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

I have many facets on MN Maud
(that's not true, I'd never keep up)

My clematis is a MONSTER. It's about to flower, but I'm trying to train it up the top of the porch (it's 8 foot high already!) but it's resisting and trying to climb up next door.

oooh the apple blossom is one of the worlds most beautiful things!
My lettuces have all been eaten by slugs....eeeek and
The herbaceous border is creeping into life slowly but surely - i sense a desperation for water but have this weird theory that its better in the long run for me to resist and thus the roots will go further down ???
Having some topsoil delivered tomorrow...and some new raised beds at the weekend...woo hoo!

It probably is right about the drought sending the roots deeper, NotaMopsa. I know that's why they say that a good soak every few days is better than a light daily sprinkling. I do hope it rains soon, but only after dark!

Haven't a hope in hell of catching up but thought I better jump back in to mark a place to start reading again. Although thanks Jareth for asking about the snowdrops and sweet peas, I have exactly the same problem.

We're waiting for our grass carpet turf to be laid (should explain we had major building work over the winter and all grass was trashed). I can't plant much else until then as they will shift some of the soil onto the beds to even it all up.

In the meantime, I am mostly just staring at the wisteria willing it to flower but sadly it's another year of counting the flowers on one hand I don't think I'll ever master the art of wisteria pruning despite reading endless internet articles.

My plants arrived from parkers today... all looks a bit sorry for itself :-(

freezingmyarseoff - all sounds fun at yours! Hope the grass comes soon what a difference that will make!

Re wisteria - I am a very idle amateurish but enthusiatic gardener. I haved moved house many times in the last few years and always plant wisteria - which flower profusely ....odd. I even duf two up and moved them mid july from one house to the next - survived and - flowered profusely. I now have five wisteria dotted around my garden which all open and bloom at different times. One is on the steps down to the cellar at the back of th house in a dark and dank corner - I have just had to put another trellis up for it!
My advice is thus...do naff all! I never prune them - i just weave them if the need help and sometimes yank them out of the guttering!
Good luck with them but tbh I love the foliage as much as the flowers - so delicate and feminine!
Just to cheer myself up - I have realised I have 'weeded' some of my aquilegia ....grrrrrrrr...dim mopsa in some dim opsa moment decided they were weeds and then later that night - it clicked! I am so cross - I have been known to hunt out delightful specimins of these and rescue tiny seedlings from near death and now this

Oh dear, Jareth. I've always been pleased with my plants from Parkers (except the ones that were mis-labelled and gave me quite a surprise when they flowered!) What's wrong with them? Have they been delayed or damaged in the post?

Notamopsa - If you want random aquilegia seedlings I can send you some! They're all offspring of nice varieties, although anyone knows what they will turn out like.

well our wisteria just died

we put it in two years ago and this year it budded but all the leaves just fell off the other day. We need your magic touch NotaMopsa, I did nothing to it either.

I planted some red sunflowers in the borders by the pig sty. All my french beans and runner beans are sprouting. Bought some corn and swede seed for the big veg patch. The peas are up too.

We have had the hose out on the new grass seed, it has started to come up too thank goodness.

Also bought two rosamundi which we put in today.

It is all go here

I have some peas poking up today but think most of the seeds have been robbed from the ground by mice or something littler again (lots of little peas sized holes). Anyone got any tips to prevent this for the next batch that will go in next week? Don't want to grow them inside and then plant out as I've run out of room in the conservatory.

I'd love a wisteria, my mother has a beautiful one on her house, but DH not keen. So of all you wisteria people (apart from Humphrey obviously).

Can't suggest anything for the mice, Pkam.

I forgot to mention that my other garden joy today is that the morning glory 'Grandpa Otts' have begun to sprout. I think I may put them on wigwams with the sweet peas.

pkam i do love wisteria but not great in winter!

I think I have looked at mine in the past and felt that this was was life was all about so I beg to differ with your dh pkam

Maud!!! VERY kind I would love to take you up on that very kind offer!

NotaMopsa!!! OK then, PM me your address and I'll work out how to send them. I'm afraid I donated all the bigger seedlings to our recent gardening club sale, but when dibbling about yesterday I spotted some tiddlers. They are any combination of Black Barlow, William Guinness and some unnamed blue and purple ones, so it'll be a lucky dip!

