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.

Bit of a non-weekend for me in my own garden, but lovely visiting. Bought yet another thyme at the plant fair in RHS Hyde Hall, to add to my collection. I think it makes 8. Also Nepeta (to see if it repels the rodents), Angelica (because my seed sowing failed), French Tarragon, and a Dicentra Spectabilis (which were flying off the shelves due to them featuring on GW!). Was inspired by some of the container-planted veg they had in their "allotment" off the main garden site. The dry garden was lovely, and being expanded too. I would like to go back to see the Aus/NZ part of the garden as it was a bit bleak at this time of year, but the most noticeable thing about HH was the aquilegia!! Self-seeded bloody everywhere!

The tender veg seedlings I put outside in the growhouse are not showing any signs of sulking in the cooler conditions. I even (accidentally) put out two tiny pepper plants and they are ok to look at - but I suppose they may have shut down inside. Who knows.

My large water butt is full to overflowing and I think the guttering/downpipe off the house may be clogged. This could be a massive problem because below the butt diverter kit it goes straight down to an under-soil pipe and a soakaway a metre (at least) under the lawn. If clogged underground there is not a lot we can do. Can only unclog where we can reach. I suppose I could do a bit of DIY Dyno-rod.

Lots of weeds to deal with in my veg beds and amongst my perennials. I need to get on with that on my days off this week. I have two nearly full compost bins and a pile of soil too, which I am going to take to the front garden and smother weeds there. Unfortunately I also have lots of new stuff coming through that I don't have marked (100+ summer bulbs!) so I can't easily tell what's a weed...

would a rain chain have any place in your water system?

Not really, as once the butt is full the water has to go down to the soakaway. I think I've seen rain chains used on sheds/greenhouses where there's nowhere other than the butt to collect.

Forgot to say, RHS HH taught my boy to propagate herbs on Sunday. Was to do with national gardening week I think. He filled a pot with soil and tamped it down very confidently according to DH, then made a hole with a dibber and they popped in a cutting from oregano. Because it wasn't busy they also let him do an applemint and a spearmint. Then they elastic banded a sandwich bag over the top. (now I need to check if they can go in the ground or need to be containerised...)

Applemint is my favourite - It's so delicate looking but has a beautiful scent. I've got some growing in a flowerbed

Popped out to pick some curly kale earlier and had a quick inspection of the plot. It would appear I am mostly growing weeds.

I'm not hugely looking forward to tomorrow morning when I start on some overdue gardening...I expect the morning will be taken up with weeding. I have done no slug protection yet whatsoever. perhaps should put a nematode order in asap, but is the ground warm enough yet...?

Am looking forward more to getting the rest of my potatoes in the ground/sacks and distributing soil and compost where it's most needed. That will feel very satisfying.

I have just received a beautifully packaged clematis order from taylors.They are really well grown healthy specimens.Now i have to decide where i'm going to put the 4.I also really love getting plants delivered from Sarah Raven as these always very thriving plants and are beautifully wrapped in paper.The worse packaging were the bulbs i ordered from The telegraph[which i think come from Crocus].I ordered the bulbs for pots,plus other bulbs and they all just come as a random selection of mixed bags of hundreds of the things.I had to go to the telegraph website to see which bulbs to plant together.
I officially have trug sieve envy.Is it the best piece of kit for sieving compost mixed with lots of sticks?.Two guys came to empty my dumping corner where i have put my garden rubbish for the last 10 years.After removing various large bits of dead shrubbery [and several christmas trees] i have a pile of compost mixed with lots of bits of twigs.One of the guys said the best thing is to rake out the wood and burn it.The compost willl be used to make new terraces where i think i can grow veggies depending how sunny it is.Firstly we have to remove the massive self seeded holly and beeches and snowberries.I have visions of a garden shed smothered with roses at the bottom and an archway covered with clematis and roses leading to the vegetable area.Its very much an ongoing project gardening,isn't it?
Lexi i can't remember where i've planted some bulbs corms/roots.I sometimes do put markers in but the dog digs them up.I thought i'd lost a peony but its just started showing above ground luckily.I do manage to dig up bulbs quite regularly though.Hyde Hall sounds lovely.My favourite flowers are Aquilegias.I have loads in the garden but i have just bought some delicate semi-aquilegias in pink and i have seed-grown ones[in garish multi colours] and root grown ones from the pound shop in lilac.I would love to go and visit beautiful gardens but seem to spend my weekends ferrying dc's and ensuring they've practised their piano etc.

