Gardeners' Chat

[MmePoppySeedDefage]

Chat. For gardeners. About gardening, but we can go off piste and chat about things like non-gardening clothes, or food or whatever, without being told off

I've been sowing veg seeds today ( better late than never...), and I was wondering what is the best way to open pockets of seeds.

Across the top, so the "sow by" date still shows, but then it's difficult to see the contents sometimes when you've folded the packet over a few times? Or should I use a paper knife along the bottom? Not a thumb under the flap, I think, as then it tears, and you risk losing important bits of paper. What does everyone do?

I hate seed packets for that reason.

None are 'the best seed packets' really.

However, the 'sow by' dates are absolute rubbish apart from carrots, parsnips and onions. Most other stuff will still germinate, it's just as the years go by, less and less of them will.

I now rip it open at the top, or cut the top so that I can open it, and once I've used the first batch, pour the rest into small ziplock bags and throw the tiny bag away, and put the ziplock back into the original envelope. Otherwise I end up with gazillions of seeds in the bottom of my seed box.

I am still sowing tomato seeds, from a company that went bust 20 years ago.

It depends on the packet, but I do enjoy opening them very carefully along the bottom using an Opinel knife. Afterwards I fold the packet over and seal it with a paper clip.

Tear the top off. As @AlisonDonut says, no need to worry about the “seed packed in” date. You’ll know if the seed has gone off - it doesn’t happen often. Just beware anything in the carrot family -carrot, parsnip, parsley, dill, coriander and, in the flower garden things like Amni.

I just fold the top over a couple of times and store them flat in a plastic takeaway box at the back of the fridge. However, I am currently sowing from a plastic bag labelled “crud from bottom of seed box”. It’s mostly lettuce

Yesterday I took advantage of the tiny rain we'd had to plant out some stuff I'd bought the previous weekend. Little scallions were okay, five lettuce plugs were crumpled wrecks with roots surrounded by powder. I thought I might as well put them in the ground as in the bin, so soaked them for a few minutes and put planted the pathetic crumpled scraps. We had another few mm of rain overnight, and lo! I have five lovely little lettuces sitting up and looking happy. I put a courgette and some dill plants in too, and have more dill to go in today.

I am short of peas and beans - might try to germinate some that I bought last year.

It's reassuring how plants can perk up, elderberry, I hope they all come on well. Need to start more peas here too as I had terrible germination rates earlier this year. I thought none of the courgettes had germinated so bought two plants, after which the first lot suddenly sprouted and are now fast catching up with the bought plants. I'll find someone to give them to. Also got two gherkins romping away and am looking forward to pickling them when ready.

A selection of bees have laid in our bee house. Guess which tube contains the patchwork leafcutter egg.

That’s pretty, Bint!

We have a few of those, but all that happens are spiders spinning webs over the entrances and (presumably) snaffling up the creatures when they try to emerge.

It’s a jungle out there!

Thanks all. Glad I'm not the only one who sows old seeds. I've still got a lot from the lovely Seedaholic, when they could still post to Great Britain. She sensibly packs the seeds in little ziplock bags.

@Kucinghitam Can they be sensitive with the lack of the lack of moisture. I've only started watering it a 5 nights ago, and then we've had a huge downpour last night, so hopefully, it'll be nicely revived. The leaves on mine are healthy enough. I have noticed in past years, the leaves yellow and crinkle up. Is that a bad sign?

Bumping thread to have a moan about back neighbour's bloody invasive weeds, because I know all I can do is curse privately and deal with them in my own garden.

This year, her garden has been completely infested with horsetail. A few of them started popping up in my planting beds, obviously I cut them down as soon as I saw them.

A couple of months ago, she got somebody in to spray her flowerbeds with some sort of Agent Orange, which killed the visible horsetail. But they didn't spray her lawn, which was also entirely infested with horsetail. Then a couple of weeks ago, the gardener person came back to strim down everything: the dead horsetail in the beds, and the living horsetail and 2-foot-high grass and giant dandelions in the lawn.

Earlier this week, I looked out from the upstairs window to observe that her flowerbeds were showing fresh new horsetail growth. And yesterday, sure enough, I found new horsetails in my beds and the buggers have spread to my lawn too.

Am I right in assuming that (as I wouldn't want to apply plant killers to my garden) all I can do is keep cutting the growth when it pops up?

Pretty well. Horsetail has a tough cuticle and isn’t easily tackled by weedkiller anyway.

Horsetails are hell. I have them in my 'pond' which has almost dried up as the nearly 30 years old butyl lining doesn't really work any more, and need to work out what to do if/when I reline or even move it. And whether there's any point trying to rescue the water lilies.

I've just remembered the time the botanic garden in Dublin set up a series of native plants beds - a bit of limestone pavements, a bit of raised bog, as well as more famailar habitats, and planted a vanishing rare native horsetail in one of them. Within three years everything was infested with the vrnh - still is, for all I know.

I suppose it's hardly surprising that a plant which has survived since the Devonian period is going to be an unkillable resilient tenacious bugger 😭

It wll still be there when we're all gone and dragonflies have taken over.

I remember seeing a programme, years ago, about the RHS garden at Harlow Carr. They have a big rockery area that was infested with horsetail and they did use a weedkiller to get rid of it. They showed the person with the sprayer crushing the plants with his heavy boots as he sprayed. Perhaps, if you contact them they'll tell you what weedkiller they used. I think regular mowing will get it out of lawns. I've heard one way of getting it out of flowerbeds it to turn them into lawn and keep mowing.

Does anyone know how quickly it spreads sideways?

The herbicide/Parkinson's disease connection makes me very wary of using chemicals to get rid of things. I do it, very carefully, ensuring no contact with either my skin or the ground, but not often.

Except it won't be dragonflies, it'll be cockroaches.

I’m having my garden landscaped at the moment and was just talking about horsetails yesterday. He says you need to let them grow a bit then strim them or whack them, then apply weed killer. Ie you need to break their protective outside layer first.

I suppose part of the problem is that I don't want to apply weedkiller, because I don't want to kill my actual plants.

Bit frustrating. When we moved in the garden was just a rectangle of soggy lawn and all your eyes registered was FENCE! We put in a lot of effort over the years, reducing the lawn, building triangular planting beds to disguise the shape of the garden, carrying a literal ton of river rocks, choosing plants to evoke a bit of East Asian sanctuary feeling to remind me of home...

If we'd left the garden as crappy lawn, we could have Agent Oranged the whole thing.

Perhaps we have to learn to love horsetail 😔. Apart from the aesthetic, are they actually detrimental to garden plants?

If left alone, horsetail will crowd out all but the most robust [1] plants. The odd frond thats escaped weeding isnt a problem, though.

[1] I'm quite tempted to put some oregano and mint into the horsetail-infested part of the garden and see who wins.

Maybe I should try making a mint lawn 🤔

He said just spot-spray the horsetail - I had the same concern

I can tell you that oregano wins in a stand-off with mint! Fortunately that bed didn't include horsetail so I can't tell you what happens if that joins in too