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...

[WynkenBlynkenandNod]

My goodness, the sun has been out all day ! Been digging up potatoes that were struck by blight, they're ok but need lifting soon so need to do the rest. The first courgette has appeared and my beans have started flowering.

After a difficult few days of running back and forth between my Mum and the various doctors she needed to see and my teenage DD and her various leaving middle school events, we had to cancel outrying awaited trip to see my brother. Have been struggling to find anything as our budget is pathetic in comparison to most of the things around. But my faith in human nature has been restored, a fantastic friend has offered us two weeks in their place in Cornwall. Have been busy googling to see where the Lost Gardens of Heligan are and will definitely be going back to Eden Project which we'd visited the day of 9/11.

[WynkenBlynkenandNod]

With tomatoes I'd pinch them out if they are outside with a few sets of flowers on as you want to get fruit before blight strikes (i am a pessimist where blight is concerned) .The number of fruit per truss depends on type - Ildi have the biggest trusses I've ever seen whilst St Pierre are the other end of the scale and much more modest.

[Lexilicious]

Hmmm, lost a long post I was writing. The small person got hold of the iPad...

I spent five hours weeding my 4x4m front garden today, and I'm really feeling it in my back and legs. Also got a weird slash of sunburn where my t-shirt parted company from my shorts!

I have seen more plantain, dead nettle, creeping buttercup, horsetail, couch grass, forget-me-not and native geum/geranium than I ever need to see. My fingers are still tingling from the occasional stinging nettle too. I pulled up enough to fill nearly two thirds of a large brown wheely bin - plus a serious haircut on the mint and a shaping cut on the lavender which borders the path to the front door. I am going to give up on my tesco salvias, and instead plant the two nice lavenders that I got at HCPFS. The sedum spurium was awash with all sorts of bees today, and they also enjoyed the borage and comfrey flowers. No butterflies on my buddleias though, none at all.

I got absolutely nothing done in the back garden today, grrr. I will have to put in an hour or so after work each day this week, depending on how compliant the boy is, to divide irises, tie in sweet peas, plant late summer and early winter veg, and take up alliums and tulips for storing. I have just won a couple of nice old tins on eBay to store things in as well as buying one of those indexed seed tins (burgon and ball) for my seed packets.

funny I've cut off quite a few of the lower leaves from my tomatoes, and must start feeding them now I can see a truss or two forming. I'm dreadful at remembering to feed things. Haven't done any pinching of strawberries - if I saw runners forming I would cut them off, but mine are keeping themselves to themselves at the moment.

[Blackpuddingbertha]

Hello everyone - back from the sunshine and seem to have missed all the grotty weather of last week. Hurrah.

Not much happened in the garden whilst away though; successes - sweet peas still growing nicely and picked a nice bunch again today, four small courgettes & four small carrots picked, bag of potatoes had enough tubers in for two meals, peas doing well-ish, verbena bonariensis looking great in the long bed as is the cosmos and other small-headed red alium things I can't remember the name of. Not so successful - slugs, slugs, slugs, slugs eating everything! Tomatoes still not flowering although immensely tall.

Also lost another chicken whilst away (prolapse for the chicken keepers amongst you), which I think traumatised the neighbour chicken sitting.

And finally, puppy arrived today! She's extremely cute and keeps chewing my toes while I'm typing as she prefers not be ignored.

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

I've had a good time, clearing some of the grot out of an overcrowded flowerbed and making space for the fabulous heucheras which I've just swapped with Lexi. We also went to an NGS garden that was truly lovely.

There's so sign of several verbena bonariensis I planted in the spring - perhaps they'll emerge in the autumn when I cut down the other stuff.

[HumphreyCobbler]

Ooh, a puppy. I love a puppy.

A lovely day today, a properly sunny, hot and relaxing day in the garden. Paddling pool and sandpit in operation.

Maud, my thalictrum is looking amazing. So glad as I thought it was never going to appear. The roses are having a slight resurgence and the veg in the round patch are finally getting going.

Ate our first broad beans today. Can't believe it was so late in the year.

[Blackpuddingbertha]

My idea of a week off work at home with small children and puppy entertaining each other while I potter about the garden is not going to work out quite as I planned. Puppies and small children are very demanding. Still, lovely day today, most of which spent in the garden if not actually gardening.

