The first rule of garden club is...!?!

[Lexilicious]

hoping Humph's Happy Osteospermumsnet chums will find this... la la la... I'm uite used to being betty no mates though...

Come on in and have a seat/kneeler/foam pad and a virtual , anyone who wants to idly chat about what they've been dreaming of planting, actually planting, buying without a care for having a place for it, propagating, harvesting, hacking and chopping...

Hello everyone. Hope you're all doing well.

I'm all moved into my new house now and have a fantastic new garden to play with. It is a bit daunting but massively exciting too. I'm going through all my old gardening catalogues to pick things out; can't wait to buy stuff. I'm particularly excited about growing lots of sweetpeas, roses, different varieties of lavenders, and lots of veggies and fruit. I have a lovely long south facing fence so want to put in lots of espaliered fruit trees, but they seem to be about £50 each if you go with trees that are a couple of years old. Ouch! I might put in one a year and spread the cost a bit. I'm hoping to get maybe a peach (fan) tree in, apples, pears, and cherries in, plus raspberries somewhere. It would be great to be self-sufficient in fruit, which I'm a bit addicted to.

I was wondering how you were getting on Phacelia, so glad you've come back! (did any of the seeds work out or was that too much to deal with as well as moving?!).

Fruit trees shouldn't be that expensive... Don't know your region but two places I've used before are Chew Valley trees (south of Bristol) and Walcot Nursery. I got a maiden fruit tree voucher as a new baby gift for friends from CV for £20 I think, so they can go and choose it for bare root planting this autumn.

Evening all.

Well, my Olympic rose has arrived and I'm just about ready to revamp the red, purple and lime bed where it was going to be a centrepiece except the blurb says it won't withstand frost and needs to be in a pot. They didn't mention that on their website. Gah.

I'm waiting for the end of Doctor Who so I can watch Monty. I was thinking today if gardening is the new rock and roll, is Monty the new Elvis?

Maud this is brilliant about the Olympic rose. A piece of history. Is it a healthy plant? Is it flowering? did you get the green one only or also the orange?
It does have something on the website about overwintering them 'indoors' whatever that means. Whoever brings a rose indoors? They must mean a green house. Which I dont have. I could put them in the verandah I suppose but if I bought one or more they would go outside probably.
I noticed they have brought the price down ever so slightly and I think I will order one. Or possibly even 4. The four are now £50, which doesnt seem too bad depending on if the plants are in reasonable condition. I just thought they were so retty in those bouquets. I wonder what the plants are like.
So do you think the plants are worth it Maud? Was the packaging OK? Are they quite big?

pretty

Anyway I am also thinking of putting some bamboo in pots on the first floor balcony so that I have a screen from the opposite neighbours who at the moment have full view of every corner of my living room which has huge picture windows/doors leading onto said balcony.

Bamboo is evergreen and the foliage is dainty and the stems come in different colours I am told. Yellow through to black. Whether or not bamboo will thrive in pots on the balcony I do not know. Has anyone else any experience of bamboo in pots?

Also my other problem is that the poor rhodedendron which was thriving and budding in a pot when I left for tropical regions is all shrivelled and has not recovered even though I have watered it for three consecutive days.

Should I leave the poor shrivelled leaves and continue watering in good faith or should I cut all the withered stems off the ailing plant?

What? You can now get all of them for fifty quid? Oh that's infuriating, as I;m still pondering getting the orange one - I've only got the green - so that would cost me fifty quid (once postage is paid) just for the two.

The plant is a decent size, in quite good condition (considering it's been much pruned as the flowers were cut) and the packaging was excellent. It has one promising-looking bud. I'm kicking myself for not spotting the bit about overwintering indoors as I don't 'do' fragile plants. (I've mentioned before that in the spring I;m going to get rid of all my hostas because I have Had Enough).

I also (as you do) succumbed to the temptation to buy 6 more aquilegia Black Barlow and am very impressed with them, as they are much bigger and better than plug plants I've had from other companies. I also bought three dodecatheon (although pink) but am a little concerned that they are completely dormant at the moment, the pots are covered in weeds and that primordial plankton thingy and if I pull the weeds off I may be damaging or even pulling out the plant itself.

