Gardens and gardening 2025

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Hi everyone, I used to post a lot in a previous Gardens etc until my wife was also diagnosed with cancer just over 2 years ago and she went through such a hard time so my time was taken up with not just Mrs Tvman but I was not good because of the rise and fall of red cells, white cells, neutrophils and platelets. 

The good news is that I have a little bit more free time to garden. I never stopped because it's in my DNA to get working in the garden. I'm also a wheelchair user because of a serious back condition called spinal stenosis and the pain is so great that I'm only able to work in short bursts.

So let's see photos of your gardens or allotments, whether they be large or small or maybe you only have room for pots and troughs in a balcony or back yard. 

My speciality for the last 40 years is vegetables and I have won hundreds of prizes over the last 20 years or so. I have had vegetables in show that have made me Northern Ireland champion for my sins. Unfortunately, since covid some shows have ceased therefore I haven't entered any for a few years. 

I've a few photos below, that's if I can remember how to insert them! It's been a while.

Below is a photo of the contents of my greenhouse, there are tomato plants left and right of the pathway. Also just past the tomatoes are cucumber plants against that have frames for them to climb up. The cucumber variety is Mini Munch, they're a small variety that are sufficient for a few salads 

The plants in the large pots below are aubergines, variety Black Beauty and inbetween the pots is a seed tray in which spring onion seeds have been sown which of course haven't germinated yet. Over here in Northern Ireland we call spring onions "scallions" and apart from in salads we have them with butter in mashed potatoes and that dish is called "champ". Believe it or not that was served as a stand alone dish that we had when I was small, some 60 years ago. Just mashed potatoes with small pieces of cut up scallions, cooked slowly in real butter then a dinner plate was loaded up with champ, a hole made in the top and filled with more butter then everything was mixed together and eaten. Along with an Ulster Fry in the morning, no wonder we had the highest rate of heart disease in Europe! 

Last photo below for this post is a bed of garlic (on the left), shallots in the foreground and at the far end for those of you eagle-eyed is a few red and white onions that are just 2 or 3 inches high. They are grown from onion sets that are small immature onions and usually come in a net bag weighing 250g and there are about 70 in total.

You'll notice that I have wire netting around the beds, that's because 3 years ago I had a rabbit problem. 35 years without them, 1½ years of rabbits and none since! The wire netting is staying for a while yet!

What about some photos from anyone else?

Tvman 

  • Hi Patrick, I'm not sure but it looks like one of the Solanum family.

    Eddie xx 

  • Hi All, There is an App you can get for your mobile called “Picture This” it has a single green flower as a logo. Unfortunately you do pay to have it BUT if you go into the App they will offer you a Free Trial. You use the App to take a picture of what you want to identify and it tells you all about it. It is great fun. I got the free trial but the guy who helps with my front garden has it, so now I just ask him!!

    It has been quite cold here again. I hope summer will come soon!  The mornings and evenings are light, so long days which are great but with a little heat would be much better!

    Love Annette x

    Yesterday is History, Tomorrow is a Mystery, Today is a Gift!!!
  • Annette, if you highlight the image you can do a Google search on it. 

    Tvman x

    Love life and family.
  • I think it could be a climbing hydrangea but difficult to say for sure. As for the petals on the lawn Eddie, I just let them lie as they don't take long before they shrivel up and/or  blow away. They've never had any detrimental effect on the lawn, more likely to give some nourishment. 

    I was outside most of the day, general tidying up, sowing seeds, weeding, pulling a large root out of an old stone drinking trough that cattle drank from at one of the farm gates. We had a large blackcurrant sage plant in it and I don't know how it grew because there are no drainage holes in the bottom and the compost was quite damp. Tomorrow's job is to drill a few drainage holes before putting a 50:50 compost/grit mixture and transplanting a few small rosemary plants into it. I'll put up a photo tomorrow once it's done. 

    By the way Eddie, I meant to say before now that your gardening knowledge is excellent, what's your gardening history? Mine comes from 50 years of interest in the subject, especially a few years of serious growing for shows. 

    Tvman 

    Love life and family.
  • Patrick, it looks like a star Jasmine. I have one against a southwest facing wall and only yesterday I was doing a bit of research on it because Mrs Tvman was complaining that it was overshadowing a rose in the same long bed running the length of the wall. The bed is quite narrow, about 2 feet wide and to be honest it's not suitable for a rose. There's already a couple of climbing roses in said bed and I'm forever pruning stray outward growing branches that could take someone's eye out!

    Tvman 

    Love life and family.
  • I think it is a climbing hydrangea? I have a star jasmine and the leaves are a lot more waxy and thicker than this.  

  • Morning tvman, its a friends plant, I thought it it was a Dogwood until she told me it was bought as a climber, hydrangea pertiolaris looks very likely to me too.

    I hope you transplanted the Salvia, as the flowers and leaves are lovely on a salad and make a nice drink as well,, it's surprising it survived the damp roots, not a problem on my allotment, frost is though.

    Good luck with drilling the holes in the trough, they make such a feature and it would be sad to break it, that's a nice job for tomorrow, I have a mature rosemary full of flowers at the moment and is very happy in my dry soil,  be nice to see the trough when it's planted

    I'm potting on today, the seedling have had a month in the compost, so are ready for the boost fresh compost will give them, though as tonight is the last cool night forecast some can be planted out this week.

    Wow my friend 50 years of gardening, that's amazing, and you caught the competition bug too for a time, only 30 years for me. The first 15 being all about flowers, shrubs and climbers, then moving on to fruit and veg, I picked up lot's of good advice early on, but tend to do things my way, and definitely not competitive....much, lol.

    Eddie 

  • Morning Stella, it looks like your right about it being a hydrangea, I had a climbing Jasmine, which I had to move, it was a mature plant maybe 12ft long, so was expecting a lot of digging to move it, well you could have got the whole root ball in a 6inch pot, are you back on treatment this week my friend, if so, my best wishes to you.

    Eddie xx

  • Hi tvman just to add to my gardening education, I've met Alan Titchmarsh 3 times, once at the NEC in Birmingham, the second time we bumped into each other at the Harrogate spring show and the 3rd time at the Alexandra palace flower show where he spotted me first before I could get away.

    Eddie

  • What is Alan Titchmarsh like? Have you ever meet Monty Don? I found watching gardening TV program very relaxing. I like beechgrove garden too.