[Help] Gardeners Question Time.

[jevs]

Evening guys. How did you all find World Naked Gardening Day today?

Haha, last time I did that they had to put their clocks back in Australia!!!!

 

[LamieRobertson]

Evening guys. How did you all find World Naked Gardening Day today?

Arrest anyone?

 

[WATFORD zero]

Arrest anyone?

No, but as I understand it, Edna found a couple of gardeners particularly arresting

 

[Jack Straw]

Can you greenfingers folks help me? We've had our home in Dorset for just over a year. An old tree flowered last year then we devoured by something - the leaves turning to lace. Every leaf on the tree eventually succumbed. Eventually new leaves came but of course the flowetrs were gone. I had hoped it was a one off, but this year, exactly the same thing is happening again. This poor tree (which I thought might be a type of lilac) is being devoured again. No other trees in the garden seem to be affected (including two or three nearby lilacs).

Does anyone know what this is and what I can do about it? I can't believe the tree can keep taking this.

(and yes, there is a clematis scrambling through it)

View attachment 123060

(and thanks to AmexRuislip for the pic tip)

That is a Viburnum opulus being destroyed by larvae of the Viburnum beetle.
https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=556

 

[Jack Straw]

Evening guys. How did you all find World Naked Gardening Day today?

Yes. This does indeed exist and today is the day (The first Saturday in May each year). I hoed my garden last week, so didn't have to strip off today. Bit cold too. I would have given a false impression.

 

[razer]

Great thread this.

My problem is my giant alliums came up as normal early spring but in the last few weeks all the leaves have shrivelled and disappeared to leave a green flowering stem with a flower head the size of a golf ball instead of the size of a grapefruit like normal. I would normally assume it was rust but there were no signs of it, just a rapid shrivelling. Any ideas?

 

[Jack Straw]

Great thread this.

My problem is my giant alliums came up as normal early spring but in the last few weeks all the leaves have shrivelled and disappeared to leave a green flowering stem with a flower head the size of a golf ball instead of the size of a grapefruit like normal. I would normally assume it was rust but there were no signs of it, just a rapid shrivelling. Any ideas?

As with a lot of replies recently, it could well be a lack of water. Alliums don't get much wrong with them hence my assumption. Photos are really useful to help diagnose problems.
https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/popular/allium/growing-guide

 

[A mex eyecan]

Great thread this.

My problem is my giant alliums came up as normal early spring but in the last few weeks all the leaves have shrivelled and disappeared to leave a green flowering stem with a flower head the size of a golf ball instead of the size of a grapefruit like normal. I would normally assume it was rust but there were no signs of it, just a rapid shrivelling. Any ideas?

that sounds to me as being a typical happening to most male gardeners who took part in world naked gardening day when there was a chilling wind, well hopefully not the green bit.

 

[Norman Potting]

If you're going to be stuck in the Garden, do it this time of year, when everything is in flower

View attachment 123024

Clockwise, Wisteria, Cherry, Clematis Montana, Lilac, California Lilac, Honeysuckle, Rhodedendrums

(Sorry Plooks)[/QUOTE

Nice garden. Sad that it has come to this when posting on NSC but is the bird feeder featured successful in attracting feathered friends? They are ignoring the ones we have hanging in the tree nearby.

 

[WATFORD zero]

Right, I have now risked life and limb at the top of a ladder with long handled loppers to cut down these, as per [MENTION=2019]jevs[/MENTION] suggestion. (And, even then, it was the only bit I could reach).



This only started as "I wonder what that tree next to the Yew is ?"

 

[WATFORD zero]

Nice garden. Sad that it has come to this when posting on NSC but is the bird feeder featured successful in attracting feathered friends? They are ignoring the ones we have hanging in the tree nearby.

This time of year the bird numbers tend to drop off, I guess because there is lots of natural food around, but Autumn/Winter I get loads. Great Tits, Blue Tits, Long Tailed Tits, Goldfinches, Green Finches, Chaffinches, Black Caps, Robins, Starlings, the occasional Woodpecker and, very occasionally a Sparrowhawk sits on one of them.

I thought Robins were meant to be ground feeders like the blackbirds, thrushes and green woodpeckers, but obviously nobody told mine. And strangely I very rarely get sparrows.

When the goldfinches come in I can sometimes get up to 20 on each feeding pole.

 

[Stat Brother]

Right, I have now risked life and limb at the top of a ladder with long handled loppers to cut down these, as per [MENTION=2019]jevs[/MENTION] suggestion. (And, even then, it was the only bit I could reach).

View attachment 123070View attachment 123071

This only started as "I wonder what that tree next to the Yew is ?"

It's another tree.

 

[WATFORD zero]

It's another tree.

You could have told me that yesterday and saved me climbing the bloody ladder

 

[Jack Straw]

Right, I have now risked life and limb at the top of a ladder with long handled loppers to cut down these, as per [MENTION=2019]jevs[/MENTION] suggestion. (And, even then, it was the only bit I could reach).

View attachment 123070View attachment 123071

This only started as "I wonder what that tree next to the Yew is ?"

