Gardening anyone?

[David]

Got garlic doing good. Planted potato last week at moms.

[enki_ck]

I should put some this years pics up. Not that you can see anything growing yet.

Got garlic doing good. Planted potato last week at moms.

Gave up on growing potatoes years ago. I live it the potato county anyways and they can be had for about $0,15 a kilo pretty much all year round so why waste garden space.

[hiraethus]

Finished getting the beds ready. Raised beds, for tomatoes and French beans:


One veg patch, for broad beans, courgettes and whatever looks good when I pass the garden centre:


The other veg patch, for potatoes and sweet corn:

[dks]

I sprayed the rose bushes...

[Yadda]

Harvesting loquats today.  4.5 pounds.  I also potted up tomatoes and peppers.  My grumichama tree is blooming, as is my jaboticaba  tree.   I have great fruit set on my Anna and Dorsett apples as well as both pear trees.  All of my citrus trees are in full bloom.  My Eustis Limequat tree that I grafted last year is blooming.  I don't expect any fruit set, but seeing it bloom after only one year of growth is really cool. 

[AimlessWanderer]

So far ...

Blossom has been and appears to have been pollinated on the Mirabelle and Cherry trees
Blossom is here on the two apple trees (about bloody time too - three sodding years!!)
Blossom is on the way on the Medlar and Quince, and also on several of the soft fruits
(Jostaberry, blackcurrant, raspberry, strawberry, and most of the blueberries)
Blossom MIGHT be coming on the Blue Sausage Fruit tree

Peach and one of the blueberries seems very slow on the uptake, no buds have opened yet

Daffodils and muscari have been and gone, and flowers are just appearing on the ramsons.
Summer bulbs have broke the surface and leaves are forming
Skyscraper lillies look like they'll be impressive this year
Jerusalem Artichokes, Chinese Artichokes, and cactus dahlias have all "hatched".
No movement on the Queensland Arrowroot yet

Additions this year other than the summer bulbs are pinks, sundavilles (already croaked), and passiflora edulis. Also a red leafed peach, thornless blackberry, and a replacement rosemary as the original has all gone a bit wayward.
I'm hoping to add some climbing fuchsias end of May/early June

I have disposed of Lovage, the attempts of the giant leeks to regrow, a couple of blueberries that didn't make it through the winter, and the pinapple mint seems to have disposed of itself  I have a good batch of Lemonbalm leaves drying out (for making tea with), as the pot was overcrowded and needed room for more development

Ummmm .....  ..... I think that's it 

EDIT: Oh, and I've got another couple of chilli plants growing indoors 

[hiraethus]

The first of my French bean seeds had sprouted over the weekend - at least 6 plants up so far. No sign of the broad beans, potatoes or sweetcorn as yet.  Plenty of buds on the blackcurrant bushes - must get some decent cages for them this year to keep the birds off.

[hiraethus]

Blossom MIGHT be coming on the Blue Sausage Fruit tree

WTAF is a blue sausage fruit?

[AimlessWanderer]

Blossom MIGHT be coming on the Blue Sausage Fruit tree

WTAF is a blue sausage fruit?

Decaisnea Fargesii
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decaisnea
http://www.eattheweeds.com/decaisnea-fargesii-true-ghoul-blue-2/

[hiraethus]

   Looks interesting.  What does it taste like?

[AimlessWanderer]

First year with blossom, and apparently a late ripener, so with my North facing garden, I might never know 

Apparently it's a bit like watermelon. Then again, I grew asparagus peas, hyacinth beans, and cucamelon last year, and none of those tasted like they were described 

[ToolJoe]

My extent of gardening is opening bags of mulch and rocks. My expertise is mowing the lawn and weed wacking.

[enki_ck]

Al's new fancy camera is broken again apparently.

Nice to see this thread liven up again.

[AimlessWanderer]

I've got enough of a mission trying to get text to appear... 

[hiraethus]

Broad beans and potatoes are showing - no sign of the sweetcorn yet.  Plenty of flowers and fruit forming on the strawberries too, but nothing edible so far.  Planted 10 courgette seeds into plugs, but won't be too sorry if not all of the germinate - it's very easy to get heartily sick of the damn things, especially if you let them turn into marrows.  Much better if picked when small.

[AimlessWanderer]

Sounding good Chris 

I have fruit forming on the cherry and mirabelle. Strawbs, apple, quince, medlar, blue sausage fruit, blueberries, blackcurrant, jostaberry, black elder, and raspberries still either in blossom or flower buds. Nothing on the new thornless blackberry or dwarf pomegranate yet. I think the peach might be kaput. Passion flower also struggling.

Ramsons now in flower (edible), and daylillies just budding up (also edible). Dahlia yams, jerusalem artichokes, and chinese artichokes all coming on strong.

I've thrown out sage, rosemary, the christmas tree, and a struggling blueberry. A new rosemary has gone in. I'm going to beadding some more ornamentals in a couple of weeks once I'm confident we've seen the last of the frosts.

[Yadda]

Sounding good Chris 

I have fruit forming on the cherry and mirabelle. Strawbs, apple, quince, medlar, blue sausage fruit, blueberries, blackcurrant, jostaberry, black elder, and raspberries still either in blossom or flower buds. Nothing on the new thornless blackberry or dwarf pomegranate yet. I think the peach might be kaput. Passion flower also struggling.

Ramsons now in flower (edible), and daylillies just budding up (also edible). Dahlia yams, jerusalem artichokes, and chinese artichokes all coming on strong.

