Gardening tips and ideas

[Diane65]

Husband decided last year to take an interest in the garden and planted lots of wildflower seeds in a raised bed (along with our perennial herbs). It looked great in bloom and got him hooked so he has now planted wildflower seeds in a variety of areas and we are hoping for similar displays. This also solves the dilemma of weeding as we never know if it's a weed growing or a wildflower so we just leave it alone which suits us but may not suit a more fastidious gardener!

I love natural gardens and it just isn't my style to have the more formal park type gardens all in a line which lots of people love and I must admit they are delightful but I don't want it at home. I do have straight edges on my paths but trying to soften them with plants tumbling over the edges.

[Sunny Saver]

I've managed to get some free seeds off MSE, sunflower and wildflower. Just need a bigger garden now :). Also, as I share the front garden with my neighbour downstairs, he's sharing the cost and also I'm going to scatter seeds in his back garden.

I'm lucky that he's offered to split the costs, as I'm sure some gardens look rubbish in my street because neither party can be bothered to do anything cos of the cost.

Even if he hadn't offered, I would have done it myself.

[Sunny Saver]

I b*ght some sacks of MiracleGro compost and have grown primroses, geraniums, petunias and money plants in them. Some of the soil is fine, but some of the pots of soil have become mouldy. These are all outdoor plants. Any suggestions or advice please?

[steve9872]

A bit of a history lesson here:

Farmers in the olden days always rotated their crops on a 3 year cycle to prevent pests and diseases taking hold and ruining the crops. For this each farmer had 3 fields and for many centuries one was left fallow, ie nothing was grown, so that the field could recover nitrogen levels. Until the discovery that legumes take nitrogen from the air not the soil, at which point the fallow year became productive.
This was when all production was organic and nobody had heard of pesticides, fungicides etc. The system worked. The farmers knew they would lose some of their crop, but most survived so it was a workable system.

[stone_monkey]

Hi, sunny saver.... do your pots have vents in the bottom and did you put some rubble in the bottom of each pot prior to putting in your soil/compost. The lack of the above maybe causing it - no drainage causing water logging and could promote mould growth.

[Sunny Saver]

Thanks stone monkey, they have a few small vents, no rubble though. Do I need to discard all the soil or just get rid of the mould?

Thanks.

Free seeds with the Daily Telegraph today.

[stone_monkey]

Hi sunny saver, erring on the side of caution I'd use fresh soil/compost as you don't know how deep its penetrated and disturbing the soil mixes it further in. For your rubble you can use chippies of the drive or broken clay pots, anything to give some airflow and water drainage. I know some people drill a few more holes in the base which can be useful if its a big volume pot with not much in the way of drainage holes. I hope this works for you.

M

[Sunny Saver]

Thanks. I'll drill more holes.

[Diane65]

A bit of a history lesson here:

Farmers in the olden days always rotated their crops on a 3 year cycle to prevent pests and diseases taking hold and ruining the crops. For this each farmer had 3 fields and for many centuries one was left fallow, ie nothing was grown, so that the field could recover nitrogen levels. Until the discovery that legumes take nitrogen from the air not the soil, at which point the fallow year became productive.
This was when all production was organic and nobody had heard of pesticides, fungicides etc. The system worked. The farmers knew they would lose some of their crop, but most survived so it was a workable system.

I remember doing this at school about the Romans and arable farming you've brought back happy memories from schooldays.

Aldi have got some Italian terracotta pots in at the moment for £4.99 so I have b*ght one and filled it with a purple/pink fuscia to put outside the playhouse (cats summer house now and also have a bed in case it rains ). Couldn't find any feet today for my plant pots even B and Q had sold out so still on the hunt. Thanks everyone for all your tips.

[Preston1990]

I know that this is a bit late - but Diane was asking about viruses on busy lizzies a couple of days ago. I've just spotted this interesting article on the Aldi website.

preventing viri