Does anyone know anything about gardening?

Someone here recommended these plants to me, and I always forget what they're called.

Anyway, one of them has started to look like shit.

The only thing I can think is that I've fertilised the fuck out of the star jasmine next to it in a bid to get the fucker to flower. There is another next to it, but further away from the star jasmine that looks aok.

Any ideas or solutions? Or is this just a poor planting choice where I've gone for one thing that loves poor clay soil, and another that wants food?

Edit: Daphne Odora Aureomarginata and BRM

3 Attachments

Maybe this is more of a landscaping question than gardening, but as part of our new shed project, we will be significantly expanding our patio. At the moment we have a strip of red/brown 20x20cm concrete pavers surrounding the house and also covering the driveway to the right. I can't find exactly the same colour and size so I'm not sure what to do. One option would be to buy the similar pavers which are slightly more pink and hope that they weather in. This would probably be the cheapest. Next would be to create a contrast area on the left side and have a border extending around to tie the two areas together. I feel it would be nicer to have some contrast as the red bricks aren't particularly nice and having such a huge expanse could be a bit much. If anyone has any great ideas or images I'd appreciate some tips!

2 Attachments

I'd defo go with a contrast rather than try to match, in colour and maybe shape.

Garden is a few days away from showing lots of colour hopefully. Good year for the Iris' with a record 7 stalks. The red Ranunculus has been flowering for a few weeks but this spectacular orange one has started flowering too.
Roses just about out and the Alliums nearly there too.

2 Attachments

I've never had any success with ranunculus, but I really like them.

Any tips?

I tried them last year in shop purchased compost in pots and they started growing but the foliage and flowers rotted off.
I took the corns and dug them into the border (with loads of homemade compost from the hotbin) and they're thriving.
Could be the better drainage or maybe the nutrients from proper interaction with the soil. I'm going to get some more from Farmer Gracy for the front garden.

Our flag iris have been insane this year.

Chopped down our ornamental cherry yesterday with my dad and child no1.

Nice family activity. Still a bit sad it's gone, but it was dead. I only had to dig about 6" around and saw one lead root.

Now it's gone though, we're actually thinking it's nicer having the space. I'll try and get some pics up for the hive's view.

If anyone has any great ideas

Idk if these are great but...

1. Pressure wash and thoroughly clean what's there so; a) you know what it was meant to look like, and b) when the contrast goes down it all looks new.
   
2. Picking a total of 3 types like you've done seems best for making look like a contrast and not ramshackle. Maybe use a black tile to create an outline around each one.
   
3. If you can use the contrasts to draw your eye or direct you to part of the garden I think it would look more purposeful.
   
4. My gut says you want the same size pavers, even if you change the colour, orientation or layout. Otherwise it might look like an add-on.
   
5. Re-grout/point the whole lot with the same grout to make sure it looks cohesive.
   

Safe to say this didn't go to plan.

1 Attachment

Fork 0 Photonia 1

Thanks, definitely good advice! Pressure washing will definitely be happening over the next week or so. I was thinking of using a separator paver to make the different areas more distinct. I think then we'll have the garden table and bbq area on the lighter coloured bit and the darker coloured area in front of the house would have planters etc on it. A path will probably extend from the top left corner to a new gate in the fence to allow bikes to brought in straight to the shed.

That’s disappointing Bob

I broke my nice wood and stainless fork and spade pulling ivy and bramble roots. Much annoy. Replaced with ugly Stanley Fatmax versions as they were cheap at Toolstation. Seem much more robust. The spade is slightly pointed, serrated in parts and has a big wide step on it for getting a good purchase for a solid stamp. It has been amazing for butchering the bastard ivy roots.

I’ve lost count of how many forks I’ve broken in my short life so far

Found the name, Daphne Odora Aureomarginata.

The RHA isn't that helpful, but it looks like it could be over watering. Which could be possible I guess. The feed I've been using is Vitax Q4 Fertiliser:

and here are what the sick Daphne looks like:

Firstly if you are trying to encourage flowering, I think nitrogen is actively unhelpful - it will encourage foliage growth instead. You want potassium.

But yeah overfeeding definitely kills lots of things quickly. I have done that myself in the past using granular chemical feeds and now only do organic. Chuck some compost and or comfrey pellets around the trachleospermum, hold off on the chemicals, and see what happens?

I got it because of the potassium (and it was recommended somewhere) - it's got double the quantity of potassium to nitrogen, would that not even it out?

The Star Jasmin is growing away like it's never done before.

Such a frustrating bind to be in. I guess I'll just hold off on more fertiliser for the smaller one at the back to see if the Daphne recovers.

Chives are flowing. I always bore everyone with this, but I think chives are such a fucking brilliant thing to plant. Grow almost anywhere without care and give you early green, food and nice flowers.

3 Attachments

What kind of fittings do these accept?

Will a hozelock be a direct fit with a good seal?

1 Attachment

Unlikely. Hozelock has a very proprietary profile to their fittings. That is more like a simple barb. A regular hosepipe and hoseclamp would be your best bet. Even a wing nutted one for convenience would be fine as it's not under any significant pressure. I have the same on my butt (fnar) and it's what I would do.

A regular hosepipe and hoseclamp would be your best bet

+1

Also they're not that rigid compared to a normal tap (or at least mine isn't).

If you want a Hozelock, I'd probably attach a short bit of pipe+clamps first and then the Hozelock hardware to that.

Alternatively install some kind of overcomplicated solar powered pump via one of the blanks near the top.

Actually, I wonder what the thread for the tap is on the butt itself and if that would accept a standard garden tap. Massive overkill, but would waste an afternoon.

If you amazon (sorry not sorry) 'water butt hozelock' you get a bunch of taps that look just like that ^ and apparently they are direct hozelock fit.

Seems you can just replace the whole assembly with a Hozelock thing, might do that. Will stop the kiddo from playing with it.

Chives look great! I have a packet of chive seed somewhere I need to find.

How old is your star jasmine? I have two that I planted in winter, obviously they haven't done much yet. But I think I read (maybe on here) that they often take a long time to establish?

Also it captured 100l of rain water in one night.

Gonna need a bigger butt

So many butt jokes