Gran/Grandads Gardening Corner

We don't really eat potatoes - see low-carb thread. ?
Disaster on the fruit front here. We had three very hard frosts in early May and lost all the plums, peaches, apricots, cherries and apples. The last are a catastrophic loss for Normandy.
My roses are very late too. The frost took out all the buds. ?

Well done - we have much less. Half to potatoes, the other half lettuce onions beetroot and various beans.
No tomatoes this year.
Might put some peppers in later. Herbs are elsewhere.
BTW re potatoes - we planted 3 rows in March, another 3 in April. The earlies are nearly ready, flowers starting to fade.
But the others look healthy but have no sign of flowers - will they still produce fruits?
I can't remember what kind they were.

Sounds lovely, Mamie.

Only half an acre and beds are mostly 1.2 metre square. We distribute plants and exotic veg around the village (our French neighbours are sometimes a bit bemused) and freeze lots for the winter. ?

Wow! Not we.

Good grief, Mamie. Forty raised beds? You must have acres of garden - or do you run a nursery?

We Mamie Respect,

Spotted helpful DH tidying up the clematis. Too late. It is not attached to the root at all now.

Forty raised beds now planted out. Tomatoes, all sorts of brassica, all sorts of beans, salad leaves, beetroot, aubergines, courgettes and other strange trumpet shaped things, peppers, herbs, strawberries, raspberries. Cucumbers and more tomatoes in the greenhouse. Empty potting shed. Time to lie down in the shade. ?

Aquilegia grows wild here as well, but only blue. I was once walking in a new area and saw this mass of blue in a floral meadow. I went to see what it was - aquilegia .
Soon after I found some nearby on the banks of a stream. I hope they don't disappear.

I grew some aquilegia from seed many years ago. The packet said that they were shades of blue and pink, some single some double, and so they were, really nice strong colours and the double ones particularly good. Some of the original plants lasted for years.
The following year there were a lot of self-sown seedlings, which I left until they flowered and I could see how they turned out. I dug up and threw out the ones I didn't like and moved the good ones to other places. I still get seedlings appearing in unexpected places and repeat the selection process.

I thought aquilegia were indestructible - mine seem to be, but I have never had a mildew problem. Something to look out for. We passed some growing wild yesterday; a lovely deep purple colour. Some were going to seed, and I thought about collecting a few, but I read somewhere that you can't guarantee getting them true to type when they're grown from saved seed.

Interesting shysal as quite a lot if ours failed this year, only about half a dozen are ok.

My neighbour has just informed me that she has downy mildew on her aquilegias. Apparently it is wiping out lots of these plants, including the national collection. What a shame, they are a lovely splash of colour early in the season. I only have a few which look OK, but I shall be keeping an eye on them in future.
slincsgardensoc.wordpress.com/2017/05/07/danger-aquilegia-downy-mildew-alert/

Nandalot, what a shame. I have mine in a big trough which is about three feet from the ground. I'm sure slugs are clever enough to climb up to them but so far they haven't. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

roses - mine were not flowering either. Monty's advice was to pinch off the top, just above two offshoots, so then you should get two flowering heads where before you would have had one. Makes 'em bush out a bit, I expect. I think aubretia would flower again if you gave it a haircut now. Worth a try anyway.

We planted 24 cosmos seeds in a tray of individual cells. A phenomenal six grew quite well, Today there were only 4 left. The slugs had found them.
I love cosmos.

Our Cosmos are not flowering yet! mind you they haven't been planted all that long.
Does anyone give aubretia a haircut, and if so will it flower again this year?

Following Monty Don's advice on Friday's Gardeners' World, I pinched out the tops of my cosmos plants today. Monty said this would slow them down but give me more flowers. I hope he's right and I haven't beheaded them for nothing!

Nina, I'm in the south too. Just a bit of a late starter!

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That sounds like a good tip shysal will have to remember that and try it out.

Delphiniums in the garden,not all out yet,should be some white ones as well.
A new patio rose bought the other week, unusual, red and white.If anyone is inteseted I will find the label but think it is called Genie.

Had my first picking of strawberries today. Tried a tip for hulling them which I had seen on TV. Take a plastic drinking straw and poke it up from the pointed end and it cuts out a neat core complete with 'leaves' - easy!
What is the green bit called, is it the hull? Got a mental block!

Alima my neigbour brought me a dish of his first crop of strawberries yesterday. We're in SE I'm guessing your more in the North

NORAH rake your mossy bits (the lawn) and put some grass seed down in the bare parts. Cover to keep the pigeons off. Water and pray.

Was that the MO Bacter gilly?We have had good results too, but not quite like yours as yet.
The alliums look great!