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Gardening

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

Come into the garden with Maud - all obsessive and wannabe gardeners welcome

983 replies

ComeIntoTheGardenMaud · 19/03/2012 20:30

Whether you've got rolling acres or a tiny courtyard, whether you're a novice or a gardening die-hard, whether you're aiming for a garden of Sissinghurst loveliness or self-sufficiency à la Felicity Kendal in The Good Life, this is the place to be. Take a seat on the tastefully-painted Lutyens bench and chat with fellow enthusiasts. There may even be a bottle of gin in the potting shed.

OP posts:
Lexilicious · 19/03/2012 20:31

Present, miss!

FryingNemo · 19/03/2012 20:33

My rhubarb is sprouting!

ComeIntoTheGardenMaud · 19/03/2012 21:00

Oooh yes. The rhubarb in the garden has reached the top of the forcer. I lurve rhubarb - there was a recipe for baked rhubarb cheesecake in Saturday's Grauniad.

OP posts:
Blackpuddingbertha · 19/03/2012 21:17

Yes, forgot about the rhubarb. Pulled the first few bits of the 'wild' rhubarb up this afternoon. Now in freezer until I have enough picked to make a crumble.

SophieNeveu · 19/03/2012 21:20

too late to put in spuds, isn't it forty days of lent?

Anyone in a hosepipe ban?

ComeIntoTheGardenMaud · 19/03/2012 21:41

Our hosepipe ban starts on 1 April, I think, so I have until then to sort out the problems with my water butt.

What's this thing about planting potatoes in Lent, then?

OP posts:
JoanRobinson2012 · 19/03/2012 21:46

Potatoes - main crop anyway - were traditionally planted on Good Friday! Whatever date that was... the main reasoning was because there was no paid working on that day so people had the chance to do it.

I'm in a hosepipe ban area starting April 1st... and I have lovely rhubarb at the house DH lives in!

PurplePidjin · 19/03/2012 22:06

Courtyard Felicity Kendal wannabe signing in Grin

I have strawberries, aubergine, sunflowers and peas in varying states of success on the window sill, and Early spuds and onions outside. I have about 10 big pots and a couple of troughs on an 8'x8' area of flat roof outside my little flat. Narcissistic and tulips making a reappearance, and I keep one pot free for buddleia and lavender to try and attract some insects up here.

Mil bought us 4 nice raspberry canes for dp's birthday last month, they're starting to show green buds. And we're owed a trip to the garden Centre from my mum for the same occasion so that should be tomatoes and strawberries covered in the next few weeks.

I even have a tiny poly tunnel which is mostly used to keep next doors feral kids off

teta · 19/03/2012 23:17

Can i join too?.Don't know anything about planting vegs though apart from Pak Choi and tomatoes and i am still learning about flowers and larger things.I also have many seedlings of lupins,aquilegias and black hollyhocks and salvia so far [and one lone poppy].I am planning on planting ranunculus and the white simple gladioli tomorrow in my 'white' garden round the early yellow tulips and gaura.

ComeIntoTheGardenMaud · 19/03/2012 23:19

Welcome, PurplePidgin and teta. Of course you can join! This is a continuation of the Humph's Happy Horti-Cult thread and we're always delighted to have new recruits.

OP posts:
Freezingmyarseoff · 20/03/2012 02:50

Signing in....

HJisgoingtogoBOOM · 20/03/2012 08:15

Hi, can I join?

We've two greenhouses full of seed trays, first lot of spud are in the allotment & fruit bushes are all sorted now.
Dh & I are just arguing debating the pros & cons of flowers...

PurplePidjin · 20/03/2012 11:24

HJ I got round DP on that one by pointing out that no flowers equals no pollinating insects. He's rather more open to the idea now Grin

HJisgoingtogoBOOM · 20/03/2012 11:48

No we are the other way round. I don't care about flowers & he does!

