This is a garden update with questions … do you know what these two plants are? They’ve popped up out of nowhere in my garden plot and I don’t know if I should dig them up or let them grow?
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- This is growing in clumps. The root is long and white. There are prickles on the stems (my poor zucchini in the foreground)
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- This has sprouted up in various places and is a climber of some sort. One wrapped itself around a gladioli
The lettuces are going gangbusters, there are some small lemons forming on the lemon tree, and the strawberries are blooming. Some gladioli stalks have popped up and the perennial plants at the top of each row are looking okay. But everything else has suffered.
Frost and hail at the end of April killed three of four tomato plants and almost got the hydrangea (but buds are now forming). I planted carrot, parsnip and rocket seeds early May then it bucketed down with rain for days, so I think they’re going nowhere in a hurry too.
My cousin Sal’s excellent instruction to scatter flowers all over the place has left me asking the age-old question, “Is that plant supposed to be there?”, so before too long I’m sure I’ll have nurtured a wonderful weed garden for fear of ripping out the good stuff.
But I am very proud of those lettuces. Liliane joked soon I’ll only be eating lettuce and I chimed back with, “You too!”I’m looking forward to sharing the spoils.
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- Freshly prepared
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- Started with nothing … well I thought there was nothing, but there are those two surprises up top
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- Started with some flowers in bed 1
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- And in bed 2
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- The hydrangea was at the back to start
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- Lettuce, strawberry, zucchini, cucumber and buxus in
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- First weekend of April I planted a lemon tree, a grapefruit tree and tomatoes (possibly too early) and moved the hyrdrangea from the corner. Oops. Might be a mistake. The part between the hydrangea and front is waiting for carrots and parsnips (not planted yet)
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- Garden bed 2 with zucchini and cucumber plants towards the back, before the strawberries and buxus (which also has wildflower seeds, gladioli and fresia seeds scattered everywhere between)
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- Not much change here other than more red flowers in the foreground
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- April 7. Yay lettuce! Cucumbers still alive
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- Still nothing planted here at this stage. Tomatoes at the back were still alive too
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- I added some mulch with straw mid April. Cucumbers dead!
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- Early May and the tomatoes are gone in bed 1
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- And that strange plant in the first picture has popped up everywhere in bed 2
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- Mid May. Rocket, carrots, parsnips and a few leeks have now been planted in bed 1
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- Lovely lush lettuces and strawberries at the back
Because I bought packets containing too many seeds for the allocated space, I can have a few goes in bed 1 if all that rain did damage what’s there already.
I’m off to Romania for work for a week from May 20, so I’m looking forward to eating lettuce on return!
Wishing you a wonderful day.
fitfor15in15 ... and further 
Not sure what the mystery plants are, Ange but the first one looks like it’ll take over so if you want to grow what you intended to plant, I’d pull them out. I have done a bit of wait and see what that seedling becomes and although it can be interesting, it probably won’t be worth keeping.
Re frost – if you know you’re in frosty season then lots of straw around the seedlings can help. And I mean lots! Frost itself doesn’t kill plants, it’s the sun coming along and the reaction between the opposing temperatures – sun hitting frost will burn the leaves. So if you wash the frost off with a hose and/or hide them in some straw then there’s not the vast differences in ice and sun. I saw this on tv once. So it must be true. Haha!!
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Thanks for these tips Gab! I will be sure to remember the straw next year too xx
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Enjoy Romania!! 😚❤️💕💖
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Thank you! We’re going to be in the heart of Transylvania mwahahahahahahaha xx
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Those are weeds, the one on the right is bindweed/convulvulus, which winds and chokes everything (which you may have realised by now – I’ve been away!) but has pretty white trumpet flowers. If you pull it out, every tiny scrap of root left will make a new plant. It’s a total nuisance and worth using glyphosate… 😮
Good luck with your garden as you experiment – local wisdom is not to plant out tender seedlings before the Ice Saints mid-May and this spring has been particularly cool, so that’s why you’ve had losses from too-early planting 😉
Also, not everything is winter-hardy – things like rosemary, camellia or geraniums don’t generally survive outdoors, and I think you mentioned a lemon tree, which would only survive May-Sept outside and needs to be in a pot and taken into a conservatory over the winter (or a light stairwell). Same with grapefruit, too exotic for this climate! Some garden places will winter your plants for a charge (citrus, palm, olive etc.).
Hydrangeas should be fine outside (i have lots, altitude around 420m, what’s yours?) and parsnips should be sown in the autumn, as they are a winter veg and need frost on the root the following year… Gladioli are usually a bulb you plant after mid-May and take out again in the autumn, though a fewstragglies might survive but probably not bloom a second time.
Anyway, you will live and learn and have funin the process, so enjoy!!!
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Thank you swissrose! This is great information. I know I was too eager in April to put things in the ground, and it seems the same case of enthusiasm could backfire for the May things too. I’ve just got back from Romania and the lettuces look great and I have a few strawberries but everything else is slow. I thought the grapefruit and lemon might be nice in spring/summer to attract the bees, but have little hope of them surviving til next year. I’ll try wrapping them in some kind of hessian over winter, but if they don’t last, ce la vie. I dug out the horrible weeds but I’m sure they’ll be back again before too long. The roots were long and the shovel cut many off. Damn weeds! Welcome back and thank you again for imparting your knowledge. I’m making a note of all this for better results next year hopefully, although the lettuces are amazing. Still haven’t eaten one, but they are big and healthy looking.
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Romania sounds fascinating. What kind of work?
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Hi Roadkill Spatula,
I was there for a science conference. It is a beautiful country!
Thanks for stopping by,
Angela
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