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!

I am still MAKING those mistakes

Maybe, but with so much space at your disposal you probably have more scope for hiding them or escaping from them! In a garden as small as mine (which is probably smaller than Lexi's) my mistakes were - and in some cases still are - staring me in the face.

My worst mistake bit is right at the front of the house, the bit everyone can see as they drive past. I am planning to dig it all up this winter and bung in some geraniums. Boring but easy.

Butchering a pig today. Or rather two pigs. It is going to be a long day.

Humph's Half-term Hog, is it?! yummy.

I'm going to dig up my entire front garden too, soon enough. Not the path border (all ten inches of it) but the grass square in front of the living room window. Going to rent a petrol powered tiller from HSS. Must remember to wear mask because there is quite some cat poo in that patch.

But geraniums are lovely, Humphrey. There's a very good reason why so many people grow them. They are fab. Could you bung in some alchemilla mollis too?

::On a mission::

::Vom:: at thought of cat poo and pig butchery. I am the world's biggest wuss.

God I am SO knackered. That last pig was hard work. I made 20 kg of sausages.

Alchemilla mollis is a very good idea actually. I will do so.

Wahoo! I am determined that alchemilla mollis will inherit the earth - there's nothing that it doesn't look good with.

::Vom:: again at pig butchery, even though I am a carnivore and therefore a hypocrite.

www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/8847573/Garden-your-way-to-health-and-fitness.html

Found this interesting the other day and will from now on squat rather than kneel!! No trees I can realistically monkey around on, though...

Good grief! I don't think crawling on all fours (without knees on the floor) is a very dignified way to do the gardening. What would the neighbours think? Squatting though, I can do squatting...

I love that article. I am, however, unsure of my squatting ability.

Today my trousers fell down whilst I was weeding the nettle patch round vegetable garden. I need braces. Or trousers with an elasticated waist. I got stung by so many nettles my arms and fingers have that tingly feeling.

I will read that article later. I do much of my weeding sitting on an upturned bucket as I can't cope with kneeling or squatting. As I've said before, I want some Monty-style braces.

Just watched the last GW till next March

::Pats your shoulder, soothingly::

Never mind, we can keep the flame burning here.

So if gardening is the new rock and roll, is Monty the new Elvis?

Please can I join, too much morning sickness to do any gardening etc at the moment but I'd love to hear about some.......

Hello GreenandBlacksAddict - sorry to hear you are suffering. Morning sickness is grim.

Monty can only be Elvis if he is the non-sequined suited, younger Elvis.

(We do discuss the gardens sometimes GreenandBlacksAddict)

I never had morning sickness, so it always sounds horrendous to me. You have my sympathies, GreenandBlacksAddict. What is your garden like? And what do you want it to be like?

OK, Elvis was only my first shot. How about Mick? and reckon that Monty could be a demon on the dance floor.

I love it - ok, Mick it is

Watching the footage of the Jewel Garden, I was very taken with the orange and purple (mostly zinnias and verbena bonariensis I think). It looked great. I don't have much orange in the garden at the moment, apart from the field marigolds in the wild flower bit.

Hurrah! My remaining aliums finally arrived today! Shall hopefully get a moment tomorrow to get them in.

Pulled my first parsnips up today. Unfortunately gave them away to a friend as part of her birthday present (along with some mooli and a very tiny celeriac - all gift-wrapped and ribboned) but shall be out again later this week to get a few more for a spicy parsnip and apple soup.

I now have a vision of Monty down his local pub doing Elvis impressions. Not sure that's working too well for me.

Hi GreenandBlacks

Can anyone recommend a good toad home? Took up the black sheeting from the pumpkin patch and had a huge toad under there. I've put a terracotta pot down half filled with leafs in the hope he'll stay but not sure it's as enticing as the sheeting. Any ideas for toad residences?

That would be leaves in proper english

No idea about toad abodes. When I found three in the garden - duly named Wilson, Kepple and Betty - they had just buried themselves in one of the troughs.

I think it is Vita Sackville West in one of her gardening books who waxes lyrical about zinnias. I keep meaning to grow some, but when I found seeds they were mixed and I prefer to grow things where I know what colour they will be. Tithonia looks good, too.

I really like that Maud - lovely colour. I've bookmarked the page.

I think orange is much hotter (and therefore much cooler) in the garden than yellow. My project for the winter is to dig out all the perennial sunflower, as it's the only yellow thing I've got left there now and It Has To Go. I'm thinking that tithonia and verbena bonariensis could be fabulous.

I agree.

I had a slight disagreement with DH as we have just put in a load of yellow plants and I really think we should just take them out. I have always had a THING about yellow which he finds incomprehensible and I have been struggling to get over. But now I realise I was right all along