Garden Update

[kaesha_nikovana]

After my back-breaking first day of stump removal, I decided taking it slow was the best course.  I also had a little luck on my side, seeing many of the remaining stumps were significantly smaller (and less rooty) than the first few.  I've still got a few more big ones to get out, but they're lower on the priority list because they're in a shadier

Comments

[virginiadear]

Hello!
(And I must send a separate greeting to kaesha_nikovana, since this is her journal and I've never visited before. I'll do that, directly I post this comment.)

You don't have Home Depot in the U.K., but you do have Amazon:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1/276-2692592-0058161?url=search-alias%3Doutdoor&field-keywords=tomato%20cage&sprefix=tomato+c%2Coutdoor&rh=i%3Aoutdoor%2Ck%3Atomato%20cage

I will say that after a year or two clematis gets heavy, probably a bit heavier than tomato cages will support.
If I may, I'd like to recommend using three sturdy stakes arranged triangularly around the base of the clematis, with sturdy strips of fabric making triangular "rungs" around the clematis vines.

Here we also have tomato cages which are hinged and are intended to be set up triangularly in cross section, around the tomatoes. Again, I'm not certain these will support a clematis more than a few years old unless you're diligent about cutting away the old, dead wood.
Some folks have had good success building supports using three or four pre-made trellises, attaching them together (small ends up or broad ends up, depending) and sometimes chopping off some of the bottom if they wish for the support to have a larger base.

I'd love to have something like this for a rose shrub:
http://www.terratrellis.com/collections/frontpage/products/lazio-vase-trellis.

Do you grow any veg? Being in a first-ring suburb which amounts to being in the city proper, myself, I can appreciate the challenge of limited sunlight. But there's a rule of thumb for vegetables and fruit: "For root or fruit, you need full sun; for leaf or vine some shade is fine." (Too bad the whole thing doesn't rhyme, but---oh, well.)

[joysdaughter]

Thank you so much for your comments. I have done the "tepee" shape for clematis, and yes, it does work - I just thought I'd like to try a different shape - thanks for the Amazon reference. (I love Amazon!) My other three clematis are growing up the walls, supported by wires, and my wisteria, in its second year, has a trellis attached to the wall.
I've tried tomatoes - one year brilliant, one year pathetic! I also tried zucchini - indifferent! And as for potatoes in tubs - I grew the most expensive pound of potatoes you ever saw! So now I grow shrubs, unusual plants and put in annuals, which often last through the following year.

[virginiadear]

Thank you so much for your thank you! :^)

I love Amazon, too! *chuckle* The Sears & Roebuck mail-order catalog of the internet!

What about window boxes for some veg? Some of the smaller carrots such as the "Parisienne" or "Tonda di Pargi" or "Little Fingers" don't need deep soil (although they're happier in heavier soils) and many of the greens do very well in only a few inches of soil, and vining or "pole" green beans have shallow root systems and might also do well for you. Actually, so might the bush-type haricots.
How much reflected light do you get? Light counts whether it's from directly overhead or banked off some other bright surface.

[joysdaughter]

I hadn't thought of the window boxes - they usually have the annuals - pelargoniums, petunias etc. This year is all planned out, but I'll get organised for next year re veg, thanks to your suggestion. There isn't a great deal of reflected light into the yard as it's quite narrow, and the tall houses block a lot. I'll have a word at the RHS (Royal Horticultural Society - I'm a member) and see what they recommend. Thanks again - you've made me think differently about veg!
Might we friend each other? Are you on FB as well?

[virginiadear]

Many years ago, I came across a paperback book called, "The Apartment Gardener," by Stan and Flo Dworkin, two horticulturalists living in New York City. They taught horti classes and had a radio show and wrote in a lucid and actually a very entertaining as well as informative style.
Because of these folks, I have a vastly better understanding of what light requirements are and how readily they might or might not be met indoors.
They devoted an entire chapter to growing salad on the window sill, and they meant indoors. Remember that for them, most "houses" are apartment buildings, cheek-by-jowl, and tall enough that light is going to be a challenge a great deal of the time.
The book is out of print and if you can find a copy it's almost certain to be found going for a price most of us are neither able nor willing to afford.
My copy is being held together by several repairs and some delicate handling. It's my indoor gardening bible; I've reasoned that most of what works in our dry, centrally heated indoor air in this country will stand me in good stead in houses, too.

If you get round to second-hand shops, however, and you find it, I urge you to snap it up.
ETA: Found it on Amazon-UK. £4.47, used.

There are bound to be British equivalents, however, and I think you'd be able to find those.

Beetroot and beetleaf can be grown in window boxes, too. The big question is light. Well, light and deeper containers for beetroot.

From the photo you posted of your garden, I understand what you mean about light and surrounding buildings. I lived for years and years on the lower level of a highrise on what you'd call the first story or first floor, which in the case of that building was on a level with a rooftop "garden" situated over the garages of the building I was in and its sister building across the garage rooftops. Since my apartment/condo unit was on the west side of the building, people tended to assume I wasn't bothered by early morning sunlight, but the east side of our "sister building" reflected it right into our west-facing windows! I'm an early riser, but I've always preferred not to have the first direct rays of the sun slanting into my eyes at the literal cracking of dawn!

I am delighted for us to friend each other! I shall add you directly I post this comment.

I'm not on FB, no. Perhaps some day. I'm a complete techno-Luddite, and very much behind the techno-curve. LiveJournal, a private Dreamwidth account solely for me to track my projects and sometimes mutter darkly under my e-breath, and e-mail, and that's about it. My Google searches have improved considerably over more than ten years, and they're still nothing to get all excited about. %^S