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.

I agree the rose is probably suffering from drought. Last night's downpour (if you had it) should help.

None of my carefully-sown morning glories germinated, but the self-seeded ones are coming up in the usual places. Ah well.

The best thing about the GW offers (which I've only started to collect this year) is that T&M are excellent at replacing plants that fail. Stuff from other suppliers has been good too. Parkers are good for prices, but there seems to be a much higher failure rate for their plants.

I do make an exception about the free and other offers from parkers and T&H though .Surprisingly i think pretty much all the offers from Parkers have grown.Even the dicentra roots [that were sold as 3 plants for 1.99].Iwas a bit shocked when these gnarled roots arrived.But the Lily bulbs rotted sadly.I have also planted the free butterfly gladioli and am looking forward to seeing what they look like in flower.I'm not so sure about the Dahlias though which have yet to appear.I'll have to see how they compare to the Sarah Raven ones that are in a different bed.I agree T&H are consistently reliable,with the exception of the Himalayan Meconopsis poppy[which i was warned about before].

My morning glories are still making their painfully slow progress up their netting. All just about alive though.

Have today bartered some of my excess veg & ornamental grass plants for some home-reared sausages. Felt like a good deal to me, although my friend has a freezer full of sausages and two more piggies growing fat in the paddock.

One of the chickens died tonight . Not really sure what happened, am hoping some chicken experts on the chicken topic will help. DDs very sad, especially my 4yr old who insisted on seeing said dead chicken so she could say goodbye and then got really upset half an hour later because, 'she didn't hear me say goodbye'. I'm trying to convince myself that it's all part of life's learning experiences...

I suppose in that sense, Bertha, chickens are pets and so do teach children about the cycle of life and death. But hard, nonetheless. I've probably mentioned before that dd was so unmoved by the deaths of the goldfish that by the time the last one died she couldn't drag herself away from CBeebies long enough to attend the interment.

My eldest was much less affected though shed a few tears and did say that it had made the day sad (we're off to see puppies tomorrow so up to that point they were very excited). She was also quite happy that I said we could get two more to replace RIP chicken. Littlest one far more emotional and deep thinking.

While I think about it I'll post some pics of the front flower bed - I am very impressed at what's been achieved in a year; and it's all the fault of this thread - I was perfectly happy with the veg plot until Humph kicked this shenanigans off and everyone started talking flowers...

Have put up pictures but not sure they're very clear! Also, have to turn sideways to view them as for some reason if I take photos on my phone I can't download them the proper way around. Stupid phones...

I can't see very well, Bertha (poor eyesight + on phone) but that looks lovely. Is that loose gravel it do you have the bonded variety?

::paving geek::

And how long is your drive?

that looks lovely Bertha.

Sorry about your chicken. We found one of our geese dead in the ditch today also, it had had a gammy leg which is not good news for a goose, but we thought it would last a bit longer

Maud, when we buried the goldfish in the herb bed, DD said "Bye bye sarah fish. Have a nice day in your hole"

Oh no - bad day for the birds.

I should've made the photos bigger when i posted them - it's all a bit technical though to figure out the whole photo posting thing.

Gravel is loose Maud and I've never measured the drive but the bed is 27m. Hence why I call it the 'long bed' plus why it costs me such a lot of money! Still need things for the front but have some things growing in pots at the moment that will go in shortly. Just need to find a way to stop the rabbits eating everything. Dh is supposed to be shooting them to keep numbers down but he's being feeble and just keeps firing 'warning shots' at them. They laugh at him now

Your border looks lovely Bertha. DD went mad with my camera in the garden yesterday. When I've weeded out all the v blurred close ups she might have taken something I could post...
Sorry to hear about your chicken too and Humphrey's goose. IME they just seem to give up quite easily without being very ill beforehand but will have a look at your other thread.

I'm sure the rose got pretty dry, its growing at the base of a lonicera hedge which is dry at the best of times. Has been well and truly watered now though. I took a few cuttings too although I think it would take a lot to kill it, just a shame lots of the buds are affected. My marning glories are finally starting to grow up a bit, but still quite weedy.

Went to pageant. Got wet. Did no gardening. Saw a) queen b) yellow decoy on amazing rowing boat in front. c) loads of other amazing boats. Will do some gardening tomorrow.

Sorry about all the dead pets.

had a lovely, lovely day in the garden. Lunch with friends under our new verandah, lots of children running around and some actual sunshine to warm us up.

New verandah, Humphrey? Tell us more or, better still, post a picture!

when I work out how to do it!

it is really the old coal shed, we took the sides off three years ago as it backs onto the back of the old cider shed and we needed some shade. We always meant to put in oak uprights to set it off nicely and we finally got around to it. When you stand inside and look out you get a fantastic framed view of the garden . It has a corrugated iron roof that we will paint one day and the floor is just concrete painted a nice colour.

I bought 12 ferns for the shelves with the garden vouchers they gave me from work. I love ferns and have some old metal baths and buckets to plant them in.

We all ate lots of food and drank lots of pimms and the children got on for once! Lovely day. Just like the Olivio advert, but colder

Sounds delightful!

We can see three beacons!

Wow!

My cala lillies are in bloom! Last year they were duped into coming out early and then got nobbled by the frosts :( but I have 2, yes, TWO whole flowers out!

Also my peonies are just opening (obviously the heavy rain and gusty wind has arrived just in time) and despite half of them being flattened, look lovely :) Even the ones I planted last year (Costco had a bag of 8 tubers for a tenner I think) have come up and I have buds on 3 of the new plants

Humphrey your verandah sounds most mediterranean

Can anyone shed light on why my pak choy have all bolted? Only planted them about a week/10 days ago (seedlings from nursery) but despite watering every most days, they've run to seed already.
Any suggestions? The ones I planted from seed are growing well...

Just back from jubilee trip to the folks. Was up on a hill in Devon last night at a beacon bbq party - under-3 DS stayed up till 10.30!! Lots of rain so looks like nothing has suffered by my absence. Must decant some water to optimise total use of my butt volume [childish] :)

Will take a turn around the grounds later and take a proper look at how everything is doing, but I can see from the window that a Chard has bolted - it's one of last year's plants so was going to come out anyway. Pak choi and Romanesco plants that I put in on Thursday night don't seem to have been done over by slugs or pigeons, which is good. Front garden a mass of weeds and I may need to weed killer the unwanted Jerusalem artichoke shoots because I can't dig them up between the new things that are there.

Silly question lexi but did it rain in Devon?
It is still pouring here. The garden is green and lush.

It hoofed down in Devon today and Sunday, not so much Sat and Mon. very very lush vegetation everywhere

Am on holiday. Missing the garden . Dh keeps driving past garden centres and saying we won't fit plants in the car to get home.

we had to prop up all the iris and wished we had done it before the heavy rain. A lesson learned there. It has rained all bloody day here.

rhihaf, I can't answer your pak choi question, but my spinach has all bolted as well.
I'm wondering if it is the variable weather - ten days ago I was gardenong in a bikini, this weekend we've lit the fire cos it's so cold and damp

I'm also on holiday and missing the garden. I just bought two plants from someone's stall at the roadside. Wonder whether it was a MNer. ::wink::