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

no rain bar a sprinkle here grrrr

on a lighter note a friend i had not seen for a while came by last weekend and i showed her the new paths dp had laboured over and we pottered round the garden

today she rang to say her gardner was round - could she come over and take some notes on what we had done in the garden!!! I was soo pleased

Garden slowly slowly moving onwards - lavatera (sp) and gleditsia(sp) are only two victims of he harsh winter so far...

does anyone know whether things do grow much slower in the drought or not? ( dim i know but i am assuming things are slower this year?)

Anybody got any secret tricks for getting replies from Parkers? I've sent them 3 emails and nothing. Does this mean I have to pick up the phone and actually speak to someone?

Oh dear. Further Parker-related guilt here. My experience was (a) amazingly prompt reply to email and instant refund, which was more than I was hoping for, and (b) complete ignoring. I think it's phone time, Jareth.

nooooo, no guilt! I shall phone them and pretend to be an expert on all things horticultural. The Acers have started looking really awful. They really are just twigs in pots.

:)

Tell them that the nation's womanhood is watching them and the fate of the company lies with MN!

It poured with rain for HOURS last night

Hope you were all similarly blessed.

They had quite decent sized Acers in Tesco yesterday for a tenner if that helps your case Jareth.

No rain here at all and none forecast. The grass looks like shredded wheat. It's a bit early in the year for that sort of thing. :(

But I think one of my Cannas might be coming up so I'm rather excited

I have just pulled out a huge clump of alkanet that was lurking in the midst of some other plants. We've had a bit of rain, so the soil is easier to work, but the lawn is still rock-hard and, as Christine says, like shredded wheat.

Off now to buy the materials for the leaning tower of grapevine ....

PS Cannas are exciting. I love 'em, but have never grown one to a decent size.

just been out and planted two courgettes, weeded the path round the veg patch and watched DH finish the thingy for the wisteria.

Sorry about the lack of rain, I suggest putting a sprinkler on the lawn for about two hours. See above posts.

Pkam, I suppose I cheated on the celeriac - almost all my veg are from Suttons, so they're about 5cm tall now, and it said to plant them straight out. The only things I'm doing from seed are sweet peas, herbs, salad leaves, radish, beetroot, (also Salvia and Aquilegia as an experiment...) And I've done lots of bulbs (flowers and onion-allium family).

Today I was at work but when I got home I went round with a hand hoe and got all the little buggers that have sprung up after last night's rain, then planted out a couple of sweet peas, mulched things I want to nourish, and that should have been it. But... I couldn't resist a bit of, erm, landscaping. Photos on profile coming up!

I sprinkled yesterday Humph. That sounds a bit wrong but you know what I mean :o

We went down to the beach today so I feel a bit moany complaining about the lack of rain because we had a glorious time.

Maud - I have planted full grown cannas before but lost them over winter (cocky Londoner then) but never grown from corms. There are a few mysterious cones coming up now and I am very excited indeed. Despite doing a very detailed border plan, I'm not entirely sure what's coming up where :o

I am going to have a proper plan for the new bed. What do you suggest to go with peonies?

I find it very difficult to know what to put near peonies. Are we talking herbaceous or tree peonies?

One of mine is behind a huge clump of perennial sunflower. It works quite well, because while the peony is in flower (ie now) the sunflower is just low foliage and by the time the peony's gone over, the sunflower will be hiding it. For your bed, I'd also go for something low-growing and creeping - ajuga (bugle) perhaps? Or alchemilla mollis for some lovely foliage contrast?

We've had lots of rain - and, amazingly, just in the evenings or overnight so the days have been sunny and dry. The garden has sprung into life almost immediately which is fantastic. DH complaining though as now he needs to go out and mow the weeds lawn.

Ticked off all the jobs on my list for the weekend despite hangovers so am very proud of myself.

Lex - thanks for the celeriac info, at least I know to wait until mine are a lot larger before planting out. Not that I'd put them out yet anyhow as they would definitely be squished by the rain!

