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...

Bung 'em in - they might be rather desiccated by the autumn!

I have a snowdrop flowering! Just one very teeny weeny one but I have hope that more will follow.

Rabbits are eating the tips of everything that is popping up in the long bed, including the muscari which I'm sure they left alone last year. I have one pot of tulips coming through but no sign of the others yet.

Lovely gardening day today- put in the crocuses and some tulips. Discovered an unopened parcel indoors which had a trug inside with a bulb planter!
Pruned the clematis, tidied up the beds. Swept the patio.
All sorts are poking through: the irises grew 6ins more today- the rhubarb is starting, loads and loads of daffodils, the cyclamen are proliferating, shoots coming up on geraniums, hellebores beginning to flower.
The robin kept me company throughout- such a cheery and sociable little bird!

I have primroses out and a solitary snowdrop nearly flowering. Also took advantage of the lovely weather on Sunday and finally stuck tulip bulbs in. We're hopefully going to Holland again at Easter and I'm going to buy more.

What a lovely discovery FP, I have trug envy ! To go with Hellebore envy, mine met with a unfortunate accident ..

I now have a trug. It was given to DH for Christmas but he suggested I was more likely to use it in the garden than he would on the allotment. And indeed I will.

No need to be envious for my handkerchief patch is north facing and in the shadow of an oak tree, thus plants tend not to flower due to lack of sunshine.
I love it though. There are little sunny patches and shade loving plants and plants which climb up till they reach the sun.

It's so good to hear about all these small signs of the spring.

It finally rained here a couple of days ago. Tons of the stuff, so the garden has cheered up a bit. I'll go and poke in the soil to see how far the rain has penetrated if I can plant anything. By sheer serendipity, someone posted in The Australian about what to plant where it's sunless in winter, but scalding in summer. Indian hawthorn appears to be the solution, and I have one in a pot that I've wandering for months where to put it.

You have all spotted the new Monty programme on Friday at 9 on bbc2, n'est-ce pas? they are softening us up for GW...!

Yes, Lexzy. Wasn't he the programme lush?

Please come and help me decide what to do about my garden path.

Went to the garden centre today, spent lots of money on pots. Some in the sale though so feel slightly virtuous. And a new pair of secateurs as I killed the last pair last weekend.

I surveyed the action in the long bed earlier. I have now lost all the hebes I planted at the far end. Does anyone have any suggestions what will go there? I need something with a bit of height to hide the fence a bit and that end of the bed has pretty poor soil and is fairly shaded. It's also overhung slightly by a yew tree so not sure if this will affect the soil at all. I'd quite like a bamboo but feel this may not thrive either and that would be an expensive mistake.

In terms of survival, it's the access to water that bamboos need. How dry is the soil in, say a warmish spring? Does the yew gobble all the rain?Clumping bamboo's your best bet, though I don't know which would do best in the UK. Bamboo is gross feeder too, but not fussy, so ours gets lawn food, cow manure, and I'm trying some Epsom salts this weekend. Our garden is sand, so needs topping up.

Just finished my seed order for this year's veg growing exploits. Was very good and went through my seed box first to see what I had left from previous years and free packets. Therefore order fairly small so I felt obliged to order 12 strawberry plants (going to make the vertical pallet planter idea from Grow Your Own magazine) plus some plants for the flower bed. Ordered two euphorbia black pearl, two diorama blackbird and, just for some amusement, two angelica gigas.

Ooh, I like the look of euphorbia Black Pearl. That dierama is lovely. It's in my basket on Crocus but I haven't yet clicked to buy - I'm trying to talk myself out of it, as every dierama I've ever planted has died!

Maud - my hellebores are here. Do I plant them straight out or do I have to pot them on and nurture them a bit? They came with no instructions - help!

Bloody rats.

Been eating my tomatoes. Fussy, too; only the reddening ones. I've baited the shed with poison scoff, because there are droppings there, and set a live trap in the garden. I can't use snap traps as it could injure our tiny but perfect cat.

Bertha - I think they probably could be planted straight out. After all, hellebore seedlings just get on with it. However, I potted mine into cell trays (quite big cells - 6 to a half-seed tray) and won't plant them for a couple of weeks yet. They're already about double the size they were when they arrived. I see Hayloft are now offering ten penstemons for a tenner, including two nearly-black ones that would be perfect for my monochrome bed. I am sorely tempted.

Rats? Eekk!

Just checked the rat trap, no luck, but toms scoffed either, possibly because I only left green ones on the trusses.

What we need is a snake to scoff the rats. Hang on...

Thank you Maud Think I will make a decision based on what the weather is going to do today. They may get potted on and put in the greenhouse conservatory for bit.

I still have greenhouse envy

I was brave, hellebores now planted out. Also cleared a load of soggy leaves from the front garden and dug up a couple of kilos of parsnips. Found a solitary anemome blanda (I think) flower in the long bed. I am hopeful that Spring is on the way.

Go for it!

I've just done a bit of tidying-up in the garden. Plenty of signs of spring - several little clumps of snowdrops in flower - but my Olympic rose seems to have been killed by the cold snap. Sniff.

I have created a new little area for planting in the space where I used to stand the pots of hostas, so some of the hellebores will go there. I've ordered the penstemons.

Hello there

my sweet peas are sprouting on the kitchen windowsill. It made me happy.

We have done a fair bit of tidying in the good weather - all the willows at the top have been dug out, I have cleared the herb beds and DH has finished pruning the rose walk.

I am going to get everything out of the herb beds and start again - making sure I only try to grow stuff the slugs won't eat. So I will have repeat planting of different coloured sages, rosemary, fennel and hyssop. Feverfew pops us everywhere so that will be nice. All the thyme is going in a pot as it is just too dark in the beds for it.

It is so strange that the primroses and the snowdrops are in flower at the same time. And I found a dead rat under the straw when cleaning out the pigs, much to my utter horror

The really good news is that it looks as if Spot is pregnant! So fingers crossed we will have piglets in march.

Hello, Humph. Long time no virtual see.

I must start some sweet peas. They never come good, but one has to try.

I need some ideas for revamping my herb bed. At the front are various mints in submerged pots. At the back is lovage and in the middle are the new roses that snuck in under the pretext of being medicinal and therefore herbs. But that leaves a lot of bare soil. What to add? It's too dark and damp for thyme and sage doesn't do well either.

Hello Maud

what about hyssop? It seems to do ok in my rather shadowed beds. Also Fennel - will that grow do you think?

I am going to add a lot of sand and gravel to the rosemary holes in an effort to help them along.

Hmm. I've planted lots of bronze fennel over the years which has sunk without trace, but hyssop may work. And I've just remembered that I have a fancy rosemary waiting to be planted., if it hasn't gone the same way as the Olympic rose. Boo hoo.