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Gardening

Would everyone please note that my chiminea leans decidedly to the left

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Not more politics :D;)
 
Any intervals you like. The more the merrier, obviously. Bury them to make it easier. Bait it r with anything sweet, fruity, rotting vegetation, beer, and water so they drown. You'll be tipping them out every day.

Success! Put out 5 jars with mix of cheap honey and home-made jam about a week ago. some were found knocked over but still accessible (yes, I should've buried them!). I placed them where slug activity is fairly constant but no joy until yesterday when I found one. Mind you, many dozens have slithered off their mortal coils over that week by my nocturnal torchlight extermination forays.

However, even this small success demands a second, more thorough jam jar experiment; not least because bedtime is now preceding dark-time and those really nasty insects (presumably) which inhabit the nocturnal hours are creating a run on my Arthisan stocks. Bites last for days and create sores.
 
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Carrots are disappointing, but that’s my fault for putting them in soil that needed a much better digging than I gave it.
Yep - I've found over the years that preparation of the soil is crucial for recolting nice long carrotts.
Mine are struggling this year as they're not keen on June heatwaves but they'll be ok.
Little tip (if you didn't already know) sow a few radish seeds in the same row as they grow really quickly and help to protect the delicate seedlings and when picked help to aerate and loosen the soil up.
 
Yep - I've found over the years that preparation of the soil is crucial for recolting nice long carrotts.
Mine are struggling this year as they're not keen on June heatwaves but they'll be ok.
Little tip (if you didn't already know) sow a few radish seeds in the same row as they grow really quickly and help to protect the delicate seedlings and when picked help to aerate and loosen the soil up.
Many thanks, not heard that tip before. Will give it a go next year. Are you sure it works with foreign, English, carrots?
 
Yep - I've found over the years that preparation of the soil is crucial for recolting nice long carrotts.

I always get carrots (2 varieties usually) but it's a bit hit 'n' miss from year to year. Seem to be prolific this year planted in what was the chicken area until 2 years ago. I believe carrot seed benefits from drills with a little sand, or mixed sand and sifted soil, and sifted soil above. A fair bit of work but it's the carrot root fly which defeats me. Despite so-called resistant carrots, they always creep in towards the end of the growing season and it's a case of cutting out the holes when preparing and cooking.

There are some home-grown crops whose taste simply cannot be replicated by shop bought ones; carrots are one such. Tomatoes are another, but oddly, perhaps, sweet peppers are at least as good from the SM and often sweeter; probably the relatively short pepper season here.
 
There are some home-grown crops whose taste simply cannot be replicated by shop bought ones; carrots are one such. Tomatoes are another, but oddly, perhaps, sweet peppers are at least as good from the SM and often sweeter; probably the relatively short pepper season here.

Carrots are the most sprayed crop apparently. Well worth growing a few of your own.
 
Mmmmmm - the garden is scented with Philadelphus and Trachylospermum asiaticum here at the moment......... Indoors, a fresh Spathyphyllum has opend and is scenting the lounge with a scent that reminds me of almonds and mothballs mixed - I like it, always have.........................

The Philadelphus are mostly seedlings from a cross between my cutting-raised low sprawling, lax shrub and a neighbour's LARGE shrub. One of the seedlings shows promise of being large in flower and habit too. I adore them all for the scent anyway. (All are singles - as is common/usual, double Philadelphus are usually scentless.)

Two buds on Philodendron "Red Rojo" should open this evening or tomorrow - once Philodendrons get to a decent size, pretty much every leaf will produce a flower. Most (all?) are, fortunately, odourless

In the greenhouse a common Typhonium is flowering and producing the usual "smell" along with gorgeous foliage, while Hedychiums and other Zingiberaceae are getting going - they are always slow here, and flowers rather rare as they'd need winter heat to get them going early enough.
I am being careful to feed and water the Crinums generously to try to get ample flowers this year - they are all naturally plants of ample water during their growing season, even if they would naturally get drought between deluges.
A plant lebelled as Zantedeschia aethiopica has flowered/is flowering for the first time and has the most glorious dianthus scent.

Sansevieria deserti has a very few flowers that have a fleeting scent of citrus........................... which reminds me - feed the calamondim - citrus react to Chempak citrus fertilsers like you would not believe.
 
Dcatylorhiza orchids, once around in the garden, are like weeds - I have common spotted all over the place, mostly in pots where they find their own home.

One nursery at an RHS show, before C19, had them in numerous of the sales plants, for this reason.
 
My dwarf philadelphus (Manteau D’hermine) smells exactly of bubble gum

Bubble-gum? Hmmmmmm - not a good fit with the common name of mock orange!!!! LLLOL

The ones here do smell passably like citrus - I actually prefer their scent to citrus. Actual citrus scent is extremely sickly, intense and probably best appreciated from several metres away on a cool still evening when the scent can just float gently across to you.
 
Chlorotic..................................

Dose it with a muti-trace element. Mg, Ca, Mn, N ?????? It will do no harm even if it does no good.

Investigate whether it is pH etc sensitive.

Could be the weird weather here in the UK 2022 - dry, wet, hot, dry, cool, wet, dry, ................... etc. pick your permutation......................

Hopefully not virus, although virus tends to produce far less even (dis)-colouration across a leaf.
 
Well it’s been there for 20 years or more, thriving. The spring and summer has been very strange, it’s very dry now. A large part of the vine died back this year - I put it down to a cold spell in March/April killing off shoots. But maybe it’s something serious.
 
Well the leaves look better when they are not discoloured, but what’s worrying me is that it’s seriously I’ll. normally it’s a very impressive plant, possibly the most impressive plant in the garden.

It’s been there for so long, the trunk is thick and gnarled, it’s roots must go very deep. Could it really be a nutrition problem? Anyway, there’s no harm in feeding it!
 
Leaf-cutters take near exactly semi-circles. (One of my most favourite UK- native insects, along with hornets.)

Dose with a multi-mineral and try to keep the root area moist - no flood and druoght, flood and ...................................... maybe a HEAVY mulch.

I would bet that it is our totally weird weather this year. IOW - forget it......................all will be well in 2023
 


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