h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Please post here if you have managed to keep anything floral alive more than a season. That counts as specialist expertise in my book!

Well, I've beaten the odds with a few. My dead are mulch and my weeds are a nurse crop of wildflowers, if anybody asks.

JTG

Ah composting! The gardener's revenge on the unreasonably tender!

I would have thought your winters would do most of the weeding for you, John

It never ceases to amaze me, the delicate little things that manage to shrug off our Winters, when I get through by the skin of my teeth.

Our Winters (in southern Ontario) are hardly worth the name, compared to much of Canada and the northern USA. The Great Lakes are great for protecting us against weather extremes.

So much for the 'lake effect' then. I remember that being blamed for the odd 5 foot snowfall when I worked in northern Maine

'Lake effect' from Lake Erie often results in snow falls that bury Buffalo NY; but it generally protects us from the worst of the Winter weather. The effect is very pronounced where I work, on the north shore of Lake Ontario. A distance of a couple of miles away from the lake can mean the difference between having to get the snow shovel out and not.

If you still need any help then here I am. I didn't realise this place existed until a few days ago.
If you are interestred in my credentials, then I am writing a project that John-the-gardener is helping me out with. http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A592391 If you want to check it. Otherwise, let me know when I start.

Mina, I like very much what you are achieving with your uni project. It's one of my pet maxims to design and plant in sympathy with the local environment - it always looks so much more 'in place'.

The only credentials required to 'work' here are to have a passionate interest and you pass with flying colours. The other requirement is that you take nominal ownership of one of the library sections (I see the 'Blasted Heath' as part conversation forum part links page). Do you fancy doing 'Trees'? You can then be focal point for dells, glades, copses and spinneys!

Oh and you are also obliged to butt into other peoples conversations and start new ones at any opportunity

Wilf

I can do the butting in, that's one of my specialities. And starting new converstations is fun. I'll take Trees from you, but I don't know a great deal about them. (I'm sure I'll learn!)

Trees are the tall, noble things that you see in the landscape, and are not to be confused with people, which are the small, noisy, ignoble things running around beneath the trees.

JTG

ps I'm not bad at butting in either.

Tall things? Like on Monty Python where they show us The Larch? I think I've cracked it!

That's it. Number one... the larch... the... larch.

JTG

I'm with it now.

You've always been with, Mina. You're fab.

JTG

thanks.

Many apologies for being off-line so long. Visiting far-flung shores and all that.

Mina,

I've updated the Blasted Heath homepage volunteering your expertise with the Plucky Little Aspen and kin

John,

How about volunteering yourself for a subject area ?

Hi, Wilfrid.

My uni project is currently being bashed into shape by Jimi X, himself a keen gardener. You're welcome to add it to the library, when he's finished with it. As for a subject area... Well, I'm keen on butterflies in the garden, but Mina probably knows more about that than me. I could take on plant propagation.

JTG

Thanks for linking to my project.

I've answered my first question on trees that came into my project, but to be honest I have no idea if I've given the right answer!

Plant propagation John, I took a lot of cuttings last month and did all (I thought) the right things, and most of them went mouldy, dried up or wilted. On the other hand, the few that seem to be surviving, are doing well.

Some are just more stubborn than others. Taking a lot more than you will need is always a good strategy... you can always trade the surplus.

JTG

Worth a try in the spring, although with this mild weather we're having here I might have another go now.