Gran/Grandads Gardening Corner

Alima, I cut mine back to about half its size (mine is huge, covers a whole wall growing up sturdy trellis.) It always seems to do well, too well in fact. Also, it has a habit of producing many small plants that come up all over the place. If you plant one of these up in a pot, hopefully you will get a new plant.

Roses my new Vanilla hydrangea is just sticks. Is this as it should be at this time of year?

Good information on Gardeners question time, re pruning hydrangeas, this afternoon.
I think the sign of buds depends where you are in the country.
Our frog spawn is almost filling the pond. Is this a sign of a good summer?

Hydrangeas only form flowers from old wood. Says DS who owns a nursery!!

I've just sown some petunias, antirhinnums and tomatoes hydroponically. A new project x

Before I had garden space for strawberries, I grew some in a large squat ceramic pot, mulched them with pine needles, kept them well watered and they were sweet and juicy. Apparently strawberries like the acidity of the pine needles.

It's strange reading about all your spring flowers blooming as here on the other side of the world we are descending into winter.

Happy gardening everyone!

grannylyn flowers would be a bonus...I'd happily settle for leaf buds!

CrazyDaisy still harvest time on the other side of the world
(apparently!)
All that lovely produce hitting the shops.

Is it too late to move a hydrangea?

Please please be careful on wet decking, my work colleague slipped on her decking on Sunday and broke her shoulder in 2 placed and today is having a plate put in her broken shoulder and will be out of action for at least 2 months. On a lighter note I've grown strawberrys in pots, I had a good crop, however the slugs had eaten them underneath when I harvested them, so best to keep higher off the ground.

A friend slipped on wet decking and fractured his ribs.

On the subject of hydrangeas, I leave the dead heads on until March then prune back to the next bud down. Mine are in pots, one is huge so after pruning, I go to the base of the plant and cut out 3 or 4 of the old unproductive stems to open up the centre of the plant. I have to say they are always lovely. You can cut them back further if they get too big but you will sacrifice that years flowers and they will not bloom well until the following year. Most of them look like dead sticks but here in Cambridge it's clear to see the new buds just below the dead heads.

No dead heads. No buds

We have a small, very wet, bare patch between the path and fence, shed on one side, shade in the morning, sun in the afternoon in summer, none in winter. About 3ft square. Slugs love it and munch anything planted there. Any ideas what I could plant there? We wondered about a clump type bamboo, maybe a foxglove as I like flowers where I can get them, then ran out of ideas. What do you think? It's a tiny garden and important we make the best use of every tiny bit. Thanks for any ideas.

cornergran, a few years ago I bought a clumping Black Bamboo...or so I thought. It turned out the pot was mislabelled and before I knew it we had Bamboo everywhere, including between the Indian Stone paving which had taken my DH years to lay. I am still trying to kill the stuff off now before it tunnels through the swimming pool. Be very careful

Ferns should be OK. Rodgersia could be a good bet as well because slugs don't like it.

www.plantsforshade.co.uk/acatalog/Rodgersia.html

Oh dear Anya. Did it not flower last year? It depends where you are as some buds show sooner than others depending on where you live. Don't give up on it, it may suddenly show buds as the weather warms up. Good luck

Novice here again. Can I just leave the hydrangeas and not prune them at all? - there are loads here, interspersed with azalias in a packed bed that looked lovely when we arrived last year.

I would just remove the dead heads back to the new buds, Luckygirl

corner Think carefully about bamboo. I had three in my last garden which I chose according to their height and spread. They all went completely bonkers and were difficult to control, even the fargesia which was the smallest. They are also drop dead leaves all over the place which I read are supposed stay on the ground to help to feed the plant. I still love them, but I wouldn't grow another.

Well, I have let myself in for helping with a potato growing project at GS's school. I forgot the first rule of my Army training: "Never Volunteer"! I had an email today from the headmistress, so I have to go and present myself next week. Should be fun .

Fascinating thread! So much useful information. Another bamboo warning. Ours took a man with a mini digger to clear. And we've put turf over a lot of the area now as advice is that mowing over any shoots will kill the wretched stuff eventually.

We bought two bamboos for a dark spot which needed a screen. They were supposedly clump forming but we planted them in sunk cut off plastic dustbins just in case. I'm glad we did as one of them was mislabelled. (A common problem?) one has now reached the predicted 10 feet as required but the other is only 3 feet and we haven't a clue what it is, so I'm glad it's constrained within its bin! It's actually worked out well as they compliment each other.

Re slugs and strawberries in pots. I grow my slug irresistable hostas in pots with a band of that stick on copper tape around them and it seems to work. I tried it last year around delphiniums using four small sticks (actually odd knitting needles) to hold it in place and it helped there too.

NfK I use copper tape on my hosta pots too. It's amazing stuff. To be honest, we don't get a lot of slug damage here, but in the last garden, it saved a lot of my plants. When they crawl up and touch the tape, you can see them rear away from it.

This one is for veg growers. I had an allotment for years and got fed up with knobbly misshapen carrots and parsnips. Eventually I made a raised bed two feet deep and filled it with a mixture of seived compost and sharp sand, much to the amusement of the old timers on neighbouring plots.
Once growing well I covered them in enviro mesh raised on a frame of canes and thinned them out as needed.
Result, perfect straight carrots. Some of the old timers started to do the same and one even said 'Never thought I'd learn anything good from a woman!'