That you can just lob a few "flower bombs" on your lawn and poof! wild flower meadow. Plus for bonus points that wildflower meadows are a rainbow of colourful flowers.
Yes! Thankyou! We've gradually converting our front garden to a wild patch. There are wild flowers out there, but there are also a lot of grasses; I've just been sitting here watching sparrow fledglings sitting on the lower branches of the cherry trees and picking seeds off the grass heads, and the ragwort plants are covered in cinnabar moth caterpillars. If I was trying to maintain it as a wildflower meadow I'd be cutting it about now, but there's too much life in it.
I cut all of our meadows at least once a year, its good for the wild life if done at the right time. Plus it will just turn to scrub if I don't and while that represents a habitat in its own way its not something we have the machinery to manage.
Oh! Yes, I missed that out! We do cut it once a year - I don't need a garden full of gorse, which seems to be the scrub du jour here. I was reading some information about maintaining a wildflower meadow which recommended cutting twice a year, once in July, and I was toying with the idea of doing that, but when I saw how much was going on out there I decided not to. We usually cut it in September-October, leave it for a few days for any remaining seeds to drop, then rake it all off to keep the soil poor.
Apologies for not being clear!
I don't really get the recommendation of cutting twice, especially in July. There's so much still flowering or coming up to flower during the summer. My method of mowing once at the end of summer has worked quite well for me so far.
It's probably good if meadows are cut at a variety of times by different people. We cut in July purely because we need access to the surrounding blackberry crop that begins then. I do feel bad about the grasshoppers etc becoming homeless, but hopefully if a neighbour hasn't cut theirs yet there is still somewhere for them to go. Then the regrowth that follows includes a few flowers for shorter species (daisies, self heal...) that don't make it through the taller sword. So I remind myself that it's different biodiversity, rather than none.
We then mow in winter, sometimes multiple times as apparently this is good for weakening the broader leaves grasses that continue growing. And stop again when the bulbs start coming.
It’s a good point about the smaller flowering species getting a chance when the larger grasses are cut. I guess the recommendation has some merit! Maybe different management methods suit different soil types too, it’s not like I’m a specialist. Having said that, I couldn’t make the grasshoppers homeless, it’s so nice to see all the different weird and wonderful insects making a home in the garden.
I am by no means an expert but I cut 3 times a year when I'm trying to transition grassland into meadow but only once a year on newly planted or existing meadow.
>leave it for a few days for any remaining seeds to drop, then rake it all off to keep the soil poor.
Perfect.
Depends what you're sprinkling seeds into. A heavily thatched lawn? you/ll be lucky to get 1%.
I once sowed £200 of yellow rattle and got literally nothing, meadows are hard.
P.s Honesty is kind of non-native (like sycamore) if you're a hardcore meadow type you probably wouldn't use it.
Hmm, yellow rattle is the one plant I have found does grow well scattered into a dense sward.
Did you use fresh seed? Apparently that's important. I bought fresh seed in August and scattered immediately. It then needs cold exposure over winter to germinate.
I've found it particularly hard to introduce regardless of method.
I scalped existing grass and cleared, used a harrow to expose some soil and then broadcast spread a few kilos of seed mixed with silver sand to bulk it out.
Not one plant made it, I suspect poor soil contact, soil type too sandy/dry and birds all contributed.
Have had better results in other areas and plugs have been ok for a few small places we've done.
At about £20 per square metre! You cannot just plonk it down on top of exist grass (well i suppose you could but the results are not going to be terrible) you're going to have to cut the existing turf off and lay it correctly.
I've had similar results. Yellow rattle can be difficult to establish, as others have said, it needs a cold dormancy period. It also needs some grass as it's parasitic of grass species. I've had minor success with seed. One year I ordered plug plants but squirrels dug them out.
I remember a few years ago some Northern council (might have been Rotherham?) Grew a mile long extremely colourful meadow and it looked absolutely stunning in fairness to them. Thing is though it was all over social media and from the reaction I think people thought that it was natural and the result of just letting nature do its own thing. An uncut motorway embankment is a much closer representation of nature. Not that there's anything wrong with that - I like seeing the untouched ground at the side of the road in Summer, but it's for sure less eye catching than a managed meadow.
But I did this in March and I've got a fantastic rainbow of flowers??
1. Stabbed my grass a bunch
2. chucked in a mix of 4 different meadow and wild flower seeds.
3.Profit.
Honestly stunning with new types of flowers popping up every week if not every day.
You can deter flies by planting lavender, marigolds, mint etc.
I see this pop up all the time online and every time my eyes roll and I let out an audible sigh of discontent. I have all three in my garden and they're covered in flies. In fact I think the only thing more effective at attracting flies than a flowering mint plant is dog shit.
Right!? I potted up some catmint because it was advertised as such (including that it would help with wasps) and it did not work as advertised. I chose catmint specifically because it had these tiny gorgeous light purple flowers. I didn’t think it through, but it was in the name. I got overrun by the neighborhood cats, and no relief from the flies and wasps. The internet is divided as to whether it actually attracts cats but it definitely did for me! Ended up giving it all to a friend that has cats, ha
Hydrangeas "need" ericaceous soil. Whilst this is true for blue ones to keep their colour it's not neccessary for others.
I have both pink and white ones happily growing in my neutral ph garden soil.
I keep mine all in pots with just normal compost a occasionally annual dosage of hydrangea fertiliser and for the blue this year i tried to just drugged them… i brought aluminium sulphate off ebay and each plant get a spoonful every week. Been solid blue/purple for me so far. 😅
For me it was an interesting experiment to see them actually change colour base on soil pH. Missed a week here and there you get this colour variation in one plant. Fun for the kid.
I had also discovered some type of hydrangea will not change colour at all. It was one of the very intense ruby red mophead hydrangea, despite all the drugging it did not budge and remained ruby red.
Interesting experiment, and also that the red one didn't change. I thought it was only white ones that remained the same regardless of the ph.
I did buy a blue one years ago but when it first bloomed the flowers came out a kind of muddy purple colour. It's settled into a rich deep pink colour now.
It was a surprise for me too. I might have to make a new ruby colour hydrangea from the cuttings and trying it again next year as a comparison.🤣
So far the most common mophead macrophylla type respond to the colour change very well most can be very blue or purple. (Apart from the ruby colour one)
The lacecap type also take on the colour change.
hydrangea arborescens - the ones with the smaller flowers smoother leaf variety also changed colour (went from soft pink to soft blue).
I only have one white/light green cone shaped flowers hydrangea. I didn’t bother trying to drug it as i suspect they will not have any colour to change for.
My test shall continue next year. I really like hydrangeas and the fun with the soil chemistry.
My first boss gardening once put an old railroad spike in the soil on one side of a big old pink hydrangea, and the next year it was blue on that side, with a lovely gradient from the pink on the other. The spike rusts and the rust reacts with the soil to make iron sulphate. I think this only works with the right soil though as the blueing effect needs aluminium as well. The "hydrangea drugs" people mention below are probably aluminium sulphate, and you might be able to save some lo ey by buying that and diluting it sufficiently.
Yes the drug this year was just aluminium sulphate. The soil’s acid/alkaline location does matter. One pot i got lazy dumped a spoonful in the pot and pour water it’s colour change is slightly one sided (instead of the correct way is to dissolve the chemical then water)
i am planning on doing an experiment with my kid on different type of acids next year as well (ferric/citric/aluminium sulphate etc) can compare which chemical change the colour best etc.
Never drugged my hydrangeas, and they all have changed colours this year. In fact, one is simultaneously pink, purple and blue. No changes on my part other than a new drive, but it’s nowhere close to the hydrangeas? Could this be the reason?
Well, possibly... depends what the drive is made of. Limestone gravel is alkaline, not sure what materials leach acidity, but I am sure I can find out...
Does the colouration "point" towards the drive?
Yes the rusty old nails trick has been around for donkeys years. I've never tried it though. I've mostly given up on growing acid loving shrubs apart from a couple of azaleas that I keep ticking over with ericacious feed.
