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 don't think I'm much help, Wynken. As soon as the catalogues arrive, I get very twitchy fingers! At the moment, though, I'm trying to limit myself to the freebies in Gardeners' World magazine but I have already seven roses.

Ah, the dreaded chicken pox. Hope he's ok Lex and you're all getting some sleep.

DH left for his boys weekend at lunchtime today. By 4pm I had my wood for the asparagus bed. Will be constructing it tomorrow hopefully if I can operate a drill in sub-zero temperatures.

Don't do it Wynken!

Sorry Lexi, missed that bit about the pox, sympathies .

Bertha I am impressed that you can contemplate that in these temperatures.

Have held off ordering so far. Which after the week I've had is a miracle. Could have done with nice weather this weekend to go to allotment. Bug on the plus side, our sledges might get some action.

I adore broad beans. I did three sowings last year, none before the spring though. I have some broad bean soup in the freezer I am really looking forward to eating. Mmm.

Hope your DS is not too itchy Lexi.

DH came home with potatoes and garlic today. Not sure if we will be planting at the weekend though, looks a bit chilly in the forecast.

Aw shucks thanks everyone! Nursery were on high alert as it has been going around since they all came back in Jan so they sent him home at the very first spot. Yesterday pm he wanted to do gardening with me so helped with the fleece on the beans! He has had bags of energy today, we made macaroons, and he's only complained of itching just before bed.

I got the new issue of the magazine I subscribe today (GYO) and it was full of supplement catalogues. I am now tempted by all sorts of soft fruit, frames/poles/cloches and gadgets like wildlife cameras and temperature monitors...!

Hope your lad makes a quick recovery, Lexi. I have never seen a child with more spots than The Girl had when she had chicken pox, the poor poppet.

I bought a bird drinking thingummy recently, but will probably need to defrost it tomorrow and the feeders all need filling. Brrr.

Garlic likes a good frost Humphrey, needs it to split and form cloves. That might be autumn garlic though, not sure about the spring one though. I'd lob it in once this cold spell is over and you can get a spade in the ground. Spuds in March/April depending on the weather. Mine are chitting on windowsill at the moment.

That's good he's not too itchy Lexi. It's difficult when they feel well but can't go out. Get him making paper plants ready for spring !

DS has just come upstairs and is getting ready for school . Sounds so trivial but he woke on Tuesday in agony and totally unable to walk, we nearly had to go to A&E and it was all a bit scary. If the cat could just be ok, appointment later at vet (she either has gingivitis or cat HIV) then normal life and garden matters can resume.

The half price plants I ordered are in at local garden centre so will pick them up tomorrow and try to contain myself with the seed catalogues .

I'm currently trying to ignore the supplementary catalogues that came with my GYO magazine Lex. They are sitting on the kitchen table calling to me. May succumb soon.

Woke up to ice on the inside of the bedroom windows this morning. Asparagus bed may not get made this weekend . At the moment even the thought of going to the shed to get the drill and some screws out is putting me off! Although I am contemplating building it in the conservatory; just not sure if it then may be too heavy to move out.

I'm doing nothing in the garden this weekend. Might think about starting some tomatoes off with the free packet that came with GYO but I'm nor sure I have any compost and if I do it is out in the shed and therefore frozen. I could go out and buy some and keep it under the stairs, and maybe see if the garden centre has any cheap soft fruit plants.

::Whispers:: Lexi - May I say much I enjoyed your hommage to Sir Harry Pearce?

hee hee thanks maud... I was going to try. one about Monty Don but (a) someone already did him and (b) it felt a bit wrong... :)

Oooh. I'd better go back and look for the Monty Don one. Will I be shocked?

Crikey.

Indeed.

Perhaps now is the time to mention that the nice kids across the road have made a huge snowman on the pavement and it is, ahem, anatomically correct.

Should I buy some more snowdrops? The offer in today's Independent looks quite good.

OK I have been through the catalogues thoroughly and have also found a few freebies that I need to send off for. I ignore "reader offers" on principle but actually one from Feb's GYO is exactly what I want: strawberry plugs! just pay postage of less than a fiver and make sure to tick the "don't spam me" box. Not quite so sure that 20 snowdrops in the green from yesterday's Telegraph is as good but maybe...

