Try mulching with aluminum foil. Cats are not supposed to like it, and it will reflect more light onto your plants.
Try mulching with aluminum foil. Cats are not supposed to like it, and it will reflect more light onto your plants.
No cats since I put net around the veg patch. Cats can't get in.
Thanks for the aluminum foil tip, Seaside! A neighbor cat enjoys sleeping on my lavender. Very odd. I will try this remedy.
I hadn't heard of this before, thank you seaside. There is a little corner of my garden that the cats seem to love using as their toilet , so I will try this.Seaside
Posted by Dianecrna:
Posted by Aurora:Thanks for the aluminum foil tip, Seaside! A neighbor cat enjoys sleeping on my lavender. Very odd. I will try this remedy.
You're welcome! I hope it works! It might frighten the chipmunks, too, Dianecrna, now that I think about it.I hadn't heard of this before, thank you seaside. There is a little corner of my garden that the cats seem to love using as their toilet , so I will try this.
I think my basil is dying
When I brought it home, it was all perky with dark green, crispy leaves. Now it is a lighter green with soft, unperky leaves.
Last week we had a lot of rain here and it was a bit cold, so I brought the basil inside for nearly the whole week and didn't give it a whole lot of water.
What's wrong! It's sitting outside now, basking in the sun. The soil in the pot is still damp, so I don't think it needs any water.
A few days without sun, damp conditions - that's all it takes, especially if it's a young basil plant. It may rebound in the sun. I've had the same problem with basil and sometimes it can be revived. Good luck.
Perhaps its the constant change in temp, it doesnt like?.
I have just baught one and repotted it into a bigger pot its outside as we are having weather that is warm at the moment.
my four pots of basil, being kept in small, plastic greenhouse-type-thingy are really rampant and strong - how big is the pot? you could make a greenhouse/cloche type atmosphere by popping a used pop/water bottle over the pot to take the temp up to mediterranean temp or pop a large, clear plastic bag over pot to create the same environment?
ive been thinning out my spinach and carrot seedlings in the lovely hot and sunny garden today and will plant out my sunflower plants over the bank holiday weekend.
our veggie garden desperately needs a weed too!
Thanks for the hints guys!
The basil is teetering on the edge of life and death. When I got home from work tonight, it looked a little healthier than it did this morning. I think a good dose of sun did it some good.
If it doesn't look any more perkier tomorrow, I'm going to try that plastic bag trick cedar.
WOW!
first red strawberry in pot in greenhouse today! i cant eat it though - last year the same plant was growing wild in the ground and husband spotted the strawb. next day i ate it and told him a squirrel must have had it
this year he is saying squirelly nutkins is not having his strawbs [while looking slyly at me out of the corner of his eye!]
Not quite my garden but I went to the organic farm that I visit weekly during nice weather and they had a big basket full of dandelion greens, beet greens, kale, collard greens, raddichio and bibb lettuce all picked for me, I just had to take it home to wash. All organic and only $25 (would have been about $40 in a health food store).
have had lots of ripe strawbs from greenhouse plants - delish!!
also today made scrummy pour over sauce including mint and parsley from garden too.
have planted a fern around my pond and put up nut feeder and seed sticks after watching 'springwatch' cut grass and popped some cos lettuce in amongst the lollo rosso.
Got out into the garden and did some Autumn pruning - even though we have just entered Winter It's been very dry here so have to wait a little for the rains forcast this weekend for doing anything major.
I dug up Jerusalem artichokes and am pretty keen on trying something new with them. I usually scrub 'em and use them raw or steam them. Soup? Bake them? I am not sure what else to do with them - might have to google.
I pruned the perennial basil bush and the smell was wonderful. Feels really good to get out there and tidy things up - there's plenty more to do!
(Please let it rain soon!)
"if compassion is extreme, then call me an extremist"
My basil is continuing along, despite it's near death experience. My lavender is growing up nice and bushy, but no flowers yet.
Oh and I bought a pink watering can
veganblue
You can have soom of our rain, if you like, we have had loads and I am sure we could spare some!!!
Cheers muchly! I will send the postage! I imagine it will come by air freight?tails4wagging
"if compassion is extreme, then call me an extremist"
Yes, air frieght will do fine!!!!!
Rescued a big fat pigeon that got caught at the back of the netting by our strawberries on Friday morning while getting some basil out of the greenhouse! By Friday night all our brocilli and sprout plants had been decimated by guess who...........yes the big fat pigeon
We halved our first strawberry on Sunday and I had the most wonderful salad from my salad greens, lettuce, radishes and chives fresh from the garden. Sorted out the greenhouse and now the tomatoes, aubergines, melons, peppers, cucumber and squash have their own spaces. Huge courgette plant outside. Oh, I do love this time of year!
Well thats thanks for you, Aurora!!!!
Roxy
hows the basil doing, roxy?
i was putting some cold rice out for the birds today and saw a baby newt in my pond WOOHOOO dear little thing, no bigger than my little finger nail - i hope he survives and grows up
My basil got something nasty and died
The funny thing is, I moved it away from my other herbs on the patio and my husband went out there last night and was away for ages. When he came back in I asked him what he had been doing and he told me he had been watering the basil as it was dying Bless him
Start again some fresh soil, but I've got a salad tonight.......and no basil
Mine is still growing and flowering!!!!.
Pulled up two early potato plants two days ago, and had my first home grown pots,. lovely!!!.
Beetroot is very healthy, but unsure when to pull them up as they look very small but the plant is starting to flower!!.
