Are there certain plants that you'd love to grow, but soil, pests defeat you?
I love the big daisy type plants, such as Rudbeckias and Heleniums. You wouldn't think there'd be a problem with these, as they are fairly tough, and rough stemmed, but can I grow them, can I as heck....
I've lost count of the amount of plants of these that I've grown , and put in, even when quite large established plants, and every bloomin time, the slugs have devoured the plants down to, (and seemingly under) the ground. Not a stem, leaf, flower left.
I even resoted to buying a plant in full growth, in a large pot (that broke my heart having to pay out good money LOL ) and I'm ashamed to say put a few slug pellets around it.
They still destroyed it, there was a ring of dead slugs around it, but I guess the next wave just crawled over these to reach their destination!!....
Campanulas too, I've raised laods of the types like punctata, beautiful big plants, as soon as they're in the ground....CHOMP...and they're no more...gone...deceased...decimated...
I now have a few pots of Rudbeckias ready, large plants, but I'm sooo reluctant to actually plant them because i know that after all that effort of sowing, pricking out, and bringing them on, within hours , they too will be off to the great garden in the sky.
Why can't they eat the bindweed, nettles? And how do they get into such unimagionable positions? I even find them crawling accross my upstairs bedroon window (much to my grand daughters amusement)
I'm into trying japanese anemones now, so far so good, they have left these alone.
What I can't understand is that I have a huge frog and toad population (hence my reluctance to use pellets) These four legged friends are literally everywhere, one even hopped onto my leg the other day when I was sat under the pear tree reading, so why aren't they making inroads into these monsters?
Any suggestions on how to protect my plants much appreciated........
Which plants defeat you?
Sue I used to have the same problems with rudbeckias, campanulas, clematis etc, the slugs no matter what ate them and i would never use pellets.
One plant that slugs never eat are hardy geraniums, many oriental poppies, veronicas, grasses. I guess what I am saying is that you need to find plants that slugs dont like and grow those maybe instead.
BTW if you would like to try some hardy geraniums send me an email. I am closing all my gardens down and would be more than happy to dig a few up and send them to you.
Sueone I know how you feel. I'd quite like to grow those huge Delphiniums but so do the slugs and snails, the only one that seems to be realtively unaffected is D. requienii, not so showy but still a nice plant. The amount of snails has been phernominal this year, slugs seem to be less in number and they've eaten the Dahlias and ripped up the Iris leaves among other destructive activities. I agree why can't the slugs eat the weeds, there are plenty of them about. We get vine weevils thanks to the Fuchsia growers so all bulb pots have to be tipped out early spring and the soil given to the ducks and hens and we have to keep a close eye out for lily beetles. I've been growing Iris 'Green Spot' for several years now but no flowers, this year it produced 6 flowering spikes and something chopped off the buds just before they opened. I did some yelling that day!
I like some of the Southern Hemisphere species but we're on clay so we have to grow in pots which is mildly annoying.
I got hold of some ladybird feeders which need to be put up in early spring so that should help encourage them into the garden to keep down those aphids that love the seedlings and Philadelphus. Like you we have plenty of frogs hopping about as well as the ducks and chickens but out most effective weapon this year has been Tweatle the duckling, he seems to have eaten more pests than all of the others put together, he did get stung by a wasp he tried to eat but it didn't put him off for more than a couple of minutes.
Fellow feeling, I've only moved 2 miles from my old house but Hostas, Delphiniums and even Holyhocks are impossible Ann
Thats the way I'm going now Psilo, making it easier for myself, but I just can't help longing for those beautiful big daisies, especially when I read articles, or see snippets about them on t.v. it doesn't help when they tell you how easy they are!!....
I've put a lot more grasses in this year, and poppies, penstemons too seem to survive.
My canna leaves look like lace doilies, as they unfurled, there were matching holes across in a straight line, guess where the devils had nibbled a single hole right through, bit like cutting out the doiley patterns on folded paper.Interesting effect.
They also demilish the red hot poker flowers, never the leaves or stems...they live in these and eat the flowers before they emerge, all I'm left with is bare stalks...
how come you're closing down your gardens? easing down on the work, and yes please I'd love some cuttings if possible, let me know about postage, I know from your postings and photos you have a fantastic collection.
