Things I have learnt about gardening this year.

MaizieD

I've learned (yet again; I really should know better) that it's futile to try to establish a nepeta mussinii (catmint) if you have a cat. It's a wonderful plant that flowers all summer and I'd love to have it in the garden, but the cat loves it so much that it rubs out all the new shoots in the spring and it eventually dies...

Now I'm just wondering if I could grow it in a big hanging basket

Put a hanging basket upside down over the plant in your garden, in the spring. Eventually the plant will grow through and hide the basket and your cat won't be able to flatten it.

I planted cat mint, specifically for my cats but they weren't interested in it.

Oh, what a good idea. Thanks, Dinahmo

Where can I get a not interested in catmint cat from? I've had many over the years and they all loved it to death!

Chewbacca I paid double for a blue hydrangea for DH and it turned out to be a common or garden pink one. And the apple tree, don't even go there .....

You can change the colour of your hydrangea Callistemon. The colour of the flowers is entirely dependent upon whether your soil is alkaline or acidic so you can either do a ph test to determine what you have or, more simply, dig in a couple of rusty nails or copper coins.

I bought him another one, planted it in a large pot in ericaceous compost, etc etc. Chewbacca
It died.

they do take up an awful lot of water if they're grown in a container and are dead quick to dry out. Daffodils are nice? Maybe?

I thought it had had too much water over the winter!
The pink ones do fine here.
It's not the only thing which has been planted in that ericaceous compost which has died.

I find hydrangeas really difficult to grow. Here there are enormous plants growing out of holes next to house walls. Same with climbing roses. I have difficulty keeping an hydrangea going, even in a pot.

I've got a dark leaf hydrangea that has deep pink blooms, in a large pot. It's doing well this year. I worried about the hydrangeas in the garden a couple of months ago, lots of leaves that curled over brown at the end. They seem to have rallied and look glorious now, huge pink blossoms.
Chewbacca -my mum was always digging rusty nails or similar under the soil our hydrangeas grew in,, she'd no luck in transforming them

I think you can buy Hydrangea Colourant at garden centres but the advice I got was to plant your hydrangea in a pot of ericaceous compost as well. I did keep one blue for a couple of years this way, but then it got rather big and I planted it in the garden. It promptly turned pink.

It started to sprout earlier this year then just went black and died
I did wonder if it was frost.

Well I have just learned that the holes in my cavolo nero seedlings that I was so proud of, are due to tiny green Caterpillars which are cleverly camouflaging themselves against the leaves.
MrA likes little jobs so he’s currently engaged in picking them all off

Just found out that putting seed potatoes in a dark cupboard and forgetting them for three months is not a good idea. Result, half an hour removing stinking bubbling brown liquid that has seeped into everything in cupboard. That’s a roll of fifty bin bags, two bags cat food And a partridge in a pear tree. ?

Bluebellwould

I shouldn't laugh at your predicament
But I did ???
Sorry!

I have found that lots of rain makes the veg grow.
And lots of rain is preventing me from going out harvesting it.

And that a combination of pigeons and the caterpillars of cabbage white butterflies demolish sprouting broccoli.
Why can't the pigeons eat the butterflies instead?

Thanks Callistemon, I’d have laughed too if I wasn’t trying to breathe in the smell!
The rain has made my tomatoes grow to about 5 foot high, but there is only a few tomatoes and they are a lovely emerald green, not a tinge of red anywhere.
Just hoping for an Indian summer.

I just smelt your cupboard Bluebellwould, is it my excellent imagination or am I really a witch?

I had too many tomato plants so now have a tomato hedge. I have discovered that it doesn't take seven hours to dry tomatoes in the oven as per the advise for sun-dried tomatoes - it take 18 at least!

18 hours to make sun dried tomatoes? It's cheaper to buy a kilo at the deli!

One thing I learnt about gardening yesterday was not to let GC go into the garden and pick Grannie's tomatoes. They grab them and pull them off so hard they take the whole truss, including those nice big fat ones that were just beginning to ripen. ?

I did the sundried tomatoes thingy a couple of years ago, all packed into nice jars with garlic, good olive oil and bay leaves.
They must still be at the back of the fridge somewhere.

I ve learnt that sweet corn isn’t ‘going to seed‘ when the flower pops out the top that’s just the male flower and further down the stalk will be your female flower peeping out and getting fat and luscious
That’s what I’ve learned

Callistemon

I did the sundried tomatoes thingy a couple of years ago, all packed into nice jars with garlic, good olive oil and bay leaves.
They must still be at the back of the fridge somewhere.

I've just got a lot of cherry tomatoes finishing off. They 'do' a lot quicker than the big ones and are ready diced! We do use dried tomatoes so I hope they won't end up at the back of the cupboard!

I’ve learnt that Harry the neighbourhood peacock loves ripe gooseberries. The little darling completely stripped our one and only gooseberry bush in a couple of evenings before we caught him red handed. Lately we have learned that he is partial to newly planted violas and now he’s made a start on the Rosemary. DH reckons he’s making himself oven ready with that one!

Just got round to reading this thread now. Some brilliant tips thank you all very much. Unfortunately, bluebellwould my tomatoes do look like triffids. I should have tied them up much earlier but will try harder next year!

Next year I MUST stake my tall cactus dahlias when Monty, Sarah, Adam et al, tell us to do so.

Mine are floundering and need tying in two or three times a week to bamboo canes and some strong green plastic ones from Wilko. I think next year I need a job lot of broom sticks.

I'm impressed that some make their own sundried tomatoes!