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.

Oooh, I might MooncupGoddess. I am usually too much of an intellectual snob busy to read Jolly Sooper but perhaps I should try!

The wind and rain have finally subsided after a few shocking days...it was so blustery here yesterday that the tree roots of one of the oaks in our lane was actually lifting the bank! My poor Camellia blossoms have been blown to bits(but the petals do look lovely scattered on the ground! I'd prefer them stuck to the plant though). Half of me wants to get outside and celebrate the sunshine with a bit of pottering, but the other (winning) half is refusing to move a muscle after being awake since 2.50 am (thanks DD).

I have managed to summon the energy to make a lovely little colour coded chart of what I've planted, harvest times and extra info. Pretty new to veg gardening aside from toms, runner beans and the odd herb, but have gone in wholeheartedly this year so need all the direction I can get!

Chickens have been a nightmare today. They camped outside the in laws' patio doors for most of the day, sending the dog potty rhythmically pecking the window . Went to visit GPs and came back to find the buggers having a lovely dust bath in my newly filled raised beds. A line has been crossed and a large enclosure is currently in the planning stages!

On a positive note, did manage to do a good bit of sowing yesterday. Sowed:
French Beans
Radish
Leeks
Corriander
Nasturtium
'Prairie Fire' peppers
Some sort of verbena
More toms (Harbinger) as Gardener's Delight have had a shockingly poor germination yield this year.

Fingers crossed for this bit of sunshine to roll over until tomorrow!

Regarding perennial vegetables: how about horseradish?
www.thedailygreen.com/living-green/blogs/save-money/perennial-vegetables-460410

Great link! I have horseradish on the other side of the garden amongst the herbs. It is being somewhat crowded out by a monarda that has gone absolutely rampant in my clay soil. If I decide it needs to move I will use it as a rotation marker. ta!

I got home with time to use the sunshine and dryness to clip the hedge and mow the lawn. Looks smart already. doing the hedge has exposed a couple of birds nests which I suspected were in there. Not completely open but not as concealed as they might like. the leaves will re-cover in no time I'm sure.

Also realised/remembered at last what the arrow-leafed, purple-flowered tallish plant coming up out the front is... Comfrey! Not a very successful sowing last year but (like the yarrow) looks like it'll be.

Managed to sneak in some gardening in the sunshine today. Potted on 30 (!!) cayenne peppers and still have more to go - have no idea what I'll do with them all. Also potted on my courgettes & squashes. Planted out some borage and the verbena bonariensis into the long border and did mean to plant out the rest of the sweet peas into the corner bed to grow up and over the fence but at that point it started to rain again.

Lexi - my wild rocket has turned out to be a good perennial, it's planted up with chives which are also good and are just about to flower.

A good veg garden should grow:
tomatoes
lettuce
rocket
spinach
broccoli
green beans
herbs (chives, parsley, rosemary, thyme, coriander oregano, mint, camomile)

those would keep my family happy for an aeon. Can anyone recommend good and reliable sources of seed/plants for those things? I might plant them in my mum's garden.

Not if you dislike broccoli, it shouldn't!

I buy Franchi seeds or get them at seed swaps. DH buys mini-plants at the local garden centre.

They love broccoli. I might just stick to tomatoes, lettuce, spinach and herbs though.

Yes, I was pulling your leg because you seemed to be offering the list as a prescription and in Chateau Maud broccoli is considered to be the work of the devil!

The list was meant to be more like a family wish list than a prescription. Odd how different people are: Broccoli makes dd v happy. She thinks it is the food of the gods. And we are spinach lovers.
The thing is that gardening is more of a much loved hobby in our home. I'm not sure we have the commitment for veg. Plants have to be able to cope with periods of neglect freedom in the funny household.

The month of May, the merry month of May,
So frolic, so gay, and so green, so green, so green!

.....and rainy. Poor dd and others in the rain at 6 am outside Madgalene tower. As for me, I need not water the Hosta.

So the new allotment is nearly finished, made an accurate scale drawing of it last night, so am ready to come up with a planting plan. As I am expecting flump #1 around the end of may, what should I plant?

