[franca]

Originally Posted by Steppinstone

Hello everyone! Sorry I haven't been around... Everything is growing well here, my flowers are looking great, my tomatoes are doing ok, having a little bug issue that I am trying to resolve. I have onions and beets that seems to be doing well ( thanks Penny). Been busy with company and trying to keep up on watering, since the weather man has been wrong every day for a week or so .

Everyone's photo's look great, makes me want to buy more flowers

Take care everyone!

Chari

Hi ya Chari...... Penny's computer down right now, will pass on your message...

Same here ( no rain for weeks ) watering like crazy

Peonies taken yesterday...........

[telecom69]

Greetings everyone, Great shots of the Peonies Frank, never had any of those,always thought they were a bit short lived (bloom wise) but they are a beautiful flower....weather fine this way warm and dry now for the last four days,but not a lot of sunshine,more about in the late afternoon....all my planting is now done,barely any space left in the garden for anything else,all I have to do now is keep the weeds down and the grass mowed have posted a few pics of some of the colour on show at the moment to brighten the place up a bit



These are the first flowers on one of the baskets...



Campanula,great ground cover and what a show it is.


Euonymus, grown for its foliage,been a great year for this,this is Emerald and Gold,have another variety called Silver Queen.


The striking foliage of the Fuchsia Genii.

This is a trailing Busy Lizzie,the first one I have seen.



This is a rain damaged Rose that suffered a week of rain,thoought at first the buds wouldnt open,but they are doing and this is the first

More later folks,hope the weather keeps fine for you,and happy gardening Bob

P.S. Just in case you are interested enough to want to see the pics full size,then just click on them ...otherwise just ignore

[franca]

Originally Posted by telecom69

Greetings everyone, Great shots of the Peonies Frank, never had any of those,always thought they were a bit short lived (bloom wise) but they are a beautiful flower....weather fine this way warm and dry now for the last four days,but not a lot of sunshine,more about in the late afternoon....all my planting is now done,barely any space left in the garden for anything else,all I have to do now is keep the weeds down and the grass mowed have posted a few pics of some of the colour on show at the moment to brighten the place up a bit



These are the first flowers on one of the baskets...



Campanula,great ground cover and what a show it is.


Euonymus, grown for its foliage,been a great year for this,this is Emerald and Gold,have another variety called Silver Queen.


The striking foliage of the Fuchsia Genii.

This is a trailing Busy Lizzie,the first one I have seen.



This is a rain damaged Rose that suffered a week of rain,thoought at first the buds wouldnt open,but they are doing and this is the first

More later folks,hope the weather keeps fine for you,and happy gardening Bob

P.S. Just in case you are interested enough to want to see the pics full size,then just click on them ...otherwise just ignore

Raining here in paradise today..... Beautiful pics Bob..have most of those plants.....as you said the Peonies don't last long, especially if it rains a lot... but they are nice while they last....you just reminded me, I need to go cut the grass and do some weeding..... HAGO.......and don't forget..keep getting those hands dirty.....

[eggplant43]

Telecom, two speculations on the pelargoniums:

Here, in the states, I've seen some with different colored leaves, including red. But it seems they are too immature to change this early in life. So my second speculation is a mineral, or trace deficiency. You might try giving them some compost tea if you have any, or some seaweed in a foliar application, and see what happens. Can't hurt.

[franca]

Originally Posted by eggplant43

Telecom, two speculations on the pelargoniums:

Here, in the states, I've seen some with different colored leaves, including red. But it seems they are too immature to change this early in life. So my second speculation is a mineral, or trace deficiency. You might try giving them some compost tea if you have any, or some seaweed in a foliar application, and see what happens. Can't hurt.

And also don't over water........

[MightyQueenC]

Just had a quick Google-look-about and noted that with Pelargoniums, seeds sown in the Spring, the plants may go dormant while still small, so is best to start them in the Autumn.
I had a lovely cranesbill (wild) geranium, and I'd love to get another soon. It was a dainty little plant with delicate purpley-pink blooms. Probably got sucked into the clay over time. *sigh*

Rain and cold since Sunday (the day after I finally relented and bought an air conditioner ) so no real gardening "news" from me ... pictures in the next day or so, as the garden looks nice for the time being.

