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...

Evening! Well back from a week away and got an hour or two when it wasn't torrentially raining to see what's come up, grown over and fallen down.

My sweet peas have finally come into their own and are probably the best blooms I've ever had - huge and really long stalks. Dd and I picked two huge vasefuls and there are still more. We also finally have 4 ripe tomatoes and the onions and red cabbage are ready. Harvested the first head of calabrese for dinner too. Otherwise everything is looking a bit shaggy and several 4ft long brambles have shot out of the hedge so it really needs a full day of chopping and tidying. Very pleased that all the stuff I quickly bunged in the ground before we went away is looking good and not totally slugged, although my dahlias have been reduced to skeletons.

DH mowed the lawn and I planted up a red white and blue container to celebrate the olympics. Did not manage anything like cantspel's efforts though and back to work tomorrow so it will have to wait for a few more days.

Hello! I've been off this thread for a while and have nothing exciting to report. I have 2 squash plants growing like triffids... I think they are courgettes but could be cucumber or something else. I don't remember planting them!

I made DP dig up a small tree (I can't remember what it is!) and I thought he'd killed it but it is just beginning to sprout new leaves so I'm very happy. I must remind myself what it is!

I'm not supposed to be here, am in Holland and DH will kill me when he sees my phone bill ! Just had a quick read through - Bertha don't touch the Oca, have a look on the Realseeds site, from memory they get dug up later in the Autumn. I think the tubers grow very late on.

Gorgeous shrubs all over the place here with big round White balls of flowers, some kind of hydrangea I think. Will catch up properly next week.

I'm on hols too. In cornwall the agapanthus were growing like weeds along verges, hydrangeas everywhere too, including some with small flower/bract clusters in sort of layers up the plants.

Devon now, and everything is just lush and thick. DH is at home making tea for builders (and being talked into things, by the sound of it!) so I have to rely on him following my instructions advice on keeping courgettes regularly harvested and stringing up onions in the shed. No need to fret about watering though.

My garden has gone all shady and ferny like it always does (sigh)

Mums garden is looking great though with daylilies and fuschia and shasta daisies and roses and golden rod and heather and blackberries and redcurrants and roses and thyme and .... well an endless list of stuff really

Agapanthus all over the place here too. Much better than mine at home (am in Hampshire for the night).

Still getting nothing done in the garden at all, the Olympics has added to the demands on my time and there are simply not enough hours in the day!. Did manage to pull up all the spent peas today, string up the parsnip foliage, and pick some courgettes, beans and the rest of the white currants (5kg!). Cucumbers also doing nicely in the conservatory - look like shop cucumbers but taste amazing. Tomatoes now reaching conservatory ceiling but still very few flowers and none yet set. Will nip out tops now and hope for the best.

Wynken - had a little peek in the oca pot last week and saw nothing much tuber-like so left them alone; glad you said autumn though as I was suspecting another failure!

House full of sweet peas; smells wonderful

The 'fields of gold' at the olympic park are lovely. DS thinks we should get rid of the lawn and sow cornflowers and eryngium and echinacea and whatever other flowers there were.

www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/gardeningpicturegalleries/9449066/London-2012-The-Olympic-Park-in-bloom.html?frame=2298033

Yes, I'm desperate to see the plantings in the park. But if you grub up the lawn, funnyperson (and I'm tempted to do the same) where will you sit with your Pimms or other cold treat in the summer?

Those photies are lovely.Thanks for putting them up, funnyperson.

Spring is slowly uncoiling here in Melbourne. I went a farmers' market in the country near Hanging Rock, and resisted buying hellebores in bloom, instead bought 5 hellebore plugs at a tenth of the price of 1, to get settled this year. Also 10 seaside daisies to fill in the beds. The only plants I buy in bloom are kangaroo paws, because that's the only way they're ever sold, everything else I wait until the season is over, then buy cheap. It's worth the wait.

Chuffed to see that all my sulking clivia have cheered up and decided to flower after all.

A less welcome sign of spring is flies. So out comes the fly trap, an organic device which you put a blue powder in, then some water, and the flies love it, crawl in and die in their hundreds. Unfortunately it smells of rotting meat, so must be positioned away from a door, and only outside the house. It works a treat. I'm not fond of sprays, etc. Disturbingly, the instructions make it clear that the foodstuffs are up to human consumption standards.:o

Maud later on there will be lots of seeds to be gathered there methinks.

Yes, you see I like my lawn a lot. DS always likes the daisies and also likes long grass gone to seed and wildflower meadows. He is 20 btw. I was quite proud because along with all his uni stuff came back some very healthy plants from cuttings in pots (literally stuffed in the pots the day before he left, at his request) and a rampantly healthy chilli plant (his own purchase: he is a fresh chilli lover)
Anyway I see his point about having wildflowers instead of lawn but they are only in flower for a short time and then what? As for Pimms I think he sees himself lounging in long grass/on wildflowers with current romantic interest (he gets far too serious actually) drinking the stuff.

PS Anyone rich and desperate can still get tickets for the closing ceremony at a mere £1500 apiece. The £995 tickets have all gone I notice.