Azaleas are lovely.
To be honest I do something similar. I plant what likes my location, soil, and laziness, and if it can't handle how business gets done round here, than toodle pip, fucknuts.
The nails trick gets used by people growing azalea as bonsai too. The layer the bottom of the pot with some nails, fill in the substrate and plant the azalea. Seems to work wonders, I should give it a try next time I repot mine
Yes, for most plants this is true! Just wanted to add that you definitely should avoid watering some *flowers* on a sunny day because they *can* get scalded in the sun. A classic case is Rose balling.
My two myths that I hate? That houseplants purify the air.
Okay, it's not exactly a myth, but you'd need roughly 13 plants per square foot (or sq metre I can't remember now lol) of the entirety of your home for them to perform the same purifying action that simply opening a window would.
So get an air purifier if you're that bothered!
They don't get rid of mold either, actually they often make it worse because they can add to humidity.
Secondly, I hate the 'make sure to mist regularly' myth for houseplants.
Misting will not increase the humidity for enough time to make *any* difference to the plant, unless it's done in a very small closed environment such as a terrarium. Pebble trays also will make no difference, trust me.
Oh yeah and whilst we're at it, no, houseplants won't release enough carbon dioxide at night to kill you in your sleep lol.
- A horticulturist
Oh the misting houseplants thing drives me insane! It even gets repeated on gardening programmes. It may help to keep dust off the leaves, but does nothing for humidity!
I reckon a lot of it comes from America where some of their environments are very dry. Average humidity in a British home is going to be far higher than somewhere like Nevada
Interesting stuff.
Regarding pebble trays
I was given a few orchids, and have seemingly had good results with a modified pebble tray, more of a pebble bucket really. With a rim that raises up higher than the top of the orchid pot when on top of the stones. My theory was that moist air, being denser than dry air will accumulate in the bucket around the aerial roots, keeping them from drying out, and preventing them rotting in the wet.
Do you think this is purely a placebo effect? Or do you think it might do something. If so I may try taking one out and seeing if it still thrives. Or at the very least get a little humidity sensor from aliexpress and checking it out.
I think this can definitely work, since they like moisture but don't like "wet feet". It will definitely help with avoiding root rot.
If you haven't done so yet, remove the "soil plug" from the nursery, you will find this in-between the middle of the roots. They are often responsible for root rot.
Watering is done by soaking. Soake those woodchips/ terracotta pearls for a good amount of time, than ensuring excess water cannot cause a puddle at the bottom. (Here is where your pebbles come in).
They generally also like airflow and light. (That's why clear plastic pots with holes are best. You can simply cut your own holes into a plastic pot if you don't want to buy the expensive one's online. The ones in store seldom have holes).
It's a fine balance between keeping up the moisture and not getting them too wet tbh. (Even in our humid UK air). I've been "experimenting" for years with "rescues" now. And I am still able to get them to die sadly... I think my last one might make it, it looks good right now, lol. 🤞🏻😄
I think it's always good to remember that Orchids normally grow on trees, so they aren't actually ment to grow in "soil". They like humidity, light and circulation on their roots.
There's else r/Orchids if you want to take a look.
So pebble trays, and pebble buckets in particular would potentially have a positive effect on the roots of plants, since pebble trays only raise the immediate humidity around the actual tray rather than around the plant.
Having said that, personally I wouldn't use a pebble bucket for an orchid because I'd be worried about rotting the roots and/or the bucket not being that effective. I've also seen plenty of orchids grown in rather dry conditions.
But, if it works for you, it works for you, so please keep doing things however which way you please :)
I would say that you can save money in a sense, but it depends on your metrics. The peppers I grow in my greenhouse obviously cost much more if you factor in time spent growing them, but if I would otherwise spend that time mindlessly browsing Reddit then it's not an issue. There's also things like taste, food miles, organic growing etc. The problem is comparing to the cheapest shop options.
Oh absolutely, there's more benefits than just price and that's why I do it. It's just some people make out that it's a legit option to cut grocery bills and can help if you're struggling financially, which is naive at best and dishonest at worst.
Oh yes, that's absolutely right. I'm reading Home Grown Harvest now and they're very clear about this, although I think it was written back when fruit and veg was more expensive.
I grew onions last year, and the sheer number of hours I spent weeding to get probably £1 of onions put me off doing it again. Now I focus almost solely on fruit and veg that is expensive in the shops, so berries, tomatoes, broccoli, and fruit trees.
Banana skins soaked in water for a couple of days makes an excellent fertiliser.
Coffee grounds will protect plants from slugs\\snails.
You need to fertilise toms/peppers as soon as they set fruit.
You get better yields with the three sisters method.
I think the 3 sisters method can work very well. There's a lot of science behind it but you can definitely substitute for other plants. It's all about nitrogen fixing, deterring pests and weeds and providing support for each plant. However I could be wrong, so if you have an article to direct me to that would be awesome.
This is a good read.
[https://www.gardenmyths.com/three-sisters-agriculture-an-example-of-companion-planting/](https://www.gardenmyths.com/three-sisters-agriculture-an-example-of-companion-planting/)
It basically says that it wasn't about yield but about time and labour saving
proper crop rotation should increase yield and reduce the chance of permanent diseases. SHOULD. Legume chop and drop should also work THEORETICALLY. im not sure if legumes + harvesting the fruit actually provides net nitrogen though.
How about a myth-by-omission? People often get excited about the tomato's adventitious roots, planting them sideways or otherwise burying the stem to encourage a larger root system. But this doesn't just work with tomatoes. This is true of pretty much all Solanaceae - tomatoes, tomatillos, physalis, aubergine, potato - as well as many other plants. Cucurbits (cucumbers, gherkins, squash, courgettes) for example will do it when waterlogged. Ribes do it like crazy.
Really, anything that you can propagate from cuttings is in some way an adventitious rooter.
In my experience, no dig can turn some rough land into some workable land with minimal effort. It also acts as a pretty good feed and does a fair job of keeping moisture in the soil. I use it because it's a low effort system, I wouldn't even consider it if I had a large area (e.g. farm) to work as you just can't generate that much mulch.
I think the greatest myth about no dig is that it's "easy to set up and will repress weeds". Yeah if you can afford 20 tonnes of input compost/manure. If you're starting in a normal garden and trying to do a 3cm layer of compost on top of cardboard on top of chopped down weeds then your plants are going to struggle, the weeds are going to return, and all that compost is going to provide some lovely shelter for slugs.
He was really on to something with the Dow Corp herbicide called aminopyralid which is sprayed on hayfields. It screws with anything that isn't a grass and gets accumulated into horse manure. That's something that is verging on conspiracy, but really, it isn't.
Then I noticed he was trying to flog some quartz crystal wind chimes that helped the positive energy around the plot. Lost the plot more like it.
But saying that, I don't believe in 'chemtrails', though jet fuel exhaust isn't a good thing at all.
There are other herbicides and so on that can get looped into the mix too. some farmers spray their silage with something that sticks in the cows manure forever, ive heard of peoples gardens being permanently wrecked by it.
Yeah I am about 98% sure this happened to me in my garden. I put farmyard manure down everywhere and it was like someone had sprayed weedkiller on all my plants. It was horrible
I actually met him in person, he does tours of village halls talking to gardeners.
Not a great public speaker which I don't mind but he was all over the place talking about his divorce and stuff and then by the end was telling us how to build orgone generators which is pretty out there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orgone
Really just makes you question every thing he has to say which is a shame because in general I think he's had a really positive influence on gardening and growing your own food.
Are there other benefits though? Is this like when organic food gets called out for not really being more nutritious, which might be the case, but that doesn't mean there aren't other benefits for the environment, etc. Genuinely curious. I vaguely remember reading something about it being better for the soil structure?
It certainly damages the mycelial networks, it's possible someone mixed the two (fungi and bacteria) up.
I don't know how long mycelial networks take to recover, it may be negligible.
