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...

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

A big, slightly muddy hug for Wynken.

Rhihaf - Nobody has to ask to join the thread and it's good to have you here. To be honest, and as my memory is not the best, I assumed you were an old member either name-changed or just coming back after a break. Especially as you know that our equivalent of the Masonic handshake is the offer of //.

I haven't seen Monty yet. I do love Monty.

[echt]

Aldi but no Lidl, rhihaf. Aldi have only managed to get in after tremendous resistance from the big supermarkets, but now they're quite widespread, and always in the less well-heeled parts of town. DH has just gone off for the Saturday special: tarp poles!!

I'll watch GW on iPlayer later today, my Saturday afternoon treat.

[Blackpuddingbertha]

I blanked out Monty's new greenhouse. Dh went, 'Wow', closely followed by, 'You're not having one'.

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

Arf at Bertha's husband.

[WynkenBlynkenandNod]

Thank you all. I find dog/fox poos discussions reassuring normal Rhihaf and as Maud said, you absolutely don't have to apologise for coming onto the thread, it's lovely to have you

Bertha's DH has made me laugh. I didn't watch it last night as was knackered and fell asleep so am going to watch it in a moment. Concerned to hear about Monty's scarf, they aren't paying attention to standards this season.

It's funny to think of you having to put your slippers on Echt. It's 4 degrees here at the moment, at least we don't have snow. We're off to visit family over Easter and staying in Holland. Am hoping to see lots of tulips. Not sure we're close enough to Keukenhof to go which is a shame as the are having a London theme this year which would have appeased the DC's at being dragged round a garden.

[WynkenBlynkenandNod]

Oh dear, Monty's scarf was not good. Loved the greenhouse, how lovely to be able to have the space to decide where to put it. Mine's jammed into the one available corner and my neighbour started giving it the old there's not enough light. Well she ate her words when she saw last year's tomato plants and basil.

DS built his pond (puddle) down the side and I have split primroses to plant round it, found acquilegia seedlings , split some irises, taken forget me nots from allotment and split a heuchera to go round it. There's a bed in front of it that could do with some more plants under the cherry tree (must net this year so we get some and not the blackbirds). Once the grave, is done then later this year the greenhouse should blend well into its surroundings.

Any suggestions for a climber to go up a wigwam that will tolerate shade ? Built it for sweet peas last year that failed miserably.

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

What's this about Monty's scarf?

::closes ears to all criticism of wonderful Monty::

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

RHS suggestions for climbers for shade, although some of them would need drastic pruning to be kept within the wigwam. Or how about a small honeysuckle? I am on a mission to get the whole world growing honeysuckle.

[Rhubarbgarden]

Well I asked to join, proffered and no one 'received' me...

I missed GW again last night dammit. I need to set it to record. I might even have to work out how I player works if Monty had a new lovely greenhouse - I'm in the market for one (see recent thread).

Finally finished pruning the apple trees yesterday, in the rain, and hacked back a bit of yew hedge that was turning into tree. Very satisfying. Too wet to finish planting my new yew hedge though. I'm starting to fret about those poor plants now; heeled in since September and now the end of March is approaching fast.

Sorry to hear about your Mum, Wynken. Gardening is absolutely the right response and very therapeutic, for both of you.

[WynkenBlynkenandNod]

Rhubarb welcome I'd definitely get iplayer working then you can pick your time to watch it. Well worth worth watching for his very high ceiling greenhouse with lovely brick walls. Plus he did go into the siting of it.

Thanks for the link Maud. I have honeysuckle by my front door plus on a raised bank ad I took some rooted bits and am trying to get it growing on some trellis in the back.

Now Monty's scarf. Thing is it was a bit bright and jarred rather than enhanced, I couldn't concentrate on mulching technique.

[Blackpuddingbertha]

Monty's new greenhouse

[Blackpuddingbertha]

That photo all shows Monty in 'the scarf'.

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

I'm sorry the welcoming committe wasn't out in force for you, Rhubarb. Perhaps we were all in the potting shed at the time.

And wow. That is just stunning. And so is the greenhouse. Arf.

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

Im watching Monty now. Oooh those dark hellebores.