Can I ask for some help from all you wonderful garden-loving people? If you had around £300 to spend for something in your garden what would you get? I have one of those important birthdays coming up and my darling mother, SIL and a friend want to club together for something but I'm at a bit of a loss. I am considering a half circle bench to go around one of the trees in the wood but I'm not convinced. Would love some ideas to ponder...

Agree, half circle, (lyra and all that)
Lutyens bench? Painted white or chartwell green.
www.internetgardener.co.uk/product/benches/marlborough-lutyens-teak-garden-bench/2433

Adirondack chairs?
www.simplygardenfurniture.co.uk/Garden-Chairs/Classic-Adirondack-Double-2-Seater-Tete-a-Tete?oid=19650&gclid=CPKNovrL4LECFfMdtAod3wwAlg

Colonial chairs?
www.wayfair.co.uk/PM-and-PP-LTD-Jasper-Rattan-Chair-with-Cushion-in-White-PR80-PMP1140.html?refid=GPAUK321-PMP1140&gclid=CM7hl9fM4LECFSsntAod9S8AYw

Veg trough or two?

Plants and trees?

Geodisic dome (could be too expensive)

I would go for a bench or a piece of sculpture.

Second the sculptures. We have 10 in our garden; all made from industrial salvage by a chap who, while not an artist, is very artistic indeed, real natural talent in making abstract compositions. If you ask him about piece he has nothing to say about meaning, only what it was made from, e.g. harrows, meat grinding plates. I should say I never ask about it's meaning, it's plain it doesn't have any, just beautiful arrangements of metal and stone. His stuff is way better than any of the expensive work I've seen in gardens.

I've called halt to any more purchases for the moment, as you need distance to see most of them, and it's getting a bit crowded. DH is about this.

This is not very helpful as we're in Australia. Sorry. Had to enthuse.

Benches are good, too.

I think your general idea of affordable sculpture is still helpful, echt!

Definitely sculpture or a lovely antique urn [if you have an accessible and affordable antique shop nearby].Hi all,hope you are all having a good holiday.I was thinking of you all, as am on hols in a really green part of Malaysia full of strawberry farms and garden centres.There are wild tree ferns and orchids by the side of the road and we have visited a tea plantation where the road was lined with trees with lily-type flowers[called sleeping bells].Lots of Hibiscus trees with massive flowers on [i don't know whether my blue flowered Hibiscus will ever be as abundant as these].Dc's were thrilled to see Nepenthe [monkey pitchers] attached to the trees in the jungle and real life monkeys with babies in the lowland jungle.There is so much ugly development here though that i'm not sure the jungle is going to be arround for much longer.Its makes you realise that the uk is pretty good at maintaining its green and pleasant land[lots of rapidly expanding holiday areas here are beginning to resemble shanty towns].

That sounds fascinating, teta. I've never really thought of Malaysia as a holiday destination. Would you recommend it (and isn't it terribly hot)?

I would love these

www.johnlewis.com/231229942/Product.aspx

www.primrose.co.uk/sussex-planter-p-1558.html?cPath=2_804&src=list_name

www.primrose.co.uk/madeira-teak-rocking-garden-chair-p-33651.html?cPath=41_71&src=list_name

www.primrose.co.uk/lobos-hardwood-garden-chair-p-33512.html?cPath=41_71&src=list_name

Loving your suggestions. I particularly like the rocking chair! I found this sculpture last night when I was googling. Somehow I don't think it's going to be inside budget though...

DH is getting me a swing. One of these. It's being put on a 15m high branch so some big swinging is being planned.

Finally managed to dig the self-seeded lavender out of the fig tree pot today. I now have 12 pots of lavender lined up in front of the house. Not sure what I'm going to do with them all once they're established. May have to put a lavender hedge in somewhere.

Regarding oca: it does only start to produce tubers once the days shorten, but it obligingly makes a few on the stems above ground so you know when it has started.
Most oca plants have probably just done the disconcerting midsummer flop, when the stems suddenly collapse and bend over to ground level before starting to grow upright again. That's normal behaviour, and if you have the space you can earth over the 'elbows' and they'll root from them and eventually produce even more tubers (apparently. I grow in bags on concrete, so I don't know from personal experience).
Don't be in any hurry to harvest in autumn. Try to keep the plants protected from frost to give the tubers as much time to form as possible. Eventually when they get hit by a hard frost, the foliage will die off into a slimy mass, but the tubers double in size over the following two weeks. Last year, I harvested on Christmas Eve.

I am still on holiday but was at home early this week to keep a handle on the building work. Ate my first tomato (a yellow variety) and harvested about 150g of 'amethyst' dwarf French beans. On e breakfast I had an omelette with three little courgettes and the last red 'furio' spring onions. The grass is really going
to be long when I get back but everything seems to be growing nicely.

My Hampton Court dahlia is out too and looked fabulous - I poured some coffee grounds around it go continue dissuading the s.l.u.g.s. I would say that I can't wait to be back to see it all, but it would be insincere as I am on a sunlounger beside the river swimming place in Zurich. Such hardship... :)