Baa, funny you should say about D requinii, I put some of those in this year, the leaves have grown, but nothing else.Does it take a while to settle? will they appear next year? The seeds i think cmae from one of the exchanges.
Lily beetles are here with a vengance, but I can keep on top of those, as my lilies are in pots, again tried them in the borders, but they got chomped as soon as they put their noses up above the parapet.Perhaps you should hire Tweatle out...LOL
strangely my irises do well out the front(unsure of name as they were offshoots someone gave to me) bought some new ones for the back thinking they'd also do well, and they just upped and withered away on me...oh well...c'est la vie.
Then to top it all today, went out just looking round the garden this morning, found a squirrel in my Avellina contorta, must be looking for nuts(do they carry them? ) he scuttled off chattering to himself.Then I came up to a bed with some spider flowers in, for the first time ever I'd got them to grow to a nice big size, and the first few flowers were emerging...only to find that caterpillers had stripped the leaves,i picked off dozens..right next to these plants were nut feeders, that the tits flock around, where were they?
Saggita, never evn bothered to try hostas properly, just had acouple of freebie plants that you send for in an offer, they died before they evn began..Hollyhocks though do well.
Guess what Psilo says is true, best to go with what does well for you, but there's such a wealth of things out there I want to try, one advantage of growing from seeds I suppose, at least i have a huge supply of things to keep plugging up the holes with.
Quick query here Psilo, I grew a geranium from T&M seeds 'silver shadow' I believe, grown large, beautful foliage, but no flowers? am I doing something wrong here?overfeeding, underfeeding? not enough water. Do I cut it down for the winter, or leave it? I seem to think that it's a cross from a more tender variety.
Sue
i am closing down my gardens partly due to ill health but the main reason is that the council, following a huge blunder destroyed most of them and i dont have the energy to start them up again. I can certainly send you some divisions that you will just need to pot up and grow on for a bit before you plant them out. No postage is necessary. Its good to see them going ot a good home. Just email me your postal address.
Silver shadow as a recall is a cross with robustum which is south african half tender variety. HAving said that in a sheltered position and with good drainage it can thrive quite well. I find that the south african varieties flower somewhat spasmodically. Make sure it is in a sunny spot. Failing that grow in a pot which restricts its roots somewhat. That seem to flower well like that.
Psilo, I'm really sorry to hear that. Your poor health, and what must have been gut-renching when the council destroyed your plants.How on earth did that happen?
I'll mail you my address, and I'l take good care of the plants you send me. I will label them with BIG labels, so's I don't need to keep asking again and again which ones they are!!...
Having memory problems can be a bit of a chore, it doesn't matter how many times I'm told the name of something, it just won't stick...so I have to label and list everything.Fine, until the label goes missing, which it seems to do with regularity in my garden.Think my resident squirrel maybe has collection somewhere...
Over zealous workmen is how it happened. They were told to strim the weeds only and not damage any plants. Somehow they read this as meaning take in the bull dozers and level everything!! I have no idea really. They are morons, nothing less!
no worries about the memory mine is pretty bad too. :)
Psilo, it must have been heart wrenching...what did they have to say about it?
I suppose everyone blamed everyone else but themselves...
We had the same sort of thing up our plot, but only minor compared to what happened to you.
Our plot is up in the corner, and the top part tapers to a point, the right hand side having a wall along it, to divide the lotties and the houses. There was a blackberry that we'd trained along this wall (it was a wild one I know ) council came in , and strimmed it all down, then left these brambles all over the plot, caught up in out trees that were newly planted, at least they didn.t strim those down too.
I've only just read this, I think I was on holiday. It must have been devastating to have your garden destroyed. Council workmen don't seem to have a clue about plants. Round here they planted some lovely ornamental cherries and a couple of years later they came and pruned the grafted tops off and left on all the branches lower down off the root stock so we now have huge wild cherry trees - still the birds enjoy the fruits.
Last year the council "gardeners" were going round with full protective gear, overalls and masks etc with poison sprays killing everything in sight along the pavements and verges, in a strong wind so heaven knows what else they treated, not to mention passers by breathing it and getting it on their skin.
