Gran/Grandads Gardening Corner

What are banana shallots shysal?

Roses I have sent you a PM.

Banana shallots are the big ones found in supermarkets. Nice mild flavour and easier to peel than the little ones. Last year's multiplied but each only measured about an inch. I am so lazy that most of them are still hanging in their string bag in the shed, I keep buying instead. The onions were only 2/3 the size of usual too. They didn't swell for ages, perhaps it was too cold and/or dry.

Do you pickle them, I love pickled shallots, mmmmm.

I don't pickle the shallots, haven't the patience to peel them and probably wouldn't eat them. I use the big ones instead of an onion if cooking a dish for one, they soften more quickly.

My DF used the pickle the home-grown shallots - he would do them in the kitchen and shed no tears whilst DM and I would be in another room, tears streaming down our faces

After a lot of trouble with no show gardeners a recommendation from a friend has arrived like a knight in shining armour.
At the end of last summer I had raised beds built around the flower beds. This resulted in the plants being lower than the edges of the beds. ( I knew I would need to pay to get the plants moved.)

At the end of the year my garden was looking really dreadful and I felt really demoralised.

I spoke to the guy concerned at the end of last year and he agreed when the weather got a bit milder to come and remove all the perennials from the bed, top up the beds with topsoil and put most of the perennials back in at the right height.

After my "no show" experiences with local businesses I was still unsure they would come. It did not help on Saturday when I was waiting for them to arrive then realised they were booked for Sunday.

This is a wife and husband team, the woman teaches English at our local comp.
In three hours the two of them dug out all the existing plants put in 2 cubic meters of soil and replanted the perennials.

They have agreed to do the smaller bed with my alpines in.
They are team of experienced hobby gardeners who really know what they are doing. They charged £15 per hour each per worker. In three hours they carefully dug the plants out put in 2cubic meters of soil and put the plants back.
They have agreed to come and do the smaller flower bed.

It is still work in progress but I now feel it might start looking right this year.

That's excellent Nelliemoser

We have decided to give up on one perennial bed because it just gets full of bindweed, dandelions and lots of other weeds, impossible to get out without disturbing the plants or totally replanting.
So we are saving the nicest ones and trying to slot them in around the garden then are going to grass it.

roses the buds are swelling

Haha, I know what you refer to Anya but it does sound like one of those lines that spies mutter to each other on London Park benches.

J52 - thank you for the good wishes. I noticed after my last post that Sultan Mix is actually Sweet Sultan Mix, so I think you are right, it is a relation of the sweet william. I am very tempted by cosmos as I love it, especially the big white one. I picked up a packet in Morrisons the other day but then put it back remembering my shortage of flower bed space but I think I will get it on my next supermarket trip.

Regarding dahlias, Monty Don showed what to do with them on Gardeners' World last Friday and said they are becoming quite popular again. You put the tuber cluster in a small amount of compost in a big pot and wait for it to sprout in the greenhouse. It can be planted out in the second half of May. I think I'll get one, or maybe two....or three.

Gardening is great, isn't it?

Yes gardening is so good for the soul! I've spent the day clearing Laurel and cutting down buddlia.
The joy was the amount of clematis sprouting through the Laurel.
Tackling the weeds and moss on the steep path tomorrow.

I always enjoyed my little inner-city back garden and took much pleasure from chatting 'over the garden fence' with neighbours. However, as a divorcee needing to work, I didn't have as much time or money as I would have liked to spend on my garden. Since retiring and moving to London to be near family, I am very lucky to have small patio gardens front and back. Although I now have the time I still do not have enough money, and have the additional problems of knees and back that do not like bending! The plus side though is I still get great therapeutic value in planting something, watching it grow and introducing each one to my grandson

I have a Wisteria growing in a large pot its grown up over a trellis above my arched back gate its been there 12yrs and 3yrs ago I had for the first time 5 whole flower bracts although they say Wisteria won't flower in a pot. So its not flowered again and I thought that was it but over the weekend I noticed it appears to be covered in tiny flower buds I'm very happy and just hope that we don't get a frost.

Swanny you garden sounds perfect for pots. I raise mine on upturned others, so it gives them height.
Another thing I enjoy is looking in the reduced and poorly plant section, rescuing them and brining them back to life.
I've a huge outdoor palm that was 10p in Homebase a few years ago.

Ah yes, the orphan plant trolley at Homebase! full of runts of the litter, always nice to bring one home and nurse it back to health.

tanith well done for growing wisteria in a pot, is it South or West facing?

Its on a South facing wall rosesarered I will make sure to take pictures if we get to the flowering stage, fingers crossed.

Tanith I planted a wisteria in a plot last year. It already had flowers at the time. It's against a south facing wall. The pot is terracotta and about 30 cams square, there are leaf buds at the moment. It's about 30cms tall.
Should I be doing anything to it?

I came on here last year saying our jungle of a garden needed an overhaul. I did this and was totally brutal. I decided on three rules:
No plant/shrub to grow over 2/3rds up the fence
Nothing must overhang the border where the grass joins
Plants can be near each other but not growing in amongst each other.
Lots of people disagreed with this look of garden, but I have a nice tidy garden which is now easy to maintain.

I went out there last week when it was nice armed with a garden fork to dig it over, a hand fork to break up the lumps and by this time the weeds were loosened nicely and easy to remove. Lastly I bought last year a Bosch cordless hand held trimmer which trims the edge of the grass and another attachment trims medium sized bushes, so went round the edge of the grass with that.

All done now for a couple of weeks.

You've certainly controlled your garden*overthehill*. It sounds ideal for you and a joy to sit in, when and if we get a summer! .
I love going to open gardens, especially when it's a whole village/areas. I'm always amazed at the variety of styles and planting. There's always good ideas to take away.

overthehill, your garden sounds much more orderly then mine. If the soil is covered I am happy - no weeding!
I also have one of those Bosch trimmers, it is very useful for my bushes and balls! The attachable long handle is great too for ground level work. I use it to cut the heads off daisies on the lawn so that it doesn't look ready for mowing.

roses, my lawn stuff still hasn't arrived. If the tracking site is to be believed it hasn't even left the supplier! I have emailed them. The carrier is Yodel, I find them rubbish!

Oh that is slow delivery!
However, although ours arrived in record time, DH still hasn't done it, and says it has to be done at the right time ( what, when he isn't watching sport?)
It does need to be done when rain is imminent though ( unless you are prepared to water the whole garden.)

I've got one of those Bosch cordless hand trimmers - they're great! You need to be careful of your finger tips though.
Does anyone use a lightweight strimmer? It's for a sloping grass bank. We've got a really heavy one which is getting to be too much for even husband.
As for weeds, the main one we have is purslane. I believe you can eat it, but not in the quantities we get here

TriciaF, I have a GTECH lightweight cordless strimmer which I would recommend for lightish work. It is adjustable to suit the user and well balanced. The main drawback is that it uses plastic blades rather than having a reel of plastic cord for the cut. I find that I need to change it several times per session, but they can be obtained free for the life of the tool from GTECH (except for postage.) I also have a spare battery pack so that I always have a charged one to hand. It is the lightest strimmer I have had, the old one is still sitting in the shed unused. The same applies to their vacuum cleaner and long handled hedge trimmer which I also love.
GTECH strimmer