We seemed to have quite a lot of rain overnight, but everything was still rock solid this afternoon. I've done lots more planting and some serious ivy-hacking.

Nelly Moser and Niobe and now doing their clematis thing and the best aquilegia at the moment is Crimson Star (99p Store special). The grass is greener but the bald bits still look dreadful.

Glad you have all had some rain. I had forgotten how lovely the earth in my veg patch is, all brown and crumbly. Most unlike the red clay everywhere else in the garden. This is a very old house and I think it had been a vegetable garden for many many years, with a five year gap before we took it on.

Love your ideas for the peony bed Maud. They are herbaceous peonies. I saw a bed full of peonies, alchemilla mollis, oriental poppies and alliums in a garden near us today, so I might go with that combination. Isn't alchemilla mollis a fantastic plant? I love it.

Planted out french climbing beans and dwarf french beans today, did a row of sunflowers, more sweet peas, subsequent sowings of peas (this will be interesting as DS mixed up the seeds in the packets ). Moved loads of red orach seedlings, dill seedlings and feverfew into better places. Found a bronze fennel seedling too.

The strawberries I planted last year, that did nothing then except put out runners, have produced the most fantastic looking crop. They are a green carpet round the veg patch, I do hope we can keep some away from the slugs/squirrels/pigeons.

Fed the first slug to the piggies today, the one that got it was most appreciative. I am going out now to look for some more.

Alchemilla and also Heuchera might be quite nice round the peonies? Then you'd get a bit of variety in leaf colour without the height.

We have no rain forecast here until Wednesday I can't believe we've gone so long without rain this early in the summer.

I suspect it's going to chuck it down through July and August :o

Alchemilla mollis is indeed a fabulous thing. I planted another one today and was overjoyed to find a little seedling hiding in the undergrowth.

threatening rain and the odd big plops but vety little here....bit of a downpour lastnight - enough to arouse the slugs but not much!

Went out today and happened on a lovely nursey stall at a farmers market - picked up a lovely perennial sweet pea ( sucker for a sweet pea me!) and one of these although more pinky red. DELIGHTED with it tbh. Little touches. The herbaceous border bursting into life. Might take pic tomorrow to show you it in stages! Exciting times!

Oh dear. I appear to have killed most of my celeriac seedlings. Tough love did not suit them. All I did was put them outside in the sunshine for a few hours and they all fell over in protest. Most have not recovered .

Everything else growing well though and the water butt is full! I shall have to get another and daisy chain it as otherwise we'll be running the overflow off down the garden again and wasting all the water. We only put it in recently and didn't realise that the down-pipe also collects the water off next door's roof so we collect from a massive area. It was nice to water my pots with rain water tonight though rather than tap.

sorry to hear about your seedlings Pkam

things are really growing fast now, including the weeds

first outside salad crop is nearly ready, hooray

Oh no! How big were they before you put them out? And where were they before - a greenhouse or a windowsill? My spares are in the four-shelf plastic greenhouse thing, but I haven't had the front closed on it for weeks, even when there have been frosts. Where abouts are you - was it a hot day for you?

Today I had a day off and so I put some cineraria into my half-moon wall-hung baskets which will also eventually have Lofos Burgundy Falls tumbling out of them, on the sunny wall on the shed. I planted replacement sarcococca in my 'scented bed'. And took delivery of three Astilbe Mighty Pip bare roots, which I potted up. And I wrote another list of things I'd like to get around to doing at the weekend.

I have planted out my cerinthe seedlings - they're tiny but I need the space in the cold frame. Meanwhile, I am mourning my beautiful, beautiful viburnum opulis which has been very badly damaged by beetle. For the first time in a decade I have used bug killer and I'm hoping that a good prune will encourage new growth. Oh woe is me.

We have had rain for the last two nights - hurrah! I hate watering, such a horrible waste of water. I am going to have to go out with pepper tomorrow - an evil cat is pooing near my precious rose

Sorry about the seedlings pkam :( It's such a bummer when that happens. I'm going to plant salad things tomorrow and basil ...