Dawgs and garden beds do not mix, I'll have you all know.
I'd had the new plants and transplants in about 2 weeks, and no dawg disturbance, nor interest, except for some light "leaning" against the summer Phlox ... so I thought we were good to go, but an hour after I'd thrown down a bunch (3" or so) of bark "mulch", and stepped in for a cuppa tea ... came back to see a humungous dawg hole in the flower bed .... bark all over the lawn and so had to reposition and replant the poor flowers. If they survive me, the un-handiman's werk AND the dawg, they are survivors for sure.

Happy gardening everyone.

[telecom69]

Thanks to eggplant and Frank for your advice about the Pelargoniums,had already held back on the watering wondering whether it might be that,but I grow 5 varieties and they all get the same treatment,but it was only the violet ones that were affected must admit to never having heard of Compost Tea though, had to Google to find out what it was ....I will be giving that a try soon,just to see what happens

[telecom69]

Hiya MQC The problem with starting the Pelargoniums in the Autumn would be in keeping them over the Winter,couldnt possibly afford the heating costs for the greenhouse these days,I normally do OK with buying these plugs as they are called over here,lose very few indeed and the saving in buying them this way and growing them on is enormous,anyway thanks for the input ....I know only too well about the trials and tribulations of digging Dogs they certainly do a good job don't they ?if only you could train them to dig where you want them too ....posted a couple of pics of Buster doing that very same thing below....was amazed when I caught him doing it because I had never come across it before....my previous dog Tina never ever set foot on the garden in over 12 years we had her,she always just walked on the grass,why ? I dont know,maybe its just certain types of dogs that do it? ...I just hope that you never uttered any expletives,however mild when you saw the damage ...anyway Buster cant do that any more now he is fenced into the top half of the garden where all the plants are in containers,and for some reason,touch wood, so far, he leaves them alone.

Look forward to your next phots,more soon till then take care and happy whatever you get up to ....Bob

[Bush Lady]

It finally rained here for two days. We also were close to having frost last night. And my cucumbers are starting to come out of the ground. But luckly everything is alright. The weather isn't so hot today, so I decided to transplant 60 tomato plants. It is suppose to rain again tonight again, and this is good for my tomatoes.

Have fun in your gardens everyone.

[eggplant43]

Everything is soggy here, so I wait. May not have much of some things with so much moisture, and coolness, like tomatoes, peppers, etc. But I sure have lots of happy, chard, lettuce, radishes, kohlrabi, and kale.

Compost tea and seaweed are excellent at gently introducing trace nutrients to plants they might otherwise not receive. The other good source would be the "tea" that is the byproduct of a worm farm.

[Tuppence2]

Hello, everyone.

Dear Buster! What an enterprising lad. Yes, if only we could get them to dig in specific places! Billy has a favourite spot she always digs, however many times I fill the hole.

I've been off-line, without a computer for a week or so. It's very good to have the laptop repaired and back.

I spent 8 hours yesterday thinnning and pruning the stand of hazel, the hawthorn hedge and the apple and magnolia trees, to let in more light to the vegetable garden and to the roses.. Exhausting! It's getting rid of the trimmings now! I cut the grass this morning as I thought we'd have rain but we didn't. A neighbour has just given me a composing bin she didn't want and this second one is very welcome.

My runner beans don't like the heavy clay they're in and I'll plant them in a different part of the garden next year. The potatoes, tomatos and strawberries are coming along nicely, as is one of the small patches of onions, the ones that didn't have the fence panel fall on them. My courgettes and lettuce got eaten - I really must get cover - a cloche - for them. I suppose it's not really too late to get some cover and plant new ones.

The flowers are blooming happily and the trellis looks really good with all the roses on it. I watered the flower gardens this morning and have just done the vegetables.