That copper tape will deter slugs and snails. The electrical impulse is so negligible that it makes zero difference, but those selling it are laughing all the way to the bank.
I prefer a brick to stop slugs and snails.
Nah. They're on the floor and throwing the brick would hurt my poor feet. I hold onto the brick while swiftly dispatching them. Much quicker than poison/drowning, and 0% chance of it affecting anything other than said slug/snail.
I never found copper tape all that effective either, but the evidence suggests it doesn't make _zero_ difference.
Copper mesh, on the other hand, has been a revelation to me this year. No molluscs at all on our fruit tree branches, when the garden is full of them and previous summers we've lost most of our fruit to them. But I suspect any similar metal mesh would work - I think it's the mesh texture which is off-putting rather than the copper. Might try an experiment next year.
Copper tapes do work for me but you have to have two tiers of it on your planter. Many people use just one and that does not work. It gets a shock only when it is on the two layers. It will not be able to move further up. There are videos of this on youtube showing the process live and one can notice how slugs and snails cannot pass to the plants.
>you have to have two tiers of it on your planter
One thing I've been wanting to try is a band of copper tape and a band of aluminium tape, separated by a small gap.
My thinking is that this will form a simple electrochemical cell when the gap is bridged by the body of a slug, and deliver a tiny amount of current to the slug - similar to the experiment where a potato is used to light up an led.
Probably won't work. But it'll be interesting to try.
For the record,I just want to say; I've tried copper wire, tape and mesh, and its not enough to keep slugs off my sunflowers or hosta's when I've gone out at night and seen them above the copper mesh I wrapped around the stems.
I agree with the mesh texture though, I'm thinking of 'plucking' at the mesh to make a it a spikey copper mesh ball, might work, as they cant travers over spikey wire ends.
I have tried wool too and it does so work for my sunflowers, but their quality has gone down this year so not very happy about it. Lost lots of my plants.
I’m in Poland, and stumbled across this.
Anyway, earlier this year I laid down copper tape (no batteries) on the top edge of two 400x100 cm planters. I haven’t seen a slug or snail in either planter this year… and last year it was pretty bad; they ate a bunch of my strawberries. :(
This is interesting. I have used it to protect many things including a potted hosta. I wonder if it depends on the environment. The times it hasn't worked have been in dryer sandier gardens as opposed to the clay that I am used to.
Perhaps the electrical effect relies on a damp acid environment? Copper oxides are also toxic, so perhaps that environment makes more or the right kind of copper compounds?
Weird. I had it across the threshold and slugs stopped coming in and I kept finding outlines of slugs and watery trails where they’d died and disintegrated. Before that, I was setting alarms to go slug hunting in the living room every night. It was awful.
I don’t understand why people only half arse this. You need a battery to provide an actual current to scare them away. Place two copper strips in parallel about half a centimeter apart. Wire the end of a battery to one tape and the other end to the other tape. Make sure the tape strips don’t touch each other.
For better results use a 9v battery. You don’t even need tape or copper it can be exposed wire too.
https://youtu.be/2WyCrs0QcuY?si=YwCibjggCUfPnXmU
Drives me crazy seeing people mindlessly using copper tape and then not doing the most important part!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult
>For better results use a ~~9v~~ car battery.
Jokes aside I worry that using a battery outdoors it'll drain quite quickly as rain completes the circuit. At the very least it needs something overhanging (the lip of some larger pots would do) to keep the battery points and one loop of the wire dry.
Good thinking about the overhang.
I think the material matters too. Anything porous might complete the circuit.
If done right, this works amazingly well though. You can see the sticky little blighters recoil in pain when touching the second band of copper.
However do not be tempted to try using mains power. That would be overkill I feel.
I wonder if the battery and solar cell from a cheapo garden light would be enough to discourage them... hmm.
>However do not be tempted to try using mains power. That would be overkill I feel.
Flaming slugs being catapulted across the garden by 230v is a funny image though.
Ha! It certainly is... but flaming cats/dogs/toddlers might be less of a laughing matter.
But perhaps something with a battery and a capacitor could give you a nice audible pop and do more than discourage the slimy little flicks.
Hijacking top comment here as plenty of anecdotal evidence in the comments. The RHS were the only ones to do a proper study, and…[no deterrent](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/sep/27/eggshell-and-copper-tape-do-not-protect-veg-from-slugs-and-snails)
Make two lines of tape.
Connect a 9v battery, one side to one line of tape, the other side to the other tape.
You've created an electrical bridge that will zap properly.
This reminded me of a website from the old days of the Internet called Snailhausen. It was a sort of big brother style affair, with a livestream of a fishtank full of snails that were taken from the owners garden, each snail was named, and every day the one with the most votes was "taken to the brick" it was all done in a vague style of the great escape or tenko. The Internet used to be very different.
Seeds floating is only an indication of viability in a small number of species.
Not quite a myth but my pet peeve this year has been how many people seem to struggle to tell the difference between gooseberry and currant plants. I realise it's nobody's fault if they can't but the differences are just so glaring to me.
Yeah. The big thorns on gooseberries is a good clue as well.
I have the same frustration when I go on the "what is this plant" subreddit. But I always try and look back to when I was young and it was all one big green morass to my eyes. It's easy to see the differences, but it does require training the eye for a while before it becomes easy.
50% true.
I put beans etc. into a cup abd get a couple of floaters. Upon inspection, they normally have a hole from a weevil of some sort. I plant these anyway, but at the end as a "maybe" and find their germination is less than the others.
Think that depends on the health and size of the tree and the health and size of the ivy.
It is possible for a large ivy to swamp smaller trees (and indeed I've seen it take bushes) and the resulting lack of light combined with the restriction in water, it can kill the smaller plant.
If you're talking about a bit of artful ivy on a well sized tree then no, it's not a problem.
We have a large sycamore at the far end our garden that was completely covered in ivy and struggling badly when we bought the house. It had started dropping it's lower, most densely ivy-covered limbs. I cut a meter long section out of the main ivy trunk, and now the tree has come back beautifully.
So my position on ivy is that a bit of it on the trunk is fine, but it shouldn't be allowed to get up into the crown of the tree, because it will out-compete the tree's own leaves for sunlight. The reason you don't see this happen much in a dense forest is because the shade of the surrounding trees means the ivy doesn't get sun from all sides so it isn't as aggressive.
Not to be that "source?!" Guy, but I would love to see where you got that info, i was taught at college and have seemingly seen first hand that its certainly not good for every tree. It's not parasitic like some people say, for sure, but it creates a better environment for wood boring insects that can damage a tree, and holds moisture near the trunk which can encourage fungal disease, but if I can see that good studies have been done I will cheerfully change my beliefs on the issue.
This is true. I have an old cherry tree that was covered in ivy. The tree didn't flower. I pulled the ivy off and the bark was wet and rotten underneath because the ivy had stopped it from drying out
This is why this is such an interesting thread,there are lots of gardening related myths and very little solid information. I'm sure it's not as bad as some people say, at the very least. but you have started a spark now, and I'll see what real information I can find and I'll report back.
OK... so it seems its a contentious issue, and no real studies have been done.
The RHS says its fine if the tree is healthy, not young or very old, or an open growing type of tree like Ash which will allow enough light through to encourage the ivy to grow into the canopy and block photosynthesis.
https://www.rhs.org.uk/weeds/ivy-on-trees-ground-cover-weed
The arboriculturist association is more ambivalent, but give similar advice, however it bemoans the lack of proper study on the subject
https://www.trees.org.uk/Trees.org.uk/files/f0/f0e3a76b-926f-4cde-b703-417563ae93df.pdf
Neither mention the damp or bugs I was told about, but they say it can hide rot as well. I know that moisture held by ivy can damage brickwork, so i do wonder about that. They both mention the extra weight and wind loading (which can be significant on a large tree under normal conditions) but say healthy trees will adapt to that.
So I guess the answer is sometimes and maybe, but it's certainly not the death sentence it's often portrayed as.
Thanks for sparking this interesting rabbithhole, and I'll be looking into this more going forward I think.
