General Gardening Discussion

A good guide here -Gooseberries: pruning and training / RHS

It doesn't need pruning yet. Next autumn remove about 1/3 of the oldest (the thickest and darkest) stems

Yes - the pruning of flowering shrubs largely depends on when they flower @pete, and any later ones can be pruned afterwards if, and only if, the timing is suitable - ie not freezing conditions etc. Best left if that's the case, and done in late winter/early spring, but it always depends on the...

I agree - cut back the dead stuff @Greenfield81 and it should come away again, but if you don't have suitable conditions for it, it's perhaps not worth having. They grow without any help here in the west of Scotland, but we're much wetter here than the east side. I have one [P. Little Heath]...

Would think so, we use the Doff Slug tape which is about 25mm wide.Like @Goldenlily26 mentions adding some slug pellets as well, though cannot get them in very deep without damaging the roots. Think we might try drenching them with Garilc water as well in Spring, though some of our established...

It will depend on the market and what the big supermarkets and garden centres focus on selling.There is 2 large bedding plant growers near me, about 12 miles away. One has added 8 hectares of glass in the last 10 years, there has been rumours of him expanding more. When you look at which...

Thanks for the advice.

They can be cut down to 3-4 ft from the ground for a hard prune if they are out of hand and you want to retrain them. You will lose flowers the first year after a hard prune or you can lower the tops gradually over 3-4 years, in Spring.

And may I butt in on this thread as I have some questions too? I havent sown winter veg before, but I have in the greenhouse onions, spring onions, leeks (all in pots, currently about 6 inches tall). I also have some winter spinach seedlings - past the first true leaves stage but only just,...

Hi I’m in swindon area (south west)great idea for bark!thanks

Many thanks Pete 8!

Sadly I lost K northiae when we moved here. I grew it from wild collected seed many years ago. I think I will do as suggested and wait until spring to defoliate it. Thanks you both.

I think they are the kind of bulb that will flower at any time of the year if you start watering after a dry spell.I have grown them from seed and the advice was to keep them green until they have their first flowering after which you can sort out a flowering period and a drying off period....

This comes from the couple who originally collected the seed that my plant is descended from Crûg Farm - Store Note it is many years since they offered any for sale.

Update. I sat myself down and decided to just go for planting it in in a week or so. It is still very mild here with daytimes in the mid 70's F so I'll wait until the conditions are not so warm. Then I'll make a chicken wire fortress around it and count on running out in the spring with hopeful...

Purchased a large batch of the chemical treatment from Amazon when I finally realized what the problem was. My box hedges (though not looking like a hedges anymore, shaped more like bonsai due to infestation) get treated every year to fend off the box caterpillar. They were an established...

This takes time. If you have a multistemmed bay that you would like to be a standard with a twisty stem, strip off the lower leaves leaving enough at the top for the plant to grow. Then plait the stems. Tie loosely if necessary. Eventually you can remove the ties once the plaits are stable. This...

Thanks We have already added bone meal and well rotted manure to the bed in preparation so hopefully all we will be good if we get some decent rain.

To mit looks like insect damage of the new shoots as they emerge, the leaves then grow but are distorted. The fact it made normal growth of the long shoots suggests that by that time the pest had gone.The missing new growth after the pruning could suggest the plants are struggling a bit with...