Puppy has eaten one of my garden shoes; I think I may use this as an excuse to get a pair of those great 'backdoor shoes' that someone once linked to (Maud I think).

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

It wasn't me who linked to back door shoes - mine are from Lidl - but I agree they're very covetable.

The thalictrum is indeed gorgeous and does very well as a cut flower.

[HaitchJay]

I have back door flip flops. Do they count?
Not a lot of fruit is making it to the house this year.dd3 has just about figured the right colour for each fruit to pick and is eating everything.

[Lexilicious]

I have back door plimsolls and ancient clog-shaped Merrells.

Did some planting this evening - Chillis and Peppers into a trough. They have been badly treated in the growhouse with sporadic watering, so are fairly stressed as well as slug-nibbled. Protected my purple sprouting broccoli youngsters with netting because the pigeons have been feasting on the leaves, and tied in my squash onto a bird feeder stake and pair of canes. Admired some sweet peas and swept the deck to look vaguely presentable. Happy again.

Took delivery today of two seed tins! The index-card B&Ball one is for new seed packets, the other is for lifted bulbs. One more to come, which is for collected seed.

[Blackpuddingbertha]

Anyone watching AT's 'garden design in a day that no normal person could achieve' or whatever it's called? I just fell in love with the Potager veg garden. If only I could get mine to look like that! I'd be happy with lots of neat rows and blocks of colour; would obviously appeal to my obsession with straight lines sense of order. If anyone knows what the really red things were (looked like some kind of lettuce or cabbage) then please let me know...

Today's gardening moment was 10 minutes weeding the drive. The puppy is like an unruly toddler with teeth! Have watered too though which is the first time I've said that in a while. The water butts actually got used!

[Blackpuddingbertha]

Think I'm quite fancying the strawberry ones...

[chixinthestix]

I did watch AT but got quite cross at the ridiculousness of it all. DS (9) said 'thats not a garden because its got no plants to do any gardening with'. That's my boy!
Agree though, the potager garden was lovely.

DCs gave me garden clogs for my birthday. They are black with sparkly bits in although I did eye up those fruit and veg ones too Bertha.

[funnyperson]

I have well worn black sparkly flipflops.

Sowed some spinach today.

Also planted a very restful and pretty pot for the front verandah: white flame begonia and white trailing verbena: ceramic pot : Very simple. Looks stunning.

Out the back, the deep purple pot planted with maroon and purple petunias and dark pinks and lilies is looking great because the sun has made the flowers bloom.

Butterflies today: 1x white 1x brown 1x red: they love the lavender and salvia.

[cantspel]

my new and very beautiful calla lily has gone all droppy and the stems seem to be coming away.

I only bought it and planted it into a new pot on the patio last week and now it seems to be dieing on me

The other calla lily i bought and potted up at the same time is fine so i dont know why this one is so poorly.

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

You have a verandah, funnyperson? How enviable. There are some houses near me with wrought iron verandahs which I swoon over.

I like the red and cream rose backdoor shoes.

::credit card begins to twitch::

[funnyperson]

I dont think I make as much of the verandah as I could, partly because it looks out the front.

I am seriously considering those 'living wall' thingys. I saw an amazing living wall growing up a hotel in Green Park the other day when I ...ahem...went to tea at Fortnum and Masons.....

The wall had fuschias and all sorts, and seemed much more organic somehow than a hanging basket. I have never been any good at hanging baskets. I'm not really sure how living walls are irrigated and how one replenishes the soil or how one protects the wall behind the living wall from damp.

[Blackpuddingbertha]

I too love living walls but would worry that I would kill it as I'm very bad at hanging baskets too. Was it one of the GWs that did a piece on them and you can get really sophisticated (and no doubt very expensive) systems that protect the wall and irrigate etc.

Deadheading is on my list to do tomorrow plus I really must pop over the fence and check up on the white currants as I'm sure they'll be ripe and ready for picking, if not too ripe already. Still have a couple of kilos in the freezer from last year though so not sure what I'll do with this year's.

Peas and two small courgettes for tea tonight. Wynken can I dig up the oca yet? Mine are flowering now and the foliage is starting to fade, so if like potatoes I'm assuming they're ready.

