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Post by cheerypeabrain on Mar 22, 2019 21:31:34 GMT
Jeff relented and let me set up the heated propagator in the conservatory today, so a lot of the seed pots are in that now. When I'm out with the dog chatting to neighbours I've come across a few keen gardeners...they'll take any extra plants off my hands. I don't really expect the gaura, kirengeshoma, lemon grass or thalictrum to germinate tbh...I like to try tho..I'll bear in mind that the gaura gets big tho...thanks bjd
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Post by mickthecactus on Mar 22, 2019 22:09:01 GMT
Jeff relented and let me set up the heated propagator in the conservatory today, so a lot of the seed pots are in that now. When I'm out with the dog chatting to neighbours I've come across a few keen gardeners...they'll take any extra plants off my hands. I don't really expect the gaura, kirengeshoma, lemon grass or thalictrum to germinate tbh...I like to try tho..I'll bear in mind that the gaura gets big tho...thanks bjd Your dog chats to neighbours?
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Mar 23, 2019 20:55:22 GMT
Yes Mick they just ignore me......
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 23, 2019 22:40:40 GMT
Well, I've told you and told you to wag your tail more, but you just ignore me.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Mar 24, 2019 9:45:06 GMT
😁
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Mar 26, 2019 21:46:40 GMT
Lemon grass and gaura have germinated WOO HOO !
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Post by mickthecactus on Mar 26, 2019 22:05:15 GMT
Well done Cheery! I have broad beans, carrots, spring onions and sweet peas. Waiting on leeks.
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Post by questa on Mar 26, 2019 23:27:22 GMT
So are the journalists hanging around the White House
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 27, 2019 3:30:12 GMT
*snork!*
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Post by mickthecactus on Mar 27, 2019 12:09:03 GMT
The leeks have appeared this morning!
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Post by casimira on Mar 27, 2019 13:58:41 GMT
I have never grown leeks here. I love them!!! Good luck with them Mick!!
We are in a bit of a drought here after an extremely rainy early Spring.
I have had to water all my seedlings in the ground just about every other day. Very maddening and labor intensive given the state of my lower back these days.
My rain barrel is diminishing rapidly.
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Post by bjd on Mar 27, 2019 14:40:55 GMT
It is very dry here too. No rain to speak of for ages, even though spring is usually quite rainy. There is some rain forecast next week, but that doesn't mean much. Since it is so dry, if it rains heavily, the water just runs off instead of soaking in. And anyway, they can't really make an accurate forecast a week in advance.
I hope we are not heading for a drought year.
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Post by mickthecactus on Mar 27, 2019 16:21:56 GMT
Casi, we have a new pest here, leek moth which is the first time I have been affected. If it turns up again this year I may give up on leeks.
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Post by casimira on Mar 28, 2019 12:42:17 GMT
That's unfortunate Mick. I understand that once infested they are difficult to eradicate and once you have them they hibernate in the soil over the winter only to return the following year. They have only been discovered in North America (far up North in Vermont via Canada). They also attack garlic, onions, and chives, all members of the allium family. That's a shame for those of you who grow some of the fabulous ornamental alliums I am so fond of. BT is recommended at the very, very, early stages of detection which one would have to be hypervigilant of as the culprit, the moth, is nocturnal. So, one would have to awake, alert, and oriented, to see the moth.
I hope you are spared or can control them.
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Post by mickthecactus on Mar 28, 2019 13:47:28 GMT
That's unfortunate Mick. I understand that once infested they are difficult to eradicate and once you have them they hibernate in the soil over the winter only to return the following year. They have only been discovered in North America (far up North in Vermont via Canada). They also attack garlic, onions, and chives, all members of the allium family. That's a shame for those of you who grow some of the fabulous ornamental alliums I am so fond of. BT is recommended at the very, very, early stages of detection which one would have to be hypervigilant of as the culprit, the moth, is nocturnal. So, one would have to awake, alert, and oriented, to see the moth. I hope you are spared or can control them. Not good news. Just planted garlic, shallots and onions. What is BT? Here it means British Telecom!
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Post by bjd on Mar 28, 2019 17:59:00 GMT
I received a gift voucher for a gardening centre because I am moving and my friends here realized that 1) I like gardening and 2) giving me more stuff to move was not a good idea. Unfortunately, it turns out that the nearest centre to where we are going to live is an hour and a half away. They do not deliver that far away if you buy online.
