My garden makes me so happy

[HumphreyCobbler]

I wanted a garden all my adult life, and for the last three years I have had one.

To begin with I was worried it wouldn't be as much fun as I thought it would be, but I soon discovered it was even better.

It was an overgrown, tangled mess when we moved in and slowly we have transformed it. I am still a beginner, but I already know so much more than I did.

Today I came home to find a massive pile of well rotted horseshit waiting for me. It was brilliant.

I don't really know what the point of this post is, I just wanted to share

Boo - just typed v long post and lost it. In summary - have done the slug killing and v pleased with sweet pea seedlings. And I have a few (teeny) VBs coming up which isn't bad as, having read the packet, they're supposed to take 21-25 days. At this rate they aren't going to be anywhere near flowering this summer though so I might splash out £3 on a few to fill the gaps. I'm going to put a load of bark chippings down in the front garden tomorrow to discourage evil cat poo.

One of my aquilegia is flowering and the montanas are about to go. I do love this time of year :) And I especially love you being late for work because of it Humphrey!

We play the game '101 ways to get rid of ladybirds' in our house. They can swim for quite some time.... We keep a mini hoover in our bedroom now and hoover them all up every morning. DH does this naked. Makes me laugh every time.

On a positive note, all seedlings now growing nicely in my potting shed conservatory although butternut not that successful; will have to plant more as only one came up.

it seems to be a good year for ladybirds here - quite a few already! Is this a good thing???
Ughhhh tonight i lifted the cloche thing off my raised bed and a white fly flew out....
My dc4 was wareing for me and counted 12 holes in my newly leaved lettuces....Iassume the two were connected...eek any tips?
Humphrey also jealous of rain - Yorkshire is unusually dry .The holly seedlings i started a hedge with last year would normally look bright green and succulent but look dull and dry.
My herbaceous border is drrry..feel like it is on the starting blocks just itching for a down pour to get going!

Anyone know a good rain dance? Had the hose out again today but plants desperate for the real stuff (but not tomorrow please as have BBQ to go to).

Spotted first leeks peeking up today.

We need rain too, but not tomorrow for exactly the same reason. Even so, the garden is looking very lush at the moment. The first geranium is in flower, there are some aquilegias which I reckon are a couple of days away and some clematis following hot on their heels. And I have hundreds of tulips in bloom.

::May have overdone the bulb-buying emoticon::

What will a clematis do when it gets over its 2m trellis? Ours has gone bonkers!

It'll just lollop about and climb up anything else it can find nearby. Two of mine regularly get to the top of the apple trees.

It's on the front of the house, the entire porch will be engulfed by it soon :)

Mine goes up one side of the house and over the porch at the front. Had great success with the slug watering stuff last night - 5 dead slugs and 2 snails by the hosta. Ha! Take that!

although we had some rain it wasn't enough here either sadly, we had the hose out on the grass/wildflower seed today and yesterday.

Maud, we went to the pound shop and bought two more Paul Scarlet roses to go along the fence at the back of the garden, where we are trying to create a path with some willow stakes on the other side. We are training the willow in a lollipop shape so there should be lots of light getting to the roses.

We have a tricky bit of a border that needs filling with something big-ish. In between a small holly, a slightly larger cherry and a horse chestnut, so it is quite dry and totally shaded in summer. Have some euphorbias that are doing quite well there, and have sprinkled lots of foxglove seeds around the place but would like to put something substantial in. Is there anything that would do?

Put in a row of gladioli for cutting, sowed cosmos purity and did a bit of weeding. Am off work for two weeks now, hurrah.

So glad that you found more Paul's Scarlet at the pound shop! And ooh. Where did you get your seeds for Cosmos Purity? Had a fruitless search for it at the Harold Hillier garden earlier in the week. They only had mixed colours, which won't work with my poncetastic rigorous colour scheme.

As for the big thing to go in shade, how about viburnum? Viburnum opulus is my favourite - it's just about to burst into flower, whereupon it will be divine. Geraniums will be good for infill and lily of the valley is also good for dry shade. As you have euphorbias and foxgloves I'm assuming you're not too worried about toxicity.

