Taken from Lynne’s weekly column ‘Ask Lynne’ for the Western Mail. 5th March 2016
We have just had a new bath fitted and I am still waiting for my husband to get rid of the old one – as it’s unlikely to happen anytime soon, is there a clever way we can use it in the garden maybe?
I grew a variety of veg in an old bath successfully for years, as there was one at the bottom of my garden when I moved in. They do seem to be tricky to get to the tip for a lot of people.
A friend grows potatoes in hers every year to avoid the ground becoming infected with potato diseases and because spuds also take up quite a lot of room in the veggie plot. She has even had the bath clad in wood so it looks much nicer too. This might be a nice option for a herb bed close to the house.
You could grow wildflowers in it but remember they need poor soil so don’t use compost, which is often the easier option. That would attract the pollinators too.
I have also seen a bathtub up-cycled into a beautiful outdoor sofa by cutting one of the long sides off. So there are a number of varied options, good luck.
A friend insists you can get red daffodils and whilst I have missed St David’s Day this year but would love to grow some for some for next year. Or is she teasing me?
She could mean one of two things. I have often written about ‘red daffodils’ but they are obtained by putting traditional daffodils in a vase with a drop of red food colouring in the water. The daffodils take up the dye through the veins, which gives a reddish hue to the blooms.
But she may be referring to the Begonia x tuberhybrida ‘Daffadowndilly’, or
Narcissiflora begonia, which Thompson and Morgan stock. Although, as the name suggests, they are a begonia, the flower-head does look a lot like a daffodil.
The daffodil begonia was almost lost to cultivation, but Thompson and Morgan have worked with breeders to bring the old-time classic back to UK gardens. This vintage begonia variety has been re-worked to offer stunning giant daffodil-like blooms for a fresh contemporary look to patio and border displays. The fancy blooms are held above dark green velvety foliage for a unique display in your garden during the summer.
Help! Our lawn has turned to moss through the winter, it is just like a big moss cushion! What can we do about it?
Don’t panic, most people’s lawns are exactly the same at this time of year because of the climate. The moss is called ‘winter moss’ and it thrives on wet and cold conditions. As soon as the ground warms up and we have some dry weather it will disappear. In theory, you don’t need to do anything but by the time it does disappear it will have sown spores and will be back as bad a s ever next year. Most people just put up with it but if you do want to address it then you will need to scarify as soon as possible to remove it before it sets it’s spores, then aerate and over-sow with a suitable grass seed.
Do be warned that if you use a moss killer, as a lot of people do, the moss will turn black as it dies which frightens most people to death! It will need removing and over-sowing then anyway so I would recommend just scarifying rather than using chemicals.
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