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Post by mickthecactus on Feb 20, 2019 9:49:00 GMT
I set my camera to take two versions of photos each time i shoot: one RAW uncompressed, and another in JPEG at the highest resolution. When shooting flowers, the color can look quite different and one or the other will be much truer to what my eye sees. I point my mobile phone at it..,
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Feb 22, 2019 17:15:52 GMT
I am introducing a few shrubs into the garden atm. We already have a few hebes, lavender, rosemary, quince and blueberry bushes, but today I was in a garden centre and picked up a flowering currant and a good old forsythia. These are things that I would have turned my nose up years ago because I've always concentrated on herbaceous perennials, annuals and vegetables. I think that I've matured a bit as a gardener and am now looking for year round structure in our little garden. Ooh. Grown up now?.
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Post by questa on Feb 23, 2019 5:08:25 GMT
I think that I've matured a bit as a gardener and am now looking for year round structure in our little garden. Ooh. Grown up now?. More knowledgeable + more experimental = more grown up?
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Feb 23, 2019 16:33:36 GMT
who knows? I was out in the garden again today after I'd taken the dog for a walk...washed down the greenhouse glass and cleaned the pots, trays and propagators ready for seed sowing in March. Planted up a big round pot with freesia bulbs (that will stay in the GH for now) and planted a few fressias in the raised bed. I did lots of cutting back and weeding too. It'll snow now....
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Post by bjd on Feb 28, 2019 15:52:35 GMT
Although it's a bit cooler today, this morning I went to the local nursery and bought a few perennials. So I just spent 3 hours gardening, pulling up weeds, deciding where to put my new flowers, transplanting a bush that grew too big for where it was...
I realize I should be making gardening easier for myself by just planting bushes or something simple, but they take ages to grow and I really like colour in the garden.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Feb 28, 2019 20:33:13 GMT
bid...me too as well also 😁 I'm planting little shrubs because it's easy to dig them up if they don't meet expectation. I like 'moundy' dense plants that form pleasing dome shapes. I like colour too and hope to add some pretty annuals to the established herbaceous perennials...but a lot depends on what germinates in the greenhouse...
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Post by questa on Mar 1, 2019 10:59:57 GMT
Another heat wave is upon us...40C today cooling to 29 for tonight. This time I was prepared, all my pots standing in water and sheets shielding them from direct sun. Not only have they not shown any burn marks but they are growing really quickly. Makes me realise that I have not given them optimum water in the past.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Mar 1, 2019 20:45:50 GMT
My sister Sue dragged me kicking and screaming to a lovely nursery The Plant Man deep in the Leicestershire countryside (Braybrooke)
I bought some lovely healthy looking herbaceous perennials. Some scarlet double hollyhocks, white verbascum, cerise achillea, white lupin and blue lupins...they're in the greenhouse atm as I'm reluctant to plant them until after the weather we may be getting over the next couple of weeks..mild February is well and truly over...say hello to stormy March...
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Post by mickthecactus on Mar 10, 2019 14:55:36 GMT
I sowed broad beans, carrots, spring onions, leeks and sweet peas im containers and found space for them on tje greenhouse floor. Fingers crossed for germination!
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Mar 10, 2019 21:25:23 GMT
In the greenhouse the cineraria silver dust, gypsophylla and calendula Indian Prince have started germinating. I've got pots of tomato, pepper, snapdragons, thyme, sage, zinnias, larkspur, tagettes and mimulus that will hopefully start coming up soon.
I received another seed catalogue from Chiltern seeds yesterday so today I was on the website ordering lots and lots of seeds...flowers like thalictrum, gaurav, kirengeshoma....herbs (cumin, coriander , lemon grass and spearmint)...veggies too, carrots, radish, cucumber, chillis....it's all rather lovely.
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Post by bjd on Mar 11, 2019 7:35:18 GMT
Since we are moving away, I just received a generous gift card from a nursery from some friends. Unfortunately, the closest one of that nursery chain to where I will be living is an hour and a half away. There is one in Toulouse, but we already have too much stuff to move. So I have spent some time looking at the store's website. Most of what I like are perennials, but unless I dig bigger flower beds, I wouldn't have anywhere to put anything.
While we were at the coast up until last week, I planted some black hollyhocks, some alstromeria and moved some irises that I had previously brought from my Toulouse garden. The only seeds I sow are "mixtures" that I throw in to see what comes up. Mostly calendula from previous experience.
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Post by mickthecactus on Mar 11, 2019 8:51:04 GMT
My plan today was to do the preparatory work in the veg garden si I could plant the shallots and garlic but I think it’s going to be way too chilly. Looks like greenhouse work. I have pot herbs to plant.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Mar 11, 2019 17:14:23 GMT
Are you growing lots of varieties of tomato this year Mick?
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Post by mickthecactus on Mar 11, 2019 17:41:29 GMT
No. Only ten this year.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Mar 12, 2019 8:34:53 GMT
I have a really small garden, with three flower beds. These beds already have ferns, herbaceous perennials and shrubs...but my gardening brain sees planting opportunities. I've got young plants in the greenhouse waiting for the weather to warm and have sown and will be sowing lots more! I do it most years...but I can always share with family and friends
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Mar 12, 2019 8:51:45 GMT
Fumobici my husband uses a similar technique when using his DSLR. However, unlike you he rarely produces any lovely photos..he's more into the technology than the results! We got him his camera for using with the telescope really and have a cupboard full of fancy gadgets to facilitate high quality photography...
A few weeks ago he spent ages making a glass water tank, filled it with water, set up the background and lighting...then pinched some of my acrylic paint and poured it into the water tank taking multiple rapid images...repeated it numerous times then spent ages sorting out the images on the computer...clouds of colour billowing through clear water. He had tremendous fun.
