Does anyone grow this? Veggie? I'm counting on you having grown it. AKA love-in-a-puff or balloon vine. Will it thrive in the Midlands? It's tropical, so has to be grown as an annual, so I'd like to know if the season will be long enough to get it to seed, as the seed pods are the showy part.

Which beans are you growing in 2022?
Broad, French, Runner..............whatever! 
Please tell us how the grow for you and whether you'll grow them again.
Photos welcome, of course.

I’ve been given some seeds the scribble on the packet says “like rudbeckia 3ft tall with large leaves “
I’ve sown some but I’m not sure how to start researching what it might be?! Any idea?
Just so you understand fully what we’re dealing with. I also got a packet of seeds that say garlic onions. I’m guessing, these will turn into garlic chives.

I think it’ll turn out to be rudbeckia. But thought I’d ask.

I'm not shouting, its the title of a book. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Do-Grow-Books-A...1907974024
I acquired it recently and it "speaks" my language, its small, simple and to the point - bit like me apart from the last bit!!

Basically, the author, Alice Holden, recommends 10 vegetables (or groups of veg) that are easy to grow and give the best return according to the space you have , be it a window box or an allotment. The veg are in order of preference of ease of growth and intensity of flavour when picked fresh.

1. Hardy herbs - sage, rosemary, thyme, margoram
2. Tender herbs - parsley, basil, coriander, chervil. dill.
3. Summer salads - lettuce, endive, chicories
4. Winter salads -  rocket, landcress, red Russian kale, mizuna, mibuna, pakchoi, tatsoi, mustards and a few others
5. Chard & spinach
6. Beetroot
7. Courgettes & cucumbers
8. Tomatoes
9. Beans - French, Runner & Broad
10. Winter greens - Kale & Purple sprouting broccoli. 

I could have written this list myself as its what I grow - because its easy and productive! It also doesn't include all the veg that I struggle with - root crops, onions, cabbages & caulis.

There's a simple growing calendar that covers all of these that I may try to follow. If I have the energy tomorrow, I'll let you know what I should be doing now!!
This could be my New Plan.

There is a spiders web in a shed that had a big spider in it, big body and stocky legs. I used to notice it every time I went in till yesterday when there was a much smaller spider in the web and the big spider was nowhere to be seen.

Do spiders every move home? Or can they shrink in size?

Toads trying to produce the next generation. There’s a poor female somewhere in the middle of that lot.

         

As Easter is fast approaching, I thought it was time we had another competition.

A £25 gardening voucher ( book vouchers for children) for the person who creates anything Easter related and wins the popular vote.

You have until midnight on the 18th April......get creative people!

I've never had a greenhouse before and don't really know what can be out there at different times of the year. However, my dining room table (by south facing french doors) can't take any more seedlings so I could really do with moving things either to the greenhouse or outside as soon as possible. My dining room has the heating turned off, but does get warm during the day because of the big windows.

I have:

Onions (Red Baron, Ailsa Craig, Welsh Bunching)
Leeks (not many - had rubbish germination)
Cabbages
Lettuce/salad mixes (have a container of salad in the greenhouse now, but that was started out there)
Tomatoes
Sweetpeas 
Cauliflowers
Artichokes
Allium (yes, singular - I didn't do well with these!)
Zinnias
Tomatillos
Cucumber
Watermelon
Lemongrass
Radishes
Mustard
Kohlrabi
Chillies
Aubergines

I'm thinking definitely not the chillies, tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelons, or aubergines.

Moving the onions would free up the most space. What do you all think?

Would hydrangeas make a good hedge? 

Any other suggestions for flowering hedge would be appreciated. Especially ones that are easy to work out when to prune so it flowers again the following year.  Some varieties of berberis for example can’t be pruned in autumn because they don’t flower the following year. So I discovered   . I don’t like & won’t pruning anything in spring/ summer, bird nesting season. 

Also while we’re on hedges     . Would you go with one variety of hedging plant or mixed?

I was thinking one variety. So it’d grow at same speed & pruning time would be the same. Is that good thinking ?

I'm not much a flower grower, edibles always seem to take priority, but I do have a LOT of flower seeds. Its time for a cunning plan

I've started with the A flowers and pulled out all the seeds that should have been sown before 2020. Then I sorted them into groups - annuals for cut flowers, flowers for drying, perennials, shade lovers, tall, ground cover or, when there are a lot of the same flower - like Antirrhinum and Achillea I've kept them together. I'll mix the seeds in each group together.
I've made a list of the seeds that are in each group so that I'll have a better chance of identifying anything that grows.
Since I'll never get round to sowing them in trays/pricking out and so on, I'm going to scatter them in an appropriate spot and hope for the best. They'll have more chance of growing this way than being stuck in a box in a cupboard. Just one plant from each batch would be a bonus.