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Post by bjd on Jan 1, 2022 7:58:21 GMT
My bulbous report about calla lillies is that I have ripped a couple out and moved another. I have never planted any but they are everywhere in the area -- growing in ditches and in gardens. They are nice enough but rather invasive and since they are big, their leaves take up a lot of space in the flower beds.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 1, 2022 17:04:06 GMT
Definitely not a problem here, although I have seen areas where they naturalized up in the mountains where there is daily cloud mist.
Long ago I lived in Pacific Grove, California and remember an old lady's yard where the callas had taken over. That was also an area where the mist -- fog, really -- rolled in every evening.
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Post by mickthecactus on Jan 3, 2022 14:00:33 GMT
Nobody noticed my hint so I treated myself. £11.99.
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Post by bjd on Jan 3, 2022 15:02:39 GMT
I hope you are not absent-minded when you use that. It looks sharp. What do you call that in English? In French it's a secateur.
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Post by mickthecactus on Jan 3, 2022 15:33:31 GMT
The same in English.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 3, 2022 16:21:09 GMT
Congratulations, Mick ~ nothing like really good quality secateurs.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 3, 2022 16:26:23 GMT
Strange that the English would have adopted the term secateur since they are the gardening champions. After all, they accepted all of the French mountain climbing words since they are a country without big mountains.
Nevertheless, Google Translate claims that secateurs are shears.
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Post by bjd on Jan 3, 2022 16:50:33 GMT
Google Translate is wrong. Shears are much bigger -- like for clipping hedges.
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Post by mickthecactus on Jan 3, 2022 17:33:11 GMT
They can be called pruners but I prefer secateurs. They get a lot of hard work.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 3, 2022 20:31:31 GMT
Agree that secateurs is way more specific.
I am in the middle of a big patio revamp -- only came inside to eat lunch & let my eyes recover from the extremely bright sun. Did some of the prep yesterday evening for the enormous pot meant for a Lady Banksia rose, then slept fitfully all night because I was obsessing about placement, etc. Gave away some plants on the 1st in order to have more space. You all will be eventually treated to pictures, whether you want them or not.
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Post by casimira on Jan 3, 2022 20:42:31 GMT
My apologies for not coming onto this thread and viewing all the fabulous pics and gardening discussions in a long time.
The truth is, I cannot garden right here where we are living now, and I am grieving not being able to garden. So, I get depressed when I see all the marvelous pics in here and in the other gardens, blooms etc. in this section.
I did, however, buy some nasturtium seeds at the home goods store the other day with the idea that we will be here at least long enough to see them grow and blossom and give me a teensy bit of garden pleasure.
I also bought a nepeta plant (for my cat) and some herbs that we use to cook with. The Community Garden not too far from here has graciously given me free reign to harvest some items from there. I have taken advantage of it a few times but, there is nothing like stepping out one's door while cooking and snipping one's own.
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Post by mich64 on Jan 3, 2022 20:42:41 GMT
You all will be eventually treated to pictures, whether you want them or not. I will look forward to that!
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 3, 2022 23:32:48 GMT
Thanks, Mich!
Casimira, I can well understand how you feel. Only a gardener knows how deprived one can feel without a garden. When I stayed in Amsterdam, I would lean way out the windows in the apt. to check out the progress of the little roof garden of the apartment in the story below me. Only a gardener knows that feeling of walking out the house, surveying ones domain & thinking, "Shit -- this place is a mess!" Sounds negative, but of course it's accompanied by the smug knowledge that "I -- I, the skilled magician, am going to turn this into a paradise!"
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Post by bjd on Jan 4, 2022 6:57:27 GMT
I just looked to see what Lady Banksia roses look like -- just beautiful. I remember seeing one in a garden a few years ago and wondering what it was. It was huge, for sure.
Meanwhile, I dug out my new flower bed, moved a couple of plants into it (some agapanthus a neighbour gave me and that were planted up against a fence where they weren't doing well), as well as a ficinia truncata ice crystal that I got at the nursery the other day. Of course, it all looks a bit empty for now but it's not really the best time to be planting. The ground is warm right now but it is supposed to cool off so I'll wait a while.
