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

Lex - they were still in their tray but I put them outside to break them in a bit, however, it was quite sunny and I think it was too hot. Didn't think heat would be a problem as they've been growing in the conservatory which is boiling. I have about 12 surviving which may just be enough if I don't kill off anymore. Going to treat them softly, softly from now on.

Maud

This gardening lark can be quite tragic!

Thanking Maud for the hugely celebrated postal arrival of aquilegia!! What merry fun is this - we should all start it! At the end of the season - split our favourite primula or somesuch and post them to one another!!

Took a couple of pics today might upload them - not great but the border JUST starting to look pretty

I realised that I spent the whole of the drive to work this morning thinking about my garden. As a result of my thinking I went home and moved a load of seedlings from one place to another, just so that I could have a view of the setting sun hitting the red orach plants.

I am a happy obsessive

Dh and I both feel much more like we have a handle on the way we want our garden to look. We have a garden folder full of photographs of things in other gardens we have seen and liked, and this is really helping. We have also realised that in our rush to make the garden usable when we first arrived we made some unalterable decisions that we would not make now.

Looking forward to the weekend as I have £35 pounds of garden vouchers to spend. Think I will get some white popples, bronze and green fennel to provide some continuity in my herb beds and who knows what else?

::Nervous on behalf of the well-travelled aquilegia::

Still praying for heavy rain here. The garden is parched.

perhaps we should all do a rain dance on your behalf Maud. Is there any rain forecast?

There has been for days, but then the forcast changes and the rain - like jam - is always tomorrow.

Well.. I did a half-arsed rain dance last week and it chucked it down... how about I go for the whole naked-praying-to-the-rain-gods thing and see what happens?

do it Jareth. You are a Goblin King after all.

That would be very kind, Jareth but possibly rather alarming for your neighbours. Could you just wait until the new paint on my windowsills has dried?

Ok, who has a disturbing image of a naked David bowie doing a rain dance and hollering to the skies?

I'll do it though.. just to see if it works :-)

::Wonders if it will make the local papers::

there is nothing disturbing at the thought of a naked David Bowie. IMVHO.

Maybe not, but I still think it would make the front page of Gardening News!

Totally agree Humphrey

I will do it in my garden when my neighbors have gone to bed

Did it work Maud? Did Jareth make it rain????

Don't make us all do it, please say it rained.

OHHHHH... Labyrinth? That goblin king? ooh. I think of you differently now (and slightly improperly )

Have put pics on profile. Can anyone see them?

Friend at work gave me six calendula yesterday which I have put on the rockery (3) and by the front path (3). Lawn seed has sprung up after we had rain at the weekend. And my first sproutings of the jerusalem artichoke have emerged.

Anybody want potatoes? is almost too late but if you do want a few, PM me. Pink Fir Apple and another one, a new variety. Have about ten more than I need.

I can see photos Lex. Those daffs look huge - are they huge or just some weird trick of the camera? I took some arty chose-up photos of my aliums yesterday - worked really well.

It still hasn't rained here.. been threatening all day though..

Do I have to do it again ?

You sure you did it properly?

Do you think it went wrong because I kept my tights on?

were they footless tights?

Pkam - those daffs were, I think, the bag of 50 from B&Q. Yes huge - about 7cm across. Alliums were the size of a small/medium melon.

Err ::hesistant:: it doesn't seem to have rained here.

::Visualises the Thin White Duke prancing naked around the garden::

::Goes to lie down::

Fantastic alliums Lexilicious. I am going to plant a lot of alliums. I love them.

Has it rained today Maud?

Have Gardeners World recorded to watch in a minute. DH is out mowing the lawn.

Made a very exciting discovery, a pale pink hawthorn at the bottom of the orchard. So pleased as DH wanted one but the only ones you can actually buy are the dark pink ornamental type. Also realised that the new leaves on the walnut tree came out just before all that awful wind we had a week or so ago and have been scorched black by it. It looks dreadful.