What have you done in the garden today? Part 2

[ThreeRingCircus]

A continuation of the last thread.

Not quite as far up as G, @NorthernChinchilla - and one of my large hydrangeas wilted horribly in the dry spell, I cut most of it down except for a couple of newer shoot which weren't as bad and they're recovering and growing.

Yesterday, it's a bloody cold 6 degrees this Monday morning in Melbourne, I applied soil wetter to the 6 newish saplings/decanted container shrubs in the front garden. It hasn't rained very much and I'm on sand so they dry out very quickly.

After three years of La Niña, we have El Niño on the way and it's showing - no daytime temperature below 13, and few of them this winter - spring flowering a good six weeks ahead of time is evident all round. It all feels nice after some meh summers, but the BOM's never wrong on the big picture and this one will be a doozy.

Still, today will be a lovely 16 so I'll get going on the weeding - needless to say the mild winter has seen rush of them.

@Bideshi Take it easy today, and hopefully you’ll feel able to function to some degree tomorrow.

i’ve hoicked out of the deepfreeze last autumn’s quince and made 12 jars of jam. Have another 12 jars to go. And a scary 22.5lbs of quince flesh to make into membrillo/marmelada. Still, I shouldn’t need to make any more this autumn, so I’ve been looking up appetising quince recipes.

I also took advantage of yesterday afternoon’s sunshine to pick raspberries, tayberries, alpine strawberries so shouldn’t need to today, good job as it’s tipping it down.

Walked across the park last night - there was a whole host of big black slugs, getting on for 100 of them, all homing in on a tasty pile of dog poo

No idea, because I grow mine in pots in the greenhouse (they’re good at trapping fungus gnats on their sticky leaves), but to my mind they’re the nicest of the Nicotianas. That smell!

You’ve reminded me that I haven’t grown nicotiana for more than 20 years. Something on the to do list for next year! I used to grow n sylvestris but I like the look of n langsdorfii, which Carol Klein often mentions.

This one? This is sheltered by a wall in a south facing bed. Most of our garden beds are exposed but this is one spot where we can grow more tender plants such as nicotiana and salvias.

I can't take credit for the original planting though as they were here when we bought the house 16 months ago along with lots of other lovely things!

Omg not sure which is the worst, the black slugs or the dog poo. What a combination! I actually didn't realise that slugs are attracted to faeces , every days a school day round here I wish they'd eat the NDN cat doos rather than my lupins!

Ahh the area I grew up in! I went to University down south and ended up meeting DH at uni and staying here...now in Berkshire but I agree it's a lot drier down here and harder water than Lancs!

I've been away from the thread for ages as life just got in the way and it's been so, so wet. Today is a beautiful sunny day though so I've finally been out and had a good sort out. I lifted some garlic, sorted out the sunflowers that the rain and wind had knocked flat (not all survived unfortunately) and I've moved some pots around. I watched the bees on my pumpkin flowers and the butterflies on the buddleia. The lawn needs a good cut but it's still damp so will leave that for another day.

Still feeling rubbish but I did rescue a pelargonium sidoides that was dwindling because it's been so cold here. It's been put into a smaller pot and brought in to windowsill hospital. Also put a transparent strawberry punnet over a small chloranthus japonica that I planted a few days ago but which has been eaten by something. Voles probably.

@MereDintofPandiculation I have topped and tailed six kilos of jostaberries to add to the eight jars of jam that DH made yesterday. Not sure what to do with them. They do make the most delicious jam but I think we're going to have to start selling it at this rate. It was boring but thank heavens for Radio 4.

I love nicotiana sylvestis but our season is usually to short here to get it into flower from a spring sowing. One bee I have in my bonnet concerns this really nice plant though. It's a species - a plant brought into cultivation from the wild - so nicotiana sylvestis is its actual name. It does not need the additional moniker 'Only the Lonely' - looking at you and growling, Thompson and Morgan. See also aquilegia viridiflora 'Chocolate Soldier.' It's just the wild form, seed grown and not a selection so doesn't need the naff name. Steps daintily off horticultural soapbox.

@Bideshi I'm assuming the nicotiana is a short lived perennial in the right spot as I certainly haven't sown it and it's in the same place as last year?

Sorry that should have been to @MereDintofPandiculation 😊. But anyone knowledgeable will do!!!

Yes, when I used to grow nicotiana sylvestris I treated it as an annual and binned it every autumn. It was only quite recently I read that, in the right conditions, it’s a short-lived perennial. If only I’d known.

I’m chuckling and wincing at Bideshi’s demolition of T&M. I’m currently nurturing some seedlings of aquilegia viridiflora ‘Chocolate Soldier’, grown from seeds which came with a magazine. I’ll rewrite the label toot sweet!

How funny that there's three of us from the same small area! @ThreeRingCircus if you went to the High School in G then our paths may have crossed.
Need to go out and water the pots... clearly the various downpours we've had haven't been enough to penetrate through to them.
Bloody wind blew over two pots I have at the front, very beautiful pale blue glaze large (and bloody expensive!) things, amazed that neither broke.

And looks like it is going to rain all next week, which will be great for keeping things alive, not so great for our UK holiday

I didn't go to G High School, I was in Lancaster for secondary as lived a bit further up the A6 but nice to see that small corner of England crop up on this thread! 😍

My dd went to Lancaster for secondary.

That's what I assume - I haven't planted any but they have sprung up all over the place, I suspect from composted seeds (from 2 years ago no less).

One thing that's bugging me seeing as we're on the subject - pronunciation. I always said nik-o- tain-ee-ana but on Gardeners W they say nik-oh-cee-ah-na. Or something! What do you all say?

@WobblyLondoner I thought it was pronounced nic-oh-she-ARNA. With equal emphasis on the last two syllables. But could be completely wrong 😊

Slugs are really important in clearing up dead and decaying material of all kinds. Of the umpteen species of slug in the uk, only a few eat live plants. There are some slugs which eat other slugs.

@catwithflowers Yes, that looks like N sylvestris

Hmm. I think over the years I have mutated from nic-oh-ti-ARNA to nic-oh-she-ARNA. This could prove highly divisive, like clematis and secateurs!

@Bideshi It was boring but thank heavens for Radio 4. At least jam is relatively fast! It took me two hours to do a batch of marmelada (quince paste)! Most of that time stirring a pan furiously spitting napalm-like sugar and quince paste over walls, ceiling and floor. Two more batches to go.

Aquilegia viridiflora - Since the species name means “green flower” I googled this picture of the wild species. I know you say not, but is it possible that “Chocolate Soldier” is a selection with particularly brown flowers? though I would never claim Flickr to be an authoritative source.

Yes, that’s how it behaves for me. I grow it in the greenhouse, I don’t think it would survive the winter with me.

@NorthernChinchilla At least you won’t be miserably baking in S Europe.

That's how I'd pronounce it too.