Sorry to wander off the gardening topic...
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Post by mickthecactus on Mar 12, 2019 12:53:38 GMT
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Post by fumobici on Mar 12, 2019 15:03:20 GMT
Fumobici my husband uses a similar technique when using his DSLR. However, unlike you he rarely produces any lovely photos..he's more into the technology than the results! We got him his camera for using with the telescope really and have a cupboard full of fancy gadgets to facilitate high quality photography... A few weeks ago he spent ages making a glass water tank, filled it with water, set up the background and lighting...then pinched some of my acrylic paint and poured it into the water tank taking multiple rapid images...repeated it numerous times then spent ages sorting out the images on the computer...clouds of colour billowing through clear water. He had tremendous fun. Sorry to wander off the gardening topic... I take all my photos with a little pocket-sized point-and-shoot camera, nothing fancy at all. As a light traveler, I would never tote a big clunky DSLR with its lenses and accessories around. We've got clumpy snow-like stuff falling from the sky this morning even though it's well clear of the freezing mark at ground level. Don't think gardening is in the near future here for me.
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 16, 2019 6:27:25 GMT
I bought a little pot of basil. Too early -- instant death in my windowbox.
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Post by mickthecactus on Mar 16, 2019 7:29:19 GMT
About 2 months too early...
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Post by mickthecactus on Mar 17, 2019 17:49:02 GMT
I’m hoping to plant shallots, garlic and onion tomorrow.
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Post by casimira on Mar 21, 2019 13:19:37 GMT
I'm envious of your Hemenocallis Mick. I wish I could grow them here. They might do okay for a year or two but would likely rot after that.
I'll have to check them out.
All my herbs I started from seed are thriving and I have some baby snow peas sprouted and seem happy where I planted them.
I'm not planting too many vegetables this Spring. I may succumb to some aubergines and of course okra when it gets warmer.
No tomatoes for me. Too much pestilence.
My Louisiana iris and native columbines (yellow) and giant purple candelabra larkspur are in full regalia along with some of the antique roses I started from cuttings last year.
Today I have to thin out my gingers and replant in some other locations and continue to weed, weed, weed and mulch.
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Post by mickthecactus on Mar 21, 2019 13:30:47 GMT
Never grown them before Casi so not sure how they will do.
Couldn’t be without tomatoes. What sort of pestilence?
Anyhow repotted Lilies and Hostas this morning and started potting up Dahlias.
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Post by casimira on Mar 21, 2019 13:46:59 GMT
You name it Mick and they attract it. Slugs, whitefly, aphids, hornworms. They're just too fussy. I barter with some neighbors and trade citrus and most especially figs.
I forgot to mention that I acquired some very cool milkweed seeds. Asclepias physocarpa,"spiny balls", they produce lime green balloon like pods e.g. their name. Everything I've read about them indicates that they should do well here.
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 21, 2019 17:56:43 GMT
The best tomato plants I ever had were planted in a New Orleans back yard where I was forced to discharge the washing machine. I made the rows very high & the effluent was channeled between the rows. This was in the early 70s, when clothes detergent was probably less "green". But whatever was in that water -- phosphates, etc. -- made for big, strong, pest-free plants which bore beautifully. I acquired some very cool milkweed seeds. Asclepias physocarpa,"spiny balls", they produce lime green balloon like pods e.g. their name. Boy, did this make the light bulb go on over my head! Last night while looking for something, I went through this thread. Looking at this picture, I'd once again thought, "Wonder what that is." Now, after reading about your new seeds & looking at the picture again, it seems obvious that they're Asclepias.
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Post by mickthecactus on Mar 21, 2019 18:24:30 GMT
Are they climbers?
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Mar 21, 2019 18:54:31 GMT
Seed sown today...thalictrum, gaura lindheimeri, chilli pikito, kirengeshoma Palmata, lysimachia atropurpura, zaluzainska capensis, lemongrass and rudbeckia Cherokee Sunset. Don't expect them all to germinate as a few of them are quite difficult from seed.
Seeds already germinated...calendula Indian Prince, tagettes starfire mixed, three types of cosmos, cineraria silver dust, chives and two types of zinnias. The dahlias waiting to sprout are After Dusk and Honka Pink...theres a chocolate cosmos just starting to sprout. I potted up one of the colocasia bulbs as that looks ready to go...need to do the other one at some point. Dug up a few hellebores seedlings that had self set in the border and put them in a terracotta pot in gritty compost in the cold frame...
I really like spring. Expect snow any day...
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 21, 2019 19:02:18 GMT
Mick, go to reply #8 in the linked thread & you'll see a picture of the whole plant. Not climbers. Ooooo, Cheery! Sounds like some wonderful pink shades and richer tones along with silvery notes. Can't wait to see your garden pics later in the year.
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Post by casimira on Mar 22, 2019 15:03:14 GMT
YES!!! That's the milkweed I sowed yesterday. That's a great pic of it. Better than any I saw online while researching it. It's too bad you didn't score some seeds for it. (mine came by way of my step sister in New Jersey) Well, you can always go back there. It is so cool looking a plant!! That's quite an impressive list of beauties there Cheery.
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Post by bjd on Mar 22, 2019 18:06:21 GMT
I planted some gauras from small plants last year. They do tend to get huge, so if your garden is small, Cheery, be careful.
We went to the new house last weekend to move some fragile things. After a mild winter and a warm February, the wisteria was already beginning to bloom. And my neighbour's cherry tree here in Toulouse has bloomed fully since Monday.
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