Does anyone know anything about gardening?

Using any pesticide is grim

Hard agree.

I don't really mind ants, unless they are farming aphids at which point they become problematic. At which point it's time to kill the aphids. Neem oil is a pretty good natural aphid destroyer.

Edit- reply to @edmundro

In my experience they make a lot of smoke and not very much heat. None of them big enough to make a proper blazing campfire which is what you'd really need if you are just in the open.

Suspect digging a big sunken pit would make quite a difference as per pic

On my wish list if I win the lottery is something like this for smokelessness

1 Attachment

• sunken-bonfire-pits-2.jpeg.webp

Hard agree.

100%

From the RHS, who - despite recently beginning to see the light on this - are not shy about pesticide use generally:

Ants should be tolerated in gardens wherever possible, they do not cause direct damage to garden plants and are an important part of the biodiversity gardens can support. They predate many other invertebrates

Ant control with pesticides in gardens is unnecessary, impractical and ineffective. Pesticide use will also potentially harm other non-target animals having a detrimental effect on garden health.

Many proprietary ant powders, baits, sprays and aerosols are available for controlling ants in and near buildings, these are not suitable for garden use or application on plants or soil and can have a detrimental effect

.

1 Attachment

Next: Should jwestland use herbicides on the couch grass that she cannot dig out as it's a foot deep through the clay/between the driveway tiles...?

:p

But since the ants live there, I guess it's going have to be pulling and hope I get it all.

For plant stuff a steamer is a good shout. Or boiling water.

The thing with the ants is at the foot of my rose they build an external nest around the trunk and then the trunk gets all fucked up, so I'm not convinced they are always harmless.

As I said I don't do it willy nilly. They have plenty of other places they can go, just not two particular plants I like which are currently struggling for survival.

Cool, thanks for the response, prob won’t bother then. I’d only be buying a tiny one anyway so if it’s not gonna chuck out any heat it’s not worth the cost.

The metal weed scraper on a stick from BnQ is pretty good too :)

Huh, mine only sit in leftover sandy areas and dried out cracked clay, I have never seem them actually build anything.

My roses sit in a mix of compost and damp clay which they love, is the soil around yours very dry? My mum has dry soil which they don't love.

metal weed scraper on a stick

The only problem I find with those is plants with very long roots, or small paving cracks.

is the soil around yours very dry?

Fairly. It's a mounded bed. But overall it's not a dry garden. For both my nice roses they form earth about 30cm the way up and cause a split. Normally I blast off with a hoze, but right now don't want more water or to risk introducing an infection.

2 Attachments

This is the current state of play of my historically best rose. Compare and contrast with what used to be the poorer sibling.

Obvs not saying that this is down to ants, but equally I don't want to take the chance.

Luckily there are some shoots of hope, so will keep monitoring it. Then once I have more time in a few weeks, cut back all the dead wood. For now I want to leave it be in case any more shoots come, now it can photosynthesis again.

3 Attachments

The ants seemed to have done me a favour this year and have rounded up all of the aphids and seem to be farming them on 2 foxgloves. Didn't realise it was a thing till my neighbour pointed it out! Isn't nature great!

1 Attachment

If anyone has any freecycle garden stuff, please give me a shout, I’m trying to help out someone taking care of multiple communal gardens.

Looks like my wildflower patch is going to be taken over by giant daises this year.

1 Attachment

What can I spray on my powdery mildew roses

After three years, here's my winter-ravaged echium against what it's supposed to look like as per google. I'm going to try and save some seeds for 2026.
I was in Margate over the weekend and saw some great specimens!

Edit - Apologies, seem to be having issues uploading the image. It looks as strange as you'd expect.

2 Attachments

I lost all my echiums to the frost

There are specific products. Just grab whichever one is easiest to get hold of and it'll clear it up.

If an echium has ever set seed in your garden you'll have seedlings for years.

It was their first year so sadly no seeds

This is a USA site so check the plants work, but they have a lot of planting plans and inspiration :)

https://www.bhg.com/gardening/flowers/perennials/long-living-perennials/?utm_campaign=bhg_mybhg&utm_content=bestof_sametimelastyear&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_term=646105a690f12100019f3b15

Big roses, you must have had them a while?

Mine are babies bar the half dead left behind one which is slowly recovering.

Planted them when we moved in 7yrs ago from cuttings from my folks. The smaller one took a long time to get going.

The big one has been a major feature so so long that last year and this year its been really sad to see it in this state. I can't help but wonder if the neighbour behind put something down that's affected it. Probably ant powder.

Roses starting to bloom.

1 Attachment

😂 (re ant powder bit)

If your neighbour is a keen herbicide sprayer it might have gotten to the rose...fingers crossed for it.

Our neighbours don't bother cutting the brambles ever and I have to keep fighting the roots and plants.

But also don't cut their lovely clematis and don't use chemicals so swings & roundabouts I guess.

Not gardening per se, but I very rarely get to build anything for myself and am rather pleased with this. Made partly from leftover 4x2 and 6x2 from jobs, plus 3 decking boards, total cost £60ish. No, that isn't a patio, it's slabs loose laid over the cesspit!

1 Attachment