Gardeners

[poohbear 1,360]

Wish I’d tried this years ago…I’m quite good at taking cuttings but baby plants take so long to mature,particularly shrubs and trees.Air layering gives you the opportunity to have plants several feet high in just a couple of months.Not only that but the bigger plants cost a lot more at the garden centres.

Select a suitable branch on the bush…in this case a fuschia and a fatsia.Scrape and cut the bark off for a couple of inches.Apply some rooting compound gel and wrap around tightly with soaked spagnum moss securing with wire,string or cable ties and a split poly bag to keep the moss moist.Wrap around with kitchen foil and forget it for a couple of months.By then the ‘wound’ on the plant will have grown roots….cut off below leaving the moss in place and plant firmly in a pot…staking if necessary.Hey presto a decent sized bush for next year…much quicker than seeds or cuttings.

[broxtowelad 175]

I like taking cuttings from plants. I've not tried this method though, must give it a bash, I've only tried splitting a low growing branch and pegging it down into a pot and even though I've left 'em for a year when I've looked there's been no sign of a root.

[Compo 10,328]

Many plants will also "Tip root", famously, blackberries. When the tip of a branch reaches the ground it grows roots where it touches. I recently discovered that Jasmine will do this quite readily.

[MargieH 7,610]

And trying to get rid of blackberries where you don't want them in the garden is very difficult

[Chulla 4,946]

Earlier this year I posted a pic of our Japanese Quince in full bloom, after I had ruthlessly pruned it last year. We now have by far the best crop of quinces that the bush has ever produced. Can't wait to grate them and mix in with vanilla ice-cream. If anyone would like to try same, and is going to the meet-up, then let me know.

Stop Press: Just grated my first one this season - scrumptious, we're wokkin' 't pit.

[MargieH 7,610]

I'd love to try some of your quinces, Chulla. In a previous house we had a bush like that but we didn't train it up a wall. I used to make quince jelly

[MelissaJKelly 2,124]

I have no idea what quince even is?!

[The Pianoman 1,535]

Me neither. Never heard of 'em

[Chulla 4,946]

Quinces come in different shapes and sizes, but all taste about the same and all can be made into jam or jelly. They grow quickly to a certain size and then stop - unlike apples, pears and other fruit all the fruit on the bush does not grow to the same size. They are too acid to eat raw, but when I grate them and mix in with vanilla ice-cream there is still a tang but the ice cream absorbs the acidity and gets flavoured by it. Will bring some to the meet-up. Meanwhile, see below.

http://www.growntocook.com/?p=36

[Cliff Ton 10,475]

I heard of quince - without knowing what it was - in this famous poem (in the third verse). http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/171941

[Guest]

Over the past 5 weeks or so I have had mushrooms growing,one was like a football, my son took a photo of it and his tutor showed it to a fellow teacher. " lucky you" was the reply," slice it and fry like steak!". Not brave enough, also perfect button mushrooms near our stream and field; this hasn't happened for over 10 years.Anyone seen many bees this year? Loads of nasty tempered wasps though.

[Michael Booth 7,364]

I've always had lots of bees in my garden, especially on the flowers in the pond area. I've never had a problem with them, we don't bother them and they don't bother us.

[Guest]

#12

Have missed bees this year Michael, explains why Marigolds etc..have done so poorly.

[MargieH 7,610]

Ian, we have quite a few mushrooms growing in our garden this year - on the lawn and in the borders. There were a 2 or 3 different kinds, and although they looked good enough to eat, I wasn't brave enough to actually eat them! I looked on a website to try and identify them but that didn't convince me enough..... When I was a child, I used to sometimes pick field mushrooms with my mum when we were out on a car trip, and 2 years ago when we were on a touring site in Somerset I picked loads from the field we were in and cooked and ate them.

[Michael Booth 7,364]

And lived to tell the tale, MargieH, haha. I love mushrooms but I've only ever eaten those that've come from a shop.

[NewBasfordlad 3,599]

Field mushrooms are very nice but I prefer blue buttons with my bacon.

[Bubblewrap 3,815]

First real attempt at growing pumpkins this year best one just under 20 lbs

[mercurydancer 1,104]

Michael Booth

I often go mushrooming and I am always careful. The most easily recognisable mushroom by far is the giant puffball. It cannot be mistaken for anything else. A giant puffball is, as the name suggests, big. It is football sized. Other puffballs are grapefruit size. A non-edible puffball will be obvious when you cut into it. It will be hollow and full of spores. A giant puffball will have white mushroom flesh throughout. Not hollow.

A few years back, I was driving through North Yorkshire on the way to Whitby when I saw a field packed full of giant puffballs. I called a restaurant owner in London and told him what I saw. He paid for the fuel, a hotel, a meal and a few hundred quid for the puffballs.

[albert smith 803]

I'll bet they didn't appear on the menu as 'puffballs', can 'truffles' be faked?

[mercurydancer 1,104]

Albert! You cynic!

Truffles are totally different in taste and shape and size and almost everything. The person I sold them to is a famous London restauranteur who has published some books about cooking. Puffball steaks are lovely but need a good cook otherwise they absorb cooking oil and become soggy.

The next year I visited the same field and there was bogger all. No puffballs, nowt.

[Moody cow 87]

Quite a few quince grow on the arboretum park.

[Guest]

Blackberries are big and juicy at the moment,herself is picking like mad..before the birds snatch ' em all!!

[Bubblewrap 3,815]

A friend came round with about two stone of damsons last night

Gave over half away some will make jam the rest will be stewed and used as a breakfast cereal topping.

[Compo 10,328]

I always get some shaggy parasol mushrooms from the wood across the road from me. They begin to open around mid October and continue until late November.

Here are some "St George's Mushrooms" from my garden in April/May:

[Guest]

Bang those beauties in a frying pan Compo!! Is it too early to cut back my roses? These have been here since the 30's.