I spend a lot of time working on our garden growing vegetables, fruit and flowers.

I hope I can learn new advice etc from everyone.

How much lyme do I add to very acidic soil?

I sowed lovage & lemon balm in cells next to each other. Only one came up. But came up in both cells. Never grown either before so no idea which one grew. Repotted today. Are they big enough for an ID?

   

Definitely didn’t plant this.
Also got another popping up in another spot nearby.
About three and a half foot tall. Large heads of of creamy white florets. Not much in way of leaves yet.
Slightly fragrant.

Attached Files

Thumbnail(s)
   

Bob made some bird boxes last week when we got rained off from building one day last week.

   

We put them up yesterday morning

         

No one has moved in yet! 

We’ll probably make some more out of cladding off cuts .

Two lupins in the border next to each other, one is thriving the other yellowing and small.  They're nothing special, I can't remember what colour but probably bog standard mauve/ blue. What can I do to strengthen the poorly one. Soil is alkaline and reasonably free draining although it is soggy with all the 4ain.

Every year we buy compost and have the same discussions about what rubbish it is. Or we make our own (or try too!). 
I can see the benefits of home composting and returning that to the soil but why do we sow seeds in "compost" when we also direct sow into the ground? Why don't we scrape up some garden soil and sown our seeds into that? 
I'm starting to think that commercial "compost" should be renamed "con-post". Can anyone convince me otherwise?

Share your delight at picking the first fruit or veg or flower or nose of 2023 

Is it earlier or later than in 2022 https://gardenandgossip.org/showthread.php?tid=1468

 or
2021? https://gardenandgossip.org/showthread.php?tid=1047

For anyone looking to buy some peat free compost, these are some current prices:

Wickes own brand 50L for £5 (no green waste compost, a mix of wood fibre, composted bark and coir, I quite like it)
Sainsburys 2 x 40L Levington for £8 (I wasn't happy with this stuff last year, contains green waste compost and had quite a bit of plastic contamination)
Home Bargains 40L for £3.49 (not been to a shop to see it myself, if it's the same as the Growmoor stuff they usually sell it's decent quality)
Lidl 40L for £3.49 (no idea what this stuff is like, if they're like Aldi it'll be mostly green waste compost)

These bean seeds escaped their packet, any idea what they could be.  Its not one I've grown before so it might be a seed swap one.   They are predominantly white/creamy coloured with black mottling around their 'belly button', I've no idea what that bit is called