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 just had a happy half hour hoeing. ::garden hussy::

Nicotianas have started flowering - obviously happy to be in the ground. The last couple of wet days have done wonders for the seedlings I have in little pots - some Salvia Oasis, comfrey, coriander, sweet peas. Also finally seeing a shoot from one of two sweet pea seeds I put in the soil on the top of the rockery on the 28/04 (according to the label) so I've put a stake beside it and one of those twirly support things.

I've just done a Chelsea Chop on my mature Heuchera. Not sure if it'll work, but it does have leaves all down the stems and new growth from the bottom, which I think were within the categories that Rachel dT said you could CC on Friday's GW. Also still chopping off overly excitable top shoots of honeysuckles and clematis so that they bush out lower down. The wild/alpine strawberries on the rockery are sending out runners which I'm guiding back to the wild area. However I doubt I will be completely successful with that.

Made soup for dinner with Lovage from my herb pots - very tasty. It is of the celery family and is really peppery pungent. Also had salad made with baby leaves and radishes from the garden. Last batch of potatoes are sprouting well but I think I'm going to need to use compost to earth them up because I've not really planned my troughs particularly thoughtfully.

You're all loving your roses aren't you. Tempted now - I only have one. I see a vivid pink wild rose on my walk to work which I think I should take a cutting from. Somehow. It's a nice simple open flower - a tea rose maybe.

Oh, and got chased across the garden by a baby frog as I wielded my hoe. ::cute::

Thank you for that soup recipe - I have a humungous lovage plant but never know what to do with it (apart from admire!) My friend makes lettuce pea and lovage soup, which is lovely.

I always swore I wouldn't 'do' roses but they thrive in the clay (apart from the ones I killed by inexpert transplanting, duh). I've been Chelsea-chopping (well, cutting down) the geranium phaeum and other things that have finished flowering, although leaving a few to set seed. There's an inaccessible corner where rose Spring Bride and honeysuckle Halliana have run amok but I'm letting them be. The fragrance from the honeysuckle is divine.

Making me jealous Maud - my honeysuckle isn't flowering this year, i think because i chopped it back hard last year. It was doing a funny thing where there was no growth on the bottom, but loads on top, so chopped it right back last Autumn, it's come back very vigourously this year, lots of growth all over but no flowers - maybe next year I will be lucky and have both!

I think that's often the way it goes with honeysuckle - I have to give mine a radical chop every so often or else it escapes the fence and all the flowers are in the apple tree, far above my head. It's only the Halliana which is flowering now - Belgica got a drastic prune so that my neighbours could fix the fence and although it looks as if it might still flower, it's clearly taking time to recover from the setback.

Just like to report that with all the rain we've been having the veg plot is starting to look fantastic. Courgettes are flowering, runners are starting to climb, rocket is taking off, peas are looking amazing, you can practically see the tomatoes growing.

Deep contented sigh............

I feel a bit churlish complaining about this but the honeysuckle flowering at the same time as the montana has buggered up my garden arbour. The table sits in the shade of the massed plants and I have been sort of relying on the honeysuckle wowing us over summer. I'm sure it will next year. My Generous Gardener rose is nearly, nearly about to burst into flower and it smells heavenly already. I highly recommend it. So far, no black spot ...

We're going on holiday on Monday and my ranunculus are about to flower. I so hope they do before we go - right now they're looking suspiciously pink and they are supposed to be ORANGE :o

I sold plants at work today! Divided some from my garden a month or so ago - perennial Geranium Platypetalum x5, Sedum Spurium x2, Sissyrinchium Striatum and Parahebe Cattarrractae. £13.50, kaching.

Will put that in my pocket money purse for going to Hampton Court FS in July...!

Going to a wedding this weekend so only two more gardening days until going on holiday for two weeks - but I have babysitting lined up for my veggies so I am not worried.

How very enterprising, Lexilicious. I've promised all my spare plants to the school fete.