Anyway, things I can't grow. Monarda didyma - I keep buying new plants which look lovely and healthy, and they soon get mildew, look very ill and disappear over winter. Delphiniums get badly eaten if I don't put slug pellets down, but I have kept them at bay long enough for the plants to grow by putting pet hair and human hair clippings all round them. Slugs don't like crossing it, so you could probably get a good supply from a hairdresser, or keep a dog which sheds a lot of fur.
I must have spent over £20 on nepeta plants and the cats always manage to eat them. I cover them with chicken wire, put holly leaves round them and all sorts of other deterrants, but the cats are very persistent.
The slugs always eat any spinach that I sow outdoors. I never even see a seedling, but get good germination if I put it in the greenhouse border. I've even started plants off indoors and transplanted them outside when they are a bit larger, but they vanish over night. I now grow Swiss chard instead.
We all seem to have a battle with the slugs. They have won in my garden this year as I had a nasty fall on one of my nocturnal slug hunts and haven't been out with the torch and bucket since. My Dad used to put bran down near plants he wanted to protect, and the slugs seemed to gorge themselves on that and leave the plants alone. I'll have to try it again as I don't like using slug pellets.
Mushrooms - I spent ages wetting and trampling on a bale of straw, innoculating it with the mushroom spawn, topping it with a layer of loam and keeping it moist and dark and didn't get a single mushroom. I had better luck with a load of spent mushroom compost from a local mushroom farm when I got about 10 lb of mushrooms from my carrot bed.
We too have had a lot of slugs and snails -- we do remove a lot of them manually but this year we also had rabbits. As I was holding a wedding in late September I was determined that I should have a great deal of flowers around in pots and tubs but also in beds. Having read up on all the techniques Daves Gardeners were successful with I started in January - never having seeded before. The result, using coffee filters and chamomile tea , was over 4000 plants by May. You can imagine as the first few snails,slugs and rabbits began their appearance how bad I felt!!
I then came across a suggestion for garlic and peppers as a detterent for the rabbits. Mixing a few cloves and several large peppers together in the blender I then circled the plants in the areas where I knew the rabbits were in the mornings. I was pleased to see that after a few days the paw holes disappeared. I then did the other areas as I planted the new plants. I had no problem with snails and slugs in those areas - rudebekias, amaranthus, gallardia, gourds, asters, nasturtiums, begonias cineraria, geraniums and busy lizzies all thrived. As they still are despite it being late in the season. I kept renewing the mix when it rained or dried up. Whether it was just that or the drier ground that they were in this year cannot be sure re the snails. The pot plants, not treated by the garlic mix, that were affected were the ones that were kept the wettest - slugs going inside the pot and snuggling inside the root structure. 'Fraid I did use the pellets here! My biggest problem - which really did me in was the cabbage white caterpillars on the nasturtiums - 2 or 3 thousand in just a few weeks. Have never seen nasturtiums eaten to the stem so quickly. This was bad news as the wedding theme was Autumn Colours! However, once removed they then recovered in an astoundingly quick time and are still out now fully recovered and trailing everywhere!
Hope the recipe works for you too. Have also seen prickly surface are meant to deter them and also a glass of guiness part dug into the ground - they fancy a drink and fall in !!
Sorry to hear about your plants Psilo - keep well and keep giving us your advice!!
Good luck with the clearing up ready for next year! Also many thanks to all Daves contributors, wherever you may be for the best garden ever this year!!
It's great to get all this advice free, I can see a new cookery program coming up for t.v., recipes for pest preventions!!,,,,LOL
Luckily, rabbits don't seem to be around here,Yet!!!....but there seem to be more squirrels around than I've ever seen before, as of yet not found any damage.
They keep going to my Avellina contorta, which I thought didn't have nuts, but maybe thats why....
I too have tried monards, bought large beautiful plants end of this summer, duely planted them, kept them well watered, but still they went down with mildew, don't know if they'll come back next year, or if they've had their lot.My soil is on the sandy side in places, but clayey about 2 spits down.I only know that because when we moved here, first thing I made hubby do was to dig out a patio outside the sunlounge, and as our garden slopes from left to right quite steeply, he had a lot of digging one side...and there was a lot of clay soil we had to dispose of....