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...

May I join? :)

I am shortly going to have a garden. My own garden. Small, but a garden. Not merely a flowerbed the size of two yoga mats end to end. No, a garden. With a fence. That I can put trellises on.

My own garden.

No, no, I don't need the paramedics, it's only my heart rate going up at the thought of my own garden.

Erm. . As you were.

PS - I don't post consistently because I'm 8 hours behind most of you and life is a tad busy but I've lurked on a few of the gardening threads. ComeIntoTheGardenMaud is my online gardening buddy.

Jacks! We've missed you since Humph's happy horti cult!

Oh - thank you! I'm baaaaaack...

::embraces Jacksmania::

::worries that anyone citing her as credentials is in very deep trouble indeed::

:o

Hello there!

I just want to say that rosa Munstead Wood is gorgeous and scented and deepest maroon but droopy. I am glad it is in a very big and tall pot as I think it would drop into the soil otherwise.

Does anyone else have really rampant rose foliage due to all the rain? I'm not sure whether to cut it back even though it isn't quite the right time of year for pruning.

Sowed more salad, chives and spinach.

I think my garden will lack flowers in October- what do you all have which flowers then?

What have you all got flowering now?

All my new roses have been a bit droopy - I think you're right, funnyperson, about the rain and also lack of light - but Winchester Carhedral has now perked up and I'm hoping the others will follow suit. My main late summer thing is Japanese anemones. I luffs them. The other late summer standbys like dahlias never work for me. I'd like to try heleniums. I was just reading about them in the RHS mag.

I don't really know what I expect to flower in a couple of months, having somewhat lost the thread of my planned planting scheme (it's there somewhere...). Spring last year I planted perennials that.would flower Feb through Nov, so there must be something.

This morning I had to cut most of my gladioli out the front because the rain had bent them over. I should have staked them in the first place, but I haven't grown them before and didn't realise how heavy the flower spikes are! They are all good blooms though and are now in my cut flower vase being enjoyed.

Busy day tomorrow before hols. Must tie things in, set up watering systems, deadhead, and put out slug pellets. I saw a tip about hiding the pellets underneath a tile or piece of cardboard, where slugs go to hide anyway, which keeps other animals (like my bloody magpies) off the pellets too. I also have a new-mummy cake to bake (Genoa cake, went down really well with the last post-partum people i did it for!), packing for an 18-day 3-stop holiday, a 4 mile training run and a haircut to fit in. Oh and briefing a builder.

I may need to make myself a herb bouquet to calm myself down!!!

have a lovely holiday Lexi - hope you are not too tired when you set off! That is an impressive list of stuff to do.

I am off next week for ten days but am leaving people here at the house so have written down a comprehensive watering rota.

Congratulations on your new garden Jacksmania. It is a GREAT feeling.

Does anyone here get the RHS magazine? There's a lovely little article about the Olympic medallists' flower posies.

Happy holidays everyone who's about to embark!

Yes! I saw that Maud. Is flower-arranging making a bit of a comeback? (or am I just moving into the sort of demographic where it starts to appeal to me... argh!) - there were lots of lovely segments on the Chelsea and HC Show tv programmes about using fragrant leaves in arragements.

I do that. It makes lemon verbena serve a useful purpose other than swamping my herb beds.

Am going to plant out my echinops later today. After the rat man has paid his visit Several baby mice popped out from the skirting board in the living room two days ago. DH continued to do his back exercises on the floor, completely unphased

I moved myself out of there fairly smartly.

No rats since we were invaded by an army 2 years ago. I have never forgotton it. They were all killed. Every last one. Now every possible way into the house is blocked and I can breathe as the house is ours again. No more creaks or squeaks or pitterpatter or crumbs or poo. It was scary how quickly they multiplied when treated with mercy. Self defence justified the carnage. I scrubbed and decorated for weeks afterwards.

Those bouquets are lovely. There are more than 4,000 of them apparently, some being made up at Kingston Maurward. Does that mean they are growing the roses/mint/lavender etc near there?

Heleniums are looking amazing now, mixed in with a lavender border that failed so we have a few flowering lavender interspersed with the orangey heleniums. They look stunning in the light at this time of year and the colour combination is really good.

I cut back a huge delphinium today to find a slightly disencouraged hemerocallis underneath. I hope it can perk up now and give some flowers - they sould be a dark maroon.

funnyperson good flowers for October are Verbena bonariensis and Nerine bowdenii.

We went to a truly lovely garden today. Much of the colour was provided by dahlias, salvias and lobelias.

Well I have been inspired by this thread to get out in the garden, and say hello here too rather than lurking. I have been off sick after surgery for a few weeks but now pretty mobile so made a small start on the list of things I've compiled in my head over the days of sofa & tv!

Back garden has a boring narrow border with some gaps and then clumps where stuff was planted too close: I moved the day lily that has flowered for a fortnight and finished, and the non-flowering-this-year red hot poker, and also a sorry looking hellebore rescued from my mum's garden when we had to sell her house after she died... Turned out it had been chucked in upside down and had desperately sent shoots down and round and up one side, after we had to replace the fencing. I've turned it round as much as poss whilst leaving the foliage above ground so hopefully next spring it will be ok!

Front garden: had to chop some of my giant mallow away to let light onto a hebe I planted too close, later I will move the hebe but not sure where yet. Pulled up lots of the rampant wild strawberries as they have choked the smaller things; I will plant them somewhere I can control them as we all like eating them and they smelt amazing in the sun. My front garden is my joy as it's essentially a huge bed in front of our terraced house: I was lucky that it hadn't been concreted so pulled up the gravel and sheet that was there and stuck a load of stuff in. I am fairly new to gardening and have forgotten half of the names but lavender, pink oriental poppy, pink mallow in one corner, olive tree in a pot, dianthus and a few other shrubs. I need some more low level things next year. By fluke things all flower in succession so it looks brilliant once the bulbs come up all thru to the end. It's just totally overgrown at the mo!

Looking forward to more tips and ideas from everyone, thank you for getting me out in the sun today (between showers!).

Oops that was long am all excited though!

Lovely to see you, serotoninismyfriend. That sounds like a lovely garden.

::proffers gin, renowned for its curative properties::

hello Seratonin lovely sounding garden

My fennel has appeared.

But a bastarding bastard cat came and did a massive crap and destroyed a whole two foot of seedlings covering it up. Twat. That's my 4th batch of lettuce seedlings gone to shit (literally)

DP has just sprayed his wee around the perimeter of the garden

I was just thinking yesterday that none of my bronze fennel had appeared this year. I hate cats almost as much as I hate foxes.

no bronze fennel seedlings germinated for me either.

The squirrels are the problem in our garden. I hate squirrels. Rats with fluffy tails.

These were established plants, Humph. All gorn.

::sobs::

Hello serotonin I really like the sound of your front garden.

I have serious front garden angst.

I am convinced that next door's dog wees in it.

But mainly I just don't know what to plant which is silly as it is south facing.

Perhaps its because I can't pop out in my pyjamas to do a bit of pottering around in it.

So I am going to seriously prune the dogwood and buddleia and give some light and air to the Generous Gardener rose and dig out some of the valerian and move some of the clematis and lavender and sage and perhaps the little olive tree I got at the jubilee fete into it. But I need something interesting in my front garden. It has tulips and aubretia in spring. At the moment it is boring and samey. I want to add a bit of welcoming zing and style to it. Like those Olympic bouquets. But I don't know how.