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.

[WynkenBlynkenandNod]

I want to do the table thing but also would have to have it a distance from the house. Meanwhile all the plants I had are now huge and really need new pots so don't look great. Might stick a couple up there with a margarine tub up there and see if anything happens.

[Lexilicious]

I don't think I could put stuff out at all where I am. It's a main road near a junction with another main road, but there is a parking layby in front of all the houses, then a grass verge and pavement. To be seen to passing trade I'd need to put the table or at least a sign on the parking lane, which would just probably get knocked over.

I am having most success with selling annual plants/veg at work, because most of the staff are military and therefore in Service accommodation - as seen on the Rachel de Thame slot on GW, if it has a garden at all you can only grow in containers. I expect when I've grown on the yuccas (split into seven from a tuber of a nearly-dead one in my garden when we moved here) there'll be a market for them as indoor plants. But hardy geraniums and self-seeding sweet rocket - unlikely.

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

I doubt I could do it either.

The front garden's too small for any sort of table and local culture here is that anything left on the pavement is fair game - a sort of unofficial Freecycle. Very handy now that the council tip doesn't open every day and they charge to take away large items - dd's old cot mattress disappeared in minutes!

[rhihaf]

Blackpuddingbertha: we have a very heavy butcher's block type thingy my dad made out of an old tree, with a sun parasol/umbrella over it. When the brolly's open, the shop's open
We just have an old take-away box on there with a weight in it to stop it blowing away.

We live in a very quiet village luckily, so only one defecit so far... of £1 I think! We've only sold eggs and rhubarb so far, and they keep selling out, so we've got some more eggs incubating as we speak...

I'm still working on Dad (it would be his field) and hubby to get a couple of piggies though... ;)

[Blackpuddingbertha]

Thanks all - will ponder all the ideas & try and get something set up for when my little plants get big enough to sell.

Am cross again tonight. Mice have been digging up my peas as fast as I can put them in the ground the past couple of weeks but tonight I have also discovered that they've been at all my bean seeds too! Hadn't noticed because they were under the cloches but spotted a runner bean seed in the middle of the cabbage patch and got suspicious. Turns out that out of 20 broad beans sown I only have 4 left in the pots!!! The other beans have seen some casualties too but not so heavy. Have now put new seeds in the empty pots and brought the whole lot into the conservatory to germinate. Can't do that with my peas though.

[teta]

My morning glory got slightly frazzled by dh putting them in my plastic greenhouse overnight[went down to 2 degrees].I was not a happy bunny!.They are looking a bit better today though.I have had a lovely day planting along the side of my path wending its way down my hill.I planted clumps of really dark purple velvety viola and alchemilla mollis and aquilegia plus a barnsley white mallow.I also planted several cottage garden flowers and 3 clematis growing through shrubs.
Sadly a lot of the bulbs i got from J Parkers have succumbed to rot.Maybe my fault for storing them in a plastic bag.All the lilies from Poundworld have also rotted and the acidanthera look pretty dormant.The only bulbs that look healthy are the Iris -they all have shoots on.The spaniel has also sat and squashed several of my alliums that are just about to flower - so i have put several twiggy sticks there.
We have a lady down the road who sells plants,flowers and fruit and eggs.She has a locked money box attached to her fence and seems to be very successful.Plants are on a cart that she moves in and out at the end of the day.I think i am one of her biggest customers

[chixinthestix]

Bertha I wish I could send you some of our pea plants. DH planted loads too many, 3 rows in the garden and loads more in pots in the greenhouse which are now desperate for a home and we've run out of space unless we only eat peas this summer! I think we'll have to start eating lots of pea shoot salads.

Anyone know much about dahlias? I've finally succeeded in overwintering some tubers and potted them up in March in the greenhouse. Trouble is they are huge and I need the greenhouse space but I'm worried its still a bit cold for them. Do you think I can finally plant them out this week?

[Lexilicious]

This morning I am going to find a couple of empty compost bags and head over to a council compost giveaway! I am not quite sure how I am going to manage lifting the bags though as I had an incident last night with some boiling water and my hand is still quite sore.

More rain here. It is no longer very remarkable, I'm finding. The grass is long again, I think if I'm going to let it stay long ish it needs to be cut almost weekly - a bit of a paradox!

[Lexilicious]

Ooh and it's yummy stuff. Still steaming but very finely shredded. Made from our food/garden waste bins over the past year. I got the bags into the car but can't get them out without hurting my hands. Trouble is the car is going to really smell soon...! And probably only I will know think it's a nice smell!

[HarrietJ0nes]

at the compost. We have to buy ours back.

We have white & green flies on the peppers and leek rust on the garlic & tree onions. [contagious emoticon]

Any cure alls? Have been doing soapy water but it's running away from me!
No ideas on leek rust.

