What do you Grow?? The Garden Thread

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^ We’ve got a black elder here, it got to about 8’ last year: currently 4’ tall after last autumn’s haircut.
Can you make elderflower cordial/wine from the black-leafed varieties then?
(I’ve casually assumed they’re ornamental)

Tastiness indeed.

/\These?
https://ediblelandscaping.com/products/ ... rberry.php
It seems so,it’s a plant I’ve been wanting,and of course one of the gold leaf cultivars.I have regular elderberries growing wild here so I assume the others will work for me.I love the fragrance.
The birds REALLY like the berries.This year I will cover them with a brown paper lunch bag so they don’t eat them all.I made a lavender flower elder flower tea that’s wonderful with a small spoonful of good honey.Maybe this year I’ll add a few rose petals and a few leaves off the tea camellia.

^ just went down stairs to leaf through the labels tin to check which of the dark varieties we’ve got: it is Black Lace.
Just checked about the edibility: it’s got black berries not red ones so should be edible in the same uses as the common-all-hedgerow green leaf ones.

Does anyone know how to keep rodents out of the greenhouse?
Mice ate a whole flat of leeks and dug up some seeds I had planted.

How awful!! !!

I have no idea how to keep mice out. Or even discourage them.

Mice can get through an opening the size of a dime, and can dig under anything, unless you have a concrete slab as a floor.

Mine is such a cheap one there’s really no way I could seal it off.Maybe I will set the seedlings in tall clear plastic tubs and hope the mice don’t climb in.
They didn’t bother the larger plants, just the seeds and seedlings.
Sometimes they bury the bird seed in flower pots and all of a sudden a dozen sunflowers sprout up.If only they would plant the garden.
I’ve tried peppermint oil and other smelly stuff but that doesn’t work.Someone said mothballs but that would repel me out of it.

Ebay cancelled my broad bean order but today a nice neighbour left a bag full outside the door.
Today it's been 22° C and tiny little shoots are starting to show in most of the beds.

^ Exciting!

(We’ve got Hostas starting to show their little rolled spikes through the soil, leaves are starting to fold out of the Tayberry’s buds, and one of the Roses is already making flower buds)

Lovely of your neighbour to drop those off for you.

Broad beans are Fava beans right?
They won’t grow here.I’ve only has them once at a restaurant in Cali.
They were delicious but later on I produced enough methane to power a village.

^ Yep, same group of varieties.
(Fava is from Italian for bean)
I’m curious: why didn’t they grow for you?

I believe it was the heat.Ive never seen anyone here grow them.I was curious to try but they just sat there looking sick.
Green beans do wonderful.I like the pole varieties, easier to pick.They yield all summer long if you keep them watered.

Curious, maybe it was the variety?
This is Wikipedia’s map of commercial Broad/Fava Bean cultivation:

From that map I’d assume there are varieties that would work in most non-arid areas of the US: maybe find out which varieties are grown in East Africa & South China?
(Assuming of course that further experimenting is something you’d like to do)

I'll plant about 25 Broad beans with a good amount of space between them and plant the rest of them tightly to graze on, the tops are really tasty as greens. Same with the turnips.

Walking Iris

[url][url=https://imgur.com/5IQYuCG][/url][/url]

Tiger Swallowtail on Walking Iris.

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Sometimes there are as many as 40+ blooms in one day. The blooms open in the morning and close by afternoon. The scent is heavenly. The notch in the butterfly's wing is the result of a failed bird predation attempt.

Wow, amazing photos!

Yeah, beautiful
I particularly like the white markings on the inner petals
(the butterfly is lovely too)