I'm ideally looking for things which could survive a bit of neglect, incase I don't have time/ energy to get down there regularly.

I have all seedlings sorted for the back yard, and before I got the allotment got lots of container veg, peas and broad beans, carrots, beetroot, lettuce. But now I've got more space, I'm not sure what to do! I need to balance enthusiam with realism!!

Hope this makes sense!

Kimmi, how about concentrating on winter veg - brassicas, parsnips, that sort of thing? Or potatoes - pop them in and forget about them, all you have to do is earth them up a couple of times and then get a helper to dig them up if you're not physically recovered at 3 ish months pp. Then you could get a late crop of potatoes back in for christmas spuds (use a first early variety).

Or, how about using this season to recondition the soil. Plant green manures just by scattering seed and then dig them in in the autumn, and do another over-winter green manure crop?

If you want things you can enjoy eating over the summer, but you need to get them in straight away and not need to look after them as seedlings, I would invest in young plants that have been brought on through the labour-intensive stage already. To really make an investment, what about perennial veggies like Globe Artichoke, Cardoons, and I love the sound of Egyptian Walking Onions! and you might still just be in time to get dwarf stone fruit trees from nurseries/garden centres.

Comfrey, Tansy, Nasturtiums and Sweet Cicely would complete the mix, for me.

oooh this one looks interesting! I can feel a change of tack coming on - perennial veg may be the way to go for me.

Raining again. Great.

Ive tonnes of egyptian walking onions. They reproduce fast!!!

And how about Good King Henry?

Great links! I have no idea where to look on the internet for stuff like this..

Weebles - I probably shouldn't have laughed about your chickens yesterday, but, I am sorry, I did laugh at the picture your story brought into my mind!

Kimmi - I would love to give some suggestions but I am a newbie myself. is this your first baby? If so, being a new parent does take some getting used to so Lexie's suggestions seem sensible. Last thing you want is to be stressed about not being able to get to the allotment.

Managed a couple of hours in the garden today, sowed some peas and dig soem weeded and digging over. Hoping to maybe get out there again later.

Also bought more seeds (asparagus and squash to sow for next year I think) and a variety of herbs and a variety of mint plants too. And some borage seeds. Think I am getting a bit random and maybe need a plan!

'Bloomin typo's. Pressed post instead of preview...

Oh - three types of blueberry too, for containers.

I need DH to come home... I am spending too much time (and money) on the internet when bored in the evening!

The other think Kimmi is that although the lady on the phone may have sounded scary, you may be able to ask for help from your new allotment neighbours while you are in the heavily preg / tiny baby stage. At this time of year they'll be very busy themselves with their plots, but they also may have extra seedlings to get rid of and help you get started. Suss out who would take payment in the form of being allowed to coo over KarateBaby and who needs cold hard payment in kind (I'm out of my depth here as I have no lottie - best ask Maud or Wynken what passes for Allotment Dollars)

I really hate Tuesdays because it's not close enough to the weekend yet and I itch to be back out in the garden. An hour in the evening is not enough. I wonder if I could get an allotment near work and go to it in my lunch hour...

ps Kimmi - My DD was a dream of a baby (will skirt over the fact DS was a nightmare!) and would happily sit for hours either just watching the world go by or amusing herself with a small toy, you might get more done than you think, especially if the weather is kind!

Yesterday was a sad day in the Cobbler household. The wind brought down a massive branch of the weeping willow. The pylon which was screened from our front garden is now popping up in a large gap....

Mr Cobbler is in mourning , I am rather more philosophical. I reckon some of the other branches will grow enough to screen it a little in about five years.

Not wanting to be flippant at all but can you make some sort of willow den with the brought down branch?
www.willowkits.co.uk/html/make_a_wigwam.html
It might not fill the gap but it might be fun.

www.thewillowbank.com/living.willow.structure.kits.and.installation.htm

cos I think you could make lots of suitable cuttings from your broken down branch.

cutteduppear knows all about it.

becomingdomestic.co.uk/2007/04/03/how-to-build-a-living-willow-dome-playhouse-for-under-40/
I want to do it but I dont have a willow or a space.

I saw a garden once which had a living willow arbour over a bench