Gardening: Hints and Help!

My trick is to put the foliage into a plastic bag (Clear food type) then spray inside the bag, tie it loosely and let the weed killer do it’s thing. I want root death if possible. Trouble is, bindweed roots go way down......

I try and dig other nasties out if I can, nettles, docks, brambles. Thankfully haven’t got any nightmare nasties like Mares tail😱

I have made some mistakes though with certain plants down the years. I decided to plant a couple of Black Widow perennial geraniums a few years ago.....talk about mother to thousands😱 Lovely plant, but you do need to hack down mercilessly before it can seed. 

Does anyone know anything about blueberries?  I've grown them in pots for several years but suddenly experienced a problem. I have two bushes, one about 6 years old and the other about 4 years old. Each year they have cropped really well.

Last year, although they both had a good crop of berries about half of them just didn't ripen despite (or as a result of?) the good weather last year. They were well watered, just the same as previous years. This year, the younger of the two bushes has no flowers at all and the older one has only 5 or 6 clusters. I've not been able to find any information elsewhere so hope that a fellow CTer can help.

That must be disappointing to see problems cropping up with the blueberries, I've never grown them, my only knowledge is about them needing acid soil and rainwater to water to feed them. Is a link to the RHS any good for you? I often look for information on their web site.

RHS Blueberry   LINK

We dig out ground elder as soon as we see it.  We've always got bindweed, have learnt to live with it (try and remove it on sight!) We don't use weed killer anywhere in our garden, so we've got daises in the lawn and dandelions but the plus side is we've got lots of insect and wildlife. At the moment I'm battling with goosegrass in the hedges, determined it's not going to take over anything this year. 

Hmm, no experience of blueberries, but reading brue’s link, they do seem to have particular requirements, especially around soil PH and watering.....🤔

Some of our fruit can be a tad hit and miss, but we have nothing in pots. 

Thanks for the link, Brue. I've had a look at it and everything it comments on I am doing and have done over the years although I haven't checked the pH. I'll have to do that. As you say, it is very disappointing to go from two heavy cropping bushes to getting nothing at all.

I always dug it out, and chased the root trail, if you're in the right frame of mind it can be quite satisfying! But because it comes under the fence I can only do what's my side. I have found the the electric stick burner great, saves being in my hands and knees too! I too attack ground elder and the snowberry bushes on first spotting and at the mo the poor sticker burner thinks it's on elastic 😂. It certainly seems very effective.

I too don't use weedkiller, hence purchase of stick burner for block paving because of the hedgehogs and other wildlife. But this year I have weeded and fed our grass as it was more self heel, daisies, clover and moss, all of which had got beyond acceptable because of several years of not digging out the individual plants. But that'll be it!

The night before last we had 5 hedgehogs in the garden. 2 lots of 2, I saw them at the same time, 2 of them quite small and then a much bigger one at the drinking station and then it shot into the hedgehog house for food. They have quite a turn of speed! We see, I haven't been out much since lockdown, so could be out of date information 😉, but they can be seen squashed on our housing roads, maybe if the drivers stuck to the 20mph limit more could shift out of the way! If anything speed has increased and alledgedly no one in a rush or rat running to avoid bottlenecks 😤😤

We've got several bits like that where unwanted neighbouring "things" grow under and into our side. You're so lucky to have your hedgehogs and they can obviously move around much just like the pesky unwanted plants! We've had to block a lot of gaps in our borders to stop our new dog escaping, she is so tiny. However every morning we have to replace large stones and wire which the badger lifts up every night and gets in, he's always got in somehow so we won't stop him now...even though he's been digging in our front lawn...

I forget to tell you Bakers, we had a spiky visitor a few days ago. Sadly, in daytime, so we don’t think very well, but oh has built a house, and if we can find little hedgehog we can try some TLC 

Takethedogalong lovely to have spiky visitors but need catching and some help if they're out in the day!

My garden is delighted with the lovely steady rain which arrived this morning. Waterbutts full again 😀.

I'm definitely winning, slowly slowly, with electric weed killer 😀. It kills back down to the roots and is proving itself. Not what I bought if for, that was for block paving, but good to have another use 😂