I'm astonished at the J Parkers prices! going to get lavender to edge my front paths, cottagey annuals, ground covering perennials, and possibly some roses. Got two Glen Clova raspberries, one other raspberry and a tayberry for £20 yesterday. I know that's more per plant than I really needed to pay, but I'd have had to have bought 8-12 canes and I just don't have that kind of space.

ah, shared snowdrop wonderings...!

I didn't see yesterday's Telegraph, but the Indy had 50 snowdrops with another 25 free and I reckoned that would be enough for several decent-sized clumps to go among the hellebores. I will, though, compare prices with the places in the back of the gardening mags before I commit to buy.

The J Parkers prices are very good but I have very mixed feelings about them. Most of the stuff I have got from them has been great, but there have been a few doozies - 'candelabra' primulas that were nothing of the sort (which they refunded without demur), things that were supplied in less than the promised quantity (eg packet of 5 turns out to be packet of 4), odd substitutions and things that were, not to put too fine a point upon it, dead. I guess, as they are so cheap, one must be philosophical.

The veg plot is not snow-hardy! Netting came down due to weight of snow and took half the top supports with it. Everything growing got squished by falling lumps of snow, netting and bits of wood . Hoping the kale will survive it and I'm very glad I put the broad bean fleece over hoops as I think this has protected them mostly. Going to be a few hours work for DH & I to put it all back together again. Ah, well...will have to get DH to build the asparagus bed at the same time (so much for the plan to get it done before he came back).

OK, my plan / shopping list is this for a 4m x 4m full sun patch betwen house and pavement, starting from the house:

4 raspberries (got), one mini skinless kiwi (reader offer).
12 Lavender Munstead for path edge - J Parkers
Roses: Pascali and Ruby Wedding, come in threes, may only use two of each. - JP
Buddleia Collection (5 types, may not use them all) - JP
Irises (50 bulbs, may not use all) - JP
Acidanthera (50 bulbs, may not use all) - JP
white Nerine (15) - JP
red white and blue Phlox collection (15) - JP

So, a sort of red white blue purple palette for summer (vair patriotic!). JPs has a couple of 'free with your order' offers if you spend over x amount. Hemerocallis would have been on my wish list anyway (free over £40 spend), and I can use some oriental lilies (free with any order).

Wish list for the front garden, perhaps to plant later in the summer depending on space, is a yellow/white winter/spring palette for when everything dies down - witch hazel and winter flowering jasmine, yellow primroses, snowdrops narcs daffs and tulips. Possibly aconites too.

Things I love and wish I had some space for, somewhere... Heleniums, Rudbeckia, Echinacea.

Sounds lovely! Is your kiwi an Assai? I've got one of those supposedly growing up the extension but the first year, after shooting up beautifully, it suddenly died back. I left it last year to try again and it grew for a bit before dying once more. Was going to give up but have already spotted tiny buds this year. So will give it one more shot before condemning it. It closely resembles my clematis efforts - sort of brown and crunchy...

the kiwi is on the GYO February reader offer glossy outer bit. I'm reconsidering actually in favour of two honeyberry plants.

I also totted up my JP list and it came to £90+p&p so I revised a lot of things. I had actually departed from my colour scheme with the irises and the lilies/hemerocallis won't fit anywhere in the front garden but hopefully I can raise them and sell at work or give to DS' nursery. From what Maud said about reliability I decided to go with bulbs (acidanthera and crocosmia) and multi-buy bargains (lavender, buddleia and phlox) and a bonus random from the clearance page... Deutzia.

this cold snap is doing the balance on my garden account no good!!

Dh came home with two more blueberries and two blackcurrant today.

All the plant buying is v exciting

Got confused there for a minute Lex - then realised I was looking at the March issue (I think as I can't actually find a month on the front of it).

Am I the only one not buying stuff? Feeling left out now. Did manage to convince DH that my idea of building a bed for the asparagus was better than the pot idea. He asked me what the big long 'lumps' were under the snow by the conservatory so I had to own up to the wood purchase. Actually, I lie, I did order the asparagus and a tumbling pepper the other day. But they won't arrive for ages...

I reckon that spending on the garden is OK, really, as long as you can pass it off as (a) enhancing the value of the property (b) saving money by enabling you to grow your own or (c) lproviding healthy outdoor activity for the family or (d) less than you might have spent on shoes/cake.