Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.

[SugarPlumTree]

Potting shed thread for those who enjoy talking about gardens and plants. Plenty of garden chairs and the wood burner lit now there is a chill in the air, please join us !

[SugarPlumTree]

Old thread suddenly came to an end so here's a new one to continue into the Autumn.

Very fittingly I saw the first sweet chestnuts on the ground this afternoon.

[MaudantWit]

Oh this is lovely! I tried to post on the old thread, to suggest using this title now while it's seasonal and then dear old Winnie the Pooh.

::warms hands by the fire::

[Rhubarbgarden]

Lovely thread title!

Thanks for all the congrats.

I love hoopoes, whoever was talking about those.

[mausmaus]

found you.
fell off a bit due to holidays and start of school madness.
my garden looks nice, my gloria dei rose is on it's second bloom and the others are also still flowering.
one hydrangea is looking a bit sad with a kind of fungus though, looks like it's covered with builder's dust.

[Callmegeoff]

Good morning all great thread title.

mausmaus lots of my things had powdery mildew this year, could it be that?

I nipped to my local nursery yesterday and was surprised to see a 40 foot metal reindeer in the Car park! Does anyone else's turn into Christmas world about now? The purpose of my visit- wallflowers will be planted this morning, I also succumbed to a beautiful chocolate ivy sorry I forgot the name.

[Iwantacampervan]

I visited our local garden centre to pick up free bulbs (courtesy of GW magazine) and was surprised to see the Christmas display already. It is still September! No reindeer in the car park though - they usually have an inflatable snowman by the entrance which never fares well if there's a strong wind.

[MaudantWit]

I am waiting to go and collect my free GW bulbs. I don't know yet whether the garden centre has got its Christmas stock on sale, but the very big garden centre that's further away has already invited me to its Christmas preview, complete with live reindeer!

I agree that sounds like powdery mildew. It can get worse in drought conditions and my verbena bonariensis is covered in it.

[mausmaus]

is it something that can be ignored or should I do something about it? it seems to be just the hydranga, the other plants next to it are not affected (yet)

[MaudantWit]

I tend to ignore it, because I don't like to spray things with chemicals. Could you pick off the affected leaves and put them in the green waste recycling? That's what I do with anything I don't want in my compost heap.

[Callmegeoff]

Like maudant I just picked off the affected leaves, and didn't compost them it was lupins and Courgettes, they are still alive. Apparently you can rub 2 leaves together to get it off although that didn't work for me.

[mausmaus]

that would mean to take all leaves off more or less...

[Callmegeoff]

homeguides.sfgate.com/homemade-solutions-hydrangea-fungus-31161.html

Sorry about the random diet tips !

[TunipTheUnconquerable]

Love the title!

I need to find some time to weed my front lawn again. Now I've got rid of the plantains, the dandelions seem to have multiplied. (And they are much harder to weed....)

Yay sweet chestnuts, SugarPlumTree! Last year we found lots and lots in the woods at Castle Howard.

[ppeatfruit]

I've found you !! Thanks for the new thread Sugar!!

I was talking about hoopoes!! Yes funny they have long, thin curved beaks which they use to poke into the ground for worms and crests on their heads that go up and down. As I said I thought they were made up by the designers of In a Night Garden !! They were actually in our garden 3 years ago in May and I've looked ever since, I think I heard them but have n't seen them since [sad.

Sorry for getting confused about the robins. Oh and well done on the job Rhubarb.

[MaudantWit]

My back lawn desperately needs weeding. I have yanked out all the things that can be removed by hand but the remainder need digging out. I realised, after I read Alys Fowler's recent article about them in the Guaradian, that the things I binned as common or garden brambles were self-seeded Japanese wiwneberries.

[MaudantWit]

And (forgive me) GRRR. I have just harvested the remaining green tomatoes and discovered that dh, who has many sterling qualities but never tidies up and never throws anything away, has thrown away the paper bag I was saving for my banana ripening trick. Grrr.

[Rhubarbgarden]

I woke up at 5.30 this morning with lists of plants going round my head, of things I want to put in the flower bed I'm designing. We are calling it the 'showstopper bed' and I'm thinking bright colours, bold forms a la Christopher Lloyd. Red oriental poppies! Big Leucanthemum! Melianthus Major! Red hot pokers! Stripey Phormiums! Something bright blue like Meconopsis, but not Meconopsis.

Throw some big bold bright stuff at me.

[funnyperson]

delphiniums
blue alliums
rudbeckias!
salvia patens
cornflowers
thalictrum
tulips
agastache
that funny bulb thingy that Monty planted-eremurus?
chinese lanterns (physalis)

Most of these would not survive in my dry shady neglected untended garden wot I never see these days now the nights are drawing in

Actually from now till the middle of January tends to get impossibly frantic. Festivals then tax returns then festivals then birthdays then Christmas then new year then everyone back to uni means there is non stop tidying cleaning cooking shopping card writing present buying and giving and being nice to lots of people from about now onwards.

I see the attraction of being a recluse (with a garden) more and more clearly.

[Rhubarbgarden]

Aw funny, that sounds hectic. Could you take a week out, tell everyone you're going on holiday but secretly stay in your garden?

Good plant list. Agastache and Alliums going on the list. Possibly Eremurus but I need to research how tricky it is - I've never grown it myself and I've heard it can be unreliable.

I've also added Geums, Achillea and Echinops.

[MaudantWit]

Excellent lists.

Melianthus major is a spectacular plant. How about a euphorbia mellifera to accompany it? And ricinus communis? Cannas for summer wow factor?

Has anyone here ever grown meconopsis? We saw a beautiful collection of them at Harlow Carr but their reputation for extreme trickiness puts me off.

[MaudantWit]

And I seem accidentally to have bought three more clematis, just because T&M asked me so nicely.

[MaudantWit]

Helianthemum Lemon Queen is big and indestructible and a bit of a thug.

[Rhubarbgarden]

Nice. I've put it on the list.

I adore Meconopsis but haven't attempted to grow them yet. I came very close to trying them from seed last spring but didn't. Maybe next year.

[Rhubarbgarden]

Which clematis?

[Rhubarbgarden]

And yes to Euphorbia mellifera - perfect.