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.

Does anyone know why my cherry tree is only flowering at the ends?.I planted it in late autumn [its a miniature weeping double flowered one]The flowers are so beautiful but meagre.I need to know, if possible,whether i have bought a dud or maybe it just needs to settle in.
Can anyone give me any recommendations for viticellas that look good climbing through a small cherry in sun and a twisted beech in partial shade?.I have had a lovely time looking through the Taylors website this morning but the Betty Corning i wanted is sold out.
I have lots of jobs to do today-potting up the illumination foxglove plugs from T&M.Digging down to find the Dahlias as i think i may have planted them upside down.

That's because you have an obsession with sheds, Lexi dear.

teta - so is mine, I have one or two lovely flowers a bit lower down but I think the frost is spoiling the buds Also, I had heard that because we didn't get a lot of cold weather over the winter, it would affect the flowering and fruit of some trees this spring/summer.

Hello.

I hope you don't mind me joining in? I am a newbie to this gardening thing myself but totally converted already!

We just moved to a new build property in September which has a large garden (it's about 700 sqm) so we are very lucky, especially for a new house. We have just finished having it landscaped, I feel like I now have a blank canvas to slowly fill! The house backs onto woodland and fields and there are established trees down the side and at the bottom of the garden, house is south facing and most of the garden gets a lot of sun, although less so near the trees obviously.

On the land at the side, I have a new greenhouse which DH has kindly erected for me (bless him!), three raised beds and then a very long L shaped area with a very deep bed (retaining wall at the end as the side of the garden slopes), which I plan to plant fruit bushes and flowers which attract wildlife. I am busy digging over the beds, the soil used to fill them was mainly taken from the bottom of the garden, so it's full of tree roots, twigs etc and quite clay based anyway, but some snady top soil has been added, which was left over from laying the turf for the lawn. Plus, I am adding some compost (shop bought this time but I had two huge wooden compost bins made for the grass cuttings and leaves, both of which will be produced in plenty I imagine and I have got two plastic ones nearer the house for kitchen waste etc as the wooden ones are at the bottom of the garden).

Given the setting, I plan mainly on woodland plants. The lower end of the garden has been covered in woodchip, after having a membrane put down, as has the side. The bottom part of the garden is teaming with wildlife, which I absolutely adore and wish to encourage, I could stand and watch for hours, although I have had to buy squirrel proof bird feeders, they were filling their boots on the standard ones, poor birds didn't get a look in!

Already got chilli and sweet peppers, cucumber and tomato plants, strawberry plants growing well on my window sills. In the greenhouse just this weekend I sowed various herbs and some leeks. I plan to get some beetroot planted outside this week as the raised beds are ready to plant in now.

I go into the garden now and just lose track of time, it's so calm and peaceful, just me and the wildlife! I am so excited!

Sorry long post but I could go on!

Double that sounds AMAZING, enjoy it!

My amazing, lovely house with the huge garden I saw last week has gone . The owners have accepted an offer. Gutted. I had planned exactly what I wanted to do with all the garden and the rooms. Can't imagine I'll find anywhere as perfect but who knows.

Feeling a bit down tonight; went out to sew some carrot seeds but needed to fill the pot with compost first and everything just hurt too much to do so so I just came back in. Feeling a bit like I'm too disabled to garden even though it gives me so much pleasure and perhaps I can only stick to a few pots. I have a lovely windowsill full of seedlings that need to go in the ground and my hands are too sore. I now need to wait for my parents to visit next weekend so they can do the digging for me. . Life is a bit shit sometimes.

wow sounds great doublemocha, v envious here. Actually I am not sure I know my garden's vital statistics in feet.

Sew carrot seeds? d'oh I meant sow of course.

doublemocha - that sounds lovely.

worzelswife - buying a house garden is horrible because I think you tend to put so much emotional energy into the process (imagining living there) that it is draiining.

I hope you find somewhere lovely.

DH has just given me the nicest of dilemmas.

He's spent a week clearing the bottom of the garden and now he has said that he can either

a) level the area and put another greenhouse there for me

b)build a coal bunker - this will mean the coal bunkers by the back door can go and that area can be used as a mini patio and barbeque area - it is a real sun trap.
ALthough this option means we he will have further to carry the coal in the winter

c)build a fruit cage and plant fruit trees. There is already a cherry tree and a redcurrent.

He has also very kindly cleared out the end of his big shed and he is going to put up racking so I can use it as an overflow greenhouse - it has one perspex wall so is full of light.

Thank you Surviving Spring that sounds a plausible explanation.I googled this question several times today and didn't get any answers apart from the fact that it may not have had enough sun when the buds were forming.We have only had maybe 2-3 frosts this year although it has gone very cold and very dry at times.
Welcome DoubleMocha.Your garden sounds beautiful and very exciting.Enter the world of online and vicarious gardening and the mn potting shed[ offers gin or ].

I love both gin or wine teta - not in the slightest bit choosy me!!

