Ask Doug!-- our Garden expert in the Snug!

[grangers14]

Well I have been digging and am now chitting some potatoes! Perhaps I should combine the slimming thread with the gardening thread. Still a bit squelchy out there but at least it is warm today. Also bought some onion sets. How far apart do the potatoes need to be then folks?

I dont know?
But I just stuck in some old potatoes, didnt do anything with them as in chitting, ones that just had sprouts on. I put them in a big tub, 5 of them I think, covered in soil. When they were growing I put in more compost and each time it was above the soil added more till it was at the top of the pot. I had heaps of them!

jo

[Carol]

I'm worn out- too much digging but I reckon come Sunday I will plant my potatoes and onions.
What else needs to go in this early?
Never tried potatoes in a pot but dug up some lost one from the veg patch this morning that got missed last year.

[Jackienock]

Time now to prune Buddleia Davidii (Butterfly Bush). Cut each branch as low as possible, to just above a sprouting shoot, the lower down the better. Done mine this morning.



Jackienock

[grangers14]

Mine died last year!
Dont know what was wrong, it was always cut back and had lovely flowers. Shame.
Jo

[dianel]

Lovely pic, Jackienock!

[Jackienock]

Mine died last year!
Dont know what was wrong, it was always cut back and had lovely flowers. Shame.
Jo

Probably Honey Fungus, it seems to attack lots of things in my garden of a woody nature, even fully grown old trees. Unfortunately most of the 'cures' are just as likely to kill the tree.

Jackienock

[NailMaker]

Cutting off the top of the tree to encourage new growth it is called Pollarding

[Northern Lass]

Cutting off the top of the tree to encourage new growth it is called Pollarding

I think I might have to do this with the beautiful Cherry tree we have
I am going to get the lovely tree lady from the council down she is great with advice
Don't want to lose it but the bloom is sparse now

also a lovely oak tree that is full of squirrel damage how on earth to boost the growth on that one!

Where I live in the centre there is a 300yr old Lime tree I will try and get a photo of it.

I have a question...if I Want to fill some areas with some fast growing perennials what would you advise
our garden is sparse

[peterd]

Cutting off the top of the tree to encourage new growth it is called Pollarding

I think I might have to do this with the beautiful Cherry tree we have
I am going to get the lovely tree lady from the council down she is great with advice
Don't want to lose it but the bloom is sparse now

also a lovely oak tree that is full of squirrel damage how on earth to boost the growth on that one!

Where I live in the centre there is a 300yr old Lime tree I will try and get a photo of it.

I have a question...if I Want to fill some areas with some fast growing perennials what would you advise
our garden is sparse

hebe,s plenty of different varieties and they grow reasonable quick with little mainteance



if there grey squirrels get the boy to shot them there classed as vermin, and there destroying the local red habitat

[gardener]

I think where NL lives the red squirrel is long gone.
There is no chance of controlling grey squirrels after all this time so we might just as well enjoy them

[jacknjill]

Hello
First time written in and joined this forum as we both love gardening. My husband 'Jack' has been working away mostly since joining earlier this month, and would like to surprise him by writing here. I'm not too clever on computers yet but he will be home for good this week.
I was going to start a new topic called Cloches but can't find the New Topic button?

On Grey Squirrels, we don't have any here because a neighbour gets rid of them. Now we couldn't kill them but he does and leaves them at the end of his garden for the Fox to take away. However, Foxes are also something of a problem in some areas as they have learned how to eat the lovely Hedgehog.
It's certainly no picnic out there, think I will do a bit of digging and hope not to kill too many earthworms!
'Jill'

[Annie]

Hi Jill we have both squirrels and fox visit our garden but no one kills them , the fox go after the farmers hens/chickens and you can hear him on a night shooting at them ther again when they kill his chickens he's not a happy chappie.

Annie

[Northern Lass]

Hello
First time written in and joined this forum as we both love gardening. My husband 'Jack' has been working away mostly since joining earlier this month, and would like to surprise him by writing here. I'm not too clever on computers yet but he will be home for good this week.
I was going to start a new topic called Cloches but can't find the New Topic button?

On Grey Squirrels, we don't have any here because a neighbour gets rid of them. Now we couldn't kill them but he does and leaves them at the end of his garden for the Fox to take away. However, Foxes are also something of a problem in some areas as they have learned how to eat the lovely Hedgehog.
It's certainly no picnic out there, think I will do a bit of digging and hope not to kill too many earthworms!
'Jill'

Hi Jill

This is just a single thread at the moment on Gardening
So you can either start a new topic by going to the Snug and putting a new topic in
or if it is on Gardening just add it to this thread

I too have had a problem with foxes they can be a real pain
they dig for those chafer bugs and make a real mess of the lawn.

[Bucklerclan]

Vegetables in Shady Gardens

You know how it is.You get a packet of seeds and they say sow in a sunny well drained spot on a day when the soil is warm.

My garden is heavily shaded by trees especially in the summer. I cannot prune/pollard the trees because they are too high and to get them done, I had a quote of thousands of pounds.

So growing veg is a problem although the soil is excellent from the constant supply of leaves into a natural loam and is well drained and does eventually warm up but well past the sowing season.

GOOD in the shade:
Spuds seem the most forgiving.
For some reason broad beans do well ( no aphid problems)
Onions do quite well provided they are given the best spot.
Perpetual spinach does OK .

BAD in the shade:
Runner beans
Peas ( same goes for sweet peas).
Parsnips and carrots are hopeless.
Soft fruit shrubs produce virtually no fruit although grown by the book.
I tried Brassicas but they take up too much space for two long and attract butterflies big time and the resulting caterpillars attack everything else.


According to the seed packets I am the only person with a shady garden or does someone else have the same problems?

[Northern Lass]

Come on a5 baggie one for you Mr Allotment man!

I so admire those people that can grow veg or anything
I do well with weeds!