[ymfoster]

Hi Bob,

Yes our Winters aren't freezing like yours, but cold enough
the Gordonia is related to the Camellia but grows into a small tree with bare trunk & the flowers a bit high up now to reach, it's also called the poached egg flower as it usually lands face up when the flowers drop.

The Lasiandra grows to a large shrub or small tree also, but they have smaller varieties & call it Tibouchina these days, they can be cut right back & will sprout out everywhere again.

Yes we're all glad we have the cooler weather for our gardens as we're only allowed to water two mornings a week at present between 6 - 8 am when it's cold & dark

Have still got the Rose pruning to do in a Month's time. I noticed my Daphnes are coming into bud again too.

I'll look forward to seeing your Dahlias in the Summer/Autumn, I had them about 30 years ago too, then had a few dwarf varieties that were good & didn't need staking.

See you later Bob, Take Care




Hi Carolyn,

The only Daisy like flowers I can think of that are low growing ground covers are:
Gazanias, Osteosperum & Arctotis, so you'll have to do a Google & see

I don't wear gloves as a rule, but I do when pruning & probably should do more often as I've come accross Red-back Spiders a few times in our garden & I'm sure there's more lurking

I hope Angel hasn't been digging any more holes, I think it was the fresh soil that set her senses going ..... you can't get mad at that sweet face though

Have a great weekend in the garden,

[margaret zanoni]

Hello MQC.....could your mystery flowers be Mesembryanthemums? (thumbnail attached).

I am glad you got your laptop fixed Tuppence......have you had the rain today?

We have the brown bin collection here too......and we all love that because it really helps with all the garden rubbish. We also have the green box, the yellow box, the clear plastic bag, the pink plastic bag and the wheelie bin!!!!! We have a monthly chart too telling us which week (and day) each lot has to be put out.......this recycling business is becoming a nightmare for us oldies.....tins in this box, carboard in that box, bottles in another, clear plastic in one colour bag, and so on......I follow my neighbours and if they put out the green box so do I!

I bought a tray of stocks - plugs really - and they have grown beautifully......but they aren't stocks! Most of them are very pretty, scented petunias with a double lavender flower and a few are tobacco plants of a deep magenta colour and smell wonderful in the evening. My husband says it is my own fault for not wearing my glasses.......trouble is he is right!

Happy gardening everyone.......regards Margaret

[Tuppence2]

Hello everyone. I only wear gloves for pruning roses. I've some gauntlets of soft leather for that, sent to me from America. I find gloves a nuisances, otherwise and have always handled the soil and plants without them.

Bob - I could be worrying when I needn't about the beans - though the leaves have been eaten off three of them, leaving only stalks - I hesitate to use strong slug pellets, prefering the animal-friendly ones, but I'm not being left with many plants. We do have green wheelie-bins for garden recycling but they're not very big and once a fortnight clearances is going to take a long time with the amount of branches and trimmings I have. I was offered the loan of a goat by someone on the bonsai site I visit but as he lives in Sheffield, I can't take up the offer! The goat is particularly partial to hazel.

I've just planted the last of the cherry tomatoes, that I couldn't give away, the others are beginning to flower so will need feeding soon. I have strawberries forming and have just covered them with black netting and also covered a climbing courgette I was given this afternoon. My beautiful new peony (second year of flowering) is in bloom, huge, plate-sized, frilly pink flowers with yellow stamens. I've forgotten it's name. I'll post a photo later. The red ones that have been here for over 50 years finished flowering some time back.

Look forward to your photos NQC. Good luck with identifying the plants in your container.

I bought organic rose food today and sprinkled an ounce round each of the climbers and shrubs in the back garden, and the ones in tubs out front, but there are a few more to do and I'll need another box. I got tomato food cheaply in Wilkingsons this afternoon, too. Looking forward to seeing the dahlias.

Thanks for the photos, Yvonne, good luck with your winter planting. No doubt, your winters are warmer than ours.

It's a very warm, "heavy" evening - the sort of weather to lead to thunderstorms, but there aren't any clouds about, yet.

[Tuppence2]

Hello Margaret.

Thanks for the good wishes. It is so good to have the laptop back.

My goodness, what an array of recycling boxes! Our system isn't really very good. The District Council put recycling out to tender and they're really only interested in meeting the Government quota for recycling. We have the black wheelie-bin for houshold rubbish and the green one. Also a black box for tins, circulars, bottles, etc. We've recenlty had our collection day changed and it's taking an awful long time for the schedule to sink in. The Recycling Centre is just along the main road from where I live and I'll proably end up borrowing my neighbour's large green wheelbarrow to take some of the greenery there.