The trug sieve arrived today and DH has kindly tested it and given very good feedback!
It's very sturdy - the actual sieve bit is surprisingly heavy. we have a huge pile of soil to seive and he has done loads today and started filliing one of my raised beds.

The weather here isn't very good, I was hoping to do a couple of hours on the garden in the evenings but it is raining again today.

David Austin rose packaging expert here. My Generous Gardener rose died and they sent me a replacement which arrived to day
Dr Jamain and Munstead wood have splendid shoots as has Gertrude Jekyll and New Dawn is rampant in the Oak tree. Alfred carriere or barbierre ( cant remember which it is but it is white and gorgeous) really liked its prune in feb and is rampant also. I am feeling really really lucky.
My clematis arrived last weekend and so my viticella (abundance) are in, between the honeysuckle, and the rosa species climber. My garden is vertically sorted now what with the winter and summer jasmine as well as clematis Polish Spirit, Montana Rubens and Integrifolia. I cant wait for it all to flower and its amazing watching the plants grow up.
My weeds are nettles. There is a patch underneath the rose. I am divided as to whether to leave them there for caterpillar food and nettle soup or whether to dig them up and replace with hosta or alternatively japanese anemones form another section.
I have spotted 3 types of butterfly already. Blue, white with a red spot, and brownish. Is it not too soon for butterflies?

You have reminded me that there is ground elder coming through next door, amongst the shoots of one of the climbing roses. It will be impossible to dig out and almost impossible to blitz with glysophate.

::sobs::

I really hated the packaging that my Crocus order came in. Everything was parcel-taped into the bottom of huge boxes that were about 4 ft high, making it almost impossible to reach in and extricate them.

Not at all too soon for butterflies. last year (Watford) I saw the first on 23 March and it was a Comma. This year 24th and "lots of queen wasps" the same day!

No idea about your brown one (wild guess would be a skipper) but the white with red spot is probably an orange tip, and blue may be a Holly Blue. If you go on the Woodland Trust website there's a thing called nature's calendar and if you put in your sightings you can see how spring is moving across the country.

And I saw generous gardener and Munstead wood at Hyde Hall. GG was very very rampant! Was trained up an enormous and very sturdy looking obelisk. MW was small and compact and not doing much at this time of year.

Every time I see Munstead Wood in a garden or in a magazine, it calls to me seductively "Maud, Maud, you know you want me..."

I am reading Roy Strong's 'creating small gardens' and realise I am aiming for

'a garden conceived with all the clutter and comfort of a living room in which to relax, with walls of glossy green and a soft abundance of bloom'

Fellow gardeners, I am envious and frustrated. There is so much I want to be to be doing but I'm just not capable. I have a massive breast abcess and I feel so ill, everything is a struggle. I had such wonderful visions of pottering in the garden during my maternity leave - the lavender hedge, the new veg patch, herb garden and 'fruit corner'

Am chivvying DP to get some of the mundane stuff done (fences, water butt, etc) but he's works long hours so opportunities are....meh!

Hospital again today. Keep fingers crossed for speedy resolution. In the meantime, I'm enjoying gardening by proxy via this lovely thread and indulging in a huge pile of elderly kitchen garden magazines my mother found.

I am drinking coffee and looking out at the pouring rain. I have sooooo much to do in the garden in the next few days and there is just no chance without actually drowning in the process of me doing the heavy work needed.

Essential: weeding veg, earthing up potatoes, distributing more earth onto front garden to suppress weeds, distributing gravel to side return yard, decanting some water from big to small butt.
Possible to do in shed: planting rest of potatoes, potting on tomatoes and courgettes, planting more veg seeds, watering seed trays
Desirable (Impossible?): direct sowing veg seeds, planting nepeta and dicentra, mulching rockery, hedge-clipping, lawnmowing, lawn aerating/treating, BBQ moving...