We left ours last year and they got too big and totally inedible. They ended up in the compost bintails4wagging
It seems to be coming along well thanks, Cedar. We haven't had a lot of sun lately, so it's a bit droopy again, but as soon as it gets a day of sun, it seems it will perk up again.cedarblue
Bit worried about what's going on with the lavender though. It's growing up nice and bushy - but no flowers!
Erk - tails, this isn't a great sign unless you are more interested in the beetroot seeds than the roots! It's the same with carrots - once they start to bolt to seed they need picking as the plant will start transferring many of it's stored sugars and starches into forming nice healthy seeds, and the actual beet-root will be hard and woody and not so nice.tails4wagging
If you have had recent cold spells (???!) the Beets might run to seed thinking that Spring is on the way. The recommendations are to eat them while the size of golf balls since they will be sweetest then.
Some more info here.
"if compassion is extreme, then call me an extremist"
My beetroots are going to be a dissappointment as I pulled one up yesterday and it was very small about the size of a gob stopper!!. They are so leggy and have flowers on top!!.
Tails, you can still sow more beetroot!tails4wagging
It could just be the weather that made them 'bolt'.
I haven't even planted mine at all yet! I'm hoping to do it today or tomorrow. In my 'Vegetable Plotter' booklet, it says to sow them in June for winter storage
once in a while you can get shown the light
in the strangest of places if you look at it right
Thanks, i will try to sow more and pull t'others up. Will see if they are edible !!
Pulled the beets, up and threw them away!!. No good. Planted some more seeds of them.
planted radish seeds. Pulled up the last of he new potatoes up and they are lovely!!.
I used some of my fresh basil in a casserole I made last night! I feel so productive when I can eat something I grew myself!!
I always use fresh parsley from my garden (it is the only thing I have grown successfully )
yikes! my perpetual spinach is perpetually growing and going berserk - im going to turn into popeye at this rate trying to palm some off onto other mums at school. shame no-one here lives round the corner, i have loads to share.
have purchased 3 lovely loungers for the garden.
pond is still lovely and clear, no murky stuff in there so far.
potatoes are flowering well, so not long now
found cat lying by a poor little blue tit she had 'claimed'
bad kitty
claimed the last good elderflower heads yesterday and make a batch of elderflower cordial, should be ready in 5 days.mmmmm elderflower cordial...
doggone it! peppered my above post with smilies and was told i had used too many again!!!!! grrrr
The pomegranates are in bloom!
Never seen Pomegranite flowers before, I love pomegranites.
I have baught a peony rose called 'sorbet' it is new and has pink outer leaves and white frilly leaves with a red centre and is perfumed!!. Its lovely.
They come in white, too.tails4wagging
Your rose sounds beautiful. My favorite rose has always been Cecil Brunner, a tiny pale pink flower with a wonderful, spicy scent. It grew in my gramma's garden, and she always brought me a bouquet whenever she came to visit.
dear little wrens have made a nest in my virginia creeper up my house wall! dear little birdies with a very LOUD dawn chorus
How sweet, cedar. Wrens have very shrill songs for such a tiny bird.
My beets are coming up, so hopefully more success this time.
Runner beans are full of flower and I cant wait to dig up my main crop pots,.
just finished the last of 2nd early spuds and hope to be eating main crop maris pipers soon.
harvested my broad beans tonight which went with shepherds pie - yummy!
baby newts still in pond.
pea crop seems to have little wormies in the pods - any advice?
Started to eat my runner beans. yummy. new beetroot started to grow.
Now that we are having warmer weather, my basil plant won't stop growing!! It's great to be able to go out and pick a whole lot of leaves of there and still have loads left for the next meal!
Not sure about what's happening with the lavender. It's growing quite fast but not flowering.
What's everyone growing this year? Anyone trying anything new or tropical?
My avocado plant is beginning to recover and getting ready to go back outside (when it gets warmer) after I left it out on a freezing night when winter just started and it made all the leaves fall off and killed the main branch, oops!
Also trying chilli plants and just planted some tomatoes (lots of different coloured and shaped ones)
All I have is a balcony but I usually manage to grow a couple of tomatoe plants quite well out there. One year I grew beans too! This year I want to have my usual planting of herbs and tomatoes. I am thinking of trying another kind of bean like lima this year. Just not sure if I can grow them in pots very well.
We have recently moved to a new apartment and consequently for the first time ever we have our own back yard
It is barren right now put we have grand plans to transform it into a sanctuary via container gardening,a bench with an arbor overhead with dangling creepers,wall plaques,a Buddha and goddess statue,a bird bath etc...we have NO gardening experiance
I presented by beloved with a Valentine's gift of a planting set for flowers that smell of...chocolate (our very first garden item)
Any container gardeners here with any advice please?
oldsilverhead
Go for the deeper pots (at least 10 inches 12 is better) and be prepared to water, water, water. Potted plants outdoors seem to dry out really fast! The clay ones appeal to me for esthetic (sp?) reasons but the plastic ones hold in the water and nutrients better.
Thank you!
Any suggestions about vegan plant food and vegan methods of keeping plant-threatening insects away?
oldsilverhead
Is worm tea considered vegan? It is a by product made by worms. Very good fertilizer.
I usually look for things from Garden's Alive. It is an organic garden supplier in the states. Not everything is vegan though.
http://www.gardensalive.com/Default....cd2=1139968971
I have been growing 2 lavender plants since last summer. It is extremely hardy and seems to cope with any type of weather condition. It's been through the extreme heat of summer and it's still alive even after it was out in the snow for a few days.oldsilverhead
Plus the flowers look and smell gorgeous when they are blooming.
Wonderful!
We are also going to attempt to grow lavender because it is so pretty,our fav colour is purple and last but not least it has a calming fragrance
oldsilverhead
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