No, the rain's not reached us. I was told a lot was due in the East of the country. We tend to have a little climate all our own over here and are often different to what's forecast. I would really like it to rain as it didn't when it was due to a few days ago. It does save lugging the hose and cans around.

Mesembryanthemums are pretty. I think they're the ones you can dry. Is that right? You'll have to make sure you wear the right specs next time you buy plants!

[MightyQueenC]

Hiya everyone

LOL Yvonne you win! They are Gazania and beautiful.
My question is: are they annuals or perennials?
I've planted a few in my homemade balcony box with a bit of Bloodleaf (Iresine herbstiii) in the centre. I quite like that they close up at night. Underneath the box is some Silvermound (artenisia schmidtiana) that I'll plant in the garden when I have a spare moment.

(click to enlarge photo)



Our lovely not-so Angel dawg dug a second time this morning, after I'd gone to work, and while not being watched not-so-closely by middle son. She was looking for a cool place to lie down (we got heat back last night and it's absolutely sweat-worthy outside), me thinks as she's never dug deep, just ridding the cool clay surface of that pesky bark I threw everywhere. Pesky me.

Oh and we have a baby bunny living among the orange dog lilies in the side yard.
Very cute and we saw Mother Bunny hopping along the sidewalk last night. Baby bunny was extremely cute up until this afternoon, when I discovered he's been feasting on my (I forget) flowers under the Solomon's Seal. Baby bunny may be looking for new dining and digs, sooner than he/she thinks.

A section I'd previously taken a couple of years ago, from my now dead and gone original Peony is popping up nicely in the middle of a large patch of Summer Phlox, so that when the Peonies are done, I can cut them back, making room for more colour for the balance of the summer.
Not planned at all, just a happy happenstance.

While not gardening last weekend, I had to make a run to the dump, and of course went shopping! Found a cool thingy for the roof thingy ... vent roofy thingy that moves and spins with the wind. A whirlybird? I thought it looked like a toadstool and would be interesting in the side yard where the wind tunnel is, so plunked it there. It was a few hours later that I came back out to see my eldest lad, da Prince, had decided it was a magic mushroom and has painted the first of several coats of psychedelic and groovy colours. When it spins the colours make you feel spacey.
Yay for other people's garbage! I also snagged a large wooden coil/spool thingy that cable (cable/wire) is wrapped around, to use as a table for our BBQ. Both gratis.

I've set up some plants at the top of the steps: on the old painter's ladder are kids' rain boots with herbs and some cacti and a few houseplants summering outdoors. The mirror was a found object, that temporarily covers over the dark brown patch of paint the un-handiman chose to paint a section where the original balcony wall joined the house.

Hot and sweaty with thunderstorms brewing, so it's going to be a hit and miss and slip in da sweat weekend me thinks.

Happy gardening everyone.

[Sooky 47]

Originally Posted by MightyQueenC

Hiya everyone

LOL Yvonne you win! They are Gazania and beautiful.
My question is: are they annuals or perennials?

This link shows some as perennials and annuals.

I also did a search of Gazania and they show annual also.

I love the colours in the gazania ..... I had forgotten all about them it has been so long since i could get out and scowl the nurseries, thanks for jogging my memory!
PS. Your plantings and fun ideas for plantings look wonderful.

All the flowers in this thread are beautiful!

[ymfoster]

Hi Carolyn,

Gazanias are perennials here as we have milder Winters,
I guess if they were in a sheltered spot from frost & snow etc. they'd survive your Winters.

Angel does not like that bark for a mattress
Da Prince has sure brightened up your Whirlygig, maybe it will hypnotise those cute but pesky Bunny Wabbits into not eating your plants, Mummy Wabbit thinks you made the garden for them

Love your plant arrangements on the back porch too.


Hi Lu,

Yes Gazanias are pretty tough here & used a lot in plantings along front fences near footpaths.
Hope you get lots of pleasure from your garden this year.


Hi Margaret & Penny,
Have a nice weekend in the garden everyone

[Sooky 47]

Originally Posted by ymfoster

Hi Lu,

Yes Gazanias are pretty tough here & used a lot in plantings along front fences near footpaths.
Hope you get lots of pleasure from your garden this year.

Hi Yvonne, Good to see you too! I am working at things slowly, there is more I would like to do but finances hold me back. I wish i knew someone who could help me design my backyard - free and give me ideas of what could be done! I need to bde careful in the sun, and mask up when working in the soil .... I guess because of spores in the soil could cause infections in my lungs????? who knew! Small price to pay! I love being able to be outside, period! Quite the change for me.