Who was it recently who wanted suggestions for dry shade? I was looking at my shady border and the garden at Chartwell today and thought of vinca. It's a bit of a thug but can be kept under control.

:(

I expected the acers to be small, but they are basically a twig sitcking out of a flower pot with a couple of leaves attached. Bit narked I paid £10 each for them! I was expecting slightly more established, healthier plants tbh.

The aquilegia are tiny, but that's fine. They were in damp soil and will grow well.

Hmm. My magnolia stellata was about that size (and is romping away now) but I would have been somewhat if I'd paid a tenner for it.

What variety of aquilegia are they?

::sucker for an aquilegia emoticon::

Bloody things. One of them is literally a stick in a pot with no leaves at all. TINY bit of growth, but acers are slow growers aren't they? I'll happily buy a half-dead looking clematis and feel confident that it'll come back and grow an inch a day, but I think I need to complain about these.. I feel I've been ripped off.

Aquiledias are Black Barlow. They are literally 5 mm high at the moment :)

Sticking them outside in the sunshine in the day, and bringing in if it gets too cold overnight. They're already looking better though, so will be fine.

I have just found a stick of clemetis in the depths of the garden - bought last year and never planted

Bought another 30 lavender from b and q today ( my stock lavender provider) and a grandmothers bonnet aquilegia for £3 some which i am pleased with

Jareth - hope your green fingers work their magic!

OMG - two exciting things to report: 1) one of my dahlias is coming up!! (didn't think they would ) 2) on the wall behind the extension is a wisteria!!!!! I am not a one generally for over use of the exclamation mark but these are such surprising and amazing happenings that they deserve a bit of over-exuberant punctuation I think

NotaMopsa -thanks

Stick the clematis in the ground anyway - I had a very dead looking clematis a few weeks ago that I planted too late last year, ignored it for a few weeks and it's 1.5m tall now Might be worth a shot?

Am tonight. Went away for two nights and the wildlife moved in. Slugs have taken half of my broccoli and cauliflower seedlings & the squirrels have been digging in all my pots on the patio. Luckily not too much damage but they have dug up and eaten some sunflower seeds DD1 planted last week. Made lots of mess though. Going to have to net the top of my pots again (did this last year). Otherwise may invest in an air rifle!

On a plus note we had 25 children running around the garden on Friday looking for easter eggs. Beautiful day, in fact so hot most of the eggs were a bit soggy by the time they were found. Chocolate covered children - lovely. Hope they found them all as otherwise we could be mowing easter eggs for a while.

Sorry you lost your seedlings Pkam, something vile has been marauding around my greenhouse too. Do shoot the squirrels, they are a menace. They have really damaged a large oak at the bottom of the orchard which is SUCH a shame.

We have the easter egg hunt tomorrow, not quite as many children coming to ours though.

Just went to my in-laws, their garden is just stunning. I hope mine looks half as good in a few years.

Spent a beautiful day a Wisley today. Very jealous of their aliums. Mine just do not measure up.

Anyone good at tree identification? There is a tree flowering in our 'adopted' garden that I've not noticed flower before. The flowers are white and from a distance look like paper hanging from the tree. Up close they look like two white leaves (one bigger than the other) with a central purple ball of stamens. The tree is about 3.5m tall and otherwise quite unremarkable.

Googled it - it's a paper handkerchief tree!

Good evening all! Just back from a few days away. Rather to my surprise, all the seedlings are doing well, apart from some tomatoes which I kept indoors (the rest are in the multi-storey seedhouse) and are parched. The rest of the garden is looking fab but bone dry - more watering tomorrow.

hello everyone

very exciting day here as the new lot of pigs arrive. We are putting them in the field this year, DH and a friend made a lovely new pig house out of reclaimed stuff lying around, a digger has made a hole in the hedge so we can get from the orchard into the field (this will make a huge difference to the way we use our garden I think) and I have cleaned out the truck so we can pick them up.

Otherwise, all the potatoes are up and the grass seed has taken. We have had to water every day , I REALLY wish it would rain.