[HumphreyCobbler]

Anyone else been caught out by forgetting to water stuff? We nearly lost the tomatoes because of this. I am not in a watering routine yet due to all the rain.

Have been sitting out for the last three days. Just absolute bliss. Swing seat is heaven. I think I need a deck chair too.

Cottage borders looking very thin but I think will be better next year (all gardeners think that ). The herb beds under the pear tree, where we sit, are looking very nice. All the feverfew is in flower, the lavender is going strong, the sole four surviving purple orache are adding a splash of slug eaten colour. There is a lovely polish spirit clematis growing on a tripod on one side, the one of the other side died.

From a distance the non-existent wildflower meadow looks a lot better as a fair few large daisy plants have come up and are mixing with the calendula. If you look from an oblique angle you can't see the bare patches.

We will have very few apples this year. Anyone else got a poor crop, or is it just us?

[Blackpuddingbertha]

My apple trees have a load of little fruits but I know other people have very few too. No mirabelles this year though and the mulberries are just not ripening.

[funnyperson]

Practically non existent apples here. Worst crop for ages. The trees didn't blossom before the rain started. Apparently those whose trees blossomed before the rain started have really good crops.

Is your Polish spirit flowering already then?

[HumphreyCobbler]

well yes, but then it might not be a polish spirit We planted so many clematis this year, all the labels fell off so it could be anything.

Such a shame about the apples, we normally send off a couple of trees worth to turn into juice. We are still drinking the juice from last year.

[doublemocha]

Funnyperson - My tomatoes are doing well this year. Whilst I would love to think this was due to my amazing and new found talents as a gardener, in reality, this is because one of the builders left on site (we live in a new house) used to grow them for a living and sorts them out for me every couple of days!! He has taken off lots (I do mean lots) of side foliage in addition to pinching out (to let light get to the fruit and to divert energy into the fruit) I have also been told never to let them dry out, water regularly and feed every week now that the first fruits have formed. There are many many flowers. He also shakes them gently every few days..

Sorry about the chicken Bertha.

Gardening has been limited to watering, sorting out the plants in the greenhouse (whoever knew cucumber plants got so huge!) and a bit of general tidying as I have been working extra hours this week while the DC's are doing a sports camp so I have to work just one day next week. DH also away on business so I am a touch frazzled.

DH would draw the line at gardening clogs!

Taken delivery of my seeds for sowing in the autumn in the greenhouse (mainly, some may creep inside..)...Marigold, Pansy, Nasturtium, Calendula, California Poppy, Sweet Pea, Dahlia and Phlox.

Maud - similar issues with Thomson and Morgan and a £20 voucher (double the original spend) as compensation for not even having in stock the mint collection I ordered. In addition, three blueberry plants that arrived earlier in May were so badly packaged they had tipped all over the box, stems broken and in generally terrible condition that I demanded replacements. In fairness, said replacements were georgeous specimens (about 5 times larger than the originals) and are positively thriving, the originals marginally recovering I think.

Also mildly concerned all my GYO will be ready to pick/eat just as we go away in August!

[doublemocha]

Also - found where the bloody slugs had hidden themselves in one of my raised beds, under some lettuce, butternut squash now making a recovery.

[Lexilicious]

I am going to fret about my tomatoes today. I read this last night and thought no I watered them Tuesday, I'll wait till Thursday evening... but now I think I watered+fed them Monday evening (my last post on here) and they're not in the biggest ever pot... but I did take off some more of the lower leaves yesterday and they are quite big plants now (waist height). So hopefully they will be ok. One of the stems had withered at the point where my twine holding it to the canes had rubbed - it was trying to keep growing above but I've cut that one off. Lots of trusses have formed right at the top. Hoping they don't all ripen while I'm on holiday!

Everything is flowering! My herb beds are ridiculously keen on bushing out, they love it where they are - I should harvest more, to take advantage. I have arranged all my seeds in my new tins, and have a series of packets that need to be planted this weekend, as well as the overdue job of lifting bulbs and dividing/moving.

Will ask DH to do a couple of Man Jobs on Saturday - putting up plant support wires/trellis and sieving compost! I am fairly fed up of buying bags of it when I have got two full compost bins round the back of the shed. I might also use last year's leaf mould at last - is it a good slug barrier?