Osteospermumsnet.com - flutter your foliage, pick your produce, shake your seed packets and bring your blooms to the Spring Show

[Lexilicious]

Welcome to the gardening quiche :)

Earlier malarkey was here

All welcome whether you are a Sackville-West or a Dimmock, an Oudolf or a Swift. Whether you dream of digging or dig for dreams.

Fair weather or foul, we've got disco lights in the potting shed and fairy lights on the terrace. Bring gin, wine just doesn't cut it round here.

Nothing but beautiful sunshine here although very chilly. Can't believe all the hail!

I am seriously fed up with this weather. For many reasons but primarily because I want my conservatory to not look like a greenhouse.

Was potting on my tomatoes last night in the dark just because it wasn't raining at that point.

I've got some tiny flowers on my chilli plant that hibernated in the conservatory over the winter Lexi. Think it's a long way off producing actual chillies though!

I am thoroughly fed up with the weather. It's not just the rain, it's also the constant gloom.

::searches for the potting shed gin, but maybe funny person drank it all::

I think Funny found everyone's gin stash. But as I don't like gin that's ok as my blackberry brandy is well hidden.

Bertha I'll join your blackberry gin with a plum vodka and depress you all by saying we've had glorious sunshine here for 3 days! Sadly the last 2 have been spent at work, and it has been cold and very windy but still.
We had an air frost on Sat and Sun nights and I'm starting to think of this year as the perpetual winter. I think the morning glories are destined to live in the greenhouse this year.

oh dear I have a really bad headache. I have no idea why the world seemed so funny yesterday. I am so so sorry. I think I must have drunk all the gin. There is a spot of very nice Perry left in the shed though. . And some Pimms from the house

Lexi you do just fine by your little one. Great that he's going to watch GQT. Go for it.

The rain is getting me down and work is seriously awful. The national news about children yesterday was terrible. Thats it. I am buying a vegetable trough. Do you think I might be able to put one of those cloche things to keep the plants warm over it and then maybe things will ripen even if it rains. I am most probably going to be unemployed from June. I will need to grow some food. Spinach and tomatoes and lettuce probably. Enough to cope with famine and floods. I am impressed by hand pollination. I presume this involves the gardening equivalent of a pastry brush. I cant write any more. My head hurts. I might go back to just lurking: I am so embarrassed.

It's worse than that... I rubbed the sexual parts of two flowers together.

Lexi, you sound like some sort of plant pervert!

You all might have to pick up my slack now, feet and fingers have started to swell, and my "D"H has banned me from doing anything other than lying on the sofa with my feet up!!! I don't think he realises that I have lots and lots to plant out and seeds to put in!!

I'll have to garden vicariously through you all!!

Karatekimmi- look after yourself!

at funnyperson & accepts a glass of pimms ( virtual is ok at 7am right?)

Didn't get much done yesterday, just replanted the last days worth of plants next doors cat dug up and cleared the cat poo.

Arghhhhh! The bloody dog went and burried something right in the middle of my raised bed this morning (looks mournfully at bedraggled half-burried lettuce plants and various reminders of straight lines of seeds) :(

at Lexi's sexual plant perversion antics.

Earthed up my spuds today (Charlottes) before going away for the weekend in the caravan. Technically it's not a jolly, we're doing the catering for a wedding in Devon, but cooking is a rather enjoyable money earner...

Taking the MIL so will be plied with appropriate amounts of choccy and while scattering herbs over everything

Hurrah for the sun!

Did anyone suffer from the predicted frosts last nite?

I've just been to pick up my GQT ticket and spotted Bob Flowerdew (was ever a man more appropriately named?) and Christine Walkden in the grounds of the church hall. Excited!!!

Ooh-err. I have a bit of a horticultural crush on Mr Flowerdew and want to unravel his plait.

hey it's not perversion!! assisted conception that's all. sometimes a girl just can't wait forever for a bee to come along!

Matthew Williamson is rather dishy. That is all.

We had a frost here last night. Only a light one but my sweet peas and morning glory are looking precarious out there at the moment. They're still hanging on though so there's hope!

Don't go back to lurking Funny - I'll have pimms and perry please . Some of the large cloches should fit over your new trough. I'm eternally hopeful though that the weather may take a turn and we won't be needing the cloches for much longer this year.

All this talk of alcohol had me wondering whether I could make some kind of brew from the mulberries this year. I think that might be rather nice...anyone got any suggestions for spirits to go with? I'm erring on the side of vodka. I think I still have some of last year's in the freezer so I can run some experiments.

Pimms made up with Perry must surely be the Kir Royale of the potting shed, n'est-ce pas? With borage flowers as a floating garnish.

Do you mean Matthew Williamson the fashion designer? Or Matthew Wilson, the landscape man and all round hunk? We saw him once in the gift shop of the de la Warr pavilion. He is indeed dishy a gifted horticulturalist.

Tis indeed getting boozy. I was a bit dubious about the plum vodka but DH made it 9 same method as sloe gin) and it worked v well so I'd recommend it to try with your mulberries Bertha. How lovely to have mulberries! I got quite excited to be shown a 400 year old mulberry tree earlier this year (through work) and may have wangle a reason to go back to see if there are berries. I seem to remember Aug as being the time they are ripe, is that right?

Yet another frost on the grass in the field this morning but not in the garden. I think our wild and untamed ahem rather tall shrubs and hedges are just giving us enough shelter.

Wilson yes him. First became aware of him when he did 'Landscape Man' on Channel 4. Thought he was a miserable sod brooding artist then. He was the third on the panel. It is the jubilee bank holiday weekend programme, so listen out! Boy was angelic. We had a picnic outside the church hall and then went in, checked out the loos, sat with the books and ate more breadsticks, ditched about 2/3 of the way through. Another pee on the way out - I think I should start tentatively saying he's toilet trainED, not training. Result!

They record it almost live - there aren't lots of retakes. The chairman does the intro and 'back in the room' bits around the feature segments they recorded outside on some allotments earlier, and then they go on with the next few questions. There were definitely more than half the questions were someone picked because of who they are - local dignitary, part of the hosting place, charity featured, etc etc. I think there were 10-12 questions so I wonder if not all of them make it on to the radio show.

Knackered now, all that excitement! Must do some potatoes tomorrow.

::imagines dream GQT panel of Monty, Matthew and, err, someone else::

Glad you had fun, Lexi!

look after yourself, karate.

I'm looking forward to hearing more about GQT