Henry Jabel

Fennel, sweet cicely, angelica in fact anything with an umbellifer flower is a magnet for hoverflies, lacewings etc. There is a more comprehensive list of umbellifers here https://www.gardenersworld.com/plants/plants-with-umbellifer-flowers/ not sure you will want all of them like ground elder though!

Anisia Seeruttun wrote:HI Henry, I would really wish that is true unfortunately I've observed and found the flowers dried and fell from the cluster, no berries are formed sadly only 3 to 4. See the attached picture, I just took a picture, it's already dark night. When the flowers are dried and I try to shake it, the dried flowers fall. It seems not enough strength which could be the shrub is too young, it's first time, since 3 months all my 3 shrubs are blooming. Also could be a lack of rain as well as not enough pollination. I'll grow more perennial plants to attract insects.

Ok that is interesting, obviously if you are growing out of its typical range you might have problems and perhaps you don't have the usual pollinating insects to do it. They do smell kind of like cat wee at the end of the bloom and I guess that attracts the flies here!  Perhaps If you pollinate a small cluster with a brush you can work out if that is the case or perhaps Matt is right about the water, in England we get quite a bit of rain here so its not something I tend to consider!

It looks like bird attack to me too. Here you can cut it really hard and it always comes back as its a fairly weedy tree. This would give you the opportunity to keep it small and net it (though the birds typically don't bother them here presumably because they are so abundant). I could assume the same could be said for Mauritius but honestly I could be completely wrong, so perhaps once its reasonably well established you could try lopping off a third and see if it comes back as it does here in the cool temperate.

Michael Dotson wrote:I was going to reply that room temp eggs and beer were standard in the UK when I was there :)

Thats because it's ale, we serve lager cold. It's the same as serving red wine at cellar temperature and white wine cold.  :)

Stacie Kim wrote:

Gary Numan wrote:Similarly, I keep them on the countertop.  Unless they're dirty, then I'll soak them in water for maybe 10 minutes, rub off the offending brown stuff, air dry til they don't look wet anymore, then those ones go in the fridge.

Me too.

Interesting note: They sell eggs at room temperature in Germany. Maybe all Europe? But we lived in Germany from 2003-2006, and the grocery store eggs were found at room temp right on the shelves with canned goods, flour, whatever.

Yes I think so certainly its the case in the U.K too if the eggs are washed they loose some membrane and you have to refrigerate them or they go bad quickly. I think there is a downside from not washing them is the potential increased risk of salmonella but eggs are generally cooked killing the salmonella in the process.  I think this is also why its really hard to find raw cookie dough here, unlike in U.S.A. Commercial Mayonnaise here will also mention that the egg are pasteurised to avoid salmonella.

So you can consume unwashed egg and they do last longer without refrigeration. You just need to cook them/pasteurise them before consumption to avoid potential risk.

J Nuss wrote:Well, I think I learned a lot from that experiment!  I should probably try a roofing hormone next time, and it was way too early to start them if they were going to be rooted inside.

All the honeyberries don’t appear to have rooted yet, and half the seaberries look like they never did anything, but the other half are growing new growth and look happy, with definitive roots on at least one.... so I’ll get a new plant or two out of the deal anyway!

In the mean time I started a new project with peach and nectarine cuttings

You will probably have better success taking a cutting going into dormancy in the autumn (fall) honeyberries flower so early I am sure that wood was putting its energy into producing flowers rather than roots.

You definitely wont need any fertiliser, they grow like weeds here. I spend quite a bit of time weeding them out people's gardens and I still haven't been cursed by a witch for doing so just yet. They tend to get Auricularia auricula judae fungus on them after a while apparently that's edible and medicinal too, but it looks so unappealing I have never tried it!

I don't think anyone has mentioned cinnamon. I have used ceylonese cinnamon before and it stopped them coming in the house.

In lawns ants seem to replace worms once people have killed the earthworms with weed and feed and other synthetics. I have heard they are breaking down the synthetic chemicals as well as aerating the soil etc. They do however make a mess in the summer here.Apparently an application of certain nematodes can discourage them but I have yet to try it.

I made a competition in the UK and Ireland forum for best post to encourage discussion there so the idea came from that. PMing the winner the code is a bit clunky and doesn't really incentivise or explain what the prize was for in the same way as attaching it to the post does. So for competitions, raffles etc it could be useful. I could see myself using it for posts I find particularly useful, sometimes there is information on here I wouldn't find in month of Sundays and despite giving them an apple and a positive response, I have never really thought to send them a code until now. So setting this up should give others the same idea.

Another situation might be sending a micro doc to new person asking lighting rocket mass heater might be convenient if you don't want to type it all out!

Yes general gift code on the profile might be good too.  

As you have the gift image already I think you are right, go with that. Could we frame the post with some pixels of a different colour so it stands out a bit?

I use rapeseed oil but I am not a commercial forester and avoid using my chainsaw as much as possible but do use one occasionally. I must have got the idea from somewhere (and despite knowing it has a high smoke point from cooking) I think Paul Stamets might use have mentioned it when he chainsaws trees with oil laced with mushroom spores....could well be wrong though and cant check it now as I lent the book to someone. Regardless it seems to work well.