What do you Grow?? The Garden Thread

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How lovely!!

Yes, looks like a fluffy living carpet

Thanks so much for the appreciative comments. I don't have anyone to share my garden with, so this is special for me.
My husband indulges me but really doesn't know one plant from another.

An awful late frost last night.The wisteria blooms are melted.

had that too with this, in full blossom it froze, now its all brown

Sewing veg seeds directly is proving to be hit or miss! The only crop that looks happy is the spinach, most of the other seedlings look slightly battered. I have watered them in the midday sun, thinned them out too soon and then 3 frosts came. Mice have seen to most of the peas.
Still, there's a bit of everything struggling on. Lettuce is starting to look lettucy, potatoes just starting to show, courgettes in pots and sprouting broccolis in trays. The beds might need gapping up with other things. In the meantime I'm digging.

Misslizard and traven, I'm so sorry about the losses due to the frost. They are disheartening.

Meanwhile, where I am, daytime temperatures are in the 90s and night time it goes all the way down to high 70s. No rain. In sunny areas, the ground is scorched.

domineekee, I also have trouble with seeds coming up in my gardens. I think part of it is poor soil, also the birds eat up the seeds and at night the armadillos will dig them up. I pretty much start everything in flats now and transplant out. I save boxes from amazon shipments and place them around the transplants which seems to increase the survival rate. Now, because of the deer eating everything, I am putting wove wire fence or bird netting around the plants. Or just covering them at night with boxes or sheets. Not for the cold, but to protect against the deer.

I’f I didn’t have dogs,the deer would have eaten everything in the yard.They even snacked on stuff that’s poisonous, like monkshood.
I’m going to look at my fruit trees today and hope the frost wasn’t bad enough to take out the young fruit.
It also wilted the young tips of the Nandina and some other shrubs.It didn’t slow the grass down.

We have suddenly had two days of rain, just in time. I planted out some seedlings and worked on the pineapple barrier. Planted pigeon peas and squash and amaranth.

A possum has been coming in at night, prying off the lid of the hummingbird feeder and drinking the sugar water.

Had several days of rain here too: the philadelphus has had his new shoots bent over under the weight, and we’ve had to leave off dealing with black aphids on the sambucus: otherwise quite welcome, good to see the soil we’ve planted our seeds in nice and moist without having to lug watering cans about for an over an hour!
The buckets we keep out to gather rainwater for the ericaceous plants have been refilled too, which will be all to the good next sunny spell

Ericaceous plants thrive in my yard. The rhododendrons get huge and the azaleas put on a show every year. Though the winters can be harsh on the camellias as I'm out of their normal territory.

^ Sending some envy your way!
We’re on alkaline soil and moderate hard water in the taps here, our ericaceous plants all have to live in pots!
They all look to be coming on well, apart from the blueberry which isn’t flowering as prolifically as I’d like, early spring though so I’m hope for more to come. :fingerscrossed:
I’d love a red camelia, but suspect we may have run out of space... that said we’ve only got eighty plants in pots, sure I could squeeze another one in if I really want too.

BlazingStar your garden looks amazing, when you are outside what noises can you hear?
What can everyone hear?

I'm gardening vicariously through other peoples posts lol, I wont get to use mums gardens for quite some time it seems.

The outdoor space here is completely man made, little to no maintenance needed, no soil to plant anything though.
Just shrubs to prune and the odd weed that survives on top of the terram barrier and under the stone chips.
Getting affordable potting materials is proving to be very difficult. I've been baking old compost to sterilize it, but that's slow going and a bit smelly lol. I tried microwaving it too, but getting a safe temperature is proving more difficult than the regular oven method. Its mould/mildew spores that I need to deal with, does anyone have any alternative methods for sterilising soil that have worked for them?
I dont have a steamer, but I do have some jeyes fluid, though I'm hesitant to use that.

I’d you have a large container maybe put soil in,set in sun ,and cover with black plastic ?
Camellias struggle here,it gets too cold for them at times.I have planted a few supposedly cold hardy ones.We will see. I have some new azaleas, just starts ,so not impressive yet.The deciduous ones grow wild here and have the most beautiful fragrance.So I only want fragrant ones now.
I think the freeze took out my fruit,the tiny little peaches and plums look shriveled.I can’t tell yet with the apples.The paw paws were loaded with blooms right when Mother Nature turned mean.
I’m not even sure about a black walnut crop, it was also blooming.
Jack Frost is an really an a**hole.

You may want to try growing weeds in the old compost. Just don't let them go to seed. Pull the weeds before they get to that stage and compost them. I make compost by mixing leaves and grass clippings. The trees provide plenty of leaves each fall.

https://camforest.com/
They sell cold hardy camellias. I bought some ten years ago that are still in my yard.
The biggest cause of death wasn't freezing, but blunt trauma from falling packed snow on small plants that were near the roof line. I should have protected them with some sort of wooden structure.

It seems like you have to try pretty hard to kill some vegetables, the turnips were thinned out just before the frosts and yet the tiny decapitated stems are regrowing leaves. In fact the garden is bouncing back and most of the crops are getting secondary leaves.

I discovered some sprouting broccoli that has self seeded in the overgrown greenhouse, there are 5 plants all quite high and ready to replant,

The trays of beans have been plundered by mice but the patch that was sewed directly in the garden are sprouting like crazy, there were just a few this morning but maybe two dozen by the afternoon.

It's so slow growing from seed but after 3 days of rain and two day of sun, today there is a noticeable change.

Outside I can hear bees humming and blackbirds. I put up a load of bird boxes last year and have blue tits in one box and I think another with greenfinches.