::horticultural swoon::

[LexyMa]

I nominate Rhubarb or Rhihaf to start the next thread - I've done too many!!

I will be getting my dose of GW on iPlayer later. We watch the mentalist together on a Friday (also, demand5 is much more flaky than iPlayer so better to watch bbc at leisure)

[rhihaf]

Ooooh, another look at Monty's greenhouse [drool], thanks Bertha! Would it be churlish of me to the leather jerkin he's also wearing? I have a hazy memory of this being previously discussed... as you were right Maud, I did lurk around the shadows of this thread pre-DS.

Thanks everybody for such loveliness :) and even more cheering was my rhubarb this morning - no dog or fox poo, next door's fence remains upright and all 4 of the rhubarbs have grown at least 3 or 4 inches, in about 2 days!


I have heeled in [preens at use of technical term] two gooseberry bushes I got in Lidl until I finish digging over one of my raised beds. I dug one over, then realised the gooseberries would put my longest bed in shade

Lexy - I would gladly start a new thread, although it could take a while to work out...

... any name suggestions ladies? The "Don't shit on my rhubarb!" thread perhaps? ;)

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

I am just back from a very successful horti-shop at Lidl and the 99p Store.

I have strawberry plants, asparagus, sweet pea and various other seeds, some pop-up coldframes and a new rigid coldframe. I was very tempted by Lidl's plastic greenhouse but think it would be too big for the space. Obviously, being plastic, it is not a patch on Monty's cathedral of glass.

The young man on Lidl's till told me about his aspirations to grow aubergines on his verandah. Aww.

Can we please not have shit in the next thread's title? ::squeamish::

[echt]

Hmm, a new thread title. Will still need to retain the idea of a club/quiche/association.

I was taken by the tropical garden in GW, and pleased I'd got so much of it right. My tropical bit of the garden runs down the side of the house and is a raised bed, about 4 feet wide, narrowing to 1 foot over a length of about 12 feet. The shade is provided by next door's many trees, and two coco palms in the bed,which sound better than they look as it being so narrow you can't see the leaves.

I was at the lovely tree ferns, but there's a reason you see so many bundled up dead on nature strips, and that's the water they need. They only do well in Melbourne with a drip water feeder into the crown. Still, I did tick off on heuchera, cordyline Australia, and aspidistra.. The chap was right about how soothing it is, though ours is too narrow to sit in we can see it all year round thanks to the the floor-to-ceiling windows which run the length of the room looking on to the side passage.

Today, Sunday we're off to the Diggers' Harvest Festival, where there'll be lots of heirloom veggies for an arm and leg, so we'll stop off at Frankston Market where very common indeed veggies will be cheap as chips. Last week we harvested some tiny aubergines that were the creamiest, sweetest I've ever eaten.

[HumphreyCobbler]

I loved that Greenhouse too. I really want a greenhouse. I am fed up of trying to bring on seeds on my north facing windowsill.

Those aubergines sound heavenly echt

[funnyperson]

How about RhubarbRhubarbRhubarb as a title?
Rhubarbgarden welcome and please have some elderberry cordial

Maud did you get any Alchemilla Mollis? I wonder if the Lidls sell different stuff?

I watched Gardener's World this evening over a cup of coffee. iplayer is one of the pleasures of life. As is listening to Monty- and it was really nice watching him mulch and answering all my silly questions about how to mulch plus extra useful info about the different types of mulch. What I like about him is that he always gardens as though he has done it before He makes gardening look like the most natural and easy thing. He was also rather poetic about the hellebores producing offspring 'better than their parents'. Like children. I liked the way he spoke about agreeing on plants for the garden. The neongreen scarf looked hand knitted in a hurry I thought.

This has been an enjoyable thread. Thank you.

[rhihaf]

What about the Rhubarb Appreciation Society then echt? Sorry Maud , no further pooey references I promise!

[echt]

Sounds splendid, rhihaf. :o

[Blackpuddingbertha]

My Lidl didn't have any Alchemilla Mollis, but I did pick up some dahlia tubers. Was tempted by the strawberries...and the plastic greenhouse.

Pushes thread to the edge

[echt]

Oh, OK then.... somebody kick off the new one.