How Does our Garden Grow?

onedayatatime

@michael57 I had no idea about that and you're spot on, it's the only lupin a flower right now. At the moment they seem to have stripped one plant but also keeping busy with those aphids 👍
@Sandy_123 that's a great hoard!! Do I spot a reduced 10p sticker in there!!?? What a bargain! 😂 A bit of tlc will bring them back.
I love this time of year! 

Sandy_123

Yes got a couple reduced hopefully those 1s will take off

michael57

onedayatatime said:

@michael57 I had no idea about that and you're spot on, it's the only lupin a flower right now. At the moment they seem to have stripped one plant but also keeping busy with those aphids 👍
@Sandy_123 that's a great hoard!! Do I spot a reduced 10p sticker in there!!?? What a bargain! 😂 A bit of tlc will bring them back.
I love this time of year! 

i have my uses haha

Sandy_123

They look lovely @Beaver79 lots of nice colours 

Sandy_123

Your garden plants and flowers look lovely @Beaver79, mine never get established like yours in mine. 

onedayatatime

That's such a lovely selection of colours and textures @Beaver79 . I've only got a few plants flowering at the moment but fingers crossed it all comes right soon.
I have a single lupin flowering right now. 😁 I did grow some Honesty that's flowering and am super chuffed with a single Snow Tower echium that survived the winter. 
Can I ask what the white flower is in your second picture? I like the way it fans out and has so many flowers. There's a few spots in my garden I'd like to fill and that looks ideal.

JudithL

The path to our guesthouse. I think this is my favourite part of the garden. 

michael57

Ada said:

Well they say you get what you pay for. All my seeds have been growing lovely all the flowers and various salads. Still a little way to go.  But the flowers stems are so very thin one little puff of wind they be gone. 

most of mine are out by day in by night longer out than in now tho to harden them off its all good fun 

michael57

Ada said:

michael57 said:

Ada said:

Well they say you get what you pay for. All my seeds have been growing lovely all the flowers and various salads. Still a little way to go.  But the flowers stems are so very thin one little puff of wind they be gone. 

most of mine are out by day in by night longer out than in now tho to harden them off its all good fun 

michael57      That’s what I’m doing. But I can protect them from any winds out back on a wall against with next door fence behind them. But the flowers are for my tiny front garden eventually. But we live up a dead end lane. Where any winds that come up is worse then anywhere it’s quite harsh. 
I can defo see them blown away. 
I didn’t do anything last year. Because I couldn’t afford to. I did have a lot of sky scrapers lilies that I was very proud of but they all got trashed one night. 
I couldn’t afford it again this year. I just managed a few packs from the online pound shop. Their growing ok. But definitely not looking very good. 
Its a little upsetting 

ah the joys of gardening how about some of those multi coloured beach surrounds if you know what i mean 

onedayatatime

@Ada have you started them off by seed indoors?
Sometimes they can grow 'leggy' if they don't have enough light or if you have too many seeds planted together. That's my usual mistake because some of those seeds are so small,  I end up dumping a whole  packet in one tray!
To try to make those stems a bit stronger, you could try blowing a little fan on them when indoors 
I'm absolutely no expert but got really into growing plants a few years back. I used to use one of those little usb charged mini fans and let it gently blow over them. It's meant to help strengthen stems as they grow. 👍 
I've really really had to limit my plant growing this year and badly miss it. I do have lots of perennials coming back through though and Ive also gone for the direct sow, scatter and throw, keep your fingers crossed approach 🤞😁

Sandy_123

@JudithL that looks nice too 

Steve_in_The_City

Hi Everyone. I hope you are all looking forward to the end of spring and the start of summer so you can do your plantings.

I am going to need some advice. I am going to be a pain - I am sorry in advance.

I want to grow herbs ('cos I like cooking). But my first question is can I re-use compost?

onedayatatime

The compost part can definitely get expensive. I swear my garden is 2 ft taller than before I started getting into gardening 🤣
I'm sure more experienced gardeners will have good advice for you.
Personally I look at some of the old compost from pots and if it looks half decent, sieve it and half and half it with fresh compost.
Some people sterilise old compost in microwaves or different methods first.
What herbs are you growing? Dill looks so pretty and a great one for summer dips and salads and chives.
I cheat a lot and also buy the reduced herb pots from well known supermarkets 👍
Enjoy your gardening.

michael57

used compost is very good for the garden patchy lawns and very good for getting good sized carrots a good depth of it makes them go down deeper to look for the better nutrients i reuse some by half filling pots with old top up with new then when you over water the used compost holds the nutrients better 

michael57

Ada I have been giving your front garden some thought my she who must be obeyed says it's dangerous but how about some ground cover phlox flowers in april may its evergreen or even the one behind geum come in a variety of types cut the flower stems off when spent  and they will reflower multiple times very wind tolerate 

Sandy_123

Love the flame light @michael57 im going to get some lights today 

michael57

Sandy_123 said:

Love the flame light @michael57 im going to get some lights today 

thanks cheap as chips from pound stretcher i think helps me land the helicopter in the dark haha  

Albus_Scope

I try to reuse old compost by adding loads more nutrients to it, like dried seaweed pellets, fish blood and bone, chicken manure pellets etc, it can work wonders.

My finger slipped during the night and I had more carnivorous plants just turn up at my door, amazingly packaged too!  So I'll be planting them out at the weekend. I'm loving all the flowers on the butterwort, they'll add a great splash of colour near the pond in the bog garden bit.

Pauline_S

Beautiful pics @Beaver79! I don't have much luck with flowers, but I do well with veggies. 

Sandy_123

Look nice @Albus_Scope I've bought 4 lights so far @michael57 today only 79p each