Does anyone know anything about gardening?

Looks lovely but have you not missed a spot (circled)😉.

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Ha! Well if you are willing to pay for the turf I’ll lay it, 800sqm should do it. That’s waiting to be seeded in the autumn, haven’t got a sprinkler big enough to do an area that big!

A good days work that, shame the stripes won’t last.

800 sqm! It looked big but that is huuuuge!

I have a robot mower to put on it, so stripes were never going to stay...

Yeah it’s annoyingly big, which is a massive first world problem of course. We have cleared about 5 fallen down barns off it in the 3 years we have lived here, and now finally in the stage of making it into a usable area rather than a bog in the winter and a dust bowl in the summer

Well I regularly catch the 84 year old resident next door but one from us taking pot shots with his air rifle from his bathroom window. In a suburban road with back to back gardens, I presume it’s pigeons and not cats he’s shooting.

haven’t got a sprinkler big enough to do an area that big!

Pffft, call yourself a farmer? :)

Sadly way out of my league! And seeing as we share a natural spring with 2 other places, I think they would be a little miffed with me.

It's OK, that's unsustainable agriculture, anyway:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/may/18/us-dust-bowl-conditions-likely-to-reoccur-great-plains

Dahlia looking well just moments before the two year old ripped it from it's stem. Any pest control advice?

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Use a condom next time?

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Talking of pests, is there a non tox way to reduce the number of aphids hanging around on my roses and verbena?

Sunflowers we had grown in the window transferred outside just before the windest weekend in a long time.

Most have shrivelled up a lot, some broken stems. It this just the effect of the wind or are we making them "soft" by growing them on a warm window cill before transferring outside?

Same goes for these honeysuckle plants. Is this blackening of the leaf from wind damage?

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Neem oil and horticultural soap. Have been using it on my apple tree with good results and it’s now getting use in other problem spots of the garden, including my rose.

thanks - will try that

Plant marigolds next to them, aphids hate them

We ordered a sideboard which came in 2 boxes but they delivered box 1 twice and didn't want it back. So now I have loads of spare wood. I've bodged some of it together into planters and Nunhead Gardener delivered my order from yesterday right on time.

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Can anyone save this flymo from landfill? I used it as a donor to repair mine. The motor’s seized and I had to destroy the mounting plate to get it out. The belts also gone and the impeller mount. Basically the whole drivetrain needs replacing. Other than that handle, switch etc is all good. I know it’s a long shot but would prefer someone to salvage something off it than bin the lot.
Collection from SE6

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Lupin is going for it. Got another 4 flower spikes coming up, should look pretty great in a week or so.

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I've got an axe to grind. How do you sharpen yours?

depends what you view as toxic. a mist spray with washing up liquid and water in the container will get rid as well as any industrial killer

Nice, checked mine earlier as it seems late to flower. Bloody aphids all over the main spike. Gave them a spray with the hose. Haven't had them before but I've heard they're a nightmare

The lupin is about the only bloody plant in the garden that doesn’t Have aphids at the moment. Little buggers are on my rose, my broad beans, my apple tree, a shrub which I can’t remember the name of, a curry plant, and they’ve just set into the tulips even though the tulips are all dying back anyway. They’ve all just had a thorough neem-ing, so that should put on the back foot, but it will be interesting to see where they crop up next. Dunno what it is about my garden that’s so attractive to the little sods but I wish they wouldn’t.