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...

[Handsfullandlovingit]

Hi Funny, if I were you I'd not put the stuff directly on top of the shoots for fear of rot, but all round the bed, a desultory rake in then let the worms do their thing. Might be wrong though!

[funnyperson]

Thanks! I'm not doing any mulching at the moment cos its too wet.
However the indoor seedlings (delphiniums, cosmos, coriander, squash) are growing well; the sweet peas have been potted on and are outside in a sheltered spot.
The camomile from teabags didn't germinate on the lawn. I'm not sure if this is because birds ate them. So I am now going to see if I can germinate some camomile indoors!
The succulents in eggshells (coffee grounds for 'soil') are making little plants too.
It is very satisfactory having DC at uni because there is plenty of undisturbed windowsill space. Also, DD's face when she saw the eggshells was a sight to behold. She thinks it is wonderful having a batty mum, bless her!

[Rhubarbgarden]

Oh sorry to hear that about the camomile. I keep looking at my potential camomile lawn spot and imagining how lovely it will be. If I ever get chance to actually create it! I've got to finish pruning the apple trees first, and finish planting a yew hedge that I started back in September. The holy combination of appropriate weather and dh available to look after the dcs has rarely seemed to happen this winter. Poor yew plants have been heeled in at the bottom of the garden for months, and my half dug trench resembles a pond. Sigh.

[funnyperson]

Today I find/buy a Rhubarb forcer. Having watched GW and read up, I now realise why the stems were short and tough last year.
I know I can do it with a bucket but I do love pottery.

[Handsfullandlovingit]

Ooh a rhubarb forcer what fun! They always seem so expensive, let us know if you find a bargain... Rhubarbgarden, you have my sympathies, my sh has worked every weekend this year so far. My dcs are tiny and have a 15 min theshold for allotment and like to fall over in the garden too often to get anything done. My solution is a trampoline to emprison them in and a Wendy house, that may buy me 20mins?

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

I have rhubarb forcers but no longer any rhubarb in the garden. I treat them now as sculptural objects.

[HumphreyCobbler]

Hello everyone, it is nice to catch up with what you are doing.

I haven't done much in the garden lately but DH has been busy. The bloody slugs have started eating the new asparagus bed though, much to his rage.

[Rhubarbgarden]

I am descended from rhubarb farmers and grew up in the rhubarb triangle. My great grandmother would get up at 1am and harvest the rhubarb in the rhubarb sheds by candlelight so it could be sent away on the early train to London (presumably Covent Garden).

I took some crowns of the ancestral rhubarb and tried to grow it at the last house, but it was too dry and it failed. I need to bring some crowns down to this garden and try again here. There's more space here and now you've got me thinking about rhubarb forcers - mmm might ask for some for my birthday!

[Blackpuddingbertha]

I have rhubarb forcers (stolen borrowed from my mother) which I occasionally move around the patch of wild rhubarb that grows by the orchard. They look lovely just sat around the orchard though. Must go and check on the rhubarb actually, I did clear the grass and brambles back a while ago to give them a chance so I may have something worth cropping soon.

My cosmos seedlings are going mad already, sweet peas starting to come up, no sign of the chocolate mint yet though.

Lots of things coming up in the long bed, a few things flowering. Kale is ready to start picking. It's officially Spring fellow gardeners

[mollythewitch]

My interesting unknown plant in the border has pushed up and unfurled a little and turned out to be.....rhubarb. Not that I don't like rhubarb but this is a bloody great mound of it right in the middle of the flower bed. It will be covered by snow again by tomorrow morning so wondering if it will all turn to mush.

Funnyperson - I can't help there as my compost attempts have been a bit laughable. By the time I had emptied it out, picked out the larger twiggy bits and assorted egshells, tea bags, bits of plastic I was left with about a large carrier bag full so I just put it round the plants. I don't think you need to dig it in - as far I as understand the plant roots just under the surface will come up quite quickly to make use of the new soil.