Lexilicious · 20/03/2012 11:51

Flowers are useful in other ways too - I sowed some fantastic nasturtiums last year around my veg which clambered about all over the place and diverted all the blackfly. They were quite literally covered in the buggers - so the nasturtiums weren't very attractive themselves (and I certainly wasn't eating the flowers in salads as they tell you in magic la-la garden world the magazines) but they did a great job.

teta your flower garden sounds my kind of place although edibles are my first love. At the end of the last thread I was after ideas about my red/white/blue front garden and this morning I've been distracting myself from work researching on the RHS plant finder. So far my wish list is... (White) Lily of the valley, solomon's seals, clematis farges-something, Passiflora constance elliot, sweet peas, hellebore, campanula, Iris, Honesty, Gladioli, Nerine, Dianthus, (Blue) sweet peas, Iris, Vinca, Agastache, Astrantia, Gentiana, Lupin, Eryngium, Dracocephalum (Red) Gladioli, sweet peas, lamprocapnos, echinacea.... In my head this all fits in a parking-space sized patch, by the way. Grin

Couple of chilly nights we've just had here - last week's warm weather was nearly fooling me into thinking I could uncover things (salad, basically). Don't be tempted! I'll put my dwarf beans and other veg seeds out to harden off under the big cloche tonight though, so I've the space to do more seedlings on my windowsills. Must put up my advert at work soon to sell off seedlings.

Lexilicious · 20/03/2012 11:53

HJ, how about giving him his own patch of the garden then like a toddler Wink

DowagersHump · 20/03/2012 11:53

(it's CdP again in a new outfit :) )

mistlethrush · 20/03/2012 12:03

We had a hard frost yesterday morning - white lawn. Have just got some seed potatoes to chit - really need to get a small tunnel sorted for the raised bed.

Ds is going to grow some of his own things this year.

Nasturtiums were the only thing that did really well last year - I've given up on tomatoes because they don't seem to have enough time to ripen before the autumn frosts (and I'm allergic to the sap too which doesn't help much).

Looking forward to the fruit this year though - did quite well last, hoping for better this.

Oh - and I can't mow the lawn yet because its still too waterlogged - luckily the raised bed is based upon the soil in the garden (heavy clay) so retains water pretty well - but being raised means that the plants don't all float away. Grin

HJisgoingtogoBOOM · 20/03/2012 12:37

I do useful flowers ( nasturtiums , they're edible do they are ok,, marigolds distract flies too) just not cutting flowers which is what he wants so he can arrange them

hellyd · 20/03/2012 13:49

newbe here can i come and play

I just planted my new pear tree yesterday, our first tomato has just germinated in the propergator and i planted a load of flower seeds last weekend. This weekend i need to fight my way around the back of the green house and find out what happened to the strawberry's over winter and get the half barrel we have their ready for carrots. Also contemplating taking the current bushes out of their pots and actually planting them but that might just be a bit too much digging for now. need to get some more veg on the go but its a bit cold yet and the propergator is full of tomatoes.

Love my garden

TwllBach · 20/03/2012 13:56

May I join in too? I have finally got a garden that I can plant things in and am very excited.

I did some internet shopping the other day and bought a heck of a lot of seeds, some veg but mostly flowers that I can plant between now and the end of April. I do not have any gardening equipment though, and dug a hole for my daffodil plant with a serving spoon Blush

PurplePidjin · 20/03/2012 14:05

Hmm at anyone not called Margot growing flowers to cut and arrange. Does he wear rubber gloves, HJ?

I have lavender and a buddleia in a pot, plus random big bright stuff most of which is self seeded from old bulbs etc. I get a nice surprise every year when the daffs and tulips reappear, and I have non-seasonal winter flowering violas that turn up when they feel like it Grin

Just to reassure, I'm very very south of England with a sheltered east facing balcony. My plants are always a week or two ahead even of my parents south facing garden a couple of miles away. Before I'm accused of stealth boasting Wink

HJisgoingtogoBOOM · 20/03/2012 14:34

Grin no he has manly work ones!

Just been looking at the seeds that haven't grown. They've been eaten by slugs :(

PurplePidjin · 20/03/2012 14:50

I always get mine started indoors, but partgrown plants from the garden Centre are worth the money. I have several little independent nurseries nearby and like to give them my little bit of custom when I can

HJisgoingtogoBOOM · 20/03/2012 16:01

My seeds are in the greenhouse.