MBE's new garden

[muck lover]

I have a couple of large pots of mint. Take a small piece of root and plant it you will have a strong plant in weeks. Let loose it will be rampant. However when it flowers its covered in insects so if you had the space a mint patch would be really good for beneficial insects.
Two of my grown up sons have been watching my pots of mint with interest and asking when it will grow. I suspect they have a certain cocktail in mind rather than the bees.

[mrbadexample]

I have a couple of large pots of mint. Take a small piece of root and plant it you will have a strong plant in weeks. Let loose it will be rampant. However when it flowers its covered in insects so if you had the space a mint patch would be really good for beneficial insects.
Two of my grown up sons have been watching my pots of mint with interest and asking when it will grow. I suspect they have a certain cocktail in mind rather than the bees.

I'm going to use the top of the water butt and let it loose. I'm prepared to deal with the odd escapee (although I would like to know how deep it can go). I never get enough from pots (I have 4 but neglect them).

I am also partial to a nice mojito, and have previously made them with normal garden mint, black peppermint and water mint. I can't recommend the water mint.

[nickdub]

I'd say none of the mint I've grown would do underground runners down to deeper than 12", usually a lot less.

[mrbadexample]

Because my beds were only dug last year, the soil's still a bit rough. It's decent soil I think, but full of stones and rubbish. This is the middle bed, where my potatoes are this year:



Ok for spuds but I don't think I'd get great roots like carrots or parsnips. So yesterday I thought I'd riddle a couple of feet from the third bed so my parsnips had a nice medium to grow in.

I ended up doing the whole bed, to a depth of about a foot from the top of the edging. I broke it up with the Mantis to make it easier to riddle. Somewhere approaching 32 cubic feet of soil. I now have 9 bags of stones to take to the tip and backache.



Looks nice though:



I'll do another bed next year. I'm not planning on ever digging this one again.

[nickdub]

That looks like a lot of work and a very good job done.

BTW being men I'd hang on to the stones - OK for hardcore of nothing-else, if you ever want to put in a concrete base for exemple.

[Jungle Jane]

Stones are handy at the bottom of pots for drainage,sometimes I search my garden for stones (it’s not difficult there’s loads) you’ve got them in a handy bag

[mrbadexample]

BTW being men I'd hang on to the stones - OK for hardcore of nothing-else, if you ever want to put in a concrete base for exemple.

Nah, they're not worth hanging on to. They'll take up space unnecessarily: I have no plans for making a base for anything, and if that changes then Freecycle will sort me out. There's always someone looking to get shot of some.

There's not much I'll throw away mind....

[mrbadexample]

Stones are handy at the bottom of pots for drainage,sometimes I search my garden for stones (it’s not difficult there’s loads) you’ve got them in a handy bag

I've got two more beds to go yet...

[mrbadexample]

I did wonder how the removal of such a large quantity of stones might affect the drainage of the bed. It's been chucking it down all night and seems to be ok though.

[mrbadexample]

Fitted a new bamboo windbreak to the bog garden. Birds have nicked half the moss and I've neglected it a bit. However, the sarracenia are starting to flower so it won't be long before it looks good again. Hopefully the windbreak will stop the pitchers getting flattened.



It nice to see that despite the neglect I've got a couple of surviving (if not exactly thriving) fly traps coming through.



And the pinguicula are about to flower too.



No sign of any sundews yet.

I will at some point be constructing another bog somewhere permanent in the garden, hopefully somewhere by the pond. Once I've dug one.

[mrbadexample]

Not why I made it.

[mrbadexample]

Today's rubbish job - mending the fence. A post had snapped at the bottom so I had to dig it (and the concrete around it) out, then fix a new post in so I could screw them together. New bit is made from oak left over from the beds so hopefully will be strong enough and sufficiently rot proof. Glad that's out the way - now I can grow something up the fence.



I was thinking maybe honeysuckle as it's supposed to be ok on a north facing site and spread quite quickly. I'll put a morello cherry in towards the greenhouse and fan train it up the fence I think.

[mothhawk]

I was thinking maybe honeysuckle as it's supposed to be ok on a north facing site and spread quite quickly. I'll put a morello cherry in towards the greenhouse and fan train it up the fence I think.

Yes, honeysuckle will grow like wildfire to get to the top of the fence........

....then flower on the sunny south side in next door's garden.

That's what mine's done

[mrbadexample]

Oh. Do bees like it?

[nickdub]

Oh. Do bees like it?

Not really a good bee plant

as has been said woodland plants like honeysuckle and to some extent clematis, tend to grow up then produce all the flowers and foliage at the top - better for growing through other plants like shrubs or trees than on their own, IMO.

Another suggestion is a loganberry or Tayberry - the bees love these, and I think you'd get a crop, albeit later than one in a sunnier spot.