Gardening with friends

CISTUS ladanifer

By hugo66

Readily grows in English Gardens North or South of the Scottish border to five feet or so. The leaves are long and oval in shape and in hot weather exude a sticky gum (Labdanum) as used in the Perfume Industry and used in incenses. To stop the plant becoming leggy, cut out six inches of the leader so that it becomes bushy. The flowers are white and may be two inches to three inches across (in Spain). it has around five reddish-brown dots on the petls looking a little like a five-pointed star. The flowers have hardly any smell, but the gum or resin on the leaves is odoriferous and as the temperature increases - so does its scent from the gum. I have two plants and so far, has had all kinds of weather and wind flung at them and they've come through with little or no affect at all when temperatures have plummeted at night in Northumberland.

sea holly

By hillsider

I love the sea holly, I have one in my garden at my holiday home by the coast and one in my garden at home high up in the Pennines, they both do well all year round and are stunning from July to September when they turn a beautiful blue. Neither needs much care although I am not sure what to do with them in the winter but reading various documents I believe I just leave them until March but if anybody has any advice it would be gratefully received.

MOUNTFIELD QUIET ELECTRIC SHREDDER (SPECIAL OFFER)

By ian_digs_v2

I've owned my Mountfield 2200 quiet shredder for around six months now and couldn't be happier with it. Firstly it is quiet!, light weight and easy to operate with big controls that can be used whilst wearing gloves. The rotating cutter/grinder is infinately adjustable and will chop woody branches and softer green waste at the same time. I regularly use mine to chop up all of the materials for my compost heap. Don't get me wrong here, as it will clog up if you just keep throwing stuff down its 40mm 'mouth' but the auto reverse function makes it quick and easy to unclog again. It takes a certain amount of understanding of the machine to get the very best out of it but once you do understand how it works then the sky's the limit as far as what you can feed it. Everything from tea bags to potato peelings, woody branches to the leaves on them will be ground and chopped to a pulp, making ideal conditions for composting or simply to spread around your plants as a mulch. If I was buying another one today then I would certainly look to getting another one of these.

Begonia Apricot Shades F1 35 plug plants + 19 FREE

By littleoldman

Apricot shades have over many years given my garden the WOW! factor. Previously I bought full size plants from T&M . This year I have a much bigger garden and less spare money, so I wanted maximum Wow for minimum cash.

The tiny little plugs arrived. They arrived obviously when in Channel Islands these were ready to send. For me in Yorkshire my unheated greenhouse was till very cold. So I was a long way off planting up my baskets.

At first it didnt look like they were going to do much at all. But eventually by August they began to flower. I have quite a show in my basket and pouch, but only about 10 plants form the 35. The rest went in a border, which isnt quite so sunny and they havent yet flowered. So in the end I should just have bought 10 full size plants.

However I would think if you have the warm greenhouse to bring them on when delivered, these would be ideal.

I still do love the plant and will probably go for them again next year.

Round Cucumber - Eden Project Seeds

By homebird

I have grown these this year. the seeds germinated quickly and uniformly. The fruit when ready to pick are about tennis ball size, nice yellow colour, taste just like ordinary cucumber. Very quick grower but takes up a lot of room if you grow them in a greenhouse.