Full marks to Jevs. Now having seen a decent photo of the leaves and the black buds, I've now plumped for Fraxinus excelsior diversifolia (One-leaved Ash).

 

[LamieRobertson]

This time of year the bird numbers tend to drop off, I guess because there is lots of natural food around, but Autumn/Winter I get loads. Great Tits, Blue Tits, Long Tailed Tits, Goldfinches, Green Finches, Chaffinches, Black Caps, Robins, Starlings, the occasional Woodpecker and, very occasionally a Sparrowhawk sits on one of them.

I thought Robins were meant to be ground feeders like the blackbirds, thrushes and green woodpeckers, but obviously nobody told mine. And strangely I very rarely get sparrows.

When the goldfinches come in I can sometimes get up to 20 on each feeding pole.

Are not the robins just picking up the bits below the feeders? I have sometimes robins who will awkwardly try the feeders when they have young to provide for...similarly the black birds (just had two fledge from a next ion my garden)

 

[LamieRobertson]

Right, I have now risked life and limb at the top of a ladder with long handled loppers to cut down these, as per [MENTION=2019]jevs[/MENTION] suggestion. (And, even then, it was the only bit I could reach).

View attachment 123070View attachment 123071

This only started as "I wonder what that tree next to the Yew is ?"

Could have borrowed my anti bac wiped pole loper ..having said that keep going with the ladder and short ones but take photos or maybe a video for comedy sake

 

[WATFORD zero]

Are not the robins just picking up the bits below the feeders? I have sometimes robins who will awkwardly try the feeders when they have young to provide for...similarly the black birds (just had two fledge from a next ion my garden)

The Robins get up on the actual feeders, but flit in and out like the Tits. The Pigeons and Doves are on the ground demolishing anything that's dropped. They used to empty feeders in minutes so now I deliberately use feeders that only small birds can get to. The largest bird that can get on the feeders are starlings, or lesser spotted woodpeckers, that always seem to hang upside down for some reason.

And many thanks to [MENTION=259]Jack Straw[/MENTION]. No wonder I couldn't identify it, if it is a single leafed ash, I didn't know such a thing existed. I though all ashes had those sets of leaves thing.

 

[jakarta]

This time of year the bird numbers tend to drop off, I guess because there is lots of natural food around, but Autumn/Winter I get loads. Great Tits, Blue Tits, Long Tailed Tits, Goldfinches, Green Finches, Chaffinches, Black Caps, Robins, Starlings, the occasional Woodpecker and, very occasionally a Sparrowhawk sits on one of them.

I thought Robins were meant to be ground feeders like the blackbirds, thrushes and green woodpeckers, but obviously nobody told mine. And strangely I very rarely get sparrows.

When the goldfinches come in I can sometimes get up to 20 on each feeding pole.

Lucky Man, whereabouts are you located, presumably somewhere fairly rural?

Our Birdlife varies in terms of species, a few years ago almost every one on the feeders would have been either Green Finches or Chaffinches, hardly seen a one in the past two years.

We never get Starlings or Sparrows either. Inundated with Dunnocks at present, but get Blue/Coal/Great and Long tailed Tits, Robins (who have already bred as we have a fledgling wobbling around the garden), Blackbirds, the odd Bullfinch, Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs, Flycatchers and Goldcrests plus Magpies and the odd Jay. Did see a Sparrowhawk take a Blackbird early one morning. Used to see Greater Spotted Woodpeckers but we took down our Willow so now only hear them nearby!

Oh and Pigeons of course, sorely tempted to get an Air gun and start harvesting them, they look very plump and succulent, seeing as they shit all over my lawn I feel they would be better in a Pie.

 

[Stat Brother]

I have an odd rectangle of land at the back of garden.
Our houses are a fair distance apart from the parallel houses apart.
We all have decent sized gardens but still there's a plot of land in the middle, on the corner of which is a giant Holly type tree.

Anyhoo, come winter this 40-50ft tree is covered in red berries.

Then they slowly disappear from the top down.
The birds very meticulously pick it clean, until they get to the 'cat zone'.


I really ought to photograph it as a time lapse, throughout winter.

 

[WATFORD zero]

Lucky Man, whereabouts are you located, presumably somewhere fairly rural?

Our Birdlife varies in terms of species, a few years ago almost every one on the feeders would have been either Green Finches or Chaffinches, hardly seen a one in the past two years.

We never get Starlings or Sparrows either. Inundated with Dunnocks at present, but get Blue/Coal/Great and Long tailed Tits, Robins (who have already bred as we have a fledgling wobbling around the garden), Blackbirds, the odd Bullfinch, Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs, Flycatchers and Goldcrests plus Magpies and the odd Jay. Did see a Sparrowhawk take a Blackbird early one morning. Used to see Greater Spotted Woodpeckers but we took down our Willow so now only hear them nearby!

Oh and Pigeons of course, sorely tempted to get an Air gun and start harvesting them, they look very plump and succulent, seeing as they shit all over my lawn I feel they would be better in a Pie.

I'm not that rural, about 3 mins walk from Withdean Stadium. I know what you mean about the pigeons, I would recommend you try this to get rid of them Pigeon breast with red wine gravy, roast leeks and wild mushrooms