Does anyone know anything about gardening?

Seen a few good looking planters on here. Where do people buy sleepers from?

Seconded

Need

That was my response when I saw them

Lots of good tips here

Your menacing, sinister Echium metamorphoses into a giant cottage garden nightmare with tiny pretty blue flowers.

Cheers. Just ordered some for Saturday.

My front garden is OK but the lawn is so bad. I think it’s the original lawn from 1965. I’ve said to my wife before let me turn the soil add some top soil and reseed. She won’t have it.

So my plant is to add lots of shrubs and flowers and casually minimise the grass.

My Suttons Apricot Foxgloves are slowly getting their lift on. First time I've tried foxgloves so feel proud that they're actually doing something. Getting kind of overshadowed by the massive poppies though.

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So I've forked the garden over ready for new turf. Removed quite a few lumps of slate, brick and whatever the fuck this big lump of metal is so now I need to get it vaguely level.

I have a big rake but I clearly don't have the technique, any tips?

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Rake lightly and tread carefully?
see last photo ... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-33861431

Hire a rotovator, break it up into a fine tilth , then rake it. If it's a small area, break up the soil by hand until it is fine, heavier clods can be stomped to break them up.

Cheers. I forked it again to break it up more and then could vaguely rake it level. I got bored of picking lumps of stone out though so it's not the best job. It's green so far though (and nothing has gone bang yet).

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The first floor of your bug hotel seems to contain frozen sausages. Ominous.

Lil fig tree bearing its first child

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Have you planted it in a pot? Apparently you need to constrain the roots which I didn't know when I planted mine:

Someone gave me a baby fig tree and I whacked it into the back garden. Got massive quickly. No useful figs produced. Looks dull for most of the year. Think I will be getting rid of it this winter.

Might be worth trying some hard wood cuttings, planted in a suitable root restraining container.

I planted a fig this year. Soon I’ll be deep in fig rolls

Ah, interesting. It will grow from a lump of wood?

That rings a bell about fig tree planting... against a wall with the sides of the hole lined with slabs and bricks at the bottom. Less roots = more fruit

Was in a pot and then planted in a hole lined with roof tiles. Not sure if it will work perfectly but will see. I want it to grow quite big and didn’t have a big enough pot

Ah ok. Interested to know how that pans out. My guess is that fig roots > roof tiles but we will see!

Soon I’ll be deep in fig rolls

What part of the Med do you live on?

fig roots > roof tiles

In my folks old place in SW France the roots of our neighbours fig went under a thick stone wall and then through the wall of my folks chai.

None of the fig trees in anyone's gardens produced decent figs year on year. Some years you'd get them late in the season, but nothing like say Croatia or southern Italy.

They do give good shade when it's blisteringly hot.

nothing like say Croatia

My favourite memory of Croatia - figs, yogurt and honey for breakfast every morning.

I haven't been since it was Yugoslavia, but still have vivid memories of walking along walls picking, and eating them from the branches hanging over peoples gardens.

Shat myself silly.

I think there's also a large amount of chance / or maybe minute climatic variations. Monty Don on GW the other week showed two large figs planted right next to each other and he said one produces tonnes of fruit every year and the other virtually none ever.