EADD Gardening Club: Ploughing FUBAR's infertile Fields

[B9]

Yeah mines looking bare also - which is better than weed covered - got tatties to plant at the weekend & our lettuce seedlings are sprouting along with some morning glory - for colour you know

 

[Fishface]

I found a trellis at the back that's all shaded and I'm not sure what to grow up it now

Some ideas to fire your imagination:

Partenocissus Veitchii Ornamental Vitus Vine, which has bright green foliage in summer, turning fiery red in the Autumn.

Nelly Moser Clematis, which produces pink flowers twice a year in May/June and again in September.

Alchymist Rose, which has big blooms with a strong fragrance.

If you've got a good 'independent' garden centre nearby, pop down and have a word with them, as they'll have better knowledge of what will do well in your area

Yeah mines looking bare also - which is better than weed covered - got tatties to plant at the weekend & our lettuce seedlings are sprouting along with some morning glory - for colour you know

Get yer tatties in, then? I was gifted 4 of those 'grow bags' for taters and planted them up yesterday.

Now then, what are folks' favoured methods for controlling these critters:

 

[eDDe9]

Was listening to Gardeners World in Radio 4 yesterday and they said the most humane way to get rid of slugs is to put used ground coffee around your patch. You can get loads of it for free from any coffee shop, its the stuff they whack out every time they make a new coffee.

They hit the coffee and they start to dance and go crazy and quickly turn around and go else where. Salt will just kill them and leave you with puddles of goo.

 

[B9]

Rock salt or fine grit around the base of you plants to dissuade the determined English slug Fishface - so I heard on a gardening programme.
They're very fond of beer as well - if you leave a saucer/bowl with a little beer in it they head straight in - what you do then is up to you tho.
I once committed what would probably have been considered a genocide on several hundreds of slugs one evening

 

[tribal girl]

Ew, that slug looks like a Peperami.

 

[CbRoXiDe]

Yeh the beer thing is a good one, my parents do it quite alot in the beds in the field. It's amazing how many slugs you find in them in the morning!

 

[B9]

If pepperami looked like that I wouldn't eat one - maybe pepperami is minced dessicated slugs with herbs added.

 

[Fishface]

^eew

Ta for the tips - another mate has recommended crushed mussel shells, so will try and blag some off the restaurant round the corner, then give all the suggestions a go and report back

 

[B9]

Crushed "something" seems the common theme really doesn't it.

You could probably just crush anything & it would definitely work - so long as it's crushed "just so"

 

[Fishface]

Crushed velvet's probably not so good though

Bleeding slugs have had another couple of lobelias and some morning glories, while the bloomin' pigeons have been trampling all over things I tell ya, it's a jungle out there - a jungle

 

[B9]

I dunno - it could work The texture of crushed velvet when I touch it makes me shudder - if i have some gentics in common with slugs ( as has been alleged by less than thoughtful people) then it could well work - try it & see I reckon - assuming you have a plentiful supply

 

[Fishface]

Hmm - you could have a point

Sure the missus has a crushed velvet jacket she's not worn in ages 8)

 

[B9]

I couldn't wear anything made from crushed velvet it'd be unbearable. If I found a religion the first proscribed item will have to be crushed velvet.

 

[koneko]

http://www.gardensofscotland.org/garden.aspx?id=8c1928c6-1b7d-468b-ab3b-9b3400c697f2

then

www.charlesjencks.com

Thinking of a visit here on Sunday...the ultimate in swirly gardens

Inspiration

 

[fastandbulbous]

Now then, what are folks' favoured methods for controlling these critters:

The plastic cup. part filled with beer and sunk into the ground always seemed much more humane than salt or metaldehyde (slug pellets) - also less likely to poison other animals (metaldehyde - poisonous to quite a few mammals as well as slugs) of the plants (The Romans used to plow salt into fileds as a punishment of certain peoples as it totally buggers the soil for cultivation purposes). Drowning in beer - I'd choose that every time over chemical dessication or some sort of metabolic poison if faced with execution by one of those methods

And how's your garden of delights coming on?

Quite good. I was planting out some of the foliage me & mrs f&b bought earlier this weekl. Got the hanging baskets etc sorted (but not before one of the cats chomped on a lobelia plant, with sunsequent barf-fest) and a fair few shrubtubs with runner beans - they have nice flowers - geraniums & pansies as well as the wall baskets with nasturtiums and a variety of culinary herbs in those trough type planters - oregano, fennel, rosemary & thyme (I'm sure there's a song in there somewhere ). Going to get more this weekend for the rest of the planers. Even got a large shallow shrubtub sown with opium poppy seeds (if you intend doing this sort of thing, make sure the name Paperver somniferum appears somewhere on the seed packet as other poppy species don't contain the same interesting alkaloids) as well as the obligatiry 'drugs for cats' corner with a fuck off sized catnip plant. Even trying to grow some coleus for a mass of bonnie colours - you can even use the plant as a drug source (well tried but not very successfully as it requires using a shitload of leaves) as it contains a polyhydric alcohol with effects similar to salvia.

Wish I lived somewhere with conditions suitable for growing khat - my other half told me she saw loads of it used as a hedging plant in the Yemeni area of Tel Aviv - or even coca as it's supposed to be different to cocaine in effect. What I'd really like is a walled off place I could turn into a physick garden, complete with deadly nightshade bush, foxglove & monkshood etc - things far too poisonous to allow access to cats, dogs or small humans who have a faulty self preservation mechanism

Only seen bits of the program, but as it conflicts with something I usually watch. I keep forgetting to even record the episodes

 

[Blowmonkey]

Cacao (seed) husks, great to keep all kinds of pests and weeds at bay. Cats don't like it, slugs don't like it, it looks pretty good, it's cheap and it's ecologically friendly. Also acts as a great humus/fertilizer when it's broken down.

 

[wibble]

I'm loving the colour combination of the laburnum and dark purple buddleia in my garden at the moment

 

[masaz]

Any ideas how Hawaiian Baby Woodrose would fare in Northern climes? I guess there's a big indication in the name that it might not go well, but we've got a lot of room in the sun room area thing, south facing patio doors and all so I was wondering if it might manage indoors?

Won't be too gutted if it'll wither and die but it'd be nice to have my own personal supply and they're quite pretty too, so we all win.

 

[Fishface]

Worth giving it a go, Snolly, but stick to indoors - all my morning glories have popped their clogs and we're down in the balmy south-west

I have the pleasure of emptying out our half-finished water feature so I can complete it - yuk!!!

 

[masaz]

Cheers Mr Fishy, might as well give it a go then! My chilli plants are thriving so I evidently don't have the touch of death I feared I might do. Shall keep you all updated!