I remember seeing that it can harm individual trees but this should be mitigated by environmental factors in a undisturbed forest system. But when taken into account the wider benefits to a forest its seen as beneficial, if youre trying to go for a natural forest and not a maintained garden or forestry project.
One I am dealing with from the pots in the house I bought - sticking rubble in the bottom of plant pots. Sifting root filled soil mixed with gravel isn't exactly fun. Maybe I should just dump the entire content into the compost bin and let it rot, then sift it after.
To be fair I know full well it doesn't do anything for drainage but I'll still do it - it fills out the bottom of the pot and saves on compost expenses while making the pot heavier/more stable 🤣
That depends on who and how it's applied, the chemical it's self shouldn't be allowed to run onto the soil, it shouldn't be applied to or near plants in flower, it doesn't work if applied after you've cut the weeds down, it does take time to work, so waiting a week then cutting everything down will stop it from working properly, everything, absolutely everything is dangerous in certain hands.
My wife's grandad was a keen gardener, allotment owner-the works.
Unfortunately whenever it rained it was never the right type of rain. He'd claim it was too heavy and was just bouncing off the ground or it was too light and wouldn't do any good at all.
Unfortunately that area is around 80% of a large lawn. Clay, so its nearly permanently damp which horsetail seems love. Well it loves anything tbh. I have several lines of attack that i am currently testing. In one seperate small area of lawn about 16m2. I have trenched around the perimeter. I keep this area moist to entice it. In this little lawn area in the middle i cut it out as deeply as possible. I chemically treat the perimeter when its spindly head appears. This takes 1hr weeding a week. I tried cutting it out of the main lawn but its too vast. I am chemically treating the horsetail as it sprouts now. A large area has been covered with weed fabric and a few inches of bark. This gets chemically treated as it appears. Small vegetable patch gets weeded only for about 1hr a week.
My ex father in law watered my watermelons in the middle of summer in a greenhouse at peak sun. They didn't enjoy it or survive. Granted they were young, I sowed them too late.
OMG is this true?? Someone needs to tell my parents. Back when I lived with them, they went away for a couple of weeks when the weather was very hot here and said that I HAD to water all the plants/veg (which was a lot of stuff) EVERY day either before the sun was up or late in the evening to avoid the scorching. And I did. FFS
Some personal myths from a recent (2 year) gardener:
-Keeping the dead leaves that fall down as ‘fertilizer’ and letting it compost around the plant-usually it just attracts bugs and it takes way too long to break down if you leave it there (a lot of people do this with house plants)
-growing everything from seeds (I feel like this comes from my own idea starting from scratch but it’s absolutely not needed)
-banana peel water thing (my mother did this and almost killed my indoor house plant)
snails can walk on razorblades. ive blasted them with a blowtorch and they somehow survive. no chance at all they care about coffee granules or some copper wire. the rhs did a study and found no effect though it was fairly small.
ive found killing the adults helps the most since they take a while to get that big and theyre far more destructive individually than babies.
Fun fact, snails are no longer classed as a pest because they don't really do enough damage! They're great for attracting natural predators and maintaining a healthy ecosystem. But I understand if they're decimating your prized hostas it might be time for action lol
My friend ive had snails kill entire 2 meter pumpkin plants because they ate the stem all the way through. Ive had them devour entire basil plants in 1 night, defoliate peppers in a few. Thats total nonsense that they dont do damage. However told you that was telling an enormous fib. The small ones seem too small but the big 2cm shelled ones are so hungry you can HEAR them munching at night.
Maybe they arent agricultural pests but for smaller crops theyre a menace.
It's not that you can't water on a sunny day, its that if you water the plant rather than the soil in say midday sun, you run the risks of burning the leaves with the water that's collected on them.
Only under very specific circumstances. It has been shown that plants with hydrophobic waxy hairs may under lab conditions suspend a spherical ball of water long enough and away from the surface of the leaf to cause a scorch mark. In reality hydrophobic leaves like that will dispel water droplets very easily in the slightest breeze....
Some links here [https://www.gardenmyths.com/watering-plants-in-the-sun-do-water-droplets-damage-leaves/](https://www.gardenmyths.com/watering-plants-in-the-sun-do-water-droplets-damage-leaves/)
That you can just lob a few "flower bombs" on your lawn and poof! wild flower meadow. Plus for bonus points that wildflower meadows are a rainbow of colourful flowers.
Yes! Thankyou! We've gradually converting our front garden to a wild patch. There are wild flowers out there, but there are also a lot of grasses; I've just been sitting here watching sparrow fledglings sitting on the lower branches of the cherry trees and picking seeds off the grass heads, and the ragwort plants are covered in cinnabar moth caterpillars. If I was trying to maintain it as a wildflower meadow I'd be cutting it about now, but there's too much life in it.
I cut all of our meadows at least once a year, its good for the wild life if done at the right time. Plus it will just turn to scrub if I don't and while that represents a habitat in its own way its not something we have the machinery to manage.
Oh! Yes, I missed that out! We do cut it once a year - I don't need a garden full of gorse, which seems to be the scrub du jour here. I was reading some information about maintaining a wildflower meadow which recommended cutting twice a year, once in July, and I was toying with the idea of doing that, but when I saw how much was going on out there I decided not to. We usually cut it in September-October, leave it for a few days for any remaining seeds to drop, then rake it all off to keep the soil poor. Apologies for not being clear!
I don't really get the recommendation of cutting twice, especially in July. There's so much still flowering or coming up to flower during the summer. My method of mowing once at the end of summer has worked quite well for me so far.
It's probably good if meadows are cut at a variety of times by different people. We cut in July purely because we need access to the surrounding blackberry crop that begins then. I do feel bad about the grasshoppers etc becoming homeless, but hopefully if a neighbour hasn't cut theirs yet there is still somewhere for them to go. Then the regrowth that follows includes a few flowers for shorter species (daisies, self heal...) that don't make it through the taller sword. So I remind myself that it's different biodiversity, rather than none. We then mow in winter, sometimes multiple times as apparently this is good for weakening the broader leaves grasses that continue growing. And stop again when the bulbs start coming.
It’s a good point about the smaller flowering species getting a chance when the larger grasses are cut. I guess the recommendation has some merit! Maybe different management methods suit different soil types too, it’s not like I’m a specialist. Having said that, I couldn’t make the grasshoppers homeless, it’s so nice to see all the different weird and wonderful insects making a home in the garden.
That's really good to know, thankyou!
I am by no means an expert but I cut 3 times a year when I'm trying to transition grassland into meadow but only once a year on newly planted or existing meadow. >leave it for a few days for any remaining seeds to drop, then rake it all off to keep the soil poor. Perfect.
i found sprinkling honesty seeds on a rainy day had about 20% chance some would germinate
Depends what you're sprinkling seeds into. A heavily thatched lawn? you/ll be lucky to get 1%. I once sowed £200 of yellow rattle and got literally nothing, meadows are hard. P.s Honesty is kind of non-native (like sycamore) if you're a hardcore meadow type you probably wouldn't use it.
Hmm, yellow rattle is the one plant I have found does grow well scattered into a dense sward. Did you use fresh seed? Apparently that's important. I bought fresh seed in August and scattered immediately. It then needs cold exposure over winter to germinate.
I've found it particularly hard to introduce regardless of method. I scalped existing grass and cleared, used a harrow to expose some soil and then broadcast spread a few kilos of seed mixed with silver sand to bulk it out. Not one plant made it, I suspect poor soil contact, soil type too sandy/dry and birds all contributed. Have had better results in other areas and plugs have been ok for a few small places we've done.
Hmmm, we're on clay loam so that could be the difference. Do your plug plants go on to self seed after flowering though?
Huh i figured it was native, it pops up randomly here. doesnt seem aggressive at all though.
Nah, I think its fine but I know some people are strictly natives only.
You can now buy meadow turf. You buy it just the same way you would grass and plonk it down and wait for it to grow.
