2013 gardening thread

[Aurora]

I just bought a new place. I'm loving it and am excited to see what kind of fruit trees there are here already. So far I've identified an apple tree,a pear tree, cherry trees, and I think hopefully some plums. There is a fenced raised bed area with rasberries and blueberries! This place is surrounded by wild huckleberries too. I need to plant some blackberries. I direct seeded snap peas, carrots, lettuce, and radish there in the raised bed. It seems birds are digging up the peas and have eaten a lot of them already


I started some Nyagous tomatoes;



Gajo de Melon cherry tomatoes;



And some Marconi peppers;

[Diërker]

dank.

[Albion]

Albion, pinotage! It is from South Africa. It is a cross between Pinot Noir and Cinsaut. You MUST get one of these!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinotage

Why, is it good for eating and wine?

[Aurora]

Tulips are blooming, finally.

[Albion]

I did some gardening today on my day off. Things are really starting to grow now that it's warmed up a bit.


Some bulbs I found discarded somewhere. I didn't know what they were, but now they've flowered I can see they're Muscari. Not my favourite bulb, but they're quite pretty. Once they die back I'll plant them in the garden, they're known to spread.


One of the Hydrangeas is starting to grow. This ones a mophead. They've gone out of fashion a bit and I prefer the lacecaps, but they're still lovely plants. I may try grafting a lacecap onto part of it (they're the same species, it might be possible). Grafting, because the soil is poor and rocky and I'm surprised that one grows where it does (it came with the house). I can get a lacecap branch for free anyway, a plant would cost money.


Another plant I have. I bought it as some sort of Hydrangea, I forget what one. It's not the same species as above and it hasn't flowered yet so I can't tell. It's got nice foilage though, it doesn't matter what it is really.


Some French Lavender (variety "Pappillon") I bought in winter (when it was cheap. It overwintered surprisingly well outside for French Lavender. I intend to put in in a terracota pot.


Coryline ("Torbay Dazzler") overwinered quite well for a Cordyline, only brought it inside during the worst of the snow. It's starting to form a trunk.


Some cuttings I took from a Horse Chestnut tree. I'm trying to get them to root. They're lovely trees - foilage unlike any other in Britain, nice flowers and conkers when they mature. I may grow one in the garden if I can, and stunt it somehow (or else it'll get too big). Girdling the trunk at a certain height and growing it in poor, rocky soil should work.


Tulip emerging from the lawn


Sicilian honey lily emerging


Some sort of Anemone emerging from the lawn, I forget which one (probably blanda). I tried to get rid of it since planting because its foilage looks like a weed, no look though - once you have it, it's there for good. Nice now its flowered though, might plant a lot of blue Anemone blanda in autumn (seen it in garden centres, looks lovely and woodlandy).


More tulips


Another mophead Hydrangea


Lawn daisies - a low-growing wildflower. Some people that like golf-course-like lawns hate them, I like them though.

[Albion]

Pea


Some strawberry plants


A gooseberry bush


Onion. I'd forgotten I planted them.


Cooking Cherry (Morello) should be out soon.


Another tulip


Plum tree (Victoria)


Tulips, daffodils and whatever other bulbs I planted


The early branch on the Pear tree (Conference). Below it is the damage, a splint holding the broken branch together (will remove it in autumn, by then it should have fused back together). The rest of the pear tree is now budding, but this little branch is quite ahead of the rest of the tree.


Corkscrew willow. An extremely easy and fast growing tree to grow. Clip it like a hedge, needs no special treatment and actually sends up new growth and is reinvigorated by cutting. Is very majestic, suits Japanese and cottage gardens well. Only cost me £2, best £2 I ever spent.


Apple tree (Elstar)


More daffodils. They're lovely, hopefully they'll spread as they have in neighbouring gardens.

[Albion]

Cherry laurel - about the only thing I've found so far that will grow well in dry, sandy shade.


More daffs. They grow before the canopy closes, so should be fine there. They prefer a lighter soil so can grow well in sand. This is like a nursery area, the sand is so light and nothing much grows on it that I can dig up the bulbs and divide them once they finish growing (to spread to other areas of the garden).


Sycamore seedlings. They self seed very year, they're like a weed and very successful in Britain. Most die, but a few live. I'm leaving them to see if I can get any saplings from them (will need to plant something in place of ash if Britain's trees aren't resistant to ash dieback. It alternates dominance with ash in woodlands anyway and is the only thing that will grow as fast and easily as it)


Rhubarb starting to grow. It is nice in pies and also a lovely plant in itself. Even if you don't eat it, it is still lovely to look at. It'sa bit like a "poor man's Gunnera" (Gunnera being expensive and unreliable).

I did some grafting today. I grafted 2 new varieties onto 2 of my existing fruit trees - a Sunburst sweet cherry (originally from Canada, heard good things about it) onto the Morello cooking cherry. And a Fiesta (Cox's-like variety) onto Elstar. Hopefully the grafts will be successful, this is the first time I've tried grafting fruit trees.
If the grafts work, then 2 branches of the Morello cherry will bear sunburst cherries and one branch of the Elstar will bear Fiesta (it works by transferring the genetic material from one variety to another).


Cherry


Apple


Lupins beginning to grow - and another forgotten onion


Tomato plants ("moneymaker") growing well. Will need re-potting soon.


A tomato plant I'm trialing outside. It's fairly mild at the moment, but the nights are fairly cool. This one is the runt of the litter, so I'm using it to see if they can go outside yet - if it wilts, then the others can stay inside a bit longer. A frost would kill it, but it should otherwise be fine (in theory).

[Kazimiera]

The pinotage are unfortunately just for wine.

I LOVE daffodils. My favourite flower.

[Graham]

Slow Spring, feel sorry for the Farmers. It's like late March still. 2/3 weeks behind.

[kabeiros]

I grow tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and lettuces every year. I'm thinking about adding strawberies this year