Today I went to one of their Toulouse stores -- right downtown for all the city gardeners. Anyway, I bought a pair of hedge clippers and a house plant clusia rosea, which I had never seen before. I took a small one because the big one in the store cost 190€ and would have been a problem to take home on the subway. I still have a bunch of money to spend but it's just not practical to do so here since we already have a lot of stuff to move, including all my house plants and some pots from outside.
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Post by mickthecactus on Mar 28, 2019 18:13:23 GMT
Clusia rosea is also known as the autograph tree because you can write your name on a leaf with your fingernail and it will stay until the leaf falls.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Mar 28, 2019 19:05:52 GMT
Seedlings...YAY! in the greenhouse...on the right are a block of pricked out Calendula Indian Prince, Gypsophila elegans. mimulus, cosmos white dwarf sensation and zinnia dahlia mixed. On the left are pots of seed too small to prick out into individual pots yet..more cosmos. chives, thyme, sage,tomato, more zinnias....other stuff (including a carnation cutting I filched from a bunch of flowers I bought for somebody a few weeks ago...) lemon grass seedlings resting outside the heated propagator...in an old bakelite dish that I used to et out of as a baby! Never managed to get lemongrass to germinate before... My aloe polyphyla might be ok in this pot for another year really need to get my potatoes in pots...seed potatoes...left 4 Rocketand right 6 Charlotte.... The garden is starting to wake up too
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Post by mickthecactus on Mar 28, 2019 19:29:28 GMT
Top stuff Cheery!
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 28, 2019 23:40:17 GMT
Everything is just bursting with Spring energy! I am completely knocked out that you got lemon grass to grow from seed.
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Post by casimira on Mar 29, 2019 16:13:43 GMT
Mick, BT is Bacillus thurigiensis.
It's a biological organic powder that is used to control caterpillar larvae.
It should be available at almost any garden supply center.
BRAVO Cheery on your bounty and ditto what Bixa said about propagating lemon grass from seed!!! You've been a busy bee!!!
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Post by mossie on Mar 29, 2019 20:04:54 GMT
Well I never, our Cheery flies around collecting nectar and pollen, I bet her honey is excellent.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Mar 29, 2019 20:09:21 GMT
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Post by questa on Mar 29, 2019 23:31:38 GMT
I see her as the Queen Bee with all her productive abilities.
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Post by mickthecactus on Mar 30, 2019 16:47:54 GMT
Mick, BT is Bacillus thurigiensis. It's a biological organic powder that is used to control caterpillar larvae. It should be available at almost any garden supply center. BRAVO Cheery on your bounty and ditto what Bixa said about propagating lemon grass from seed!!! You've been a busy bee!!! I went to a large garden centre today Casi but no BT here, indeed the Royal Horticultural Society says that there are no pesticides available to gardeners to treat leek moth. Suspect commercial growers have it though.
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Post by casimira on Mar 30, 2019 19:40:02 GMT
Perhaps someone you know at Kew Gardens could steer you in another direction or better yet, turn you on to a small stash of it.
I just can't imagine that what I presume their gorgeous array of ornamental alliums being wiped out by this moth.
(I also read somewhere that it originated in Siberia of all places. Goodness knows how it made it's way to the UK. The US via Canada yes but Siberia?)
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 31, 2019 0:05:02 GMT
I just realized something. Yesterday when I was at the market I became transfixed by the sight of some leeks for sale and just had to have them. Last night for supper I had leek soup and leek salad.
Just now, reading through this page again, I see that leeks had taken up residence in my tiny consciousness, so that when I saw some in real life, I just had to have them.
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Post by questa on Mar 31, 2019 8:17:04 GMT
You know you are eating the National Flower of Wales, don't you?
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Post by mickthecactus on Mar 31, 2019 8:57:19 GMT
The daffodil?
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 31, 2019 16:49:48 GMT
Mick, I also thought that Wales was represented by the leek. It appears you are far more modern than Questa or I. "There is much debate about how the daffodil came to be named the national flower of Wales – but the clue could be in the title. The national emblem of Wales was traditionally the leek until the 19th-century and funnily enough the Welsh name for daffodil Cenninen Pedr translates literally as ‘Saint Peter’s Leek’. Some believe this may have led to the confusion. Others believe it was chosen because of its appearance in early spring, which coincides with St David’s Day on March 1, when the flower is traditionally worn. Whatever the reason, David Lloyd George, the only Welshman to serve as Prime Minister, was a public advocate of the bright and cheery flower as the national emblem. It certainly makes for a prettier buttonhole than its vegetable counterpart." source
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