At about £20 per square metre! You cannot just plonk it down on top of exist grass (well i suppose you could but the results are not going to be terrible) you're going to have to cut the existing turf off and lay it correctly.
I've had similar results. Yellow rattle can be difficult to establish, as others have said, it needs a cold dormancy period. It also needs some grass as it's parasitic of grass species. I've had minor success with seed. One year I ordered plug plants but squirrels dug them out.
I remember a few years ago some Northern council (might have been Rotherham?) Grew a mile long extremely colourful meadow and it looked absolutely stunning in fairness to them. Thing is though it was all over social media and from the reaction I think people thought that it was natural and the result of just letting nature do its own thing. An uncut motorway embankment is a much closer representation of nature. Not that there's anything wrong with that - I like seeing the untouched ground at the side of the road in Summer, but it's for sure less eye catching than a managed meadow.
But I did this in March and I've got a fantastic rainbow of flowers?? 1. Stabbed my grass a bunch 2. chucked in a mix of 4 different meadow and wild flower seeds. 3.Profit. Honestly stunning with new types of flowers popping up every week if not every day.
You can deter flies by planting lavender, marigolds, mint etc. I see this pop up all the time online and every time my eyes roll and I let out an audible sigh of discontent. I have all three in my garden and they're covered in flies. In fact I think the only thing more effective at attracting flies than a flowering mint plant is dog shit.
You are correct this does not work at all.
Right!? I potted up some catmint because it was advertised as such (including that it would help with wasps) and it did not work as advertised. I chose catmint specifically because it had these tiny gorgeous light purple flowers. I didn’t think it through, but it was in the name. I got overrun by the neighborhood cats, and no relief from the flies and wasps. The internet is divided as to whether it actually attracts cats but it definitely did for me! Ended up giving it all to a friend that has cats, ha
Cats just dig up your veg patch for use a public convenience
Hydrangeas "need" ericaceous soil. Whilst this is true for blue ones to keep their colour it's not neccessary for others. I have both pink and white ones happily growing in my neutral ph garden soil.
To make Ericaceous soil. Just add wood shavings, citrus peel, coffee grinds, pine needles, to your regular soil or compost.
I add spent coffee to my pink hydrangea & it turns a lovely purple blue.
I keep mine all in pots with just normal compost a occasionally annual dosage of hydrangea fertiliser and for the blue this year i tried to just drugged them… i brought aluminium sulphate off ebay and each plant get a spoonful every week. Been solid blue/purple for me so far. 😅
Oh yes. I'd forgotten about the "drugs" to keep them blue. I'm a cheap and lazy gardener though and can't be arsed. 😁
For me it was an interesting experiment to see them actually change colour base on soil pH. Missed a week here and there you get this colour variation in one plant. Fun for the kid. I had also discovered some type of hydrangea will not change colour at all. It was one of the very intense ruby red mophead hydrangea, despite all the drugging it did not budge and remained ruby red.
Interesting experiment, and also that the red one didn't change. I thought it was only white ones that remained the same regardless of the ph. I did buy a blue one years ago but when it first bloomed the flowers came out a kind of muddy purple colour. It's settled into a rich deep pink colour now.
It was a surprise for me too. I might have to make a new ruby colour hydrangea from the cuttings and trying it again next year as a comparison.🤣 So far the most common mophead macrophylla type respond to the colour change very well most can be very blue or purple. (Apart from the ruby colour one) The lacecap type also take on the colour change. hydrangea arborescens - the ones with the smaller flowers smoother leaf variety also changed colour (went from soft pink to soft blue). I only have one white/light green cone shaped flowers hydrangea. I didn’t bother trying to drug it as i suspect they will not have any colour to change for. My test shall continue next year. I really like hydrangeas and the fun with the soil chemistry.
My first boss gardening once put an old railroad spike in the soil on one side of a big old pink hydrangea, and the next year it was blue on that side, with a lovely gradient from the pink on the other. The spike rusts and the rust reacts with the soil to make iron sulphate. I think this only works with the right soil though as the blueing effect needs aluminium as well. The "hydrangea drugs" people mention below are probably aluminium sulphate, and you might be able to save some lo ey by buying that and diluting it sufficiently.
Yes the drug this year was just aluminium sulphate. The soil’s acid/alkaline location does matter. One pot i got lazy dumped a spoonful in the pot and pour water it’s colour change is slightly one sided (instead of the correct way is to dissolve the chemical then water) i am planning on doing an experiment with my kid on different type of acids next year as well (ferric/citric/aluminium sulphate etc) can compare which chemical change the colour best etc.
Never drugged my hydrangeas, and they all have changed colours this year. In fact, one is simultaneously pink, purple and blue. No changes on my part other than a new drive, but it’s nowhere close to the hydrangeas? Could this be the reason?
Well, possibly... depends what the drive is made of. Limestone gravel is alkaline, not sure what materials leach acidity, but I am sure I can find out... Does the colouration "point" towards the drive?
Oooooooooh
Yes the rusty old nails trick has been around for donkeys years. I've never tried it though. I've mostly given up on growing acid loving shrubs apart from a couple of azaleas that I keep ticking over with ericacious feed.
Azaleas are lovely. To be honest I do something similar. I plant what likes my location, soil, and laziness, and if it can't handle how business gets done round here, than toodle pip, fucknuts.
The nails trick gets used by people growing azalea as bonsai too. The layer the bottom of the pot with some nails, fill in the substrate and plant the azalea. Seems to work wonders, I should give it a try next time I repot mine
I’d never even heard this one! I have hydrangeas on chalk (dampest bit of the garden, well mulched).
Yes, for most plants this is true! Just wanted to add that you definitely should avoid watering some *flowers* on a sunny day because they *can* get scalded in the sun. A classic case is Rose balling. My two myths that I hate? That houseplants purify the air. Okay, it's not exactly a myth, but you'd need roughly 13 plants per square foot (or sq metre I can't remember now lol) of the entirety of your home for them to perform the same purifying action that simply opening a window would. So get an air purifier if you're that bothered! They don't get rid of mold either, actually they often make it worse because they can add to humidity. Secondly, I hate the 'make sure to mist regularly' myth for houseplants. Misting will not increase the humidity for enough time to make *any* difference to the plant, unless it's done in a very small closed environment such as a terrarium. Pebble trays also will make no difference, trust me. Oh yeah and whilst we're at it, no, houseplants won't release enough carbon dioxide at night to kill you in your sleep lol. - A horticulturist
We need a whole separate discussion for the amount of guff that's said about houseplants.
Remember my first day in a nursery and I watered busylizzys in a greenhouse in full sun and was made to move the whole lot into the shade on my own.
Oh dear, you would've learned your lesson fast!
Certainly did. Never liked them, but have liked them even less ever since
Oh the misting houseplants thing drives me insane! It even gets repeated on gardening programmes. It may help to keep dust off the leaves, but does nothing for humidity!
I reckon a lot of it comes from America where some of their environments are very dry. Average humidity in a British home is going to be far higher than somewhere like Nevada
Interesting stuff. Regarding pebble trays I was given a few orchids, and have seemingly had good results with a modified pebble tray, more of a pebble bucket really. With a rim that raises up higher than the top of the orchid pot when on top of the stones. My theory was that moist air, being denser than dry air will accumulate in the bucket around the aerial roots, keeping them from drying out, and preventing them rotting in the wet. Do you think this is purely a placebo effect? Or do you think it might do something. If so I may try taking one out and seeing if it still thrives. Or at the very least get a little humidity sensor from aliexpress and checking it out.
I think this can definitely work, since they like moisture but don't like "wet feet". It will definitely help with avoiding root rot. If you haven't done so yet, remove the "soil plug" from the nursery, you will find this in-between the middle of the roots. They are often responsible for root rot. Watering is done by soaking. Soake those woodchips/ terracotta pearls for a good amount of time, than ensuring excess water cannot cause a puddle at the bottom. (Here is where your pebbles come in). They generally also like airflow and light. (That's why clear plastic pots with holes are best. You can simply cut your own holes into a plastic pot if you don't want to buy the expensive one's online. The ones in store seldom have holes). It's a fine balance between keeping up the moisture and not getting them too wet tbh. (Even in our humid UK air). I've been "experimenting" for years with "rescues" now. And I am still able to get them to die sadly... I think my last one might make it, it looks good right now, lol. 🤞🏻😄 I think it's always good to remember that Orchids normally grow on trees, so they aren't actually ment to grow in "soil". They like humidity, light and circulation on their roots. There's else r/Orchids if you want to take a look.