I've thrown out sage, rosemary, the christmas tree, and a struggling blueberry. A new rosemary has gone in. I'm going to beadding some more ornamentals in a couple of weeks once I'm confident we've seen the last of the frosts.

I don't know if you can obtain it in the
U.K., but if possible look for the 'Arp' Rosemary cultivar.  It is more cold hardy than most.

I also have thornless blackberries.  Three different cultivars developed by the University of Arkansas.  They are all named for Native American tribes.  The fruit is set and growing. 

[AimlessWanderer]

Thanks Yadda 

I think the sage and rosemary casualties were my fault (neglect). Both did well over winter the year before. The sage needed splitting, but I missed the window, and the rosemary kept going woody and flowering at inappropriate times. The thornless blackberries were only new in a few weeks back, but I still think I'll see some fruit this year.

[Yadda]

Thanks Yadda 

I think the sage and rosemary casualties were my fault (neglect). Both did well over winter the year before. The sage needed splitting, but I missed the window, and the rosemary kept going woody and flowering at inappropriate times. The thornless blackberries were only new in a few weeks back, but I still think I'll see some fruit this year.

I have difficulties growing sage down here on the Gulf Coast of Texas.  The humidity isn't condusive to growing culinary sage.   I have grown an Israeli culitivar and the 'Bergartten' cultivar with round leaves, but never had much success at keeping them alive more than a few months.  On the other hand, all the nonculinary versions of sage grow just fine here.  If I had more sunny spots in the yard I would grow more of them.   Rosemary on the other hand grows well here.  I have 'Arp', 'Picnic' and 'Gorizia' and an unnamed prostrate rosemary all growing in a bed on the side of the house.  They all get benign negligence and seem to thrive with it.

[AimlessWanderer]

I think in the ground mine might have been OK, but being in a container and not fed was possibly what did it. One by one the branches all went woody, and pruning the woody sections out just seemed to cause it to spread.

The sage did brilliantly till it got pot bound, and I left it too late to divide it. I'm not bothering with sage this year and a new rosemary has already been planted. No clues on the label as to what variety it is.

I'm surprised your humidity causes problems for the sage, i'd have thought it would like it. I'm still very much a newbie with this gardening lark though as this is only my third year.

I was off work this afternoon to go to the dentist, and called at the garden centre afterwards and picked up a fuchsia and some cape daisies. That's two more pots I don't have to worry about. Also managed to get the skyscraper lillies tied up to canes.

[AimlessWanderer]

A few more little jobs done recently. Laid a couple of flags leading to "chaos corner", and spread bark chippings around the scabby areas. Repurposed a bird feeder pole to support two hanging baskets with mixed petunias, and a plant pot with mixed lobelia and ivy. Fitted a third wall trough with lobelia and bidens. Other ornamentals added in pots include aquillegia, osteospermum, phlox, platycodon, geum, fuchsia, coreopsis and diascia

Also topped off all the tree planters with landscaping fabric to stop weeds and evaporation. Lots of stuff coming into blossom/fruit, and hoping for a reasonably productive year.

[ducttapetech]

Sounds like you got a lot done Al. Nice work.
Me, on the other hand, I just sprayed Ag grade Round Up over everything. Thinking about doing the yard too. Did I mention that I hate mowing grass.


Nate
That's us mobile

[hiraethus]

My potatoes are doing well and the broad beans have all sprouted but my french beans seem to have stalled at 1" high. Still no sign of the corn or carrots yet either.

Nate, you should get some of this:

or one of these:

 

[Reinier]

WTAF is a blue sausage fruit?

Decaisnea Fargesii
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decaisnea
http://www.eattheweeds.com/decaisnea-fargesii-true-ghoul-blue-2/

Last time I had a blue sausage was when I had an orchiectomy

[ducttapetech]

I like option 2. Just my kind of style.

Nate
That's us mobile

[AimlessWanderer]

Sounds like you got a lot done Al. Nice work.
Me, on the other hand, I just sprayed Ag grade Round Up over everything. Thinking about doing the yard too. Did I mention that I hate mowing grass.


Nate
That's us mobile

Thanks Nate  I could do with some of that heavy duty ground clearer for next door  Managed to get a few piccies of my side of the wall earlier ...

[AimlessWanderer]

Going back to this pic for a minute ...



.... this is Chaos Corner. The area is around 2.5m (8ft) square, but there is a crazy amount of plants there. Here is a list of plants in the area shown just in that one picture:

Trees
Persimmon Kaki
Apple (James Grieve)
Medlar
Dwarf Quince
Trifoliate Orange
Fig (Brown Turkey)

Other Edibles:
Daylillies (edible buds and flowers)
Jerusalem Artichokes
Chinese Artichokes
Horseradish
Dahlias (edible tubers)
Fuchsia (Edible Berries)

Herbs
Oregano
Lavender
Rosemary
Thyme

Ornamentals
Dianthus
Geum
3x Osteospermum
3x Aquilegia
12x Skyscraper Lillies
Rose bush (Dame de Coeur)

 

[AlephZero]

Not gardening per se, but I've been thinking of growing my own chilis... Just need to get started on that 

[AimlessWanderer]

Go for it  I have two chilli plants growing in a South facing window. The ones I grew last year did very well.

[AimlessWanderer]

Here's the blue sausage fruit tree that seems to have raised a bit of interest



Quite a spindly looking affair that seems to barely support itself. No fruit yet, potentially an October/November ripener if indeed it sets fruit at all. Here's the rather bland flowers on it