[funnyperson]

Rhubarb Rhubarb. ( sorry couldn't resist )

Well after a happy 1/2 hour or so googling 'rhubarb forcing pots' and various potteries in the shires, (one of which also did replica Elizabethan chimney pots which sidetracked me) and closely re-scrutinising the 'patina' on Monty's rhubarb forcer, (He really is such a nice man) and searching for bargains on gumtree and ebay and so forth, I had a clear picture in my mind of the required cost, dimensions and appearance. At the end of a busy day, I went down to the local garden centre on my way home and bought a nice terracotta one for a fiver. It is currently upturned over the rhubarb.

I could have spent more than ten times that in Hampshire if I had so desired! If anyone wants any, Preston Bissett nursery sells them cheaper from ebay than from their website.

Well actually I bought a 'special offer' terracotta planter of the right shape. I put a stone over the hole. Cheapskate me! Looking forward to tender stalks though! I really like rhubarb fool and crumble.

I love the image of the rhubarb forcers in Maud's amazing garden and Blackpuddingbertha's orchard. It is true, they are sculptural objects. I also liked reading about rhubarbgarden's rhubarb heritage. There is clearly serious expertise about!

[funnyperson]

I also bought a lawn edging tool and edged the lawn, which was very satisfactory, as loads of worms turned up. So when I get round to spreading the compost using Maud's methodology, it should work.
The mini pumpkin seeds which I scraped from the inside of a very attractive and tasty mini pumpkin have germinated! I really think I have a handle on this germination malarkey. I will now shut up for a bit as I have very busy days ahead. (Work days)

[rhihaf]

Next door's dog just shat on my rhubarb :(
I only planted the crowns (dug a big chunk up from Dad's patch, divided and replanted) about a month ago, but already they are unfurling beautifully wrinkled leaves, making me ridiculously excited about spring finally arriving...

...so I went down to admire their progress from last week and the fence behind them was bent over, my stack of bamboo canes toppled over and there was a great big squitty shit, right on top one of the new leaves! They couldn't have got a better aim if they'd used a funnel!

What sort of a bloody dog shits on the one leaf in a whole raised bed? (as you can tell I'm a bit cross)

Thankyou Maud, Blackpudding and Rhubarb for your lovely gardening delights. I envisage your gardens without shittingdogs

[funnyperson]

Dear rhihaf this sorry situation would not have arisen if you had a rhubarb forcer.
May I gently point you in the direction of these
www.thenurseries.com/rhubarb-forcers-c-65_90.html

or these
www.littlethorpepotteries.co.uk/forcers.asp

or, with a patina, and cheaper, this
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Terracotta-Rhubarb-Forcer-/181101847179?_trksid=p2045573.m2042&_trkparms=aid%3D111000%26algo%3DREC.CURRENT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D27%26meid%3D6426649332611218597%26pid%3D100033%26prg%3D1011%26rk%3D2%26sd%3D261131274358%26

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

Rhihaf - are you sure it was not a fox? In my all too frequent experience, foul semi-liquid pois right in the centre of plants emanate from foxes. You really do have my sympathies.

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

Err, poos.

[LexyMa]

My rhubarb crowns are only in their first productive year so I won't be forcing them as it exhausts the plant and i would have to then dig and divide them and give them a year off. But I am thinking about moving one crown to make way for a fruit tree I saw in Costco, and don't quite know the best moment to do that. If I dug up an 18-inch cube around the plant (or as big as I could manage) and just transplanted the whole thing perhaps that would not disturb it too much?

[funnyperson]

Lexyma you mention a concern I have because after less than 24 hours I am worrying about depriving the rhubarb of light. It doesn't seem right somehow. I think perhaps I could compromise by taking the top of the pot off so that the rhubarb grows upwards but doesn't get too pale. I don't want to exhaust the plant as it is only the one and is a strong one, having survived the snow. The thing is I don't want stringy tough inedible stems either. I would like to know more about what happens when a rhubarb is forced.