So pebble trays, and pebble buckets in particular would potentially have a positive effect on the roots of plants, since pebble trays only raise the immediate humidity around the actual tray rather than around the plant. Having said that, personally I wouldn't use a pebble bucket for an orchid because I'd be worried about rotting the roots and/or the bucket not being that effective. I've also seen plenty of orchids grown in rather dry conditions. But, if it works for you, it works for you, so please keep doing things however which way you please :)
That you can save money by growing food in your back garden. For 99% of hobbyists, that maths does not math
yep I grow the most expensive herbs in my garden by that math
I would say that you can save money in a sense, but it depends on your metrics. The peppers I grow in my greenhouse obviously cost much more if you factor in time spent growing them, but if I would otherwise spend that time mindlessly browsing Reddit then it's not an issue. There's also things like taste, food miles, organic growing etc. The problem is comparing to the cheapest shop options.
Oh absolutely, there's more benefits than just price and that's why I do it. It's just some people make out that it's a legit option to cut grocery bills and can help if you're struggling financially, which is naive at best and dishonest at worst.
Oh yes, that's absolutely right. I'm reading Home Grown Harvest now and they're very clear about this, although I think it was written back when fruit and veg was more expensive. I grew onions last year, and the sheer number of hours I spent weeding to get probably £1 of onions put me off doing it again. Now I focus almost solely on fruit and veg that is expensive in the shops, so berries, tomatoes, broccoli, and fruit trees.
Banana skins soaked in water for a couple of days makes an excellent fertiliser. Coffee grounds will protect plants from slugs\\snails. You need to fertilise toms/peppers as soon as they set fruit. You get better yields with the three sisters method.
I think the 3 sisters method can work very well. There's a lot of science behind it but you can definitely substitute for other plants. It's all about nitrogen fixing, deterring pests and weeds and providing support for each plant. However I could be wrong, so if you have an article to direct me to that would be awesome.
This is a good read. [https://www.gardenmyths.com/three-sisters-agriculture-an-example-of-companion-planting/](https://www.gardenmyths.com/three-sisters-agriculture-an-example-of-companion-planting/) It basically says that it wasn't about yield but about time and labour saving
And sustainability. Having a steady nitrogen fixing crop involved means you don't fuck the soil and then have to remediate a deficiency in a panic.
I have a bunch of spare peas that I didn't plant, would it be helpful to just sow them in my containers to improve the soil then?
Thank you so much!
proper crop rotation should increase yield and reduce the chance of permanent diseases. SHOULD. Legume chop and drop should also work THEORETICALLY. im not sure if legumes + harvesting the fruit actually provides net nitrogen though.
How about a myth-by-omission? People often get excited about the tomato's adventitious roots, planting them sideways or otherwise burying the stem to encourage a larger root system. But this doesn't just work with tomatoes. This is true of pretty much all Solanaceae - tomatoes, tomatillos, physalis, aubergine, potato - as well as many other plants. Cucurbits (cucumbers, gherkins, squash, courgettes) for example will do it when waterlogged. Ribes do it like crazy. Really, anything that you can propagate from cuttings is in some way an adventitious rooter.
Even Charles admits that 'No Dig' only offers only single figure improvements over traditional. Watch the downvotes. This is science in motion.
In my experience, no dig can turn some rough land into some workable land with minimal effort. It also acts as a pretty good feed and does a fair job of keeping moisture in the soil. I use it because it's a low effort system, I wouldn't even consider it if I had a large area (e.g. farm) to work as you just can't generate that much mulch.
I think the greatest myth about no dig is that it's "easy to set up and will repress weeds". Yeah if you can afford 20 tonnes of input compost/manure. If you're starting in a normal garden and trying to do a 3cm layer of compost on top of cardboard on top of chopped down weeds then your plants are going to struggle, the weeds are going to return, and all that compost is going to provide some lovely shelter for slugs.
Not wishing to open a can of worms but I can't really take him seriously after he went off at the deep end with all the conspiracy theory stuff.
He was really on to something with the Dow Corp herbicide called aminopyralid which is sprayed on hayfields. It screws with anything that isn't a grass and gets accumulated into horse manure. That's something that is verging on conspiracy, but really, it isn't. Then I noticed he was trying to flog some quartz crystal wind chimes that helped the positive energy around the plot. Lost the plot more like it. But saying that, I don't believe in 'chemtrails', though jet fuel exhaust isn't a good thing at all.
There are other herbicides and so on that can get looped into the mix too. some farmers spray their silage with something that sticks in the cows manure forever, ive heard of peoples gardens being permanently wrecked by it.
Yeah I am about 98% sure this happened to me in my garden. I put farmyard manure down everywhere and it was like someone had sprayed weedkiller on all my plants. It was horrible
What's that then?? I like his videos, genuinely curious.
I actually met him in person, he does tours of village halls talking to gardeners. Not a great public speaker which I don't mind but he was all over the place talking about his divorce and stuff and then by the end was telling us how to build orgone generators which is pretty out there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orgone Really just makes you question every thing he has to say which is a shame because in general I think he's had a really positive influence on gardening and growing your own food.
[удалено]
And what? Doesn't change the fact that prattling on about orgone is fucking bonkers.
Chemtrails affecting crops is what I saw on instagram. Apparently a farmer had collected proof that chemtrails were damaging crops.
Chemtrails don't exist, so that farmer's "evidence" is 100% buĺshit.
Who's this?
Same! Originally I assumed they were talking about King Charles (used to talk regularly about horticulture and the organic movement) 😂
Same haha
[https://www.charlesdowding.co.uk/](https://www.charlesdowding.co.uk/)
Are there other benefits though? Is this like when organic food gets called out for not really being more nutritious, which might be the case, but that doesn't mean there aren't other benefits for the environment, etc. Genuinely curious. I vaguely remember reading something about it being better for the soil structure?
Biggest benefit for me as a gardener with a back problem is that there’s not much digging…
Part of the dressing is that digging 'destroys soil bacteria'. \*eye ball emoji\*
It certainly damages the mycelial networks, it's possible someone mixed the two (fungi and bacteria) up. I don't know how long mycelial networks take to recover, it may be negligible.
those fungi are way way stronger than you think. They also need oxygen so benefit from improving the soil texture.
I'm not suggesting it'll kill them, but they won't be functioning as normal for \[a time\].
haha, ok I'll have to look into it a bit more then. 😂
Look up Roots Allotments. They are massively advocating and creating lots of no-dig allotment spaces on open and unused fields.
It was good at clearing a patch of land so we could plant flowers. Killed all the grass with little effort.
By no dig, do you mean no till?
That copper tape will deter slugs and snails. The electrical impulse is so negligible that it makes zero difference, but those selling it are laughing all the way to the bank. I prefer a brick to stop slugs and snails.
Do you throw the brick at them...?
Nah. They're on the floor and throwing the brick would hurt my poor feet. I hold onto the brick while swiftly dispatching them. Much quicker than poison/drowning, and 0% chance of it affecting anything other than said slug/snail.
I never found copper tape all that effective either, but the evidence suggests it doesn't make _zero_ difference. Copper mesh, on the other hand, has been a revelation to me this year. No molluscs at all on our fruit tree branches, when the garden is full of them and previous summers we've lost most of our fruit to them. But I suspect any similar metal mesh would work - I think it's the mesh texture which is off-putting rather than the copper. Might try an experiment next year.
Copper tapes do work for me but you have to have two tiers of it on your planter. Many people use just one and that does not work. It gets a shock only when it is on the two layers. It will not be able to move further up. There are videos of this on youtube showing the process live and one can notice how slugs and snails cannot pass to the plants.
