Rhubarb Appreciation Society

[Blackpuddingbertha]

Going with Rhihaf's thread name suggestion, following on from the first rule of gardening club is thread.

Pull up your kneeling pads, crack open the elderberry wine and the blackberry gin and come and join us. No real experience or gardening know-how needed.

oooh, x-post! Want some sage, humph, nudge nudge

And yes, foxgloves. Up there with alchemilla for annexing my garden

Lovely to hear about everyone's progress in their gardens... it feels a bit like Moley in the Wind in the Willows having a good old spring clean :)

Went and rescued a ton of wallflowers from behind a new retaining wall my dad's just built, they were all growing in shale but were now in shade following said wall's construction. They have gone into my newly rennovated front border. I also found a pot of what I think is sedum... that too has gone into the border.

My T&M perennial plugs (intended for same border) have now been watered from underneath and are no longer rock hard and wilting. Thank you for the advice!

We lopped off about 8ft of conifer hedge that goes along the bottom of our front lawn yesterday, so much more light comes in now!

The red kites have been gliding around again today, watching all the activity and having a good old nose ;) Thank you Monty for your wise words about spring springing - I am looking forward to huge explosions of colour imminently!

...ooops, just realised how that came across - if anyone wants any FREE lupins or sage... they're long past the paid-for stage

Ooh, I would love some sage, Leucan. Any variety.

Humph - That is not my experience with poppies at all. I was noting earlier that only the misnomer Patty's beige Plum had got through the winter and all the others seem to have disappeared.

Funny I am drifting along in a lovely daydream after reading about your lotus memories. Thank you for that.

I enjoyed reading about everyone's gardens bursting into life and am filled with the desire to turn up on the doorstep of my old house to demand to inspect my plants and see all the things I planted there bursting forth. Not much is bursting forth here at all. The conifers still loom moodily out of every corner and all the other overgrown evergreens are also doing exactly what they've been doing all winter. There are a lot of roses though, and they are all starting to come into leaf so that is something. Oh and nettles. There are nettles coming up everywhere. Not so good.

I spent a few hours digging out compost. We have inherited three overflowing compost bays which I intend to empty onto the scorched earth along the fence line where we had the 30 ft high Leylandii hedge removed from. I dug out half a bay, it was heavy going as at some stage someone has chucked in some bits of bramble, which have rooted and started to colonise. Lots of prunings too, which had to be fished out, along with with a number of squashed plastic pots (why? Why?). I think the compost bays have been used as a general dumping ground rather than for actual composting. It is improving with depth though, as it clearly hasn't been dug out for a very, very long time, if at all. Lots of lovely worms too. It will all help to improve that strip of soil anyway, ready for planting a new border in the autumn.

Lovely reading about everybody's gardening escapades over the weekend. I was visiting my parents, but managed a garden centre browse (very disciplined, no purchases may be first time ever) and discovered a walled garden today near my parents that I am going to HAVE to visit the next time I go home!

Back to school tomorrow, hopefully will plant potatoes and onions with the children and hopefully the sunflower seeds we planted two weeks ago and then left outside by accident over the Easter hols have survived. Will bring in for the classroom windowsill til the weather warms up. Apart from school gardening projects I plan to plant up a seed tray at home, repot an orchid and sow my onions this week

Have been looking at all the greenhouse links. Love the Alitex ones and also Griffin Glasshouses seem to do very similar ones to Alitex. They are so beautiful but expensive though . Even if I saved up that kind of money I think I'd feel guilty spending it on one of those greenhouses.

Then the cedar Gabriel Ash/Woodpecker ones are also lovely for around half the price which is still a lot more that anybody else I know would ever dream of spending on an outhouse/shed/ greenhouse but then ... you have to maintain them, and I wonder just how long they would last for/would they rot or need a lot of repainting?
What does anybody else think about the different types of greenhouses? I want beauty and size and function...
I don't think won't be investing for a few years, but I'd like to have a reasonable budget in mind....
Sorry bout the waffle...

Just finished digging over the new bed where the shed used to be, about 10 by 4, putting in lots of soil conditioner, sheep manure and wetting granules. It wasn't a difficult task as the soil is sand, and I mean sand, not sand-y.:o

funnyperson, you asked what I'll do with the dug- up aspidistras. They're a bit crispy so I'll pamper them in a big pot for a year before planting them in a shadier place.

My trip to buy sheep poo yielded an excellent bargain; two specimens of Bengal clock vine from the sad plants unit, so very cheap. They're tropical but I'll give them a go as I've yards of fence to cover and this thug is a good bet.

