Poorly chicken

[The Dogmother]

Never fear; it's in an end of the garden which isn't used or much else, and in a sunken pot too

[Valkyrie]

My comfrey is beginning to shoot out now - still in pots, they were on the window ledge in the kitchen.  Thought I'd lost a few, but I repotted them all and now the worst to suffer is now putting out a leaf point.  I'm keeping them in the greenhouse because the pheasants and bunnies would make short work of them.  Although there is a mini variety out by our front gate and it's soooo pretty.  For a minute I thought it might have been pulmonaria, closer glance and it is definitely comfrey.  I wonder if those leaves would be good too? A little reluctant to test as the comfrey I bought is non invasive and only propagates by root cuttings - and I'll be doing more of that when they become established!

The fence man cometh in 2 weeks to rabbit proof the veggie patch.  I have some edible hedging arriving today from Wiggly Wigglers but not all will be in the veg patch, but nearer the boundary - it has to act as a wind break too. 

Sowing seeds in the greenhouse, those mini kale/sprouts I love and thought I'd try - packet was empty!  The foil wrapper nicely sealed but not one seed inside!  Came in and emailed straight away while I was in indignant mode!  

[Chick Chick]

Lovely to see your flower photos, it is great seeing plants growing again in the garden.

Today I finally got my cut flower bed created and Dahlias planted so hopefully they will grow and give plenty of flowers.

Also got some seeds in the propagator just started sprouting.

I have a small pot of wild garlic, not really enough to eat but I love the smell 😀

I like the sound of your edible hedge @Valkyrie, be good to hear how you get on with it.

 

[The Dogmother]

K, i have more Comfrey than I know what to do with; let me know if you'd like some roots.

[Valkyrie]

OH in his element.  I had to stand by to make sure he didn't run over the daffs in the grass.  There was one touch and go moment as he headed straight for Cyril, the solar rooster!  But he swerved at the last minute!  Just as well - if he did I'd have been onto the online fabric shops as punishment!  LOL!

I won't say no to comfry DM! Thank you!  I can do lots with more!!!!  I could always collect.  There's a quilt do next month and I'm going to stay with DD for the weekend before heading off to Hertfordshire - about an hour and a half away from her but an awful lot longer from here!

[The Dogmother]

Heehee, daft beggar looks as happy as a pig in...... some boys never grow up. Nor me really, I do love a tractor

Are you 'allowed' to have a go?

Just let me know when you will be around and I will dig up some roots/clumps for you. This is a fairly tall one... well, at least it is in my garden! Who knows, I might even be able to wangle some time off and without builders to be able to pop down your way. I am a bit stuck at the moment though as my dog sitter, who has the loons on the rare occasion when I have to go away without them, is having treatment for Lymphoma, so is pretty poorly and unable to have them. I am looking at alternatives though.

[Valkyrie]

Poor doggy babysitter!  Hope all goes well for her.  I did have a go while the guy was here - otherwise I wouldn't get a look in!  I know how it all works though.  He's going to work some time this month and on holiday with DD and her other half in September - I'm not flying anywhere any more, so he was invited to tag along to Florida.  And then I'll be whizzing around all by myself!  Hahahaha!

Always welcome xxx

[patsylabrador]

We're replacing the fence at the end of our garden. It's done well but looking a bit sad. We're going to really smarten up that bit and bought a couple of lovely olive trees. It's the perfect spot, it gets sun all day, the fence will protect them from east and north winds and is on a slight rise so drains well. I've no experience of olive trees so hopefully I won't kill them off. This is them. Any advice would be gratefully received. The label said European Olive Trees. 

[Daphne]

Oh my - they do look fabulous and really quite mature and guessing the price you do not want to kill them! 

Olives won't like it much below freezing if it is a wet cold, so don't put them in a frost pocket (somewhere that cold winds eddy and frosts collect).   They can withstand any amount of rain but only as long as the soil is open and porous with excellent drainage.  I am not very au fait with keeping them in pots, so you will have to read up on that if you are going to keep them there. All I would say is put the pot up on something so they can drain, and if you are repotting then mix in plenty of grit/vermiculite/perlite and if it was me I'd mix in any number of small stones as well.  I also use a John Innes type compost, rather than a multi-purpose because my gut feel is they need some soil round them, rather than MP compost, but avoid clagginess at all costs!  Excellent drainage should be your motto. 

Obviously they can take any amount of sun and they should be in a warm place.  However, if you transplant them into the ground make sure you water them in well so they establish. A lot say once a week is better than a little every day.  If you keep them in a pot then they will probably also need watering in the summer because although they can withstand drought very well, that's only if they are in the ground and well established. 

When I planted new young trees I put a bit of blood/fish/bone into the ground to help them establish (its a slow release, balanced, organic fertiliser) and I remember reading that you mound up the soil so they have a small hillock around them and excess water will run off, which is the opposite of what you normally do, which is make a depression so the water puddles around.  This is because you don't want the roots rotting. 

I'd have a read up about growing olives in the UK as obvs it is different for me here in Portugal.  I do know that locals here dig up mature olives with diggers and move them, so it is quite possible to do.  For my next masterclass (ha ha) we might tackle pruning and harvesting.  

Do you know what variety you have?  I am super excited for you!

[patsylabrador]

That is great Daphne. Thank you so much for all that advice. We're currently thinking that we'll plant them in the ground. The weather in London is pretty benign these days so fingers crossed they'll be OK. They were £87 each which I don't know but I thought was a good price. All the label said was European Olive. I imagine having a table with food and wine on a hot day underneath them! 