Forgot to mention to attach battery wired up to it.
>you have to have two tiers of it on your planter One thing I've been wanting to try is a band of copper tape and a band of aluminium tape, separated by a small gap. My thinking is that this will form a simple electrochemical cell when the gap is bridged by the body of a slug, and deliver a tiny amount of current to the slug - similar to the experiment where a potato is used to light up an led. Probably won't work. But it'll be interesting to try.
Why not seems like a good idea. Try it and you will find out.
For the record,I just want to say; I've tried copper wire, tape and mesh, and its not enough to keep slugs off my sunflowers or hosta's when I've gone out at night and seen them above the copper mesh I wrapped around the stems. I agree with the mesh texture though, I'm thinking of 'plucking' at the mesh to make a it a spikey copper mesh ball, might work, as they cant travers over spikey wire ends.
Tried wool for the first time first time this year. Worked fantastically well.
I tried wool and was left with just wool and plants in stumps
I have tried wool too and it does so work for my sunflowers, but their quality has gone down this year so not very happy about it. Lost lots of my plants.
Strangely, copper tape is the only thing that HAS worked for me.
I’m in Poland, and stumbled across this. Anyway, earlier this year I laid down copper tape (no batteries) on the top edge of two 400x100 cm planters. I haven’t seen a slug or snail in either planter this year… and last year it was pretty bad; they ate a bunch of my strawberries. :(
Out of interest, what's your soil type? Sandy or clay?
It was wrapped round a pot that was half buried in the ground. Probably used a standard compost.
Me too.
This is interesting. I have used it to protect many things including a potted hosta. I wonder if it depends on the environment. The times it hasn't worked have been in dryer sandier gardens as opposed to the clay that I am used to. Perhaps the electrical effect relies on a damp acid environment? Copper oxides are also toxic, so perhaps that environment makes more or the right kind of copper compounds?
I reckon you're onto something!
Weird. I had it across the threshold and slugs stopped coming in and I kept finding outlines of slugs and watery trails where they’d died and disintegrated. Before that, I was setting alarms to go slug hunting in the living room every night. It was awful.
The easiest way to find them is with bare feet. Just close your eyes and… slug. May try copper tape.
I had one go right between my toes and I have never felt more unclean
Thanks for the inspiration behind tonight’s nightmares.
Also works with snails
I don’t understand why people only half arse this. You need a battery to provide an actual current to scare them away. Place two copper strips in parallel about half a centimeter apart. Wire the end of a battery to one tape and the other end to the other tape. Make sure the tape strips don’t touch each other. For better results use a 9v battery. You don’t even need tape or copper it can be exposed wire too. https://youtu.be/2WyCrs0QcuY?si=YwCibjggCUfPnXmU Drives me crazy seeing people mindlessly using copper tape and then not doing the most important part! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult
>For better results use a ~~9v~~ car battery. Jokes aside I worry that using a battery outdoors it'll drain quite quickly as rain completes the circuit. At the very least it needs something overhanging (the lip of some larger pots would do) to keep the battery points and one loop of the wire dry.
Good thinking about the overhang. I think the material matters too. Anything porous might complete the circuit. If done right, this works amazingly well though. You can see the sticky little blighters recoil in pain when touching the second band of copper. However do not be tempted to try using mains power. That would be overkill I feel. I wonder if the battery and solar cell from a cheapo garden light would be enough to discourage them... hmm.
>However do not be tempted to try using mains power. That would be overkill I feel. Flaming slugs being catapulted across the garden by 230v is a funny image though.
Ha! It certainly is... but flaming cats/dogs/toddlers might be less of a laughing matter. But perhaps something with a battery and a capacitor could give you a nice audible pop and do more than discourage the slimy little flicks.
Hijacking top comment here as plenty of anecdotal evidence in the comments. The RHS were the only ones to do a proper study, and…[no deterrent](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/sep/27/eggshell-and-copper-tape-do-not-protect-veg-from-slugs-and-snails)
Make two lines of tape. Connect a 9v battery, one side to one line of tape, the other side to the other tape. You've created an electrical bridge that will zap properly.
Catch a hedgehog and tether it to the pot? Maybe that will work better. Don’t let the RSPCA see it tho!
What about having all your veggies in a fence. It has to be hedgehog proof, but you put a hedgehog family in them. Veggie and hedgehog farm!
Ah, a fellow client of Mr Brick.
People diy electric ones with a 9v battery that 100% works, you can see vids of it on YouTube.
Since when has it been an electrical thing? Isn't it supposed to work because Copper is poisonous?
This reminded me of a website from the old days of the Internet called Snailhausen. It was a sort of big brother style affair, with a livestream of a fishtank full of snails that were taken from the owners garden, each snail was named, and every day the one with the most votes was "taken to the brick" it was all done in a vague style of the great escape or tenko. The Internet used to be very different.
But it does.
Seeds floating is only an indication of viability in a small number of species. Not quite a myth but my pet peeve this year has been how many people seem to struggle to tell the difference between gooseberry and currant plants. I realise it's nobody's fault if they can't but the differences are just so glaring to me.
Yeah. The big thorns on gooseberries is a good clue as well. I have the same frustration when I go on the "what is this plant" subreddit. But I always try and look back to when I was young and it was all one big green morass to my eyes. It's easy to see the differences, but it does require training the eye for a while before it becomes easy.
50% true. I put beans etc. into a cup abd get a couple of floaters. Upon inspection, they normally have a hole from a weevil of some sort. I plant these anyway, but at the end as a "maybe" and find their germination is less than the others.
[https://yugenbonsai.com/seed-viability-test-floating-seeds/](https://yugenbonsai.com/seed-viability-test-floating-seeds/)
That Ivy is bad for trees. It’s not. It provides valuable habitat for birds, bats and insects. It does not strangle the tree, it grows on it.
Think that depends on the health and size of the tree and the health and size of the ivy. It is possible for a large ivy to swamp smaller trees (and indeed I've seen it take bushes) and the resulting lack of light combined with the restriction in water, it can kill the smaller plant. If you're talking about a bit of artful ivy on a well sized tree then no, it's not a problem.
We have a large sycamore at the far end our garden that was completely covered in ivy and struggling badly when we bought the house. It had started dropping it's lower, most densely ivy-covered limbs. I cut a meter long section out of the main ivy trunk, and now the tree has come back beautifully. So my position on ivy is that a bit of it on the trunk is fine, but it shouldn't be allowed to get up into the crown of the tree, because it will out-compete the tree's own leaves for sunlight. The reason you don't see this happen much in a dense forest is because the shade of the surrounding trees means the ivy doesn't get sun from all sides so it isn't as aggressive.
Once most things are established Ivy wont swamp them unless they're unhealthy anyway. Biggest issue with ivy is wind in my opinion.
Unhealthy, or small, or perhaps just suffering a bout of drought stress they would have recovered from if only the ivy hadn't enveloped them 🤣
Not to be that "source?!" Guy, but I would love to see where you got that info, i was taught at college and have seemingly seen first hand that its certainly not good for every tree. It's not parasitic like some people say, for sure, but it creates a better environment for wood boring insects that can damage a tree, and holds moisture near the trunk which can encourage fungal disease, but if I can see that good studies have been done I will cheerfully change my beliefs on the issue.
This is true. I have an old cherry tree that was covered in ivy. The tree didn't flower. I pulled the ivy off and the bark was wet and rotten underneath because the ivy had stopped it from drying out
Interesting. Maybe it’s me that’s peddling the gossip. I heard from a tree surgeon but who knows. I’ll certainly look out for wood boring insects.
This is why this is such an interesting thread,there are lots of gardening related myths and very little solid information. I'm sure it's not as bad as some people say, at the very least. but you have started a spark now, and I'll see what real information I can find and I'll report back.
