showing shoots I will take photos and explain what to do next.
 
hi jean normally it would be too early to cut the grass but i know someone did the other day...just be careful not to take it down too short or else you could end up pulling it up as its still very wet....as you say just take the top off..

lyn
 
We are a little luckier here in Cambridge, so I always cut the grass each year when the weather permits and the grass seems to grow stronger each year.
 
As I understand, it a late hard frost will kill the tender new growth if you cut the grass too short too early, with this in mind set the blades on high and give it a trim.
 
Has anyone herd of, or better still know anything about 'Tree Lilies'? I have read a bit about them on google but the experience of another member would be helpful.
 
No Trevor but will be looking with interest at what you find out about them. Did hear that Lilies as well as daffodils are poisonous to dogs and cats.
 
Yes I know Jean but we don't have either of those.
These tree lillie blooms look like the ordinary oriental liliies but they grow taller each year for the first three- four years by which time they should be eight feet tall with the head of blooms over two feet across. The bulbs were £4 each and I bought three different colours.
 
They sound lovely Trevor. I know daffs are toxic as as a child I sucked the stalks and ended up in hospital with kidney poisoning. I will never forget it either.
 
To be honest Jean I had never heard of Tree Lilies until I saw them yesterday at Littleheath Garden Centre. The pollen off ordinary oriental lilies give me the symptoms of a cold and I did not feel too good so I will keep away from these when they grow. It was the size of the blooms on the illustration that attracted me.
 
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Tony's going to have a go at growing some veg in containers so we have been to Wilkinson's and bought some green plastic bags for potatoes, I wondered if you could tell me how many to put in please. I have sent for a book from Amazon on growing in containers. He has planted 2 lots of tomato seeds in trays Alicante and Money Maker, some Courgettes and 2 different carrots. We have some beans to put in pots but I think it is too early yet isn't it? Looks like I will have no where to sit in the summer still it will keep him busy.
 
Hello Patty, I normally start my runner beans in a cool greenhouse during Easter week. The safest time to put plants out is the last week in May and the first week in June.
I put 4 potatoes in a bag on top of about 5 inches of compost and cover them, as they grow add more compost periodically until it is about 2 inches from the top. Put 3 or 4 short canes in and make like a small boxing ring to keeo the foliage upright because the longer you can keep them growing, the better the crop will be.
 
I noticed today while I was busy doing something else that the dahlias are sprouting already. When they are a little more advanced I will take a photo showing how they can be cut up to make a lot more plants.
I have a flower bed on all four sides of the front lawn, three are rather narrow, about 2 feet wide but the one nearest the house is about 6 feet wide so I have bought some plastic edging to enlarge the grass area and make the flower bed smaller. The garden is on a slight slope so the edging will enable me to build the soil level up to the present lawn level. I have prepared the area where the dahlias will go and now I have to dig the vegetable area.
 
When hyacinths have finished flowering do you dig the bulbs up or leave them in the ground please?. We have forrest hyacinths that we brought from moms garden many many years ago and spread like wild fire. They are different colors.
 
Hello Jean, they are something I have never grown but if you have left them in and they have multiplied then that must be what you do. If you have too many just dig up what you do not want , much the same as I do with the bluebells in the front garden.
 
Trevor it is the big flowers I have not grown before. Had the small ones for over forty years.
 

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Google the name Jean because you can usually get all the info you need/want off there.
 
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Less than three weeks on and here is one of the dahlias sprouting already. This clump has a flat bottom because I went across it with a large sharp knife so that it could sit flat on a thin layer of compost. When the visible shoots are a little bigger I will cut the clump into about six individual pieces but I will show photos of the procedure.
 
Someone mentioned digging their garden a while back and I thought this would save you all some back breaking work. Don't dig it at all just let the worms work for you. Plenty of mulch and compost and Mother Nature will give you more time to smell your lovely roses and the structure of the soil will turn into crumbly chocolate. Honest. Regards, David.
 
Our front lawn (a small one) has a flower bed on all four sides, a narrow one on three sides and a wide one (six feet) on the fourth side. I have been making the grass area larger by cutting the wide flower bed down to about two and a half feet because mowing the grass is quite a bit easier than digging and planting the bed.
I bought some interlocking lawn edging and put where I want the lawn to end. I have then had to carry a lot of buckets of soil from the back garden to raise the level of the soil up to the level of the grass. The old lawn also had a slope and the part I am working on is the low part so I will rectify that at the same time. If I remember I will post a photo of my work tomorrow so you will better understand.
 
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