[ymfoster]

Hi Lu,
It's lovely to hear you are able to enjoy the outdoors again,
maybe you can Google 'Garden Designs & Ideas' there could be some good examples & hints on the Net.
I know you have to be very careful if using potting mix & wear a mask & gloves & do it outdoors because of spores causing huge lung infections.

It will be even better next Spring when you're stronger & may have more plants to watch coming into flower, ... what about bird feeders there ?, unless the dust from cleaning them would affect you also, but nice to watch the birds coming to them.

Cheers, Yvonne

[MightyQueenC]

Hiya, Lu

I've always had gardens-on-a-budget, (can't justify plant-buying when the kids need food and whathaveyou) and am proud of what I've been able to accomplish with very little.
Maybe you could ask or post a message on the board at your church or the kids' school, or even the local horticultural society, asking for assistance. Gardeners are (generally) a generous bunch and you may get some help with your landscaping that way.

Avoid that nasty vermiculite stuff ... and peat ... great for soil but a dusty nuisance and would be quite dangerous for you.

Yvonne and Lu: I had Googled for the G-plant (name escapes me ... again ... and I'm too lazy to scroll up ) and found links to both annuals and perennials, so I guess it does depend on one's location. I was told by the seller that the Bloodleaf could be brought indoors in the fall and managed over winter to plop back into the garden in the Spring ... maybe I'll try that with the G-plant, too.

I took some photos of it while it was closing up last night, just before a thunderstorm. Will post later today.

Have a wonderful day everyone.


Oh and I've decided to hang a hummingbird feeder this week. Any tips?

[Tuppence2]

Hello, everyone. Really good to see you here, Lu, and to hear you are able to do some gardening. I'm sure you'd find help on the internet in designing your garden. Lots of good gardening sites around.

The BBC site has a "Virtual Garden" download. I've not tried it and will take a look. You are able to design a garden using it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/desig...en_index.shtml

and there's a design program here.

http://www.smallblueprinter.com/

The thing to do is to look at lots of gardens, in the "flesh" or on-line and choose what you like from them. Wish I could be there to help. Take care and don't do too much all at once.

It's a hot, sunny morning. I've used tomato feed on the flower tubs, roses, tomatoes, beans and the new climbing courgette I was given yesterday; done some weeding and deadheading of roses and am now going to watch the Test Match.

I enjoyed the photos MQC

Gazinias are treated as annuals here, or as half-hardy plants. Take a look at this link.

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Home-...ion291012.html


Have a very good day in your garden, everyone.

Penny

[Bush Lady]

My cucumbers are turning white. Well most of them anyway. Does anyone know what this is? They are not all turning white, just the ones that have sprouted earlier. The ones that are coming up now are green. Is it possible that they got to much rain in a short time, because it did rain here real hard in a short amount of time.

I have some cucumber plants in a flower pot, that look almost like the ones in the garden.
They look almost like the ones in the garden, but they are starting to get green leaves in the middle again. In that situation I told my brother that he is putting to much water on them, they are in a flower pot, not in the garden.

Any ideas, gardeners.

[franca]

Originally Posted by Bush Lady

My cucumbers are turning white. Well most of them anyway. Does anyone know what this is? They are not all turning white, just the ones that have sprouted earlier. The ones that are coming up now are green. Is it possible that they got to much rain in a short time, because it did rain here real hard in a short amount of time.

I have some cucumber plants in a flower pot, that look almost like the ones in the garden.
They look almost like the ones in the garden, but they are starting to get green leaves in the middle again. In that situation I told my brother that he is putting to much water on them, they are in a flower pot, not in the garden.

Any ideas, gardeners.

My cucumbers are turning white

[Bush Lady]

Thanks for the link Frank.

I don't think it is to much manure. We only manure our garden every second year. Or like the site says to much nitrogen. Chicken manure has a lot of nitrogen in it. And we haven't put any chicken manure on the garden in a long time. But it could be the weather problem. We did have temperatures that were close to frost here. I remember people saying that if you put buckets of water in the garden, the water will freeze before the plants in the garden. I had done that, and the plants seem to be OK. I put some pesticide on the cucumber this morning and will see in a few days if they are getting better. The pesticide did work for my Red Cabbage plants. There was something eating the leaves. They are now better.

[MightyQueenC]

My Gazania flower time and sun-lapse fancy-schmancy photos are in post #22, here.

I've spent the better part of today, making more messes (but tidying up, in between) and mostly mucking about but my hip is really sore again so am going to double-dose the Advil and water my poor neglected indoor houseplants.

Bush Lady: I think your issue is a combination of too much water and too cool temps.

*speaking as someone who tends to either drown or dry out her plants too much*

Here's a quick shot of my Peony and it's ant buddies and Angel, lookin' all smug in "her" arbour's shade.

Happy gardening everyone.