Does anyone know anything about gardening?

Accidentally grew some ginger! 🤗

I was trying to start a plant off from a thumb of root, it grew fine for a while then died back in the last couple of weeks... Tipped the pot out this morning to reuse the soil and found these two in there! Amazing...

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Great stuff. Never thought to try but definitely going to now. Did you do anything special to start the end off?

Bees are all over this ...

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Whoah, the colours on your lacecaps are stunning!

Nothing at all... You just need to make sure there are a couple of buds on the piece you plant... I didn't do any research, planted it 18mths ago and totally forgot about it, it sprang to life and then died back again...

I've just taken charge of an old communal garden where the shrubs/bushes were regularly hacked back to 'retain their shape' by the contracted "gardeners" and no-one can remember ever seeing them flower before.
I'm still trying to identify most of them and so thanks for naming this one which actually led me here - https://www.ftd.com/blog/share/types-of-hydrangeas
and the answer to my post 4822.

Climbing Hydrangea !

We're also enjoying the first full bloom of our hydrangea after some aggressive pruning over the past couple of years. Got a couple of cuttings that have taken well too.

Went to RHS Wisley yesterday, some truly filthy hydrangeas on display.

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Wildflower patch is sprouting. Hopefully not all weeds!

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Looks promising - did you sow the seeds directly or start them off in compost and plant out ?

Directly, that's a new bed though so they're in a couple of inches of compost. I can't remember when, probably around 6 weeks ago.

Right - whenever I've tried direct the 'weeds' won.

Damn. I suppose I have to wait a bit to figure whats 'weeds' and what's not?

Well what ever they are you've got them thinned out nicely - keep us posted :)

Does anyone know anything about eucalyptus trees? Having moved in to the house recently I've been told by father in law the tree is terrible for getting after foundations and drains etc. Do I need to get rid? Excuse the state of the front garden and mass of bindweed

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Stunning, I find only taking off the dead flower heads round the time of the last frost and not really trimming them unless 100% necessary is best.
They mostly bloom on old wood so if you take off the old wood, you're taking off this years flowers too. The Vitax slow release Hydrangea feed arround the time you dead head also works wonders.

IIRC They're not very good for other plants, they damage soil so growing conditions favour them... Not sure about the roots thing...

Very popular in Galicia because they're so fast growing, perfect for firewood... And forest fires... In the right conditions they just burst into flames!

They can get quite big. I'm not aware of them being worse for soil dessication than other species.

However, non native and probably not a long term prospect for your front garden so I would consider replacing it with something else.

Thanks both. Coming to. The conclusion we should get rid

We went to view a house yesterday that had a huge Eucalyptus in the garden. My seven year old's initial response was "we could have pet koalas".

Might be worth considering.

If you do get rid you might want to check that the roots haven't already got into the foundations.
We pulled out of a house sale some years ago because a Eucalyptus tree had been removed and the seller couldn't produce the paperwork to prove that the under pinning had been done.
The house we did move to also had a massive Eucalyptus on the neighbours side of the fence but it was a good distance from the house.The roots seemed to spread far and shallow and it shed huge sheets of bark every year . Someone asked if they could have the bark to burn.

A full sized one that close I'd be tempted, but as others said check how far the roots have gone.

My understanding was that the issue with soil is that their thirsty. I was looking at a dwarf one partially to help remove water from the soil.

Just picked 2.5kg Redcurrants from our Garden bushes. Happy days.

Spotted a Red Admiral butterfly and Cinnabar caterpillar too.

Edit: the moth is on Ragwort, should perhaps pull that really but mixed info about it. No horses or cows will be grazing our yard.

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Eucs root comparatively shallow in the uk so they spread far to sniff out drains and other water sources.
They’re hard to reduce properly to keep them in shape, don’t take well to pollarding and make it hard for other plants and shrubs nearby.
If it was in the middle of a lawn miles from anything I’d say leave it and let it do it’s thing(full size ones are stunning). If it’s within 10m of the house then have it felled and get the stump ground out to a depth of 8-10” if access is possible for the machine.

General knowledge and problem solving. I’m impressed.

Thanks. Any recommendations for someone to do that in SW? (am I right in thinking you are an (ex) tree surgeon?)