Does anyone know anything about gardening?

No one ever needs one of them.

I'm going to RHS Chelsea this pm.

Excited.

Bastard! Watched on the telly last night and looks amazing!

What a day for it!!

Is this dead and, if so, why might it have died? It's pretty shady where it is (in the afternoon), but I watered it regularly and generously.

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I'd say that's a dead box.

Having a look at the roots would help diagnose. How long have you had it for?

Damn. About a year. When I bought it on Columbia road the florist did say they need a lot of water. Perhaps I should have given it even more.

I've got a fig tree in a small plastic pot that I've had for nearly five years that I'm surprised is still alive, given I've never given it any special treatment. I think I'll plant it in here at the weekend. Can one just pull the box up and put the fig tree in the same soil, or am I doing something ill-advised?

I'd put fresh compost in and not use the stuff the box died in.

Monty always gives his pots a good scrub before reusing them.

Isn't there some sort of box disease at the moment?

Box blight is quite common. I'm not sure of any new disease though.

My lawn currently

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Pro mowing!
What time should we be round for the BBQ on Saturday? ;)

csb: I planted a box hedge 12 years ago alongside my driveway. I had one plant leftover which I put in the back garden. This one has grown to a nice ball shape which I have trimmed over the years to about 60cm diameter. The hedge at the front is finally a hedge but only about 45cm tall and about 40cm wide. It has had brown bits in it and all sorts of issues. I cut the bad bits out and have made sure it gets water over the last couple of years it now looks good. I think your box needed a little less sun and a bit more frequent watering (euph?).

How far apart are your wires? Your circuit is two loops, each connected to a terminal on the battery right?

I can only see one loop.

I have a 9v battery connected to my recently built slug fence and despite using that setup because I thought it would be humane so far it seems to have a kill rate approaching 100%. Not that I'm that bothered.

The next entry in the 'what the hell is this growing in our wildflower turf' competition:

Has a spiky stem and has gone crazy the last few weeks, so it's a metre high now. We've got a few dotted around the garden but none this big. Can anyone ID please?

You've now got a teasel it will produce a seed head which is great for small birds, its also a wild flower but a bit robust, they can look great if left to overwinter especially in snow,

Hi J the box looks very much dead I'd say it could have been Box Blight but also could have dried out at the early stages which can happen very quickly when in pots, they don't really recover from drying out like some plants can, best to use different soil for the fig as most if not all the goodness will be gone from the old soil,

Thanks dude! I'll post an update once planted :)

Box is apparently a woodland plant, expecting cool shady damp conditions (might be misremembering Gardeners World)

420 thread?

Cool, thanks! There were meant to be some in the mix and I was hoping we'd get some. I would never have recognised them as teasels without the seed heads yet though.

We will be leaving well alone then, possibly making hipster flower arrangements or folksy hedgehogs out of the seed heads in due course, ha ha.

It's already been amazing how much our mini wildflower meadow benefits birds. It's jam packed with insects and we had a family of great tits nesting in a bird box on our neighbour's wall, they seemed to pretty much live off the insects in our garden. Watching the tits hover next to the plants, almost like a hummingbird, was amazing.

Wow, also had no idea they are slightly carnivorous! Did wonder what the little 'pools' were for.

Sounds great, amazing how wildlife appears so quickly Teasels have a great knack of appearing year on year and in places where one would plant them

I remember seeing them for sale all over Camden in every shop that sold rizlas, big tie dye throws, generic Camden stuff etc in years gone past.
Is that no longer the case?