All in all, I'd recommend the company, even though their postage is quite steep (something that always makes me cross).

Have no idea about rhododendron but I grow bamboo in a pot.

The black bamboo died last year (sob, I loved it) but the golden bamboo is very happy in its pot now. It did, though, go into a decline while I was on holiday and it got too dry and shed a lot of its leaves, but perked up very quickly when I gave it a drenching. I hear that this is the biggest problem with bamboo in pots - it likes water, so is at risk if it dries out.

funnyperson could your rhododendron be suffering from a fungal infection rather than drought? Is there any damage to the twigs that could have caused the leaves to suddenly wilt? (Have just been reading info leaflet on phytopthora ramorum which can affect rhodis).

I've had enough of my too full garden and after reading about all your lovely sounding plant acquisitions have been waging war against the ground elder to make myself a bit more space. Two sackfuls of roots later I have cleared 2/3 of one bed. eek.

I've just been pacing around, deciding what's going to go where. I need some more tough, ideally prickly things to go where the foxes walk, I think. The Rubus cockburnianus isn't big enough yet to deter them.

Thank you Lexi, great to have some other websites for trees. I had heard B&Q do fruit trees cheaply sometimes but the nearest one to me is a bit of a trek so not sure if I can get there. It's such a great feeling that I can now go to garden centres and buy things for my garden. So exciting. Hope all is well in your garden.

From the seeds you sent I had some lovely peas and salad leaves, but nothing else germinated, despite repeated attempts to grow them. Bloody weather! The peas in particular were delicious, so v grateful to you to sending them. Will definitely grow more next year. My biggest success this year were my strawberries (planted last year) - the best I've ever eaten, which was a surprise as on GW they were saying most peoples' this year have been very watery and insipid.

I have no idea about tough prickly things, maud. One of the children has a small cactus in a pot but I doubt it would be of the size to deter foxes.
Thanks for the insight on the packing of the olympic roses.
Also very useful to know someone who grows bamboo in pots- how tall does your bamboo grow? I am in need of seven foot or so of foliage.
The shrivelled rhodedendron could have something wrong with it other than prolonged drought I suppose. Do you think I should spray it with some chemical thing?

Hello ! Hope you are all well and enjoying your gardens.

Funnyperson I bought a pot of bamboo once that was about 6 ft I think . Gave it to my neighbour to fill a gap so not sure how much bigger it would get but think if you have a big pot and the right variety you'd be ok.

Tough prickly things sound like the pyracantha bushes each house I live in seems to come with !

I haven't had much time for gardening with more sick parents, DD starting upper school and new braces. Thought I could get to allotment tomorrow but one of her brackets has fallen off so back to the Orthodontist.

Next year I'm not growing courgettes at allotment as I have enough marrows to feed half the neighbourhood !

Had an hour in the veg plot this afternoon. Have cleared out some dying stuff and planted out the winter veg; and the baby spring veg has been potted on. Picked beetroot, courgette, turnips, spring onion and heaps of beans. Sweetcorn looks ready (although small) so they'll be eaten over the weekend too. Can't believe how dry it all is, need some rain.

something has been eating the sweetcorn, I think it must be a badger.

It is incredibly dry isn't it? I planted out some sweet william seedlings today and the ground was like concrete.

On a brighter note my sweet peas have taken off and I have loads, ditto the courgettes and runner beans.

Squirrels are also quite partial to sweetcorn.

We had four of ours for tea tonight and although a bit on the stumpy side they were otherwise fully formed and absolutely delicious. They were my four most promising looking ones though so the rest may be a little lacking.

It's finally raining. I shall be complaining about it in no time though as we have apple picking planned for tomorrow.

Being spring break from school here in Melbourne, and as the veggie beds ready at last, the planting will begin. Two kinds of tomatoes; marmande and Black Russian; about 3 different lettuces, spring onions and mini aubergines. These are all seedlings to get something going while our seeds germinate in the propagator. Also going to try asparagus.

