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A place to chat about anything you like, including non-gardening related subjects. Just keep it clean, please!

Moderators: KG Steve, Chantal, Tigger, peter, Chief Spud

Elderflower
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Posts: 216
Joined: Wed Aug 16, 2006 8:19 pm
Location: Derbyshire

I`ve just discovered this forum and I think it looks great - a good mix of lively chat and good advice for newish gardeners like me. I`m looking forward to being a regular. :D
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oldherbaceous
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Location: Beautiful Bedfordshire
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Hello my dear Elderflower, may i be the first to welcome you.
We certainly do have some lively chats, and the good advice even extends to oldish gardeners like myself. :wink:
And i'm sure we are all looking forward to having you as a regular. :D

Kind regards Old Herbaceous.

Theres no fool like an old fool.
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jopsy
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Joined: Sun Apr 23, 2006 9:06 am
Location: Dartmoor, Devon

Bonsoir Elderflower
You are quite right
This is a fab site with lots of lively people and plenty of mixed abilities
Enjoy
I look forward to chatting
Jo :D
PS-OH is MAD :lol:
"Happiness is the sense that one matters"
Elderflower
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Posts: 216
Joined: Wed Aug 16, 2006 8:19 pm
Location: Derbyshire

Thanks for words of welcome - although I`m newish I`m also oldish - if you see what I mean. Came to gardening when we got an allotment when I retired. I`m very mixed ability myself!
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Chantal
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Location: Rugby, Warwickshire
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Hi Elderflower

This is a fantastic site and sadly addictive with no known cure to date. I look forward to chatting with you. :D
Chantal

I know this corner of the earth, it smiles for me...
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lizzie
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Joined: Thu Nov 24, 2005 7:41 pm
Location: Liverpool

Hi Elderflower

Nice to have you join our little lunatic asylum. You will learn so much from the people on here. Such as how to avoid medication time, slip out of the straight jackets and how to tunnel under walls :shock:

Seriously though, you'll learn loads of gardening stuff here. There's so much knowledge and don't be shy to ask anything, no matter how daft it sounds, cos someone else will want to know too.
Lots of love

Lizzie
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Diane
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Location: Wimborne, Dorset.
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DHi there and welcome.

I'm newish and oldish too - I suspect there are many many of us lurking out there :D

Learning all the time.
'Preserve wildlife - pickle a rat'
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Tigger
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Joined: Sun Nov 27, 2005 6:00 pm
Location: Shropshire

Welcome to the Forum - spelt asylum.
Elderflower
KG Regular
Posts: 216
Joined: Wed Aug 16, 2006 8:19 pm
Location: Derbyshire

Gosh! Thank you repeatedly! :D What a lovely lot. Glad that it isn`t all terribly earnest and worthy! :wink:
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Johnboy
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Joined: Tue Nov 22, 2005 1:15 pm
Location: NW Herefordshire

Hi Elderflower,
Welcome.
There are many in the same state of being actively retired and some of us are even nearer our second childhood than others. I am just about to retire for the umpteenth time but I suspect this is the real thing this time.
Never be afraid to ask a question, however daft you may think it is. Sometimes when you read something in a gardening book you simply cannot grasp what is meant and if one of us can put it into different terms everything may become clear. None of us actually bite!
JB.
Elderflower
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Posts: 216
Joined: Wed Aug 16, 2006 8:19 pm
Location: Derbyshire

Yes - I remember reading in a gardening book the instruction, "Keep the hoe going in dry weather." and thinking, "Why?
What do you mean?
What will it do?
Should I not hoe in wet weather?
Why?
I`m not quite so dim now but I still remember my extreme puzzlement at an instruction that must have been so elementary to a gardener.
Allan
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Posts: 1354
Joined: Fri Nov 25, 2005 5:21 am
Location: Hereford

This idea that you can keep weeds down just by the hoe is a fallacy. If you ever get hairy bittercress or chickweed you will find out that it is wet weather that gets them growing vigorously and scattering their seeds as that way they cheat the hoe. I have never found a way to control them other than handweeding. Cinquefoil, dock, creeping thistle and field bindweed get their roots down out of reach of the hoe.
Allan
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Chantal
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I agree that you can't keep ALL the weeds down with a hoe, but you can eradicate a lot of them. Some are best just carefully pulled out and disposed of. However, in the hot weather I always hoe every day if possible as the existing weeds get chopped off and die and the soil is disturbed and the new seedlings get their roots exposed to the sun and also die.

In the wet weather if I hoe the weeds have a tendancy to pull right out of the ground and can then put their roots down and grow again.

My grandfather also used to say that a good hoeing in the evening when it's dry is as good as watering. I presume because when the dew comes down overnight it can penetrate the disturbed soil rather than sitting on top of compacted soil to be burnt off by the sun. :D
Chantal

I know this corner of the earth, it smiles for me...
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Deb P
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Joined: Tue Nov 22, 2005 9:09 pm
Location: Derbyshire

I remember reading somewhere about it being a good idea to hoe in the dark (could be useful as the nights draw in!)? Something about the weeds being exposed in the dark kills them off better or something....anyone else heard of this and can shed some light? :wink:
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Johnboy
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Joined: Tue Nov 22, 2005 1:15 pm
Location: NW Herefordshire

Well Allan,
Lets look at work with a Hoe logically. What you are saying may well be true to a point but what you are actually saying is that you have omitted to hoe earlier enough. The Hoe is probably the most useful of garden implements if used sensibly. If you hoe regularly enough you do not get to the state that you describe. Nobody can actually control the spread of Bitter Cress or Chickweed and I would also add Speedwell to that list but by the timely intervention with the Hoe you can at least keep weeds at an acceptable level. Don't condemn the Hoe just consider who is at fault. I appreciate that you are a Grower but again I would like to remind you that this forum is composed mainly of people who have not got enormous plots and can, with the use of a Hoe, easily manage their plots.
JB.
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