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[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.

I would have liked to grow blueberries, but dh (not so d at the time) let the plant I gave him die before it got to the allotment. Ho hum.

We have blueberries but the birds love them

Grokle, we have a female dog and no pathces on the lawn, however, her predessessor (also female) did leave brown patches.
I don't know why there is a difference as we use the same food.

With the first dog I used to minimise the damage by chucking a bucket of water on the lawn asap

Next door has a dog and no lawn and if the wind is in the wrong direction I get a whiff of dog poo. This can be grim.

I have one blueberry plant, in a pot of ericaceous compost. I repot and top up the compost every now and then and clearly conditions are ok for it because its smothered in fruit this year. Mind you its probably 4 or 5 years old now.

Will shortly be tying an old net curtain over it because last year blackbirds ate the lot before we had had a single berry.

That's reminded me, funnyperson, that when we lived in a flat, the people who lived in the basement flat (whose garden was entirely paved) had a dog. The pong in hot weather was awful and I used to wait until they were out and spray their garden with disinfectant. Boak.

I got up with the birds this morning and moved the Astrantia to a better spot.

The roses are beginning to be glorious. Mme Alfred Carrieire smells beautiful and the ivory blooms are so delicate and a lovely lovely scent. New Dawn is out: such a pretty pale pink. In the sunny front patio, Gertrude Jekyll is a more flamboyant pink and doing her well-formed more elegant thing.

What gardens to visit for this jubilee holiday, do you think?

Off for five days from early tomorrow so had to do loads in the garden after work today. Almost all my sack grown potatoes needed to be earthed up to the brim now, except for the last two planted in inside-out compost bags a couple of weeks ago which are only just showing shoots. Planted out in the ground four Romanesco broccoli which I sowed way back but have grown really slowly. Also planted out eight good pak choi plants, thought about planting gazania seedlings but decided my flower beds were too full and I might as well offer them to my mum. Six more dwarf french beans 'Amethyst' planted at the base of the canes, and lots of moving around my deck pots and growhouse trays for optimum ease of neighbourly watering.

Also stood down the bottom of the garden and listened to some really strange bird squawks in the woods. Tried to do a recording on my phone but I don't know if it has picked it up. Will have to go on the rspb site and trawl through their sound files. Must turn in now though, as we have to drive off at 7 and we haven't done any clothes packing whatsoever!!

Don't know if I'll get online over the weekend, so happy jubilee everyone! HRH Countess Lexilicious of Oxhey.

DH has been on the prowl of the nature strips of our fair suburb, and found a 6 by 3 chunk of rebar. It's now hanging on the fence, with three new bromeliads, all blooming, in pot holders it completes the other two walls of plants. What was once a rather forbidding 20 foot length of fence, all visible from the equally long windows, is a lovely jungle. I need to do a photo, don't I? Word pictures won't do. It's dark now here, but I'll see what I can do in the morning.

I went to pick up DS from London- Wood green area where Swift is said to live only DS lives in grim student accmn. Anyway all the roses were out! Phenomenal! Its like a separate microclimate there.

Are the roses not out elsewhere, then? 'Tis true that there are phenomenal displays here. On my street most front gardens are pretty grim - apart from mine, I got a compliment from a passing stranger this week - but just about everyone has a rose.

I was out last night do missed Monty. Was he good?

I suppose I dont know if the roses are out elsewhere- been working too hard! Will find out today!
Monty was lovely, though possibly a bit too hot- wearing a very thick jumper in June! He planted an amazing container. He makes things look so easy. I wonder whether all the stuff he plants really grows. I wonder how his clematis and roses and sweet peas are getting on.
What is in your front garden Maud?

My front garden is tiny and paved, so everything is in tubs. I have window boxes on every window ledge (most had tulips in do need replanting). I have bamboo, a rose Gloriana, a little corkscrew hazel, a camellia, and a mixed tub with a passionflower, verbena bonariensis, French lavender and a standard fuchsia which, annoyingly, I managed to snap the leader off. I have swapped things around in the last couple of years do that everything in the front garden is red or purple, but I might do some red, white and blue pots to get the Jubilee vibe! As I said, I think half the reason my garden looks so good is that many people don't have anything apart from one ancient rose and a wheelie bin.

Next doors roses aren't out yet (oop north).

Was out last night so missed Gardeners world. We are off on holiday atm so won't be able to catch up.
Have trained my mum to look after the garden, next year when the allotment is running properly too I can't see us getting away much!

Agh. Why does the phone always replace so with do? It's so annoying.

I will have to watch Monty and his fabulous container later. Oh, and I have another huge pot with crocosmia (red, probably Lucifer), red dahlia and sweet William.

