Humph's Happy Horti-cult: harvesting, preserving, mulching, leaf-gathering, bulb-dibbing, seed catalogue-surfing and hunkering down for winter

[Lexilicious]

Following on from the original March to August thread. For all - whether still gardening through the winter or planning to sweep the shed, hibernate, sharpen the tools and get started again in the spring.

Happy gardening again!

Oooh, lovely. When I'm a bit closer to getting my shed, I'm going to browse all the posh shed companies that advertise in The Garden. As the thing will be close to the house, I want something luvverly. That Gabriel Ash one was lush (in shed terms).

This would be mine. Even DH wouldn't complain about that in the garden - the shape even matches the roofline of the house. Perfect. Shame about the price really.

Was in Berkshire today on a client visit and found the most amazing blackberries. They were huge and were the best tasting blackberries I have ever eaten. Unfortunately I couldn't break off the visit to pick more than a handful otherwise I'd have taken the entire lot. Just beautiful.

Aha - found you all again :o

I am trying to decide what to do with my herbaceous border. The cannas came to nothing. The nigellas grew so tall they swamped the dahlias. The self-sown poppies were amazing but almost as tall as me. Decisions, decisions ...

I need to get bulbs but the garden centre only sell bulbs of 100 or more and I have a patch of lawn which is about 5m square so that would make it look like a municipal flowerbed.

I have some lily corns to put in too. The crocosmia I nicked from my last garden have flowered which I'm pleased about.

hello there I have seen you about lately, glad you found us

It is like june in our strawberry patch, we had a bowful each for pudding today. I am loving this weather.

DH managed to forget his DD birthday party tomorrow and book the man with the rotivator and the large pile of muck to come at the same time. Wish me luck..

Anyone else planning a whole weekend in the garden? Have BBQ's aplenty arranged - loving this sunshine

Keep having to water the celeriac though - following Monty's orders.

I missed last night's gardening programmes, but - let joy be unconfined - this late sunshine has finally turned my tomatoes red (or orange, which is what they're supposed to be. And my Parkers order has arrived. Yippee.

I just sat around in the garden today, watching my DC run around with their friends and thinking of all the jobs I have to do.

I was knackered though, so I feel all the better for it.

My gardening today was limited to picking the sweet peas but I'm pinning my hops on this glorious weather lasting into the start of next week. And I still have my garden centre voucher to spend.

::burning a hole in my pocket::

Had friends over for BBQ today - one of them admired the long bed! Hurrah.

Other than that the kids spent most of the time under the sprinkler until I confiscated it due to growing mud puddle and plonked it in the veg patch to save on watering effort.

The squirrels appear to be using the roof of the climbing frame to crack nuts on by lobbing them out of the tree above. It makes a hell of a noise and has been scaring me senseless disturbing me all week - today it disturbed everyone (including the kids who had to duck occasionally) so I feel a bit less of a wuss.

I think I'd trade you some squirrels for the caterwauling foxes ripping open the bags of waste that my wonderful neighbours leave on the pavement.

::considers shotgun::

::for neighbours, not foxes::

Does anyone know if you can get wisteria varieties with serrated leaflets? Out the front of our house we have this plant that grows up through the gravel, every year I've cut it off and every year it comes back. This year I decided to give in and let it grow expecting some kind of bush to develop. However, what I have is loads of vine growths and the leaf pattern definitely looks like wisteria (opposite sets of leaflet things with one on the end of each vine). BUT the leaves are quite small and serrated, all pics I can find of wisteria the leaflets are smooth. Anyone a wisteria expert, or does this sound like something else? Keep meaning to take a photo so I can post it for Maud all you experts to help me.

Eek. That sounds a little like a weed thingy I've seen, but I can't think what it is. It also sounds a little like the young growth of Japanese knotweed, but I do so hope I'm wrong.

Does this triffid ever flower? How tall is it?

::Proud holder of National Collection of Weed Species::

I doubt it's Japanese knotweed because the leaves sound wrong, but the new growth of JK is quite vine-like.

I think the thing I had in mind was probably sumac, which is planted as an ornamental plant but spreads by suckering - which is what the growth through the gravel sounds like. Could this be it? I'm still looking for better pictures.

Oh no, please don't scare me! Definitely not JK as leaves not right. Not quite so sure about sumac but looking closely at pics I don't think it's that either.

At the moment it's just separate vines that are growing out of a central point by the front of the house. Each vine maybe around a metre long so far. Only been growing since late spring so I've not seen anything but leaves.

Will go out tomorrow and take some pictures.

::Waits with bated breath::

Photos of mystery vine uploaded. Crosses fingers...

