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Any laurel bush experts? I have a variegated one out the front which is turning yellow, and the leaves look they’re being eaten by something. I moved it from the back garden to the front last year and it transplanted fine. Just noticed this over the past 3-4 weeks.

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Any laurel bush experts? I have a variegated one out the front which is turning yellow, and the leaves look they’re being eaten by something. I moved it from the back garden to the front last year and it transplanted fine. Just noticed this over the past 3-4 weeks.
Surprised to hear this. It was my understanding they were quite Hardy.
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3 hours ago, throbber said:

Is my hydrangea dead?

B413BE7A-C673-4F6F-8A87-06E099CF5FAA.jpeg

Scrape a little bark off of the stems as close to the ground as possible. If there's green underneath then its alive if brown then its dead. Same goes for any shrub or tree!

 

3 hours ago, Bairnardo said:

Having a c**t of a time keeping weeds out of my beds. Incredible how fast they grow.

Particularly loads of tiny wee leaved ones which are too small to properly pick out unless I want to break my back over it.

Can you just dig these over with a trowel or will they just re establish themselves if left even with the root disturbed?

They'll potentially regrow if covered in soil. If you hoe them and leave them on the surface for a day or two to dry out then rake them up you should be fine. Regular weeding should keep on top of them. Failing that, nuke them with roundup.

26 minutes ago, Melanius Mullarkey said:

Any laurel bush experts? I have a variegated one out the front which is turning yellow, and the leaves look they’re being eaten by something. I moved it from the back garden to the front last year and it transplanted fine. Just noticed this over the past 3-4 weeks.

When did you transplant it? Could be that its showing signs of stress from the move. Give it a feed with some general fertiliser. 

3 minutes ago, 19QOS19 said:
32 minutes ago, Melanius Mullarkey said:
Any laurel bush experts? I have a variegated one out the front which is turning yellow, and the leaves look they’re being eaten by something. I moved it from the back garden to the front last year and it transplanted fine. Just noticed this over the past 3-4 weeks.

Surprised to hear this. It was my understanding they were quite Hardy.

Laurels are hardy as f**k but the variegated ones (im guessing its a variegated Portuguese Laurel) can sometimes be affected worse by weather etc. Its been a long shitty winter!

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35 minutes ago, Nkomo-A-Gogo said:

Looks like it. I have a couple and they have plenty new growth by now.

How long is it in there? Could have been the recent frost as I had a lot of leaf damage but mine survived.

I got them last summer. When did yours start growing back? I had a few leaves growing in mid April but they turned brown and have since fallen off. It could have been frost, I have read that you are supposed to used mulch to prevent frost damage but they are meant to be pretty robust plants. I’m sure I read something about them liking acid or alkali soils so that could have helped also. Will probably just replace them tbh.

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1 hour ago, Melanius Mullarkey said:

Moved it towards the end of last summer and it took ok. Was fine over the winter. Wonder if it’s a bit waterlogged with the recent rain.

Yeah could be a mix of the cold weather along with the rain and frosts. 

 

1 hour ago, throbber said:

I got them last summer. When did yours start growing back? I had a few leaves growing in mid April but they turned brown and have since fallen off. It could have been frost, I have read that you are supposed to used mulch to prevent frost damage but they are meant to be pretty robust plants. I’m sure I read something about them liking acid or alkali soils so that could have helped also. Will probably just replace them tbh.

They are fairly tough customers but I've got one in the garden that snuffed it too. I think the long shit winter has caused more damage than usual, and you're probably right re the late frosts. Dont think the pH or lack of mulch will be enough to kill them.

Edited by mishtergrolsch
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9 hours ago, mishtergrolsch said:

Yeah could be a mix of the cold weather along with the rain and frosts. 

 

They are fairly tough customers but I've got one in the garden that snuffed it too. I think the long shit winter has caused more damage than usual, and you're probably right re the late frosts. Dont think the pH or lack of mulch will be enough to kill them.

I might get another one and cover it over for the winter with plastic.

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Officially into wasp bike season.  Just took out the third early-stage one from my shed this year already, only this time the big b*****d wasp made an appearance and had me running to the other side of the garden like a little girl.

We got a couple of 'waspinators' (fake camo-coloured bits of fabric supposedly resembling a nest) last year and they seemed to do the job.  They're clearly failing miserably this time around though.  Maybe the wasps have written a book to pass the knowledge down the generations or something.  That or we're seeing the evolution of higher IQ superwasps.

Following a previous success, I just sprinkled some ant powder along the top of the shed doors where they go in and out.  I had a fairly large nest a few years back and after throwing ant powder at the place whilst dressed like something out of CSI, I returned to find a mountain of dead wasp on the shed floor.  Nothing left living.  Nest was really impressive that year and I never appreciated how cool the internal honeycomb structure is (thought that was reserved to bees).  Needed a geological hammer to crack into the thing, it was that solid.  Felt kind of bad having demolished a fine piece of workmanship in genocidal fashion tbh.

Edited by Hedgecutter
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I've been doing a lot of work in my parents garden to try and get it in a better state for my Mum to be able to look after and it also gives her something to do now she has retired. I picked up some strawberry plants and got them planted in at the weekend.

Not expecting them to do too much this year but they will still need some kind of protection from birds and bugs so I have been pulling together the stuff required to make a wee hoop house (canes, cheap hose pipe etc).

However I was wondering if it's better to place polythene over the plants or just use something like enviromesh instead?

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I dug up all of the grass in my back garden on Sunday as it was 95% weeds and dandelions. Now it has been pissing down rain for 2 days straight so I have a massive muddy puddle for a garden.

Planning on putting some decking down for part of the garden. Not sure what to do with the rest. It is difficult to re-grow the grass?

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23 minutes ago, PB1994 said:

I dug up all of the grass in my back garden on Sunday as it was 95% weeds and dandelions. Now it has been pissing down rain for 2 days straight so I have a massive muddy puddle for a garden.

Planning on putting some decking down for part of the garden. Not sure what to do with the rest. It is difficult to re-grow the grass?

I scarified my lawn right back in late March. Last couple of years have been perfect for moss and, with a heavy clay soil, there barely any actual grass left. 

IMG_20210321_130743.thumb.jpg.708cb453368e75054980018ec5914509.jpg

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I then aerated it by coring, re-seeded and top dressed it. Unfortunately, this coincided with the cold but dry April. It's still pretty cold today at end of May and the seed hasn't germinated well at all. Currently it's a patchy mess and Ive had to repeat everything in the hope it improves. 

TL:DR use turf. 

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