::no business sense emoticon::

I need some ideas for low plants to go in the front of my long bed. Was planning on mini campanulas but only managed to get two as nowhere has them. What else would be good for the front of a sunny bed - pinks, blues or purples? Preferably something that will spread a bit.

Have almost finished planting it up now; just one end to finish off where I'm a bit short of soil. May take a photo once done.

well, until this morning Pkam you could have had a couple of sedum spurium, which are ground hugging and pink clusters of flowers...! trouble is, if you meet my husband in a layby again I'll have to spend a lot more time in the Relationships section...

How about Dianthus? or nicotiana? or if you just want to fill up a gap, any tray of bargain bedding plants from a DIY/garden centre. Whack some bulbs in, in the autumn, and leave it till spring to plant your perennial solution. (Three phases of the joy of planting, for one stretch of bed)

How about convolvulus Ensign for a temporary (and very cheap) solution? If you bung the seeds in now, you should have near-instant results.

You may be right on the bedding plant option - which will make me feel a bit happier in the short term by filling the gaps and then I'll figure out the perennials next year.

Anyone watch GW? The Monet garden had paths lined with small purple flowering things. Needed closer camera angle - anyone know what they are?
pic here

Giverny was utterly swoonsome, non? It made me want to go again. If I zoom in on that photo it becomes too fuzzy to see and the colour rendition on this PC is unreliable. Could they be dianthus? Geranium? Persicaria? I suspect not, though.

God I forgot to watch GW. I must be slipping

Got straight up this morning and went into the garden. Heavenly weather. All the wildflowers are starting to come into flower, the roses are smelling delicious and there are lots of flowers on the tomatoes. Things are finally starting to grow a bit in the round veg patch, thanks to a bit of rain. It has rained on and off all day, this can only be good. The weeds are going for it though, I really need to spend a few concentrated hours weeding. But I have lots of paperwork to do so I will have to spend this evening managing that unfortunately.

I hope you have all had a lovely day today.

A good gardening day here, too. Have bought a substantial pot for rosa Gloriana, who's going to live by the front door, the wherewithal to make a hanging basket for my dad for Father's Day, and a pot of lilium regale just because.

My tomato plants are still tiny - I must pot them on. To my amazement, the tomato seeds which never germinated (I thought) have just produced two tiny seedlings.

I've come to gloat. I got all sorts of plant goodies at an open garden for fifty peeee each.

well done. What did you get?

went to Hampden Court Castle gardens in Hereforshire. Despite the rain. It was truly stunning, especially the poppies.

I went to Wisley with my friend whose son is slightly older than mine, and just walked around. Oh alright, and I got a cinnamon basil plant.

and it was lovely even in the rain.

I especially enjoyed today because we had farmed off the dc with friends. This meant that we could both look at flowers rather than stopping dc falling in pond, picking flowers or just generally disappearing and not coming back when called. We even got inside the house, which we would never normally manage.

Oooh that looks lovely. Wasn't the 'let's move to' in yesterday's Guardian about Leominster? My flinging around of poppy seeds seems not to have worked - next year I'll have to be less laissez-faire about it.

My haul comprised 2 x verbena bonariensis (can never have too much of a good thing), ophiopogon nigrescens, a white daisy (precise variety unknown), 2 pots of cleome seedlings (doomed to die the death of a thousand slugs, probably, but it is so lovely I have to try) and chocolate mint. Last week I got a pineapple sage which I have just potted on - the scent is amazing.

Ate our first home grown courgette tonight!

Wow! We are on our second lot of courgette plants. The fancy ones I grew from seed (Tondo di Nizza, I think) were destroyed by snails so now we have plants from the garden centre. Nowhere near getting an actual courgette, though.

I'll be giving courgettes away in a couple of weeks time I'm sure. Maybe from a layby......

I'm also very excited that I've nearly got the first little flying saucer squash ready for picking (can't remember it's proper name); just needs to be a teeny bit bigger.

I know what you mean by flying saucer squash but can't remember its name. Patty pan, maybe?

::snort:: at anonymous roadside courgette distribution.