::scratches head::

yes, not JK. I sadly know rather a lot about that as it is endemic near our business property. I have no clue what it IS though, but then I wouldn't .

Well, new borders have been dug over, manured and the path is laid. All that remains is to plant it up. Hooray, the fun bit! We will be moving stuff from all over the rest of the garden (thus sorting out the other bits as well), doing the bulbs and putting in lots of stuff currently in the nursery beds by the veg patch.

We have got iris, tulips, peonies, hollyhocks, alliums, a few standard roses(rosa mundi x 2, a Princess Elizabeth and some v highly scented one I can't remember) a climbing rose for the side of the bed that backs onto the house, lots of echinacea and a crambe cordefolia (sp?). I have taken lots of purple sage and golden marjoram cuttings, am planning on LOTS of opium poppies too. I have a fair few oriental poppies dotted around, so will move those to one area as well. I took a lot of russian sage cuttings yesterday also, so hopefully will have some of those. These beds will be between the rose walk and the crab apple walk, with a roundish bit of lawn in the middle in which we have a red leaved cherry and a Taihaku.

I have just been walking around with DH in the near dark talking it all over. I am rather over excited about it all

The crab apples for the walk are coming soonish too, so that will be good.

DH says to say thank you to Maud for recommending The Well Tempered Garden, he has just finished reading it and now knows all the things we have to move because we planted them in the wrong place. It has also stopped us making a few other mistakes, like not leaving enough space for the yew hedge.

Are you taking online bookings for tours of your garden, Humphrey?

::Elbows her way to the front of the queue::

I didn't really think the mystery weed was JK because the leaves sounded wrong, but the bit about whippy, vine-like growth sounded alarm bells. Two major building projects near here are on hold because they're having to strafe the ground that's infested with JK.

I'm always happy to be thanked :;approval junkie:: but I'm sure it wasn't me who recommended The Well Tempered Garden as I've never read it.

I have today picked 2lb of ripe tomatoes - yippee! - and harvested 3lb of Pink Fir Apple potatoes from the pot outside the back door. Doesn't compare with your bumper harvest, Humphrey, but I'm very pleased nonetheless.

My current mission is to track down a rose that (I have just discovered) shares my daughter's name. David Austin don't have it and I can't find it by googling - any other good rosy websites to try? I'm off to try the RHS plantfinder.

perhaps it was Christine? Or Pkam? Or Lex?
It must have been one of you!

Yes, yes, I do remember a discussion of top gardening books - and a bit of general Christo worship - but it wasn't me who recommended it. I have, though, just bought it on Amazon for 1p plus postage (and am now sorely tempted by his book on succession planting, as mine is never as good as I'd hoped).

You lot are a bad influence!

mystery continues - book recc was not me.

I received today my Marshalls order: Autumn planting onion/shallot/garlic collection, Amethyst dwarf beans, some peas, and some other stuff I've forgotten already. Putting it all away for a few days until I am ready to plant probably in planters (next Wednesday is looking good)

We are going to Devon again tomorrow so I expect I will come back with large armfuls of apples, sloes, and who knows what else.

I think I am going to avoid further flower bulb purchases this year, as I have plenty in the ground and really just need to consolidate/arrange better what I have. Looking back on this summer, I've been quite crap at thinking through the amount of space some things need when they're going to be fully grown and I crammed some stuff in which didn't do well because it was crowded. I kind of need a catch crop of small, short-lived annuals which I can just dump in between slower growing large things.

The most exciting part of this weekend was digging out more at our back fence. I disturbed a small rodent who I had seen the first day I was digging the mound of rubble, and this time I got further into it and found four little blind babies tumbled out. It was a bank vole (which are very common) and I re-sited the nest (chewed up textile of some sort) in a corner by the fence which I hope I made cat-proof. Then later I read up on voles and probably may have not done them all that much good because their nests are usually in a burrow about 30cm deep, whereas I'd put it under a couple of handfuls of soil so as not to crush them

Haven't decided on a shed yet.

Wasn't me either for the book recommendation.

Might post separately about the weed vine thing and see if anyone else knows. I'm very set on it being some rare form of wisteria but only because DH won't let me have one growing up the house, however, if there's one there already it's not my fault and I may be able to keep it. The bit that's coming out of the ground is turning quite woody now but don't know if that means anything. Will carry on letting it do its thing and see what happens. The weed experiments in the long bed have proven to be very interesting (may post some pics of my cabbage type things next as they are quite weird too) so I'm getting adventurous with my weeds.

Humphrey - your garden plans sound amazing.

Yup, I thought I held the National Collection of Weeds but that one looks new to me. Are you a member of the RHS? If so, you can send them a lump and they'll identify it for you.

::Books charabanc for group excursion to Humphrey's garden::