Gardening
- Thread starter AudioAl
- Start date
gavreid
Pretty Words...
mandryka
pfm Member
Herbs.
How do you stop basil going to seed?
How do you stop thyme turning woody and ugly after a couple of years?
I've grow mint in large containers now, in a bit which noboddy looks at with the washing line and shed, it's too invasive and ugly for he ground.
I've given up on chives in my soil. Aliums live for about two years and then like old soldiers, they fade away.
I found a wonderful sage recently, very highly recommended -- Salvia officinalis 'Berggarten"
How do you stop basil going to seed?
How do you stop thyme turning woody and ugly after a couple of years?
I've grow mint in large containers now, in a bit which noboddy looks at with the washing line and shed, it's too invasive and ugly for he ground.
I've given up on chives in my soil. Aliums live for about two years and then like old soldiers, they fade away.
I found a wonderful sage recently, very highly recommended -- Salvia officinalis 'Berggarten"
Annual herbs - basil and the like - you make successive small sowings, the warmer and drier things are, the quicker they run to seed.
Thyme - you take cuttings every 2 years or so and restart.
Chives like poor soil and lots of sun. They should normally last for ever - as kids we knew tham as ever-lasting onions.
Thyme - you take cuttings every 2 years or so and restart.
Chives like poor soil and lots of sun. They should normally last for ever - as kids we knew tham as ever-lasting onions.
Mike Reed
pfm Member
Strange; I grow every year in pots and plant out in the greenhouses and eventually the stalks get browned off and mildew slowly becomes apparent. By then it's the end of the season and the tomatoes which are it's used with, usually.
Generous watering - tom's won't do without it, and the mildew suggests likewise.
Pinching the growing tips out might help?
Also variety might have some part in it.
AKA Irishman's cuttings.
It works with lots of things that get woody and unattractive after 3-4 years - lavender, heathers and the like.
Darth Vader
From the Dark Side
I grow all these herbs and more from cuttings. So when their time is almost up I grow new cuttings and plant on into small pots before they go into the garden. Many of my herbs came from supermarket left overs. My established Olive and Bay trees came from cuttings going back over 20 years ago. The Rosemary came from a leftover from a small pack bought from ASDA around 25 years ago. Similar with other plants such as our Hibiscus grown from a cutting taken 25 years ago. When I visit interesting gardens I take a small plastic bag, some cotton wool and small but sharp scissors. Naughty eh?
Sometimes I come across some very tasty tomatoes so I'll let them over ripen then plant into small 1" pots of good compost and wrap in cling film. Keep them frost free and come the Spring there will be umpteen tiny dicotyledons that I then plant on into small pots. Tomatoes for free but only the really tasty ones.
I'm about to hand over some fig and seedless grape plants that you guessed it were grown from cuttings.
DV
Thyme - you plant it in my back garden where it dies come the winter.
Alliums - you plant them in my back garden and they take over the world.
mandryka
pfm Member
The problem with rosemary is that most of them are all over the place, like Boris Johnson’s hair. The upright ones can make a good low hedge though. I grow massive ones in pots where no one can see the untidiness of the plants. I grew a prostrate one for 30 years, it died in the end of course, and I don’t miss it really. The prostrata can look excellent when it goes down a wall, I think the books say “tumbles down a wall.”
Sorrel is another one that’s too ugly for a garden IMO. Like horseradish. And Bay is an enormous dark and boring tree!
A good substitute for thyme is winter savory- it’s easy, lasts for years and years, has gorgeous white flowers that bees love. One of my favourite plants.
Another good one which is ornamental is marjoram. I’ll take a picture of it in about a month when it’s all in flower but I have an ornamental bed with swathes of savory and marjoram, it looks drop dead gorgeous, though I say so myself.
Sorrel is another one that’s too ugly for a garden IMO. Like horseradish. And Bay is an enormous dark and boring tree!
A good substitute for thyme is winter savory- it’s easy, lasts for years and years, has gorgeous white flowers that bees love. One of my favourite plants.
Another good one which is ornamental is marjoram. I’ll take a picture of it in about a month when it’s all in flower but I have an ornamental bed with swathes of savory and marjoram, it looks drop dead gorgeous, though I say so myself.
blossomchris
I feel better than James Brown
never looked at some herbs/plants as being ugly, especially if they have a culinary/medicinal use
ks.234
Half way to Infinity
FIFY
Mike Reed
pfm Member
blossomchris
I feel better than James Brown
for once, honest, I was not thinking of that strain of nettle
mandryka
pfm Member
Thyme present and thyme past
Are both perhaps present in thyme future,
And thyme future contained in thyme past.
If all thyme is eternally present
All thyme is unredeemable.
What might have been is an abstraction
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.
Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
Into the herb-garden. My words echo
Thus, in your mind.
But to what purpose
Disturbing the dust on a bowl of thyme-leaves
I do not know.
Other echoes
Inhabit the garden. Shall we follow?”
Are both perhaps present in thyme future,
And thyme future contained in thyme past.
If all thyme is eternally present
All thyme is unredeemable.
What might have been is an abstraction
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.
Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
Into the herb-garden. My words echo
Thus, in your mind.
But to what purpose
Disturbing the dust on a bowl of thyme-leaves
I do not know.
Other echoes
Inhabit the garden. Shall we follow?”
blossomchris
I feel better than James Brown
most Mediterranean herbs thrive in poor, dry soil in native countries, try that over here, works for us
Beobloke
pfm Member
Going to offer an alternative perspective on this one.
We have a couple of box hedges and one trimmed into a ball shape. Last year, we found those evil caterpillars in the round one when we came back from holiday, by which time they’d largely eaten it.
However, Mrs. B was furious as she liked that hedge, and so set to with researching what to do. Her strategy was a follows:
(1) Comb every single web, cocoon and any sign of caterpillar out of the hedge.
(2) Make sure to squash any of the little blighters that you find, and clear the ground underneath as they burrow into the soil and then reappear.
(3) Absolutely drown the entire plant with Bug Clear spray.
She did this a couple of times last year and the plant has recovered and had a decent covering of leaves on it again this year. There were signs of a few caterpillars again which she caught early and so repeated the treatment.
In addition, try and attract wasps to the plant - they eat the larvae, apparently.