That is interesting I live near a wood and they seem to have homes in every garden nearby. Last January I dug out a new border in the lawn and found thousands of sleepy red ants.
I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
I gardened on the Lancashire coast; very sandy/moss type soil. We had red ants - you couldn't sit/kneel on the lawn without getting painfull bites.
I now garden on Surrey greensand. Plenty of brown ants. They don't bite but they do, rarely, come into the house.
I admire the patience of the posters who actually watch ants working. I spot them shepherding blackfly on my camelias, but that requires no great skill. My cyclamen (hed & coum) share their shady, rather dry locatition with ivies, maturing snowdrop leaves and last autumn's fallen leaves. It's quite hard work finding seedsheads that I could harvest, sew or scatter.
location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand. "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
I have never tried cutting up a cyclamen corm. I think the most important thing would be to let the cut surface dry thoroughly before planting and grow the pieces fairly dry until they begin to show signs of growth. I garden on thin, gritty, low fertile soil. I have loads of ants in dry stone walls and containers. I grow cyclamen neapolitanum and coum and find seedlings everywhere, from the bottom of a shady bank to cracks in dry stone walls. There are always plenty of seed pods but I have never tried collecting them to redistribute elsewhere, I just assumed the ants would do the job for me. If the seed grow they are happy where as if I interfere I would probably get it wrong.
Cyclamen seedlings in the frosty front grass. Not sure what type - they are near the C. coum and also quite near where I put the pots with the bedding ones for the summer, but not near the hederifolium.
I might have a go at moving them before the mowing season starts. Or maybe I'll leave them and see what happens. They'll be dormant for pretty much all the time when the grass is getting cut.
Don't worry about that hole in the 2nd pic - it's where the window cleaner put his ladder yesterday (rather him than me in this chilly weather).
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
When we first moved here the ivy-covered fence collapsed and we had to have the Shady Bank dug over and shored up with sleepers and a new fence erected. The builders dug up many huge Cyclamen hed. corms, quite a few were as big and bigger than dinner plates ... several were quite damaged (accidentally) in the process ... they then spend several months in a heap under a tarpaulin before being planted back in the bank ...... they seemed none the worse for their treatment and have bloomed and increased in number ever since.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I plant things in the hope they will grow properly. If, for instance, something was failing to thrive then why not ask a forum such as this because there is a very good chance that other people have had success and I might find I've given it too much shade for instance. Reading a book could be called asking strangers.
I plant things in the hope they will grow properly. If, for instance, something was failing to thrive then why not ask a forum such as this because there is a very good chance that other people have had success and I might find I've given it too much shade for instance. Reading a book could be called asking strangers.
The people on here aren't strangers? They're all life long trusted friends and family? Will they be at your funeral? Good Lord.
Some of us would never, ever plant something 'in the hope it would grow', that would be a waste of valuable time and money. It's like growing a cactus in a field or a tomato in the cellar. Personally I plant something with a high percentage chance that it will flourish, life is too short for doing unavoidable stupid things. There is a lot of pleasure to be gained from research, from reading or watching an expert and doing it right, none from ignoring them and failing.
Posts
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I now garden on Surrey greensand. Plenty of brown ants. They don't bite but they do, rarely, come into the house.
I admire the patience of the posters who actually watch ants working. I spot them shepherding blackfly on my camelias, but that requires no great skill.
My cyclamen (hed & coum) share their shady, rather dry locatition with ivies, maturing snowdrop leaves and last autumn's fallen leaves. It's quite hard work finding seedsheads that I could harvest, sew or scatter.
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
I garden on thin, gritty, low fertile soil. I have loads of ants in dry stone walls and containers. I grow cyclamen neapolitanum and coum and find seedlings everywhere, from the bottom of a shady bank to cracks in dry stone walls. There are always plenty of seed pods but I have never tried collecting them to redistribute elsewhere, I just assumed the ants would do the job for me. If the seed grow they are happy where as if I interfere I would probably get it wrong.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Reading a book could be called asking strangers.
Good Lord.
Some of us would never, ever plant something 'in the hope it would grow', that would be a waste of valuable time and money. It's like growing a cactus in a field or a tomato in the cellar.
Personally I plant something with a high percentage chance that it will flourish, life is too short for doing unavoidable stupid things.
There is a lot of pleasure to be gained from research, from reading or watching an expert and doing it right, none from ignoring them and failing.