[Lexilicious]

Well it was a maximum of two bags per resident (not sure how they were policing that, but hey).

Seen this, anyone: garden DIY projects! v cool!

[WynkenBlynkenandNod]

Can't talk to you right now, am studying

[radiohelen]

Hello! Can I come in?

I'm feeling good about my gardening today. Got a load done at the allotment this morning, planted a few potatos, got a row of bush beans in, carrots, leeks (I love leeks) and I did a lot of digging, the result of which was discovering where I'd left the jerusalem artichokes! Can you eat them at this time of year? I seem to be inundated and I don't want them all to turn into new plants.

Also - anyone got any ideas how to get echinacea flowers to germinate? I'm on my third lot of seeds and they just do nothing!

Anyhoo - happy gardening. We just had leek and bacon risotto with some of the last leeks from winter and now I'm off to put my feet up.

[Blackpuddingbertha]

Welcome radiohelen. Are your artichokes sprouting? If they are I wouldn't eat them but if they still look like good tubers then they'll be fine. Mine are all sprouted now and about 4-6in tall but I'm guessing if you didn't know where yours were then they're probably not as advanced. Can't help with the echinacea I'm afraid.

Chix - shame I can't have your peas, I'm sure you'll find somewhere for them though; you can't have too many peas in my opinion . I think I'm going to have to germinate some inside and move them out to fill in the gaps. One row has come up nicely but the others are suffering the mouse attacks. I am going to set some traps in the veg plot because I think we're supporting a few mouse families out there!

[Grockle]

Compost

and Veg

[funnyperson]

Does one feed irises to get the best flowers and if so what with and how?

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

I'm thinking I should go out and hunt slugs, but can't drag myself off the sofa.

Bertha - Was it you who had the sooper-dooper slug traps? Could you post the link again?

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

I don't feed irises with anything in particular - they get tomato maxi crop like everything else.

[chixinthestix]

radiohelen I grew echinaceas from seed last year and don't remember doing anything special - just a tray of seed compost in the greenhouse so not much help. They germinated really well although took a while and the plants took a long time to get going - I'm hoping to get flowers this summer but still have lots in pots because so many grew. Maybe its just been too cold for them to get going yet?

Rain and more rain here today. The dahlias are staying in.

[Blackpuddingbertha]

Maud - link here. Must change the beer in mine actually.

Have set two mouse traps in the peas.

Have injured a chicken - very worried. Freak accident involving chicken and cabbage (see they were right; the cabbage was scary). Somehow she must have jumped up into the air (at least two foot) and landed with her foot through the loop that the cabbage leaves were tied up with. Found her sort of hanging by her foot. Got her down & had to cut her out but she was limping badly and the other chickens were very freaked out. Had to put them all to bed manually as they wouldn't leave her alone and she'd huddled in a corner. Am very worried that I'm going to have a dead chicken in the morning .

Have now.

[rhihaf]

Any update on your chicken Blackpuddingbertha? Germolene works a treat if there's any visible cut/graze/broken skin...

It's sooo wet here and windy. Was going to plant some more peas but I've run out of space indoors and no greenhouse...

We tend to be way behind most places planting-wise (west Wales) so too cold to plant them outside still. But on the upside, the rain has already half-filled my second water butt :)

Time for a methinks...

[Grockle]

Oh bertha, poor chook. How is she? I was going to hang a cabbage out for my girls but I'm worried now. I didn't realise they were so scary.

[HarrietJ0nes]

Aw poor chicken :(

[mistlethrush]

I've just managed to find someone who's going to cut my lawn for me! Will mean any time between showers at the weekend I will be able to try to regain control of the garden rather than pull start the lawnmower (DH is allergic to grass )

[worzelswife]

Am having a lovely time going through flower catalogues and choosing what flowers I want for my new garden. Definitely going for cottage style perennials which will just get on and do their own thing once established. I plan on having masses and masses of roses, lots of lavender, lots of sweet peas and then all those lovely traditional favourites like delphiniums, hollyhocks, rosemary and lots of pollinator friendly plants. Also want to grow comfrey to make tea with. Can't wait.

Nothing I've grown this year seems to be doing well. I had some great chilli plants on my windowsill, and cosmos seedlings and borlotti beans, ooh plus courgettes. Everything has either been eaten by some pest (where is that coming from!?) or just faded and died. No idea if I've over/under watered or what. I will go to the garden centre and buy a few healthier specimens, and I've replanted some seeds which I know will grow quickly, but still it is so disappointing. I had much more success last year. I hate that about gardening; that sometimes you nurture a plant and feel really excited about how it's growing and then it gets eaten/dies. Grrrr.