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Post by bjd on Jan 4, 2022 14:36:06 GMT
Some of you might be interested to look at this website about gardens in Britain: ngs.org.uk/
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 4, 2022 15:52:56 GMT
Bjd, I had a Lady Banksia growing along a wooden fence when I lived in Louisiana. Once seen, always loved!
That Ficinia is a little beauty. I've seen them before, but never knew what they were.
I also moved an Agapanthus yesterday, so I could make a spot for a butterfly pea (Clitoria ternatea). I was given a couple of pods and managed to germinate five plants. Since I've coveted this vine for some time, I'm going to find space for all five by hook or by crook.
Thanks for that informative & enjoyable link.
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Post by casimira on Jan 4, 2022 19:38:07 GMT
Thanks for your feedback, Bixa. It really means a lot to me. Some days are worse than others and I know that somewhere down the line I will be able to create the "paradise" you speak of.
As for the butterfly pea, I had a whole trellis full of them, they seem to love the heat, so I was quite happy with them. I harvested the pods of them but the bag of them that they were in got lost in the move.
Their intense cobalt blue color is like no other blossom I have ever seen.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jan 4, 2022 19:39:30 GMT
Ooh I shall look forward to seeing a photo of your Lady Banksia rose Bixa! Our garden is a mess for at least 4 months of the year. I started leaving the dead stalks and seed heads on a lot of my herbaceous perennials, ferns etc over winter so that wildlife (including pests!) have somewhere to snuggle down. This is only the 2nd year I've done it and we're getting much more wildlife in the garden...loads of little garden birds have started roosting in the evergreen shrubs, and they forage about in the undergrowth for insects. The garden looks very untidy..but the birds, shrews, mice, hedgehogs and probably rats are worth it (in a city there are bound to be rats...not that I've ever seen one in the garden) all prey animals for our larger wild mammal..the fox. It protects the soil too..prevents it getting too wet. The spring tidy up is jolly hard work tho.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jan 4, 2022 19:40:03 GMT
Love your secateurs Mickus
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Post by mickthecactus on Jan 4, 2022 20:50:08 GMT
Good job I didn’t get an axe..
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Post by onlyMark on Jan 6, 2022 6:29:23 GMT
"Sausage fans were taken by surprise after Tesco deemed one of its pork products only suitable for adults over the age of 18 to purchase. The supermarket giant accidentally listed a "saucisson sec" as "secateurs", which, as a bladed item, meant purchasers must prove their age." www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-59855270
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Post by tod2 on Jan 6, 2022 10:09:48 GMT
Oh Mark that is too funny for words!
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Post by mickthecactus on Jan 6, 2022 11:40:59 GMT
Surely there can’t be anybody called Fufu Fang.
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Post by tod2 on Jan 7, 2022 11:46:48 GMT
I thought I had posted something on the Garden site here but failed to find it so I'm doing it again. I have a Greek friend who has introduced me to some Greek supplies, one of them being these giant dry beans. They are really worthwhile when making a stew or soup. Anyway, something told me to try and plant them. I did and they have never looked back. Only thing is they have to have something to climb up. This will be my first harvest in a week or so. Going to cook the inner bean as green beans and not dry them. My Greek friend says they will be delicious!.
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Post by mickthecactus on Jan 7, 2022 12:08:14 GMT
Oh that’s brilliant!
I keep meaning to get a box of dried peas to grow for pea shoots.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 7, 2022 14:55:13 GMT
I always loved growing beans when I was little.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 7, 2022 17:33:46 GMT
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Post by tod2 on Jan 8, 2022 9:10:21 GMT
Yes, there is a thin string winding around the iron pillar so that the vines can get a grip. This is an example of a bean I transplanted from the original bucket, next to my paw-paw tree, It tries its best but is growing up slowly by climbing on itself over and over even though there is a bit of string to help but I think needs to be wrapped around higher up. It;s full of flowers which the bees are loving - they hop from the apples on the birdfeeder to the flowers. The pawpaw is meters high and is just more bird food - imaging trying to pick beans up that high!
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Post by mickthecactus on Jan 8, 2022 9:54:51 GMT
Envy!
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 8, 2022 18:34:49 GMT
Fabulous, Tod!
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