How about a gardening thread?

[ceppych]

	Quote:	Odile
	The last 'Saint de Glace' is not until 25th of May this year - traditionally the last official date for frosts in central Europe. Can't remember all the 'ice Saints' but St Pancras was one of them. My dad would never plant anything tender until the last Saint de Glace - and he might have been right. I shall put the pots with more delicate plants out early May, but watch out for frost forecasts so I can cover them with fleece if necessary. We had a Stella cherry tree in our UK garden- but not miniature. Within a couple of years it produced tons of red/yellow inside, delicious cherries. The birds always got to them about the day before- so in the end I got cheap netting curtains from a charity shop and made some 'sleeves' which I'd thread onto all the lower branches and tie at both ends with string a few weeks before. That way we would get a few kilos and the birds would have the rest. They paid back in dawn chorus - a fair swap. Indeed self-pollinating. Just too high here for cherries, apart from Morello which I will try, but only good for bottling.

The last Saint de Glace is the Ice Sophie I think.

[lmerkel]

General question- want to get tomatoes and peppers for pots on patio. When is the best time to get them? I see them for sale now, but don't want to risk the frost. We are south facing with tons of sun, but can get high winds so I will need to keep them protected.

Also, anybody had luck with dwarf citrus or kumquats in pots?

Cheers.

[ceppych]

	Quote:	lmerkel
	General question- want to get tomatoes and peppers for pots on patio. When is the best time to get them? I see them for sale now, but don't want to risk the frost. We are south facing with tons of sun, but can get high winds so I will need to keep them protected. Also, anybody had luck with dwarf citrus or kumquats in pots? Cheers.

I would leave planting out tomatoes and peppers for another week or two, unless you can bring them in at night.
I have grown kumquats and lemons in pots for years in Chardonne but, here in Lausanne, the bize noir this winter seems to have killed off even those wrapped in several layers of horticultural fleece

[Belgianmum]

	Quote:	Odile
	The last 'Saint de Glace' is not until 25th of May this year - traditionally the last official date for frosts in central Europe. Can't remember all the 'ice Saints' but St Pancras was one of them. My dad would never plant anything tender until the last Saint de Glace - and he might have been right. I shall put the pots with more delicate plants out early May, but watch out for frost forecasts so I can cover them with fleece if necessary. .

My mum was the same. She always said not to put any delicate plants outside (tomatoes, bedding plants, hanging basket etc) until after the Spring bank holiday (late May in UK). 9 times out of 10 she was proved right and our garden was always better than those of the more impatient gardeners.
She always hardened them off before planting out too.
This wasa in the north of England but I've applied the same principle wherever we've lived and had plenty of success.

This winter has proved to be pretty damaging to a lot of things in the garden but it's looking pretty hopeful that most of them are making a comeback. (In our garden at least)

[juliamargaret]

	Quote:	Belgianmum
	My mum was the same. She always said not to put any delicate plants outside (tomatoes, bedding plants, hanging basket etc) until after the Spring bank holiday (late May in UK). 9 times out of 10 she was proved right and our garden was always better than those of the more impatient gardeners. She always hardened them off before planting out too. This wasa in the north of England but I've applied the same principle wherever we've lived and had plenty of success. This winter has proved to be pretty damaging to a lot of things in the garden but it's looking pretty hopeful that most of them are making a comeback. (In our garden at least)

Oh no! I've had mine outside for the last week! We even had hail this week. The lettuce is looking good, but my poor little tomato and pepper plant

I'm new to gardening (I'm using containers), and have a somewhat shady backyard- this thread is really interesting! I hope I didn;t kill off my pepper and tomatoes already :S

[lmerkel]

Yes, my lettuce is going like gangbusters. I also have some lavender and thyme that are doing well!

	Quote:	juliamargaret
	Oh no! I've had mine outside for the last week! We even had hail this week. The lettuce is looking good, but my poor little tomato and pepper plant I'm new to gardening (I'm using containers), and have a somewhat shady backyard- this thread is really interesting! I hope I didn;t kill off my pepper and tomatoes already :S

[ceppych]

Planting in a garden is very different growing in pots because, if the pots freeze, the plant usually dies.
I think the 15th May is the Ice Sophie, the last of the saints de glace.
Sometimes, if the weather has been consistently warm for May, I might leave the plants out before then.
Geraniums are always on sale for weeks before it would be considered safe to plant them out, but then the garden centres need to get as much money out of our pockets as possible as early as possible.
After all,we normally go and buy more if the plants are killed off by late frosts

[Country_Mouse]

	Quote:	lmerkel
	General question- want to get tomatoes and peppers for pots on patio. When is the best time to get them? I see them for sale now, but don't want to risk the frost. We are south facing with tons of sun, but can get high winds so I will need to keep them protected. Also, anybody had luck with dwarf citrus or kumquats in pots? Cheers.