Enjoying reading all your exploits in the garden. I didn't get out there yesterday but spent the whole of the day wishing I was!
I managed to grow freesias from seed over winter in the green house and they are desperate to get out now but I don't think they'll stand the frost. It's so annoying! Hoping it won't be long until I can put them in my beds

Morning all.

Managed an hour and a half yesterday in the garden tidying up the area we?re going to make into a Japanese?ish garden. It was beautiful weather ? so much so that I managed to catch the sun on my face! (went out for a run in the morning too but the sun wasn?t very strong then).

My forsythia bushes are just about to burst into bud, and the bluebells in the front garden (that I have just discovered are actually grape hyacinths) are out. That?s about it over here. Everything else is slumbering (though to be fair, there isn?t much else!).

DH brother called last night to say he?s bringing over the tower and slide that he has for DS (their 2 have outgrown it now) so it?ll have to be stored in the garage until the plot is ready (we need to clear it of rubbish and then pave it) which means we have to clear space in the garage which is?you guessed it?full of rubbish! Still I am determined that we will have a garden we can enjoy and be proud of this year. We have a long weekend in 3 weeks (the Tues is a bank holiday ? Queen?s day but this year for the first time in my or DH?s lifetime it?ll be King?s day as Beatrix abdicates and Wilem-Alexander takes over as King ? DH has a compulsory holiday on the Monday and I?m on May holiday) and have decided not to come back to the UK because we want to get stuff done. Hoping for good weather

Gave my sage plant a major prune ? it?s gotten a bit out of control ? and have dried the useable leaves.

Thanks for the book recommendation Lexy . Love the look of it. Also loved the RHS enclyclopedia of plants and flowers, and am going to get a garden birds book. My mum always had one on the shelves in the kitchen and we used to run and get it everytime we saw a bird that wasn?t a bluetit, robin, blackbird or thrush

Will you be going to a Kings Day party, Engelse? This is the first year we won't be going to one since I met dh. We used to go to adult booze ups then post kids we've been to kids ones with a Dutch toddler group. But now we've moved from London I think we'd be hard pressed to find anything. Maybe I'll just dress the kids in orange and plant some marigolds that day!

Castle I've preferred painted wooden greenhouses in the past because I generally prefer natural materials. However, the maintenance is a real pain and I always ended up paying someone to do the repainting due to lack of time. So now I've decided that the Alitex ones are the way forward. I haven't come across Griffin though - must check those out.

Ooh Leucan I'd love some sage and/or lupins. My Thyme and Marjoram from last year both look very dead. I'm also on a mission to find some Pineapple sage to replace my mothers plant which has mysteriously disappeared.

Engels you have evoked lovely childhood memories of me and my garden birds book. I found it recently in my mums loft and hope DD will take an interest.

Don't think we'll be heading to a party rhubarb as DH is not really one for crowds and he seems to really hate being with lots of Dutchies at the same time (so no carnival celebrations for us!). I usually do things like watching carnival parades/visiting Amsterdam/museums without him as he's such an anti-social bugger.

I expect we will do something with his family. If it's nice, we tend to go down to ILs caravan in Limburg for a day of lazing in sunshine, wandering, swimming, playground. Or (if garden is habitable) we will be lazing in our bunting strewn back garden wearing orange

I have two thyme plants that are pretty old and tough now. Should I give them a vigorous prune to encourage some new, younger branches? (or will it just kill it?!).

I'm off out to the garden centre!

We are going to see family today and now you have put the idea in my mind that we might call in at the garden centre and check out the bargain corner.

I had forgotten until yesterday that I planted some muscari latifolium last year. They're nearly in flower now - they're a lovely dark blue/purple.

Didn't get into the garden yesterday as my hand was too sore due to tidying the euphorbia without a decent pair of gloves on.

Did buy a couple of cheap plants in morrisons a Weigela that i have potted up in a larger pot that i am going to give my brother as he keeps trying to take cuttings from mine but doesn't seem to be able to keep alive and a appleblossom that is to go down by the fence on the shady side of the garden.

I've just planted my Hyde Hall purchases...! And so begins my resolution to do bursts in the garden when I get home from work rather than binge gardening only at weekends. I've now filled the ex-herb bed.