I also tracked down the Wurtz avocado for DH's birthday, so will get it into a bigger pot, and should have fruit in 3 years.

In the rest of the garden I'll cover the fences with various climbers, though not decided which yet. Then bringing in the garden clearance chaps to rip out the manky lawn and lay turf.

I also have to decide where to put two red cannas, left on our doorstep yesterday by I don't know who. These grow to about 5 feet and flower for 6-7 months, just the thing for our terraced garden.

We had glorious clear blue September skies yesterday followed by rain today.

I have been happily pruning sage and mint etc and salvaging the plants which shrivelled when I was away.

The squirrels eat the roses here. They live in the oak tree and scamper down when the roses bud and nibble off the buds when young. It takes a sharp eye and a rapid response to cut said buds to bring in before they are nibbled.

I was hoping for a fruitful Autumn, but the apples plums and strawberries have not fruited at all this year so my sum total (herbs apart) is spinach and 2 tomatoes. Ah well. Friends with allotments appear to have courgettes and potatoes and are looking forward to leeks and brassicas. I might try artichokes and ornamental cabbage next year. I do so want an Autumn which isnt just about turning leaves (lovely though they are). My mothers garden has the most lovely riot of species fuschia , Michaelmas daisies and roses. She has no squirrels and is South facing.

Went to the local Sunday junk market and came away a bromeliad in flower which I can split into three and add to the collection. The other was a plant I've never seen before and turns out to be commonly called the pregnant onion plant, though it is not an onion. Turns out it has irritating foliage so I'll have to wear gloves to plant it. It's bit hideous to tell the truth but was dirt cheap and has a certain Ripley's Believe it or Not quality.

Just re-read my last post and realised that it sounded like we ate four squirrels for tea! Which has occurred to us before as a good use of squirrels but we haven't quite got around to it yet...

Started the apple harvest yesterday. Filled a large washing basket and two massive carrier bags just with the ones (leaving the smaller ones) we could easily reach off one tree. I shall probably get as much again from the top half of the tree with the apple picker. The other trees don't produce such nice apples so I may just ignore them as I think we may have enough!

I broke my gardening drought this morning before the rain really got started (well, the rain actually did drive me indoors).

I spread out a load of spent compost on the lawn that had been left over from at least a couple of potato sacks, dug up two of the clumps of perennial sweet pea (as best I could, that stuff has seriously deep leguminous and fibrous roots), cut down one completely flopped tansy clump and tied the other properly to the hedge, dug up the monarda (which is going to have to wait out the week sitting in the wheelbarrow, as long as it doesn't collect too much water). Put last year's leafmould on the blueberries and will look up what else could benefit from it. Gave up on the pak choi and some of the carrot seed rows, going to put strawberries there instead. Basically I am moving my edible side of the garden into the perennial end of the GYO spectrum.

DH surprised me by looking interested in the Clean Decking Project. I have moved half of my pots off the deck so it can be scrubbed, raked out between the boards and hosed with light detergent (or however he plans to do it.

Next weekend I am aiming to get my shed guttering done and second waterbutt in place (finally! - I think I bought the larger butt at the start of March!!)

It's rained so much here today I may spend tomorrow building a boat!

Ah yes, the boat building is well under way here. Even the chickens have spent most of the day constructing a raft...

Forgot to say that I found further evidence of slugs taking over the world. Slugs on the apples. Yep, now they are climbing trees. They'll have figured out how to fly by next year.

It hasn't rained as much here. Still really cold though.

Dh planted the enormous box ball he bought for £30 on Ebay in huge copper he bought from the farmer next door. It looks fabulous.

He also planted out the 200 odd box cuttings he took last year. The thing is, I am afraid of dedicating so much time and energy to creating box hedges that may succumb to box blight in the future. I would fill the garden with topiary if I could afford it and I wasn't worried it would all die, as it looks so wonderful. I thought Monty looked v worried about the blight in last week's GW.