I have 6 different types of citrus, Kumquats, Limes, Oranges and Lemons, I provide a heat mat and CFL light over winter

[pfaeffikon]

	Quote:	sups
	Ok so i went and bought a dwarf peach and a cherry tree from OBI. They do not mention the name of the variety coming back home read on the net that you need 2 or more cherry trees for cross pollination. Is this really true' i have seen in gardens around a couple of single cherry trees loaded with fruits.

A lot of the dwarf Fruit trees have been grafted to have both male and female "tops" to them. They even graft different apples on one tree. I have several fruit trees, including a cherry, which can self pollinate. Maybe you can look up the tag online and see if this is the case for your trees. It's more likely true if it's a dwarf as people with limited space may only want one tree.

[sups]

Paeffikon,
yes I suspected the same too since the graft spot has 2 branches grafted onto the rootstock. anyway i hear it will be a long way till a cherry is produced.

country mouse: where does one buy a heating mat? is it specially fabricated for plants?

Is rooting hormone available here in ch? i wanted to try propagating fig twigs I hear it is pretty simple.

[ulaula]

hello fellow gardeners,

I am sure you can help me

we have finally built a raised bed for our vegetable garden and this year we would like to try the square foot gardening method. There is only one problem that needs to be solved - we are desperately looking for vermiculite.

Does anyone here know where in CH can we purchase it?

We have tried Hauenstein gartencenter, Eric Schweizer and of course Obi, Jumbo and so on, but no luck.

I would be really thankful for any suggestions.

[meloncollie]

Your post got me curious, as in all my years of traipsing through garden centers I can't recall seeing vermiculite anywhere. But then, I wasn't looking for it either.

So... googling around, I found this:
http://hydrodreams.ch/onlineshop/PLA...ck-r-100-Liter
100l sack, CHF 35

Never heard of this website or retailer before, so due diligence and all that.

Have you tried Meier Garden-center in Dürnten? This is where I usually go for the hard-to-find stuff. If they don't have it on hand they are usually happy to order it for me. Very helpful folks.

http://www.meier-ag.ch/cms/gartencenter/index.php

Good luck!

(I'd be interested in learning more about square-foot gardening...)

[ulaula]

meloncollie, thank you!

I am going to contact both of them.

regarding square foot gardening, we totally fell in love with this idea and have decided to give it a try this year. I will post some pictures of our harvest success. hope there will be any harvest at all

[runningdeer]

This place has it as well.

http://tabaksamen.ch/substratzusatzs...ltr-p-770.html

[JanerMacP]

Does anyone have tips on planting carrots?

Last year I made an entire row of carrots - except they decided to grow everywhere but where I planted them. Literally, that entire row was bare. And where they did grow they looked like zombie carrots. We have really good soil - but do the seeds spread so easily? Should I put a net over that row to deter the birds?

[ulaula]

	Quote:	runningdeer
	This place has it as well. http://tabaksamen.ch/substratzusatzs...ltr-p-770.html

thank you so much. looks like I really have poor googling skills

[sups]

Ulaula
I am not sure if vermiculite is same as perlite.i suspect not but if you are by any chance looking at substituting it with perlite then I know that Gartenzentrum Wyss sells it at10SFr for 10kg. here they ask you to use hydroculture balls to fill up the space in the raised beds.
How did you make the raised bed..I mean I have always been thinking of making one, the commercially sold ones are too expensive for me.

[sups]

ok checked up the above link...they are 2 different things

[ulaula]

	Quote:	sups
	Ulaula How did you make the raised bed..I mean I have always been thinking of making one, the commercially sold ones are too expensive for me.

I can send you some photos, or, if this is not totally off topic, I can post them here? but over the weekend as it will take some time to select photos and write a short summary

[ulaula]

	Quote:	ulaula
	I can send you some photos, or, if this is not totally off topic, I can post it here? but over the weekend as it will take some time to select photos and write a short summary

oh, and maybe I will even have one raised bed up for sale. I mean only for the costs of material of course (around 40chf). my husband made them for me and I guess I "ordered" one too much. psst, don't tell him