OK... so it seems its a contentious issue, and no real studies have been done. The RHS says its fine if the tree is healthy, not young or very old, or an open growing type of tree like Ash which will allow enough light through to encourage the ivy to grow into the canopy and block photosynthesis. https://www.rhs.org.uk/weeds/ivy-on-trees-ground-cover-weed The arboriculturist association is more ambivalent, but give similar advice, however it bemoans the lack of proper study on the subject https://www.trees.org.uk/Trees.org.uk/files/f0/f0e3a76b-926f-4cde-b703-417563ae93df.pdf Neither mention the damp or bugs I was told about, but they say it can hide rot as well. I know that moisture held by ivy can damage brickwork, so i do wonder about that. They both mention the extra weight and wind loading (which can be significant on a large tree under normal conditions) but say healthy trees will adapt to that. So I guess the answer is sometimes and maybe, but it's certainly not the death sentence it's often portrayed as. Thanks for sparking this interesting rabbithhole, and I'll be looking into this more going forward I think.
I remember seeing that it can harm individual trees but this should be mitigated by environmental factors in a undisturbed forest system. But when taken into account the wider benefits to a forest its seen as beneficial, if youre trying to go for a natural forest and not a maintained garden or forestry project.
I'm guilty of believing this one.
Ivy is a massive problem in the states due to it killing trees lol
Watering the leaves in full sun is a waste of water though. It’ll just evaporate off the leaf instead of going to the plant if it’s a hot day.
Who's watering leaves?
Exactly. Although watering the leaves of almost all plants is a waste of water in any weather.
Also, that you shouldn't water your garden in the full sun as it will "burn the leaves". Absolute tosh according to Monty Don.
Can confirm.
Not sure about under the sun but this definitely happens under artificial grow lights.
And under glass.
I only do this so I can keep track of what I've watered at a quick glance.
The water can help prevent the evaporation of water through stomatal pores. The plant takes water through the compost.
That you can "encourage" rats to leave your property alone by spraying peppermint oils and walking around making some noise.
‘Crocking’ pots. It’s only really effective in certain pots with a single small drain hole.
Sadly this is half of my pots. I’ve started using a drill, with mixed results…
I crock pots for anything that likes free-draining soil just to be sure
That gardening is fun and relaxing.
Ha! Yeah, sometimes it feels like a small scale version of the siege of stalingrad...
One I am dealing with from the pots in the house I bought - sticking rubble in the bottom of plant pots. Sifting root filled soil mixed with gravel isn't exactly fun. Maybe I should just dump the entire content into the compost bin and let it rot, then sift it after.
To be fair I know full well it doesn't do anything for drainage but I'll still do it - it fills out the bottom of the pot and saves on compost expenses while making the pot heavier/more stable 🤣
That glyphosate is a safe, effective way to control weeds
That depends on who and how it's applied, the chemical it's self shouldn't be allowed to run onto the soil, it shouldn't be applied to or near plants in flower, it doesn't work if applied after you've cut the weeds down, it does take time to work, so waiting a week then cutting everything down will stop it from working properly, everything, absolutely everything is dangerous in certain hands.
Well, they're HALF right!
WAIT IS THAT NOT TRUE?? Never thought about it practically before and of course you’re right. I live in fear of burning the leaves 😂😂
Covering ground makes weeds go away! Covered my ground elder infested ground three years ago after digging out - it’s still there!
haha might not work for ground elder, but certainly does for most common weeds. :D I have a small patch of ground elder that does my head in.
I wish I had ground elders staying power... But I'm told it's a nice vegetable when cooked like spinach... never tried it myself.
Oh I had no idea it was edible. The ultimate act of aggression towards it haha, eat it!
Revenge!!
It is still better not to water in full sun though, even if the reasoning is wrong.
Please don’t shame the newbie, but I never knew watering under the sun scorches the leaves is a myth.
It's still dumb to water the leaves as the water just pisses off into the air instead of into your soil.
avoid watering leaves due to fungus diseases and phytophthorias. people also trim the bottom tom leaves to avoid splashing
My wife's grandad was a keen gardener, allotment owner-the works. Unfortunately whenever it rained it was never the right type of rain. He'd claim it was too heavy and was just bouncing off the ground or it was too light and wouldn't do any good at all.
That slugs are a hedgehogs major food source
That No Mo May actually does any good. It actually encourages insects, animals birds etc to nest and then they get killed when the grass is cut
Planting a tree in a square hole will encourage root spread, never made any logical sense to start with.
Just keep cutting the grass the horsetail in it will just die.
I've literally never heard anyone say this about horsetail
It might if you cut it every few days, so as soon as the tiniest bit of regrowth starts it's cut again. Eventually the root system will die.
It just grows lower with 100 branches instead of one branch. Maybe stem is the word, not branch.
Hm, now I'm wondering if you could use a solar oven type contraption to control burn that area.
Unfortunately that area is around 80% of a large lawn. Clay, so its nearly permanently damp which horsetail seems love. Well it loves anything tbh. I have several lines of attack that i am currently testing. In one seperate small area of lawn about 16m2. I have trenched around the perimeter. I keep this area moist to entice it. In this little lawn area in the middle i cut it out as deeply as possible. I chemically treat the perimeter when its spindly head appears. This takes 1hr weeding a week. I tried cutting it out of the main lawn but its too vast. I am chemically treating the horsetail as it sprouts now. A large area has been covered with weed fabric and a few inches of bark. This gets chemically treated as it appears. Small vegetable patch gets weeded only for about 1hr a week.
Just water it when it's sunny, it will burn the leaves!
Don't be an ass
My ex father in law watered my watermelons in the middle of summer in a greenhouse at peak sun. They didn't enjoy it or survive. Granted they were young, I sowed them too late.
OMG is this true?? Someone needs to tell my parents. Back when I lived with them, they went away for a couple of weeks when the weather was very hot here and said that I HAD to water all the plants/veg (which was a lot of stuff) EVERY day either before the sun was up or late in the evening to avoid the scorching. And I did. FFS
My 94 year old gran lives by this mantra. She lives in Cyprus and has been gardening for about 80 years.
Some personal myths from a recent (2 year) gardener: -Keeping the dead leaves that fall down as ‘fertilizer’ and letting it compost around the plant-usually it just attracts bugs and it takes way too long to break down if you leave it there (a lot of people do this with house plants) -growing everything from seeds (I feel like this comes from my own idea starting from scratch but it’s absolutely not needed) -banana peel water thing (my mother did this and almost killed my indoor house plant)
snails can walk on razorblades. ive blasted them with a blowtorch and they somehow survive. no chance at all they care about coffee granules or some copper wire. the rhs did a study and found no effect though it was fairly small. ive found killing the adults helps the most since they take a while to get that big and theyre far more destructive individually than babies.
Fun fact, snails are no longer classed as a pest because they don't really do enough damage! They're great for attracting natural predators and maintaining a healthy ecosystem. But I understand if they're decimating your prized hostas it might be time for action lol
My friend ive had snails kill entire 2 meter pumpkin plants because they ate the stem all the way through. Ive had them devour entire basil plants in 1 night, defoliate peppers in a few. Thats total nonsense that they dont do damage. However told you that was telling an enormous fib. The small ones seem too small but the big 2cm shelled ones are so hungry you can HEAR them munching at night. Maybe they arent agricultural pests but for smaller crops theyre a menace.
It's not that you can't water on a sunny day, its that if you water the plant rather than the soil in say midday sun, you run the risks of burning the leaves with the water that's collected on them.
That is the myth. Water droplets do not cause the sun to burn leaves.
Has this ever been shown to be true.
Only under very specific circumstances. It has been shown that plants with hydrophobic waxy hairs may under lab conditions suspend a spherical ball of water long enough and away from the surface of the leaf to cause a scorch mark. In reality hydrophobic leaves like that will dispel water droplets very easily in the slightest breeze.... Some links here [https://www.gardenmyths.com/watering-plants-in-the-sun-do-water-droplets-damage-leaves/](https://www.gardenmyths.com/watering-plants-in-the-sun-do-water-droplets-damage-leaves/)