My carefully coordinated coloured beds have been cocked up by the lupins.Coral in the 'soft' coloured bed and pink in the 'hot' coloured one.I must have been colour-blind last year.I also forgot about the large bright red azalea which has flowered at the same time as the Lupins.I just have to learn to enjoy the riot of glorious colours that are all part of a cottage garden.Each Lupin has about 20 flower heads on [these were baby plants last year]and seem to positively thrive in the soil here.Until 2 years ago this was a rose bed with roses that all gradually succumbed to various sicknesses.I am gradually finding out the plants that thrive-foxgloves,astrantia and Delphiniums[which i always forget to stake] and lots of erysimum and bulbs.
I planted lots of Dutch Iris in "black' from the pound shop this year.The flowers are a beautiful dark purple and are stunning growing through a purple flowered daimontina clematis in pots with some yellow violas in pots next to it.The sun was so strong last week the Wisteris smelt 'off' -a bit like burning plastic but is now smelling beautiful again.
I have emptied and dug out the bed infested with Ground elder and planted Dahlia Tubers.When these come up i will plant Tulips.This way i will have 2 attempts a year of eradicating this all-pervasive weed.I'm not convinced that Dahlias will grow however,as the ones i planted several weeks ago have done nothing.

Yes, colour schemes always seem to go awry for me, too. The Paul's Scarlet rose (99p Store special) in my 'jewel' bed turns out to be white, so I'll hoick that out and put it in the B&W bed.

Same problem here. My poppies flowered yesterday, they are supposed to be a deep purplely red, however turns out they are proper poppy red! Beautiful admittedly but clash horrendously with everything else in the bed.

I too missed Monty, was so busy sewing bunting I forgot it was Friday!

Have resown my dwarf French beans today. This time they had better do something. Have also decided I shouldn't put butternut bits in the compost. I have random butternut squash seedlings coming up everywhere.

And don't get me started on Patty's Plum poppies actually being a wishy-washy beigey-lilac!

I had contemplated sewing bunting today but then decided to buy it tomorrow.

::lazy::

It did leave more gardening time, though.

I'm glad i am not the only one with this problem.I saw some really stunning enormous red poppies in a neighbours garden today.The flowers were really large as well as the stems. Does anyone know what they are likely to be?Are Pattys Plum still wishywashy in slight shade? or is it just in full sun.
Monty was cool,but is he trying to hide something with his baggy jumpers?I do like Monty but i have developed a bit of a passion for Chris Beardshaw during Chelsea week.He's a bit intense and serious though,for me sometimes.

My Patty's Plums are growing in partial shade and are still very bland in colour. Could the red poppies be Brilliant? I got mine in yet another T&M offer from GW magazine.

Or Ladybird?

They are definitely not Ladybird as these were much taller.Maybe they are Brilliant but i don't remember black splodges being that noticable.I'll have another look tomorrow.T&M offers are wonderful aren't they.I bought several of the Illumination Pink foxgloves when they were on offer a few weeks ago.I couldn't believe they won Chelsea plant of the year.But i'm totally unsure whether they will flower this year[ignorant] or do i have to wait.

Isn't Illumination the one that does flower the first year?

One of my gardening jobs today was to pot on the T&M perennial plugs that were free for postage with GW magazine. I knew they would be small, but I was amazed how tiny they were - each plug is about a centimetre across and you have to use a little plastic pin to poke the plant out of the plug! Still, they look like healthy little things.

Roses are only just starting to flower here. In fact the garden is still looking decidedly green. Promise of good things to come though, lots of buds. Except the little rambling rose that grows right outside the kitchen window, which is smothered in buds but has suddenly succumbed to mildew. Leaves curling up, buds dropping off :(

Oh dear Chix,is it too late to spray it?.Maybe it dried out too much during the recent hot weather[just a memory-on this cold,pounding rainy day]My garden,in just 2 weeks of sun moved from early spring to high summer.Though maybe being mostly a south facing slope helps,plus living in a valley with its own little micro-climate.
Those sound tiny Maud,but cute.I must admit i have given up on the free offers this year.I was really disappointed by several last year and have worked out that the postage is probably equivalent to the cost of buying a new one at the local nursery.I also don't have the patience to grow them on for the next year.But i will make an exception for Sarah Ravens plants.They always arrive large and healthy and seem to flower the first year.Sadly though my sweetpeas havn't arrived yet [were due on the 19th of may]They often seem to arrive later than originally specified.
My Morning Glories have been fading.I now only have 4 live seedlings [as the others got left out all night]These changable temperatures have not helped.Has anyone had more success than me?