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.

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

::Staggers in after 48 hours with no internet connection::

I must plant my oca and Jerusalem fartichokes tomorrow! Oh and, yes please, to the offer of cold white wine!

[Freezingmyarseoff]

Just got back from a few days away. Opened GW magazine to find the free seeds, wish I'd known about them last weekend - three guesses what seeds I bought last Sunday - tomatoes & sweet peas

Looking forward to a weekend of lovely weather for digging in some horse poo.
Will do a catch-up of the rest of the thread now.

[spendthrift]

Pl may I join?

I have always wanted to be an obsessive gardener and perhaps this is the year.

Garden smells of chicken manure. Enraged frustrated foxes are howling outside unable to find phantom chickens.
Might plant potatoes tomorrow. And last try at lilies of the valley which, like sniwdrops, don't seem to like us. Any tips?

[Lexilicious]

We've got nearly enough for a proper garden club now!! Welcome one and all.

GW moves to 1hr slots later in the spring doesn't it. We can hold out till then I guess. I did like the monty/joe bromance bit, rolling about in the pond and giggling like schoolboys. Kind of makes me think of the pair of them at a wedding doing a random double act panto-dance that everyone on that side or the family finds hilarious but nobody can actually explain the joke any more...

Well I am wasting a lovely sunny morning and later on DH is going to want me to help do the concrete laying for his shed. I have a vinca to move and pots to fill.

[worzelswife]

I have finally planted my wildflower seeds! So excited. They're in a long bed and one big growbag. I mixed the seed with sand and planted as the instructions but it still seems very thinly sown so hopefully they will all grow and not look too straggly. I am tempted to make some seed bombs with the left over seed and throw them onto some wasteland near here. Has anyone ever tried it?

I was very bad and ordered some dahlias (swore I wouldn't grow any double flowers) but I figured that if I plant lots of wildflowers and sweetpeas the bees will still have lots of food. The dahlias will now go out the front of my house. I looked at Parkers catalogue (drool) but decided to buy Sarah Raven's Venetian dahlia collection. I love bright pink and orange together.

LL has come round to dig me more beds on either side of the lawn and is fine with my veg going into them. I am so grateful to have a bit more space as last year I really only had a few pots. I'd still like more, but it is a good step in the right direction. Have been out in the garden eating homemade bread for lunch, enjoying the sunshine. Missed GW last night so get to lie in bed, drink wine and watch it tonight.

[Lexilicious]

well I have a problem now. I have emptied my 100 litre slimline waterbutt by watering the things which most need it... and we are forecast a week of wall to wall sunshine! I've put in place the new 200+ litre butt, am yet to fix the filler hose, and am 'helping' with shed2 by sitting in my shed thinking about shopping logistics for later this afternoon. I could very easily sink a gin here. Or three.

Have seen first butterfly of the year just now (the brimstone I saw at Wisley two weeks ago doesn't count!) and have squished about four queen wasps looking to take up residence in my shed. I am leaning towards naming my shed Jemima.

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

I think I'm going to end up refilling my waterbutt from the hose. I know it's legal but it still doesn't feel quite right.

[WynkenBlynkenandNod]

Hello all What fabulous weather! I've spent most of the day at the allotment digging couch grass out. The ground is so much drier than the last time I was up there and it feels like a race for time to get it all done. I got a quarter sorted and chucked in some broccoli, sprouts and kale seeds which came free with a magazine. Think it might be too early to be sowing them but the bit I dug is my brassica bed and when I looked at the pack it said full planting instructions in the magazine - which was at home.

Moved all my tomatoes, aubergines and cucumbers into the greenhouse yesterday and had a panic when I looked at my phone this morning and it said 1 degree. They are all in a cold frame and the greenhouse is heated so they are alright thank goodness.

Have just asked DH to pick up the GW magazine when he goes out in a minute. Also have last night's program taped to look forward to. Which is good as not sure I'm fit to do much else at the moment after all my digging.

My pots of wildflowers are showing signs of life Worzel, though only just.

[yehudiwho]

I would like to join if I can - haven't been through the whole thread but on a day like this who wouldnt want to garden? Put some seeds in my raised salad bed in the back garden today- really should be at my allotment finishing the autunm digging and putting in my early potatoes but my ds is playing football with our neighbours DS and you know when you dont want to disturb a peaceful afternoon with discussions about 'do I Really have to go...' ?

I always have that panic that everything needed to be done yesterday and I get behind with sowing and end up buying plants for twice the price... well i read somewhere a few years ago that you should write a seed sowing calandar on your kitchen calendar - just a couple of things each day and a few more on weekends. works like a gem for me - I write it up in January(carried forward from last years) and then tick them off and write when I actually did it - not always on the day on the calendar but near enough. When I do get a chance to get to the allotment I just check the calendar and put those few seed packets in my bag and do those first so I always feel I've acheived something.