I bought 2 alchemellia mollis plants for 99p and 10 bishop of landaff dahlia tubers for 2 pounds from lidl today. There are some really good offers in at the moment.

[funnyperson]

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

I love Alchemilla mollis. I wonder if I can make time to go to Lidl tomorrow.

[WynkenBlynkenandNod]

Hmmm, agree it might well be a fox. I am familiar with the foul stench of fox poo as my charming dog loves nothing more than to rub her ears in the stuff. That is pretty traumatic to find a pile on top of your Rhubarb. Am loving the idea of having a family rhubarb heritage , how fantastic. Isn't rhubarb pretty indestructible with big roots ? I think I accidentally dug some up on the allotment once about this time of year and it was fine. Mine at new allotmemt is on it's second year so can pull some for DH. I hate the stuff and get transported back to 1970's school dinners when I think of it.

I had a gardening related trauma. Some gravel is being out down and when I looked at the prepared area I noticed my carefully nurtured from seed perennial sweet peas had vanished. Imagine my huge relief when I found them stuck in a pot by the pond.

It's been a very difficult week here as my Mum was diagnosed a week ago with moderate mixed dementia. I was expecting the diagnosis but did go into shock and am not entirely sure I'm out yet. I know there's a lot of cr@p to come so gardening as a break from it will be more important than ever for me. Might see if I can get a waist height raised bed thing for Mum as she used to love gardening and it would probably be good for her. Am looking forward to GW today to lose myself in Monty's soothing voice which I find very good for frazzledc nerves.

[echt]

Well it's Saturday morning here in Melbourne, and first cool enough that when I sat down to write, I had to go back upstairs to get a card and slippers on.

Aldi were selling bulbs cheaply so bought lots of hyacinths and mixed daffy. They'll all be planted in dip tins - old steel perforated boxes which were used for drying fruit back in the day, but are now cheap collectables in rural vintage markets. I'll line them with coir and see how it goes. I'll try a couple in the two hyacinth glasses we found in the in DH's dear old mum's stuff which came over a few years ago.

Another venture is growing kang kong, a water spinach which will grow in any old pot full of soggy soil - rather like a water lily, really. It just keeps growing, kept in a sunny spot and is a year round leaf full of good things. This will mean going to the nearest big Asian market to buy a bunch take cuttings, and see what happens. This will also mean I'll have to have lunch in one of the many Vietnamese restaurants. The sacrifices I make.:o

So sorry to hear about your mum, Wynken, and the idea of the waist-high bed sounds lovely. Your seeing the garden as soothing is so right and made me think of Marvell's The Garden:"Annihilating all that's made to a green thought in a green shade".

[Blackpuddingbertha]

Wynken

Not sure I approved of Monty's green scarf tonight. Did you watch the mulching technique funny? Must do more mulching...

I am trying to convince DH that we need to build the arbour this weekend. He's trying to tell me that the weather is not going to be conducive to arbour building.

I'll be off to check my local Lidl tomorrow then; I've been fancying some alchemilla mollis for a while.

[Blackpuddingbertha]

Just noticed that we're going to need a new thread again soon. Lexi, Humph?

[rhihaf]

Oh Wynken, I'm so sorry - totally feel for you. It's horrible, and there I am going on about fox/dog poo! :(

Echt - do they have Lidl in Aus then? I am somehow excited by that

Thank you everyone for rhubarb-related sympathies :) Can I take this opportunity to say sorry for jumping feet first into this thread without so much as a polite request? Can't remember who it was who very nicely asked and was received, but it made me realise I gatecrashed like an annoying toddler-whose-mum-doesn't-clip-him-around-the-ear-when-he-misbehaves..

Did anyone else see Monty's new greenhouse. Oh. My. Eye. [swoon]

Funnyperson, you are so right. I NEED a rhubarb forcer. FACT.

More anyone?