[Daphne]

That sounds a very fair price; they are very slow growing and I can tell by the width of the trunks that yours are a reasonable age.  You have far more top growth than we would see around here because we prune out branches aiming for maximum olive production and ease of picking.  But yours are more decorative, almost a mop top!  And they look like a good balanced pair, so I think I would try to site them somewhere for maximum impact, ie one on either side of something, if that was possible.  They do make excellent dappled shade cover, I am imaging one of those small metal bistro tables and a pair of chairs, some drinks and nibbles, or coffee, or breakfast outside.   Some leaves will fall each year, that's natural.  Lets keep our fingers crossed you get some fruit.  As a coincidence, OH has just shown me a small plot of land with a dozen mature olives and some vines and space to plant more trees for 1,500 euro; its so tempting!

[patsylabrador]

That sounds wonderful. 

[Patricia W]

They are beauties, Jude!  I have 4 smaller ones that I’ve had for about 5 years.  They are all in large pots which I move to a sheltered spot in winter.  I thought I’d lost one last year, but it came back in the hot weather.   A neighbour planted hers in the ground and it did not survive.  We’re in Oxfordshire so we do get some low temperatures.  London has its own micro climate so I suspect you’ll be fine.  

[mullethunter]

I’ve not been remotely interested in growing flowers until this year. The David Austin ‘Handbook of Roses’ has just arrived - there are so many beautiful ones I want!!!

[Luvachicken]

2 hours ago, mullethunter said:

I’ve not been remotely interested in growing flowers until this year. The David Austin ‘Handbook of Roses’ has just arrived - there are so many beautiful ones I want!!!

I inherited a rose when we moved here. It was a long, straggly thing with a beautiful smell.

My dad came one day and offered to do some tidying.

Mr Trigger Happy with a pair of secateurs 

Said rose was snipped to the base.

It has since been dug up and planted in front of my chicken run - a real beauty, but I've no idea of it's name. 

[Valkyrie]

Your dad gave it a short back and sides that it needed!  We had the same in the last house, trimmed bushes back and found 2 roses - one was very sad and didn't survive, the other was straggly but kept going!

Loved my David Austin roses - best by far.  I love the strongly scented ones, but my favourite had to be Golden Celebration.  Big and beautiful and scented.

[Valkyrie]

Wow!  The are lovely looking olive trees!

[patsylabrador]

We've replaced the fence at the end of the garden. OH and the boys did it on what turned out to be the rainiest day this year. I was planning to help but instead I decided to go 1950s style for the day and exercised my right to work hard in the warm, dry kitchen cooking food for my men. We've also got a vegetable patch going with a great raised bed and I've finally sorted out the greenhouse and have salad and seedlings in there instead of dusty, empty pots and rubbish. I expect that at some point I will take photos and post them on here. 

[mullethunter]

It’s a few weeks early (I planted them on the 6th April), but they have the best leaf growth I’ve ever had and some have flower buds, so I thought I’d pull a root of potatoes to see if I could have some small ones. I’ve planted Jazzy which have been brilliant for me over the past few years, and Pink Fir Apple which are new to me. Jazzy can definitely be dug as a new potato as I’ve done it before, I thought Pink Fir Apple could be either new or main (maybe I’m wrong though). Anyway - a root of each, and not a single potato any size on the Pink Fir Apple and only 2 tiny ones on the Jazzy. Any ideas?

[mullethunter]

*edit

Just read up about Pink Fir Apple - don’t know what I was thinking?! Another 10 week to harvest at least!

[Valkyrie]

Not grown either of those before.  I haven't watered my spuds, just let the elements deal with it.  Mine are quite small for some first earlies but the Casablanca has a nice looking little potato.  That's a first early but I've decided to let it stay in for another week seeing as the rain will help swell the tubers.  We can always use it one plant at a time, probably enough for a couple of portions.

[soapdragon]

I have three pots of runners bought from a local fete - cheat - but three pots of pink fir apple potatoes, some chantenay carrots, as well as plum and ailsa craig tomatoes. All a bit young as yet so will keep fingers crossed they don't get slugged! As already posted in another thread - gardening is a triumph of hope over experience but I don't give up!

[Valkyrie]

Never give up, never surrender!  Good little motto - Galaxy Quest - love that film, Alan Rickman doing Mr Spock spoofs!

[Daphne]

The only times I've seen Galaxy Quest I have been severely jet lagged, so it made complete sense!

All the alliums and lilies I have planted over the years, bought from the UK, have either been eaten or struggled and I have never had a flower worth mentioning.  However, I bought some here in the Spring and lo and behold I have pink lilies!  I also brought some dirt cheap day lily plants bought at the end of the season when they cut right down and could have been anything, over from the UK in the winter and they are also pink flowering so I am feeling chuffed.  Added to which the 20 or so agapanthus I planted a few years ago are beginning to flower, still a bit on the small side, and some of them keep being strimmed, but most are surviving and I now have hope that my envisaged agapanthus borders down the side of a path will start to work.  Our cooler than usual June has meant a long flowering season for many plants, especially roses, so I am enjoying the lull before the heat.  However, my efforts are still a bit useless compared to my neighbour's wife who currently has glorious dark blue hydrangeas in flower, as well as an enviable dahlia patch full of colour.

[Beantree]

We grew Pink Fir Apple in England with great success, but it has a very distinctive taste which we quickly tired of. Put Charlotte salad potatoes in here 10 weeks ago and have just harvested the first with far bigger tubers than expected; haven't tasted them yet though.

On impulse we bought a rhubarb plant, only to discover when reading the label properly that we will have to wait 3 years before it will be mature enough to be eaten!