I spent just over £30... at £1.99 each I got three Chionodoxa Forbesii which are a lovely vivid blue that sets off the custard-sunshine yellow of my crocuses in the scented/shaded bed, and I managed to separate the bulbs a bit so I have about 10-12 tiny clumps. For £9.99 -50% I got a Carex Comans 'Frosted Curls' and for £8.99 an Uncinia Rubra. I split the Carex into four and the Uncinia into three, and put them behind my hellebores, as you look out from the house. Last of all, I split an oriental poppy 'Beauty of Livermore' (£6.99) into a group of three which will float above/ in front of the grasses. I felt very Carol Klein doing all the dividing, and in choosing specimens that would divide too!

Next to go in the ground will be a scabious (blue, looks a bit like an eryngium) and another herbaceous perennial (red pincushion flower head, can't see the label from inside where I am now!!) but I need to move the euphorbia which is in the way. Not sure where I'm putting the euphorbia yet... It is pretty in winter, as the stems go pink when it's very cold.

That's a good plan Lexy. I was thinking the same now that it's so much lighter in the evenings. Reckon I could get out 3 or 4 evenings a week once DS is in bed (or after dinner) on the nights that I don't go running.

Not tonight though as have just got in from parents evening.

Picked up a dinosaur watering can for DS and some sweet pea seeds. Also ordered the RHS book, a bird book and a Monty book.

This week I want to: sow some sweet peas and sunflowers, dig over the veg patch and cut back the reeds.

I also really need to get cracking with my front garden plans. We have a bed to fill nd I must decide what we want. And very but I hate working in my front garden, mainly because my FIL is a busybody very 'present' in our street lives next door and never stops giving me annoying advice helpful tips. ILs are going on their annual holiday this Friday which means I get 10days of comment free gardening

I dug out most of the bed last year and then never got round to sorting it out. There was a rose bush at one end but it died a death many years ago so it's almost removed (though DH won't let me remove the last of the stump as he's convinced there's life in it yet ]hmm] ). At the other end there is a small shrub with variagated (sp?) leaves (not sure of name but will look up in my new book ) and a small pink rhodedendrom (sp?). We have a low wall on the pavement side and the bed is edged with brick on the other side. Have been thinking about lavender but not sure if that will give enough coverage/if we want something higher/shrubbier (inventing new words this evening!). Hmmm. Looking for inspiration...off to pinterest.

I've had an idea... shall we ask MNHQ if they can activate pictures in gardening threads? Some of you are really good at describing your gardens (and evocative, funnyperson!) but it would be great to be able to put a photo of the 'problem patch' or mystery plant, or possible diseased leaves etc...

and I am nosy

that is a great idea Lexy.

It is SO cold today. I fear for the clematis.

I'll second third that Lexy! Fab idea!

Have just planted my first early potatoes in bags on the patio - Arran Pilot and Foremost as I've never grown those varieties before.

I also planted three difff coloured Astilbes, one white, one pink and one crimson on the bank/hedge that runs between our top lawn and the field, so it's pretty damp and clay-ey (following Engelsmamma's lead :D) They were another Lidl bargain! ;)

It's much warmer here today in Wales, and was almost sunny earlier! Have had a lovely afternoon pottering. [hums happy tune]

Good idea with the pictures. I spent the afternoon in the greenhouse sowing seeds.

Have done sweetcorn, leek, dwarf beans, basils, cape gooseberry , tomatillo, San Maraenzo, Ildi and Suncherry tomatoes, courgettes, cucumbers, melon, nigella, white poppies, angel wings or something like that, sweet peas, spinach, mange tout, pak choi.

It dawned on me that next week we'll be half way through April

Yes good idea. I for one have a mystery shrub I'd love to get identified and I'm sure someone on here would know it.

I just went to the garden centre to pick up a couple of packets of hardy annuals to plant with dd, and managed to spend fifty odd quid. Bugger.

Raining here today

Though apparently it's going to be beautiful this weekend

Fab idea Lexy

It's been drizzling here all day and the sun has vanished again. Good to think that things will be brighter at the weekend.

Fantastic idea Lexy. That would be great.

Horribly cold here too but weekend forecast looking good. I've gone and bought loads of plants from the 'sickly corner' at our local garden centre. 3 Clematis, Salvia and some Grasses for 50p and £1 each. From what I can see they are fine, just dormant but showing signs of bursting into life. Fingers crossed as I have an awful track record with Clematis!

Can anyone recommend anywhere online to buy a Lutyens bench? I've just had a cheque for some work I did a couple of months ago and I have been promising myself one for years.

Another week or two and I reckon we won't be able to cope with all the growth / watering tasks!