Yesterday afternoon when DS and I got home we did a few useful things. Planted my three latest thymes (white, white creeping and pine scented) and an angelica. Weeded some flower beds, watered the pots in the grow house (but not in the pottong shed, oops) and put out the nepeta where it's needed and the dicentra where I think it'll be happiest (and get noticed).

We also need to complete the battens and stuff on the new shed. The way the windows are designed on it, I can't quite figure out at the moment where I'm going to put the brackets for the guttering.

Dawnywoo, I massively sympathise. I had one of those, you can find my very graphic descriptions under this username on the B&BF topic, and I am in awe that you are even thinking about gardening!! Can you get anyone round (time banking idea again) to do things under your direction?

Dannywoo i really sympathise.I've never had an abscess but just mastitis made me feel dire and incapable of doing anything.I hope you can find an antibiotic that will knock the infection on the head.
Maud ground elder is my personal bete noire.I don't think glycophosphate does a thing.I've ended up completely digging out a bed and restarting again as i just couldn't get rid of it.
I would really love more climbing roses.I planted one last year which kept on flowering all winter and was beautiful but then seemed to get a bit exhausted.I've also heeled in an albertine temporarily as i want to try and grow it up an east facing wall eventually.I love the look of the generous gardener though.Will it grow up and east facing wall?.
Funny person my clematis order was 4 viticellas.I planted about 10 clematis last year and they have all thrived apart from the armandii which i planted too deep i think.Apparently its one of the few clematis that dislike being planted deeply[but i didn't know this at the time].But the clematis that look the healthiest and are thriving are the viticellas[madame julia correvan].They are planted climbing up a laurel bush and in quite a stressed situation and are brilliantly vigorous.So i thought i would buy 4 more to grow through trees and shrubs.Purpurea plena elegans to grow through an Azalea,2 confetti to grow through cherry trees and a Caerulea to grow through a beech tree.Rather fatally Taylors have sent me the brochure and i have fallen in love with more-particularly the Floridas.

Dawnywoo - massive sympathy from me, too.

Teta - In my heart of hearts, I know I may have to dig out the rose (which will be hard work as it is huge) and then the ground elder, but I have had pretty good results in the past with painting on the glyphosate gel and then stuffing the leaves into a plastic bag so that it has longer to work until the rain washes it off.

I have purpurea plena elegans growing up an obelisk. It is lovely. I have to plant clematis through shrubs now as I have run out of fence and obelisks!

Can I join you?? I am going to get really stuck into the garden this summer (if it comes) and have been combatting the crap weather by ordering bulbs online today! We have quite a large (and weedy) garden which was completely barren when we came here 6 years ago. Gradually getting to grips with it and have just optimistically sown a wildflower meadow at the front, but there is still SO much to do!

I've got 6 Ricinus communis plants started from seed in the greenhouse, I'm quite excited that they will (hopefully) be 5 foot high with their big palmate leaves by the end of the summer.
I bought the seeds on ebay for a snip, it's always worth a look.

Does anyone have any tips for bulk/cheap Lavender Hidcote this spring? My wholesalers are out and nor expecting any for months.

I'm also growing ricinus. The seedlings look amazing even at this early stage.

CuttedUpPear - I guess you've checked the small ads at the back of The Garden?

Welcome, Bramshott!

Thanks all for your sympathy.

Lexi, I've had a quick look at that thread. Wow. Very similar stories to mine. Hoping mine doesn't drag on too much longer as it's already been quite a saga.

Pear, I was about to ask the same question re: Lavende Hidcote. Was looking at the Lavenderworld site - offer on Hidcote @ £1.95 per 9cm plant + free P&P - they will still take 4 years to mature though. Have bought last 5 plants for £11 at my local nursery but in reality, I need at least a dozen more so may try Lavenderworld unless anyone can recommend somewhere else?

Oh, and there is a free £10 Lavender bath oil if you spend £30+ at Lavenderworld...

Maud this gives me a brilliant excuse to buy The Garden today .
I need 30 plants so delivery costs need to be reasonable.