Hi all,

Last year I started several varieties in the autumn and transplanted them out this year when the weather warmed up. In retrospect, many were not recommended for growing on and planting out due to root disturbance or other issues. However, the hollyhocks, foxgloves, and poppies were actually all fine. I think I also had some annual cornflowers and calendula.

I'm wondering what varieties you may try to sow early to get earlier or first-year flowering where it might otherwise not occur.

This year I have larkspur, delphinium, canterbury bells, lupins...I'll have to investigate to see what else is about. Not sure if any are suitable for autumn sowing/overwintering in the GH. Any thoughts?

Thanks!

I have some tomatoes in hanging baskets (Tumbling Bella) and a raised bed (First in the Field). I've been feeding them weekly since they started setting fruit, but with the weather so wet at the moment, I don't want to give them a liquid feed and make them totally waterlogged. I'm sure it'll be fine if they skip a week, but for those of you on the wetter side of the country who have more experience than me here in dry-as-dust East Anglia, do you have any tips in case the rain continues?

Should I bring the hanging baskets indoors to prevent waterlogging? Last time I did that (to avoid blight), we immediately had a heatwave and they struggled in my south-facing conservatory. Hopefully we won't have a repeat of that, but I'm torn!

               

I need more Herbs in my life and I know how to get them FREE!! 
I'm challenging myself to take cuttings every day until.......................I forget.

Today's Herb is Pineapple Sage  - Salvia Elegans aka Salvia Rutilans. I love the smell of the leaves (its pineapple in case you can't guess) and the bright red flowers. Its hardy outdoors here and easy to grow from cuttings. The Flower photo was taken in November so its extra valuable to have flowers at that time of year.

I've taken cuttings of this year's side shoots; removed the lowest leaves and woody bit at the bottom of the stem and stuck them in a jar of water on the window sill.

Afternoon folks

Apart from asking Veggie what a perennial leek would taste like I think my questions have been ok for a while

That said here we go Would there be any benefit of sowing green manure into a newly manured bed to give it an additional boost???

Ok, so most years I get a couple but this year has been pretty prolific, and my potatoes have produced about 5-8 berries on most plants. 

As the plant is part of the nightshade family like tomato it should grow from seeds in these berries. I’m wondering who has had a go at growing potatoes from berries and does it produce potatoes the following year or does it only create tubers in it’s second year.

I fancy giving some berries a go, to see the results next year

Some plants cannot be propagated from seed as the seeds they produce are sterile. They can only be grown from cuttings from the parent plant. 
The most well known is Bocking 14 Comfrey, the one we all want to grow as it won't self seed everywhere like the other comfreys.

African Blue basil is another one - as I've just found when I searched for seeds!

Are there are any other sterile plants that you know of, please?

   

They're forming bulbils in the flowerheads now. Each of these bulbils will grow another leek - but it takes a couple of years to grow large enough to grow its own bulbils. Once they're established they keep growing back every year.
Don't ask me what they taste like as I don't eat them - I grow them because I like having them in the garden; they're the county flower of Cardiff, they grow wild only in a few places around the coast of the UK- and because they're unusual. The bees love the flowers, as they do every allium head.

           

I have 4 little apple trees in the garden that I know I haven't planted (as even I wouldn't plant an apple tree that close to another one!). There's no sign of a graft on the trunks and one of the trees has the little clusters of "roots" on the main stem that are on an apple tree I've grown from a cutting on its own roots.

Since they're very close to other apple trees I think they may have grown from some fallen apples - as I'm very bad at clearing them up and usually leave the apples for wildlife. No flowers or fruit to help with checking their parentage. maybe next year?

Don't be fooled by the apples that look as if they're on the tree - they're on the nearest tree that could be the parent.

Thunderstorm at 4 has left us without power and not expected back on until 05.30 tomorrow. Engineers think it’s a cable fault so currently digging somewhere.

I just think they need to put a shilling in the meter

While googling for something unrelated, I fell down an internet rabbit hole and found this fascinating article from English Heritage:

Weeding Women: Shaping England's Gardens

Evidently I had better not try to grow "gourds" (I think Pliny meant melons?) as they would be killed by my femininity!