[HJisgoingtogoBOOM]

Dh has been helping my parents this week prep for a greenhouse so not got any allotmenting today. Dd3 & I did bits in the garden but mainly hunted ladybirds and spiders.shes teething so a bit clingy which slowed me down too.

[fivegomadindorset]

Effing chickens.

[WynkenBlynkenandNod]

Yehudi, my seed spuds are still in the boot of my car, ran out of steam. Love the idea of writing it all on the calendar.

HJ, at least you managed to get one of your children in the garden, more than I have done today.

Fivegomad, dare I ask what the chickens have eaten?

[yehudiwho]

have you all seen the recent thread about 10 day forecast -10 degrees colder next weekend and danny baker said on five live this morning it always snows in april and I think he's right

[fivegomadindorset]

I have planted my planters with some lavender plants, chickens decided said planters were the perfect place to sunbathe this afternoon.

[HJisgoingtogoBOOM]

Wynken- cant get dd3 in! Dd1/2 tend to lay around & read though.

[LaurieFairyCake]

I spent the afternoon at the allotment. DH made 3 new beds for me, I weeded for a couple of hours as none of the weeds had 'legs' so it was very easy.

I'm not going to believe that forecast Thought I am holding off putting in my 2nd early potatoes. I sowed a salad leaves bed with 3000 seeds about 2 weeks ago and they're already poking through.

A good allotment day today and very warm in the sunshine.

[Lexilicious]

the 10 day forecast here seems to have a week of high pressure with no chance of rain and highs of 17-20 then from next Sat just cooler by about 5 deg and 20-30% chance of rain. No great confidence that my butt will be recharged very quickly!

I did a lot of pottering and a bit of planning in the rest of today. I need to resist buying anything else for the front garden (even seeds!!) until what I planted last week has come up and shown what sort of gaps are left. All the rasps have shoots showing which is great. Need to just stay a step ahead with putting the wires on the stakes and it'll be both colourful and productive!

My windowsill seedlings are doing great. I was surprised by the 'yellow stuffer' heritage seeds (which came free with something) germinating really fast and they have grown strongly too. Forgot to get more little pots today but may do tomorrow. The alliums which I planted on top of the rockery only last weekend (about two months later than recommended) have already shot up! one bulb was so keen that it seems to have wriggled its way to the soil surface.

DS was helping in the garden today too. He mostly wants to dig, usually in a less than helpful place, but can often be prevailed upon to take handfuls of prunings to the compost, will water from a can as accurately and carefully as you could expect of a 2.5 yo and he loves creepy crawlies of all sorts.

[DowagersHump]

I have put the dahlias back in that I lifted in the autumn, planted a few bare root things (echinacea, chocolate cosmos, ranunculus) and some irises I was given.

I also got rid of all the revolting cat shit from the front garden and sprinkled pepper all over the ground. I know it's not going to last forever but I'm hoping it might deter the regulars.

I have also realised that the passionflower growing next to the front door is growing out of the drain
I'm going to get some of that root out stuff tomorrow to try and kill it. It is also the breeding ground for the county's snail collection

[Blackpuddingbertha]

I spent a good deal of the day 'sewing' netting together to make the 8m x 8m 'roof' to the veg plot. Need to actually put it on tomorrow which will be tricky but the new design should make it removable for snow forecasts so we don't get another roof collapse in the future.

Need some help with identification please keen flower people. Found some different things looking pretty over the other side of our fence. Would like to know what they are so two new photos on my profile for all you knowledgable gardeners. The white bell-like one has gone on side-ways for some reason so you may need to turn your heads or your laptops. Please have a look and let me know what they are (and whether I can steal them move them into my garden...)

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

Hmm. Not absolutely sure about the first one, because when I put it on zoom it goes very fuzzy, but I think it could be wild garlic. The bell flower is the white form of fritillaria meleagris.

I suspect that the wild garlic would run rampant - I made the mistake of planting allium triquetrum and now spend time every spring digging it out of the unexpected places where it seeds itself. I'm not sure about moving the fritillaria. They're meant to naturalise easily, but every one I've ever planted has died. Sniff.

[Blackpuddingbertha]

Thank you - definitely fritillaria for the white one. May watch and see if any more come up - there are others with leaves but without flower heads. I'd quite like to bring them my side of the fence though so I may mark the spot somehow and see if I can shift/divide them late summer.

I don't think the other one's wild garlic, the flowers are too blue and the leaves are thicker. Though I will go out tomorrow and have a sniff

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

The flowers are blue? (Couldn't tell as the colour on this screen is unreliable). I'll have another think.

[Blackpuddingbertha]

Very blue - I spotted the blueness out of DD's window this morning which was what made me investigate.

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

I'm stumped. The leaves make me think allium family but I can't put my finger on a blue (rather than purple) one.

[mistlethrush]

Its a spanish bluebell.

Too early for Garlic round here, and the native bluebells are only just showing their leaves.

Didn't get to garden today. Won't get to garden tomorrow.

I'm a little bit more persuaded that a mulberry might be the way to go. Might have to prune a rhododendron first.