Does anyone know anything about gardening?

Edit. Catchup on whole thread first. /notetoself

Made my own piece of chamomile turf!

Sounds nice. Pics? I always liked the idea of a camomile seat/bench...

Made my own piece of chamomile turf!

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Does anyone know of decent garden/landscape company I need to get the back yard trimmed and just a bit of a tidy for winter while im away. its only a small back yard with about 6 trees and small beds surrounding small back yard.

I have a bunch of lemon tree seedlings that I grew, proudly, from an actual lemon last year. They've been doing ok, and I put them out for the summer to get some sunshine. Unfortunately slugs or snails have taken an interest in some of them and have done that thing where they eat the outer coating off the seedling stems (I don't know the right word for it, "bark" is as close as I can get but obviously it's not really bark). They've left the sort of woody core on the attacked seedlings alone.

2 questions:

1. What is the correct terminology for the bit they've eaten so I can google for it?
   
2. Is there anything immediate I can do to help the ones that were attacked? It's getting cold enough for me to consider moving them back indoors, so further pest attacks aren't a major problem now. The attacked ones have plenty of new growth but it's a bit stunted - hard to say whether that's due to the damage or breeding or whatever. Any good ideas?
   

Bark kinda fits, more terminology > http://www.mhhe.com/biosci/pae/botany/crang/periderm/

Copper wires stripped from cable and laid as coils around the stems

Fabulous, that's super helpful, cheers. The copper wire would be for mollusc protection specifically, right? I'm bringing them all indoors today, I reckon, as I had to put the heating on last night o.O so shouldn't see any more pest damage. Wikipedia seems to reckon that the damaged bits will grow back, so hopefully they'll be ok, barring any disease outbreaks.

yes, sorry bothwell, slugs and snails don't like copper underfoot. rake the soil through once you bring them in to expose any lurking small gastropods

Oh my god, the little bastards get everywhere. Maybe I'll use double-sided sticky tape to attach slug pellets to each plant >:(

If my tomatoes haven't ripened yet are they not going to?

Pick them and put them in a brown bag with a banana.

As long as they aren't suffering from blight you should be okay to leave them on the plants. The forecast for the next week is dry and warming up so that should ripen them.

Once they start to get a bit of colour you can ripen them inside on a window sill.

Make green tomato chutney with the unripened ones.

Home grown tomatoes will stay fine for a surprisingly long time. I have left tomatoes on the plant until the whole plant itself has rotted away in winter (mostly out of laziness), but the tomato has slowly reddened and been firm/edible all that time later.

Dont forget green tomatoes can also be delicious too, especially cooked.

Thanks all. There's still hope!

Apples ready here, cookers (r) and many of the eaters.

Greengage pruned too, looks alot happier.

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First ripe tomato for me today!

God everything in the garden has been so slow this year with the terrible weather. However bad you think it is down there, remember London is positively tropical compared to up here.

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That looks more or less like my harvest. I've got one guy coming along. The plants themselves are weakening and starting to fall over.

Your tomatoes have nipples, tee hee

I ate that adorable nipple adorned fruit this morning with my breakfast. I plonked a bit into my mouth carelessly with whatever else I was eating completely not thinking about the tomato.

I think I may have cried a tear of joy, and Im not even joking. Its not even been sunny for months, but it tasted so IMMENSE.

Funny. Now that my tomatoes are beginning to ripen, I realise that I have enjoyed growing them way more than I am bothered about harvesting and eating them.

#latentfarmer

That's me with my French beans. Don't even like them really. Fun to grow though!

Funny. Now that my tomatoes are beginning to ripen, I realise that I have enjoyed growing them way more than I am bothered about harvesting and eating them.

#latentfarmer

I confess thread >>>>>>>>>>