Some of you may remember that, once upon a time, I had 30 beds in the garden, and I wanted to grow an alphabetically themed Root, Shoot, Fruit, Leaf, Herb and Flower in each of 26 beds. I was more organised than I remember because I've found a book of scale plans for each bed, marked up to show the perennial plants and with empty seed packets for whatever I sowed in that bed. Yes, I was surprised too.

Today, I've been playing in Bed 1A and spotted some Alliums emerging. Thanks to my newly-discovered plan, I can identify them as either Allium Mount Everest or Sphaerocephalum as both were planted in this bed. Don't think I'll find any Aquilegia "Swan mix" or the Achillea Millefolium "Cassis" and the Asparagus peas, Aquadulce broad beans, Aster, Alyssum and Agastache are long gone. The Apple Mint is thriving, however. 
I've sown some Agastache and Anise seeds there today and, I'm going to pick up the alphabet theme and try it again. It'll be harder because I've reduced the number of beds since then but the perennial plants haven't moved, only the edging so I should be able to identify most of the plants. 
 Wonder what I'll find in Bed 2B tomorrow?

I know some of you are very organised with your spreadsheets and diagrams and my plans will be pathetic doodles in comparison but I'm impressed with them - even though the scale is a bit iffy.

We are lucky enough to be a release garden for rehousing hedgehogs from a local charity.   I think they live under the shed even though we supply them with a nice home lined with straw!   They have easy access to water from our small wildlife pond and there is a wild area at the bottom of the garden with many trees, bushes etc which is a good foraging area for them.  I really love them but oh the mess they leave is amazing for such little guys.  I'm hoping they will repay  us by keeping the slugs down this summer .

Strong little glossy seedlings coming up in a Salvia pot.
Don’t think it’s a weed!

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Have been given a Ginger Lily, I know it needs a sunny border, just wondering if any of you clever folk could give me any tips on growing it successfully. 
Thanks.

In trying to get enough compost to go no-dig on the allotment, I've found an offer of compost mixed with perlite that was previously used for growing salads. Assuming the recycled nature of the compost wasn't itself an issue, would there be a problem adding a load of perlite in compost as a mulch?

Surly lists like this must put people off from ever attempting to grow their own anything! Why make the simplest things so complicated. Maybe it’s just me it would put off if I was just starting out. Do any of you do all the things on this list? I do the watering and the removal of the dead. But all the other faffing about. No not at all.

   


Just looked at this again and it was written by the Canadian version of our uk company. But our company shared it. With the phrase “wise words”

Help needed. I have one bed really.  It will definitely be having rambling rose France E lester planted in it. What else would you plant ? I've got so much to choose from, I don't know where to start. The bed is roughly 1m x 2m .

In Morries this week, I bought a bag of Yellow Sticker ginger roots for 18p - and, by coincidence, there were 18 roots in the bag. The exposed, trimmed roots were a bit mouldy but the roots  are firm. They're probably the smaller pieces that were left on the shelf because they're fiddly to peel.  
No sign of knobbly growing buds yet but I live in hope. 
I've tried growing ginger several times, without any success. Does anyone have any tips?

I have several packets of round courgette seeds that have sat around for a few years, including Tondo di Piacenza, Tondo di Toscana, Eight Ball, De Nice a Fruit Rond & Piccolo. 
Round courgettes don't seem "right" to me - they should be long and straight. Not just that but they should be worth picking & big enough to eat. 
According to their packets, De Nice a Fruit Rond is best eaten raw when golfball size. Eight Ball is best harvested at pool/snooker ball size. I ask you, what is the point of growing something so small? I'd need at least 6 to make a meal.
Tondo di Toscana says" can be cropped from golf ball size for eating raw, slightly larger for slicing to tennis ball size for stuffing. Even a tennis ball doesn't seem very filling to me. 
Tell me, please, do you grow round courgettes and are they worth the effort?

Tell us how many plants you're growing and how many you pick. 
Cucumbers, courgettes, squash, melons and so on - all are welcome!

2022 thread - https://gardenandgossip.org/showthread.php?tid=1478
2021 thread  https://gardenandgossip.org/showthread.p...529#pid529
2020 thread https://gardenandgossip.org/showthread.p...71&page=22