8.55 p.m.

[telecom69]

Hi all,Especially Penny good to see you back,missed your posts,hope that getting your computer repaired didnt make you bankrupt it seems from what you are saying that you dont have a garden waste collection service? we have a brown wheelie bin that is collected fortnightly for all garden waste and its a Godsend for the heavier stuff like larger clippings of small branches etc that you cant get to break down in a composter ...its certainly not too late to start more lettuce,but if sown in the garden you are always going to have problems with slugs etc unless you use lots of slug pellets (which can be a big problem with dogs obviously),thats why I always grow my lettuce in gro-bags on the patio ....wondering why you think you beans are not doing well? they do take a while to get going from the start as they seem to be building up a root system before showing much signs of growth,do you think that might be the reason ? they do also like a lot of compost/manure under them and also lots of water for best results.

The weather is a bit up and down at the moment this way,not getting a lot of sun,just mainly cloudy,but at least its mild,and things are growing quite well,the Tomatoes are romping away now and have flowers on the first truss,its quite a job keeping those side shoots pinched out though miss a day and they are 3 or 4 inches long...I have two Cucumbers in a small gro-bag they are missing some sun,they are growing but not very quickly ...the Dahlias are doing quite well,quite a few of them now have buds on,waiting patiently for the first flowers thats about all for now,take care all and happy gardening Bob

[ymfoster]

Hi Everyone,

Sounds like a Beehive of activity in your gardens over there,

good to see you back Penny & you have a computer working for you, ......

Hi Carolyn, Bob, Frank, Penny, Chari, Bruce & Bush Lady,

Well I spent the morning pruning back my Plumbago & planting some plants I had in pots into the garden, as well as some Pelargoniums that I had struck.

My Iris & Earlycheer Jonquils are coming up already & it's just the start of Winter here, still have some Bougainvillea in flower, & the Camellias, Gordonia, Lasiandra & Balsam are also flowering, I took a few photos of my WInter Cactus & others also.

Happy Gardening, Yvonne

[telecom69]

Hiya Yvonne, nice to see you paying us a visit thanks for posting the photos,hope you are both keeping well...must admit to not having heard of a Gordonia so much like the colour of the Lasiandra,very striking ...seems strange to read of you planting Pelargoniums in your ground at the start of your winter over here they would be killed stone dead of course,although some do survive if in containers in sheltered spots ....it is a busy time over here of course as we are busy planting out etc for the Summer to come (all depending on the weather we get of course ) I suppose in some ways you are glad to see the back of your Summer? with the threat of fires and the water restrictions you get at times....the threat of any frosts should now have gone (hopefully) and we can sit back a bit and wait for the results of our labours,still weeding and watering to do of course as and when its needed .....spurred on by Franks super Dahlia photos last year,I decided to grow some myself this year (must be 30 years since I last grew any) and that is what Im looking forward to the most this year,seeing a mass of Dahlia blooms,what a show they give if everything goes right for them, so thats about it for now,take care and see you soon ....Bob

[MightyQueenC]

Hello Gardeners

I've enjoyed the stories, information and pictures.
Not a lot to report. Actually I'm just too lazy to type it but will in the next day or so, with photos.

I do have an interesting little set of plants in my aluminum balcony planter. I can't for the life of me recall the name .. starts with a "C" or "G" ... looks kind of like a narrower-petaled Gerbera Daisy (sp?) (10" height). It closes up in the evening. Quite nice, and they have neat colours, but I haven't figured out if they're annuals or perennials, as yet.
Any guesses as to what it is before I get back here with a photo?

Who, here, actually wears gardening gloves, while gardening?
I try to wear them, but they always come off.
I'll wear leather ones when shoveling, raking, pulling established weeds, and whipper-snippering, but find them too cumbersome for hands-on-plants work. I prefer to make a hole with my hands when planting small plants, as well, rarely using the hand trowel-shovel tool. I love to get my fingers in the dirt.

Have a good day everyone.