General Gardening Discussion

Found this link.... Little shop of Horrors...

I bought some very pretty pale yellow flowered heathers last year for my front window box. They didn't look garish or artificial but I think they must have been dyed as they gradually faded to white! I forgot to trim them and now they have tufts of green growth above the flowers!

Thats lovely Roders - bet it smelt nice as well.

I've still got some in flower - so could prolly send your a root, or when it sets seed some seed if you like.

When I was a kid in Hamilton, we had a vine like WAco describes - roots outside, and the rest of it in the greenhouse. I don't the variety, but it was a black grape. Some years we had great grapes, other years not - but it definitely worked - and that's definitely in your neck of the woods!

thanks to all for the great advise, i now know that i can leave and see what happens without doing any harm to the main plant

This is the one that looked really dead, I just pulled all the dead stuff off and you could seenew growth comming through underneath - better wait until it warms up though.This is a pink one which is not so rampant and still in flower

It is lovely to look at, but it is one of the most invasive thugs of a wild flower that there is in damp soil.

Mine grow like weeds, they have just finished and now dying back. They do not like to be moved, but I am going to have to do it as they are taking over.

you could give it a dose of sequestrine too

Hi Dag, I don't mind at all, this business of 'marking' has come up before and is always good for a giggle. The badgers haven't been at my containers either so I think it must work. As Hornbeam says, having badgers is great, but upsetting when your efforts are spoilt. We also have lots of grey...

I know it's difficult to get rid of ground elder, but I would try to stop it getting into the asparagus rather than trying to starve it out once it's there. Asparagus roots like to spread and I think it would be better to put a vertical barrier between asparagus and ground elder, ie put some...

Around here, the council charges �£25 for a new wheelie bin..... they are very tight fisted (or they have got wise to people getting them for other reasons!!!) ... as for the whisky barrels - if they are sold via the garden centres, I think we all know who is going to make a HUGE...

Fantastic.Thanks, Liz.

nitro The copper tube is probably more at risk than the soil or plants as copper is readily attacked by ammonia.If the pipes aren`t in contact with the soil and you don`t splash ammonia based plant food around it shouldn`t be a great problem though

It looks like root development to me, just have to wait and see.

Mulch is great. The simplest stuff would be out of your compost heap (if you have one) just before it completely rots down into the good stuff. It will keep the moisture in, help suppress the weeds and as it continues to rot down it will act as a slow release feed for the soil. Yum!

I would highly recomend Ronseal Decking Oil, Ive got Red Ceder.Looks more natural as it is an oil and sinks into the wood, and does sit on the top like other wood stains can. The water beads off nicely but needs topping up every couple of years. Very easy to apply.For contrast the decking...

I found African Violets did really well under artificial light when I still worked in a large open plan office. Too much direct sunlight through the windows tended to make them shrivel but in the middle of the room (on top of filing cabinets!) really suited them.To get them to come back into...

PeterS:Usefull tip there re: weedkiller and poly bag. I've got some Everlasting Pea I've been trying to get shot of. I severely weakened it last year with Pathclear but it's come through again so I've let it grow a bit ready for the Roundup. I'll give it a try with the poly bag as well as...