Thanks Maud, that looks great. I will give it a go. Not really worried about toxicity, actually I have never given it a thought

My parker plants arrived this morning, looking forward to a happy morning planting them.

I have never been that worried about toxicity - although I did remove the aconitum. I used to have lots of different euphorbias, most have died but I have started to replant them. I think the key is teaching your child never to eat the plants.

Oohh I want my Parkers delivery to arrive!

Have planted it all up now. Hydrangea in a tub as v. doubtful of the soil quality under there.

cosmos purity - here it is

Fab. I'll check who near me stocks Kings seeds.

::too cheap to pay for postage emoticon::

I had euphorbia, foxgloves and aconites in my last garden. DS never wanted to eat them. Weirdly I did catch him pulling off the heads of a euphorbia one day and he didn't have any skin reaction at all (I did stop him doing it though!).

We are going to the soft play today. Which, as luck would have it, is in the garden centre :o

went to a massive car boot sale

bought a President clematis, two seedums, some lupins, a bleeding heart, two heucheras and seven reasonably sized box plants.

DH has been potting up the box cuttings, there are about two hundred that have taken. We have run out of pots to put them in.

What a lovely haul. I love dicentra (except the yellow weed one).

Well I cracked and bought some enormous VBs from the garden centre . They were 3 for 2 though so I feel I got a good deal. My seedlings are barely 2mm tall - they're not going to flower this year! But if they do well, I can put them in the front where I have a lot of bare patches now I've pulled up a load of the hop that has suckered all over the place. self-justifies massively

I also got the rose I've been wanting to get for ages - the Generous Gardener. I want to plant it against my fence but now I've read the label it says plant in a light and airy spot, preferably without any overhanging trees. It does get a reasonable amount of light but not a lot of direct sunlight because there is a fairly large hornbeam planted on the pavement :( It doesn't have a very dense canopy and obviously the leaves are very pale but I would be sad if the rose failed. Maybe I should put some of the hop bits there instead.

Maud - there was a HP there I've never heard of (began with an A and was a very short name) which had beautiful black flowers. I thought of you!

That's very sweet of you, Christine! I am feeling befuddled. What's a HP? Hardy perennial?

I need to go now and sort out my cerinthe seedlings. I started them off in the guest bedroom where it's not really light enough and now they're very spindly.

Yes, hardy perennial - was being lazy. My busy lizzies are not doing very well at all. I bought them as tiny plug plants and have lovingly nurtured them but while the salvia and lobelia are romping away, the busy lizzies are all sickly with white patches on their leaves. Possibly a false economy - I was trying to find a cheap way to have all white containers this year but I think I've probably wasted the money. Oh well, you live and learn :)

Hmm. I have one window box which is in shade where I was thinking of busy lizzies, although I don't really like them. Could the white patches be mildew? My gardening this weekend is a huge bamboo for a measly £4.

what a lovely day! Have some sunburn for my sins! I painted an old vintage bench I have bought and dp FINALLY finished our cobbled paths which have taken probably 5 weeks EVERY spare five minutes and all weekend every weekend until 9-10 at night!! PHEW!

Does anyone have any advice on lavender hedges?? Mine are starting to look quite 'woody' and g'grey' underneath. Should I prune hard or not - should I wait until no threat of frost - worried they are growing quite quickly now and if i dont prune now - they might look bald for much of the year? If I sound like a novice- I AM!!!

I have today potted up an azalea, a hydrangea and a solanum glasnevin which I bought on a whim in Sainsbury's the other day. Put them in pots as still need to plan more beds but not going to happen this year. So I'll let them get a bit bigger and decide next year. I'm not sure the baby solanum is going to cure my coveting these since mentioned early on in this thread. The local tree nursery sells 6ft high ones and I've been dreaming of those (literally - when did I start dreaming of plants!) for some time. Still think it would look good growing over the playhouse....

Put up trellis on top of fence for the clematis planted a few weeks ago in the new corner bed as this has gone mad already. Also we have each chosen our sunflower seedlings and potted these on. We're going for tallest plant and largest flower to give two of us chances of winning. Although if DH and I the DDs don't win I feel we may have some tears.