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 six courgette plants. Two were bought from suttons and are doing well, some little courgettes just developing. Four were given to me by my gardening friend at work and seem to be homosexual.

No, really.

They only have male flowers - the long stalks. No courgette-making girl flowers. I am wondering why this is - they are planted in the ground (poorer clay soil which keeps moisture very well, but it's not infertile soil, as it has had lots of soil improver and compost added). What is making these plants into such chauvinist pigs? Maybe I should ask over in the feminism section if there's such a thing as a courgette patriarchy...

We are in France - in the foothills of the Pyrenees. It is so lush here and I am so envious of the ability to grow such tender plants.

We have done a house swap for 10 days - do you reckon I could pick a few of the salad leaves in the garden without wrecking the plants for when they come back? Or is that really cheeky?

But shouldn't you pick the salad, to stop it going to seed? If it's the mixed leaf type it could bolt very quickly.

I've never grown lettuce but that's what I'm hoping. Surely it's better for the plants? And it's got to be a good idea for me to eat the raspberries hasn't it? :o

I think as long as you don't decimate the crop it should be fine. Are you in contact with them at your house? Have you left any requests to water things? You could ask them, and also say what they can and can't pick from your garden. I would be a bit if a visitor harvested an entire potato plant, or had evidently been self-sufficient from the garden.

Is there a gap in the market for "garden enthusiasts' house swaps" where you can be confident your swapper knows what they're doing?!?

Those would be them Maud. Got a few more days before the first one's picking size I think.

My MIL has 'homosexual' courgettes too Lex - maybe we should introduce hers to yours. She's been growing courgettes for years and has never had that before - very strange.

Made pesto from my rocket and spinach for dinner tonight.

I'm not growing any crops because I knew we would be away (and didn't know that they would be gardeners). Lexi - I would never dig up a potato plant or anything :o It was really just a couple of leaves but I shall leave them then - it's a bit cheeky to ask.

That was supposed to be

Hello, may I join? ComeIntoTheGardenMaud invited me, I'm a fellow Only TeaRoomer with a gardening obsession. I live on the West Coast of Canada, about 45 min east of Vancouver, British Columbia. We have what's called a town house here, so I don't have an enclosed garden, rather, we have a medium sized patio out back which faces north into a ravine, and I have a 3' x 12" foot long flowerbed in the front. So, small space gardening. This year I've put oblong cedar planters against the garage wall which is white and south-west facing so oven though our spring has been crap crap crap, some heat-loving plants are thriving. I've got a clematis which is going nuts currently, and two climbing roses (Dublin something, and Goldener Olymp), and a passionflower vine which has three fat buds on it that look like they're going to pop soon. By the front door I've got a blueberry bush in a pot which is looking a bit sickly, and a strawberry planter, and a honeysuckle vine and a night-blooming jasmine. My flower bed is crammed - lavender, more lilies than I can count, two hibiscus, oodles of purple lupines, some snapdragons and cheddar pinks for ground cover, a peony that hasn't made up it's mind to flower yet this year, some tiny roses, and a massive rhubarb and equally huge meadow sage. It's a bit eclectic when i look at it written down like that!
In the back, I have mostly hydrangeas in pits because they don't mind the shade. Either side of the patio gets some morning and afternoon sun so I try to rotate things. I have a Pacific Dogwood tree in a tub, and several colours of hydrangeas, including a climbing one, and two true red ones. Oh, and hanging baskets, of course. It really is an obsession with me, I'm not allowed in a garden centre unaccompanied .

Er, my flower bed is 3' by 12 feet, not 12 inches. Maybe it's closer to ten feet, I can't tell. Just guessing. Poorly, as you can tell .

Hello there Jacksmania. Your garden sounds lovely. I have planted a climbing hydrangea, it is just tiny yet but I have great hopes. It is great to meet a fellow obsessive.

Ate the first potatoes tonight - Anya. Delicious.

Hello Jacksmania. It's great that this thread has now gone international!

My plant swoon today is echinops bannaticus. I bought some seedlings last year which produced lovely clumps of foliage but not much else. This year they have leapt to about five feet high and are going to be stunning when they're fully in flower. They're about twice as tall as echinops retro Veitch's Blue.

My climbing hydrangea died [sob] but hydrangea quercifolia is doing well. I think my rosa Madame Hardy may be dying - all the leaves have shrivelled. [sobs again]

I saw a gorgeous climbing hydrangea today which reminded me how gorgeous they can be. I put one in a previous garden and it never flowered in the five years I lived there so am slightly wary.

And welcome too My garden is also titchy

I love my garden. It makes me very happy when I go out and pick food that we will be eating at our next meal. This evening it was spuds and radish. Tomorrow it should be lettuce, pak choi, rcocket and chard.
I had a blissfull moment sat on teh grass teh other morning working out where teh next 2 or 3 radish rows would go in between the chard and beans.

ohh maud- you have jumbo ecinops too. I thought we might have teh only 6ft plus ecinops. they were not this tall last year! we moved them tho, and tis year they have to work a bit harder to catch teh sun.

I have just been weeding. I like weeding once I start, but it takes me ages to make my mind up to it. DH took a blow torch to the tiny weeds on the paths, most satisfactory watching them burn. The courgette plants finally look as if they are deciding to go and the sweet peas are at the same stage as Monty's were on GW, so I feel better about them now.

The wildflowers are all starting to come out. Lots of mauve thistle looking things, I have no idea what they are. Some small white flowers. Lots of field marigolds, various shades of orange. Millions of cornflowers waiting to bloom. Many other unidentified plants. Not bad for eight quid from Lidl

Yes UniS, there is nothing like eating food from your own garden. It truly makes me happy as well.

Update on house swap lettuce - they called this evening because they couldn't make the telly work and she told me to eat anything that's ripe - tomatoes, salad leaves, raspberries etc. still won't dig up the spuds tho

I'm in love with my jumbo echinops, UniS. i'm not doing so well with the crops, but I have a couple of strawberries almost ready to eat!

Do you have a proper weed burner, Humphrey? They are most satisfying to use.

I ate our one and only strawberry last night Maud. When I picked it I had every intention of taking it in and dividing it four ways but somehow it ended up in my mouth. I shall blame the slugs when they notice it's gone.

On the subject of slugs I spent a very happy half hour in the drizzle this evening squashing slugs.

More courgettes for tea tonight and radishes picked for lunch tomorrow.

Just had a lovely walk around the garden in the middle of rain showers. The mysterious wild flower meadow from Lidl is throwing up more unexpected treats in the way of orchid looking things with amazing scent. The raspberries are really coming out now, with the Tulamene being the biggest and best. We are still getting stawberries by the basketful (after nary a one last year). I am delighted with the new borders by the pigscot. My other new discovery is how much I like my coreopsis Moonbeam, such a delicate and beautiful flower. The standard fruit bushes in the round border by the veg patch look great too (these were DH's birthday present).

I hope you all have a lovely weekend in the garden.

It's been raining for days. Maud please put your clothes back on and stop dancing! Enough now. The garden has been loving the rain but I'd really like to appreciate it without having to look at it through the window.

of your 'basketfuls' of strawberries Humphrey.

I haven't danced for ages, but I suppose I danced for so long that this might be the delayed and cumulative effect. Sorry, Pkam. Besides, I don't think it was me who started the naked dancing, was it?

I have just had my first theft from the front garden - six new garden canes, total value £2.40.

::despairs::