Thank you for the lovely welcomes, what a friendly place!

worzelswife - I am so sorry about your house. Having just been through the process ourselves recently, I can COMPLETELY understand your feelings. This house is very much our perfect property, both for DH and myself but also for the kids. Obviously, we had a good outcome we were in a chain with one person really kicking off about the new build being ready etc moaning about delays etc. Not to mention the financial stress. I was wiped out for months afterwards and cried for no reason the week after we moved. I understand and am sorry.

I am sorry too that you are in pain. Until 18 months ago I ran to quite a good standard and training was a big part of my life. Now I have a back issue and impact sports are out of the question, certainly to that degree. For a long time (even now tbh) I struggle with such huge aspect of 'me' not being there. I hope you find some way through. It's hard.

Lexi - only know the size due to 'negotiating' with the builder about doing the landscaping ourselves rather than the pile of crap they were planning for the garden!!

Cool hubbie ajumpeduppantryboy - what do you think you will choose?

no gardening for me today apart from watering - the grime/smears/dirt/mess of the kids being off school for the last two weeks shamed me into household chores!!!

'but' we were in a chain, doh.

I'm sorry you're having a bad time, worzelswife.

In your shoes, AJUPB, I think I'd go for the fruit cage. I know we can't all have fairies at the bottom of the garden, but a coal bunker does seem particularly unromantic.

Welcome, doublemocha. Good to have you here.

And now ... I bring you all, and especially Lexi, some more shed porn.

The link at the bottom of that article should keep Lexi happy for days!

I am so happy it's going to rain for the next 4 days!!! Woohoo, free water

I have my allotment completely perfect now - I strimmed all off the sides at the weekend and it's actually immaculate for the first time ever.

My huge lot of rocket garden plants will arrive in the next couple of weeks and I can put them in.

It's so good to have got the place totally ready so early in the season.

Thank you Maud, feeling much better today . Hopefully going to try and tackle those carrot seeds later. We had some rain last night which is good.

Welcome DoubleMocha, your garden sounds huge to me. But how exciting to get started. We had our garden landscaped after building work last year & I'm loving the joy of new plants & flowers that I chose & planted.
Worsel, sorry to hear about the house . It's so emotional this house hunting lark. Not much help for you now but I also think these things work out for the best in the end. You'll find the right place I'm sure of it.
PantryBoy I'd go for the fruit too.
My tulips have started to come out. I've got these pockets of bright red dotted around the garden. I thought i'd planted lots but clearly I need to get even more this autumn.
I've definitely got the gardening bug & am thinking about getting a small cold frame. The best place for it (in terms of fitting it into our space) would be on our patio under the window but that would mean being in the shade for most of the day. Would that be a problem?

Any recommendations for cold frames? I saw one on amazon but can't link to it on my phone. don't want to spend too much.

I'm just going to go and see how much rain I've managed to collect in my plastic-trug-pretending-to-be-a-butt! (Not much, I fear).

My cold frame came from dear old Lidl and they have them at the moment, too. My one criticism is that the props for holding the lids up aren't great - I have to use garden canes if I want the thing to be completely open rather than ajar - but apart from that I'm very pleased with it. It's in quite a shady spot but even so I think it gives everything a few degrees extra warmth.

I have some fabulous tulips - probably Queen of Night - which I have no recollection of planting. Zurel and (even more so) Couleur Cardinal are gorgeous, too.

My rhubarb, that we put in last year, so still a baby, has started to flower! It is a wondrous thing that is growing up out of it, but is this a good thing? Will it power all it's energy into the flower and then die? and if so, do I nip it out or just leave it be?

You cut it out, it's taking all the goodness away from the stalks.I've got 12 plants, all tried to flower but I pinched them out. The ones I did two weeks ago now have stalks 18 inches long!

Thanks Laurie....it is now gone, though I was tempted to leave it as it's a horrible, alien looking thing, just to see what it did next :o

But, I've waited 7 years since we moved here for a rhubarb plant so I'm not about to jeopardise that now!

Last year I did leave mine as I didn't know and it went to seed - it grew 5 foot tall in the middle like some giant poker !

Here is a nice garden shed site
www.shedworking.co.uk/2007/08/lifepod-futuristic-shedworking.html
with lots of good links.

Sorry the house fell through. A better one will come up. Perhaps with a smaller garden.

Should one cut rhubarb and eat it now, do you think?

It's too soon unless you've forced it - needs to be 12-18 inches long and if you twist it at the bottom (not cut) and it comes away easy it's ready - that should be by the end of May.

I'm in Hertfordshire and I was eating it last year at the beginning of May.

Freezing - I was going to say Lidl have cold frames in at the moment but I see Maud who secretly works for Lidl got there first!

Popped into ours today as killing time before the family dentist trip; today's purchase was a lovely pair of gardening gloves, a bit gauntlet-like with long cuffs so will be especially good at keeping the mud out.