Gardeners Thread

[sushimo]

Any hints, tips, bargains - whatever, post them here.

Thread is 'Stickied' while active.

[puffin]

For those of us who love lilies.

The lily beetle has become a really damaging pest in the last few years. The beetles are red and shiny, longer than a ladybird and very obvious. There is no known treatment for the beetle, except to pick them off and crush them. The larval stage leaves a very sooty sticky mess on the leaves of the lily and they can chomp through the plant in no time at all.
Fotunately there is a treatment for the larval stage, and as it's systemic it is effective for up to six weeks.
It's called PROVADO ULTIMATE BUG KILLER. It's very effective.

If you do see any of the beetles make sure you pick them off the plant and squash them. They can live in the soil and be there to attack your plants next year.

[puffin]

[cathy]

I had some beautiful lillies a few years back but everytime I went into the garden I'd find they were covered with ants.

I've never seen any sign of any other bug or beetle so can only assume the ants killed them off as the plants disappeared after a year or two of being attacked constantly by the tiny pests.

[omnipleasant]

I have a couple of Stargazers, but generally I prefer lillies in other people's gardens. I love them, but they are a bit too...dunno...showy for me. Having said that, I grow Dahlias, and you can't get more showy than that.

I like that pic though Puffin. Question - I have a few hardy fuscias that I think might not have been hardy enough for this particular winter. No sign of life yet. When would you generally expect new growth?

I can't remember - think it might have even been July last year before they revived. Need to start a garden diary..

[puffin]

Most of mine are making new growth now but we have a very sheltered southfacing garden, even though we are oop North. Most of the growth is coming from the bottom of the plant, pretty much at ground level. Hardy fuchias really are very hardy. All mine, except the one you can just see in the lily pic, are the newer larger flowered hardy type , but they all seem to have come through ok, including my climbing hardy fuchias. Don't give up. You may find pretty well all the old twigs die off but they will come again from the bottom. Just cut out all the dead wood above the new stuff.

[lala]

Something I learned today - you can't transplant carrots. I'd started them off in seed trays, so the slugs wouldn't get them, then planted them out. Pulled a few up to day, to discover they were weirdly twisted and malformed, coz the roots got all tangled when I planted them. So plant 'em directly to where you want to grow them. Onions also don't seem to like nbeing moved about. Perhaps it is a root crop thing.

My carrots still tasted bloody good though. Eaten uncooked (it's a blasphemous practice, boiling veges), straight from the ground, washed the dirt off and devoured. Best elevensies I've ever had.

At the risk of sounding a bit Uncle Monty, you can't beat a firm young carrot.

[puffin]

I agree. I much prefer my carrots raw. They are sweeter too. I grate them on salads too. Loverly.

[Scooby Do]

If you want to beat carrot fly and slugs, plant in containers and raise them off the ground. Carrot fly is a low flying pest.

Runner beans, I don't bother with these anymore, I grow French climbing beans, my prefered choice is "Blahilde" which is a purple podded variety, never gets "Stringy" even when quite old. It turns green when cooked and is excellent hot or cold on a salad. The stems have a purple colour too, which is quite attractive.

Dahlias I grow from seed taken from last years seed heads. It nice to see the different colours and sizes thro' cross polination.

[sushimo]

Planting onions, garlic and/or chives either side of carrots will stop them - or buy some muslin cloth and cover over.

[omnipleasant]

Nah, the onion / garlic / chive thing doesn't work. You need mesh, or do them in long, narrow raised beds or troughs.

And when you thin seedlings or harvest the carrots, chuck the thinnings or stalks over the other side of the garden, away from the main crop.

Agree with Scooby - climbing French beans beat runners hands down. I'm trying "cobra" this year. Will report back!

[minge tightly]

I'm doing runner beans this year as part of my 'screening off the neighbours' project

[omnipleasant]

Has anyone had any experience of professional gardening, or considered doing it for a living?

I've been doing some part-time for while, and am seriously considering changing career completely and doing it full time. I love it more than I thought I would, and on the days when I'm doing the old officey-type stuff, it just gets me down and I want to be out edging or summat.

Crap pay, at least to start off with, but that doesn't bother me.

[minge tightly]

Nah no experience and only vaguely considered it as employment - in a social entrepreneur way.

So have you semi-changed jobs then omni and taken up a position with an established gardening firm or just doing it on the sly?

[omnipleasant]

I've been doing it on the sly - word of mouth down the pub, cash in hand, that sort of stuff. I only do my old job on a part-time consultancy type basis.

I dunno. It's tricky. If you do something you really enjoy for a living, would you stop enjoying it? And part time is one thing. But full time, as an entry-level underling, might be a different thing altogether.

I've been trying to get as much info from people in the industry as possible, but all you ever get is marketing crap, especially online - "I changed career and it's the best thing I've ever done!" type stuff.

[minge tightly]

'If you do something you really enjoy for a living, would you stop enjoying it?'

No idea, i've never done anything I enjoy for a living. Suppose it would be different as a full-time underling, but you work part-time so why not garden part-time (Unless the 'consultancy' pays a full-time wage...)?

Wouldn't you be better off getting info from other gardeners in your area, rather than scouring online?

[omnipleasant]

Problem is, I need a proper job. Neither the gardening nor "consultancy" are secure enough - it's all as and when.

For a proper, steady gardening job, even part-time, I'd need proper training and stuff. Which would mean doing it full-time, at least for a few years.

I've been trying to get secure part-time "consultancy" work and spend the rest of the time odd-job gardening, but it aint happening.

I can just imagine though, turning up on my first day having changed career, 8am Monday, all excited and wide-eyed, and the gaffer pointing to a 300 square mile garden in some country house, freezing temperatures, biting wind: "right lad. Lawn. Lawn mower. Have it done by 5pm Friday". Romance shattered.

[VikingHumpingWitch]

Can I just say, because I'm bound by the terms of my resident permit to do so, that Dahlias are named for Anders Dahl and he was Swedish.

I bought the most stunning Easter cactus last week, god the flowers are beautiful.

[minge tightly]

Why would you need all the training and stuff? You've got a few years experience and could easily set-up on your own as social entrepreneur/not-for-profit organisation helping the socially disadvantaged to create and maintain back garden allotments.

Well, I say easily but it's something i've thought about doing and...er...not done.

Either way, yeah I can appreciate the sudden execution of romance if you become an apprentice but if you really want the change then maybe that's the price to pay.

[Scooby Do]

Word on the street has it that rich city types are having alottments and then employing a gardener to ermm garden.

I grow a fair amount of veggies, but fruit is a better bet. I freeze fruit, and rarely have to buy any.