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

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

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.

It is still frosty. I am getting really frustrated and I'm sure some of my recent plantings won't survive

Just watched GW on iplayer. Monty was all soggy. Be still my beating heart.

Oh - Maud - I was just reading back upthread and saw you were talking about Chaenomeles.

I have a gigantic one in my front garden. It's gorgeous and right now it's packed full of bees, which makes me feel good. It is absolutely covered in deep orange flowers.

It is rather taking over, though. Should I wait until it's finished flowering and then hack it back before it fruits? (sorry - total novice and a bit clueless). I would hate to kill it.

I'm the very last person you should ask about chaenomeles - the two I planted promptly died! The RHS has pruning advice here. (It mentions other varieties too, I just picked one at random).

If you are ever near Worthing in Sussex, Highdown Gardens are worth a visit. They're gorgeous at the moment - masses of tulips underplanted with brunnera (like forget-me-nots, only better) and tree peonies just coming into flower.

Hi all, have often lurked on this thread, but haven't felt knowledgeable enough to contribute much. But I do love gardening and find it very therapeutic indeed.

I have a 50 foot ish garden which is a bit of a project at the moment. Dh has used concrete slabs to mark out different areas and create raised beds and borders for growing vegetables. At the back we are having a fence put up, once dh has levelled it out a bit and then across the back of the garden we are going to have a walk in hen house for the hens I am getting in the summer. It will have to be very fox proof, as I have lost hens to foxes before - so this will be like fort knox.

At the moment the back is a bit of a mess, as it is full of rocks that will be used to help make a concrete foundation for the hen house.

At the front in some borders I have a curry plant, lemon balm, apple mint, peppermint and thyme. I have planted onion bulbs and rocket seeds. I have a few bedding plants to add colour.

I also have some strawberries, black tulips in a pot, a clemantis that is just creaking back to life, clumps of rosemary and sage (I love herbs - the smell is just gorgeous). Plus three cherry trees, one which is just beginning to flower and various shrubs of some description.

In seed trays I have courgette, tomato plants, cabbages and lettuces waiting to plant out when they get a bit bigger. Dh has made me a frame for my peas to climb too.

Would welcome suggestions on easy things to plant - I love growing edible things, but like a bit of colour too and I love reading about your gardens :)

Welcome, dontcallmehon. The qualifications for entry to this thread are interest and enthusiasm - knowledge is optional and, besides, we are all learning from each other. Would you like some of the gin?

For other easy things to plant, how about coriander and parsley (fairly easy from seed), radishes (very easy and good for children to grow), nasturtiums, clarkia, godetia, poppies, aquilegia, geranium and (my current obsession) Japanese anemones?

Regarding the chaenomeles (japonica) I am no expert but I gently prune off as far back as the flowers were once it has finished flowering. I'm not a great hacking person unless its winter jasmine or the caenothus.
Round here there are people with chaenomeles hedges who are clearly quite stern in relation to their pruning. Mine is 3-4 foot high and rambles a bit because that's how I like it in relation to the hellebores.

The idea of the immaculate garden reminds me of ex DH who has an immaculate garden. His lawn edges are pristine. His raised beds are neatly mulched with bark. I never have the time so my garden is always a bit - well- rampantspontaneous shall we say.

I think spontaneous is the perfect way to describe the nicest gardens. I admire very formal Italian gardens but it's not what I want for my own!

Gin and gardening sounds like an excellent combination, thanks Maud. Thanks for the suggestions, am always a bit daunted by growing things from seed, but it is so much cheaper and like magic when shoots appear.

::proffers gin::

Some of my suggestions (the geranium and Japanese anemones) would be a slow process from seed but would be doable. The rest are (to differing degrees) easy.

dontcallmehon, I think bulbs could be your new best friend... hemerocallis, autumn crocus, crocosmia, allium, and of course tulips and daffs and all that.

I have not done anything horticultural in the garden this weekend, only shed-related. But it has resulted in me getting a new potting shed, because the big one we put up for DH turned out not to be tall enough for him to stand much outside the middle! I may even have enough space to sit on a chair and drink gin tea without having to evict all the bikes first.

Lexi congratulations on your new shed, I set up a chair in the potting shed and it has been colonised by the cat. I end up sitting outside on the steps while he sleeps in the chair!

I still dream of a shed, but it is getting closer as I prepare for The Patio.

I love my potting shed - it needs a good tidy up at the moment but Ienjoy every minute that I spend out there.

Mine has a catflap in the door so I am resigned to sharing it with my cats

Mind you, DH has expressed some surprise at the fact that despite having a shed and a greenhouse I need to store so much stuff in one of his sheds.

Quite how many sheds do you have, JumpedUpPantryBoy?

Too many cos it allows us to be hoarders.

One stable (no horse) one very small shed, one medium and one large and a pottingshed and greenhouse

DH is in the process of clearing out the large shed and the stable because they are full of stuff
The worst thing is we have only been here for 4 years and when we moved in we were adamant that we would not end up with sheds full of stuff. In our last house we had outbuildings and clearing them was a nightmare but I think we have natural hoarding instincts!

Lexi-two sheds-licious. (Monty Python?)

I am getting interested in having a cat as the gravel which I thought would stop up one of the rodents' burrows has failed. I am getting frustrated and may need to move to biological controls, ie a HunterCat.

Indeed, Lexi. I am ComeIntoTheGardenNoShedsMaud, although I do have a converted ourside privy.

Ours used to be the outside toilet so you should be able to visualise the size. We also have 2 greenhouses & the garage to fill with crap

Two years ago we had rats in the house. They would bonk behind the saucepan drawer, so a rhythmic rattle was heard constantly, startling friends who could hear it down the telephone. Multitudes appeared, and the house was no longer our own, a bit like Toad Hall when the stoats took over. Eventually enough was enough. Poison and traps were laid down everywhere and we went away for two weeks. I will not tell you the number the ratman found dead when he returned (a lot) but suffice it to say the methods were effective and we haven't had a glimmer since, though the house needed serious reclaiming. I would very highly recommend early intervention on the basis of this experience.

PS The source was thought to be the neighbour's shed, which was subsequently pulled down and dispatched. (before the Japanese lady came)

Wow, funnyperson. That's a whole lot of rodents! My DP is completely rodent phobic. So much so that he can't even listen to me talk about the rat I shared my house with for a few weeks (it seemed to be an unusually celibate rat, as there was only ever one. I called him Leonard). He would have to move out if there were rats shagging in the kitchen!

For anyone who still needs to buy seeds ... Thompson & Morgan have 20% off this week.

Perhaps we should have a celebration too because it is National Gardening Week?

I read that as "for anyone who still needs to buy sheds", Maud.

I am stuck in work all week and visiting friends and family at the weekend, so will mark National Gardening Week by harping on to my colleagues and anyone who comes in earshot. I have a friend in a rented flat with no garden and plan to give him a tomato plant that he can grow in a pot indoors. I think Gardener's Delight would do. Another colleague still has two each of courgettes and dwarf beans on our office windowsill - plenty of beans showing, and first flowers on the courgettes already!!