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.

My lovely friend has bought tickets for Malvern Spring Show! My parents are doing childcare. I am very excited.

I have asparagus shoots!!!!!! I have three crowns in a tall canvas planter thing. One has three shoots, another has one just breaking the surface, and the third nothing yet. Oh I am so going to enjoy these!!!

Lovely! That's reminded me that I must get around to planting mine.

I wonder if mine are poking up back at the old house. The new owners turfed over the asparagus bed, so if they are, they'll be peeping up through lawn.

Spring has sprung! Tra la la

Hello , I'm NANN and I'm a closet gardener. We moved into our house this time last year and, after years of pining, I finally got my very own front & back gardens.

I've got to grips with the front (kept an established hawthorn hedge, replaced tired slabs, growing violas, petunias, geraniums, mini roses etc in pots & hanging baskets). I left myself one bed in a sunny position which I will soon plant up (I'm thinking roses, lavender, thyme, cosmos & poppies).

However, the back garden completely overwhelmes me (approx 100ft x 30ft). It was full of shrubs and the neighbours' brambles are constantly trying to launch themselves over. I did pull out quite a bit last year and set up one flower bed and two small raised beds for veg - but I don't know now how I ever found the time or energy! I feel like a garden vandal as I'm forever hacking away at things - mostly because I'm scared of the mould. I've put a photo of it on my profile, in case any of you can tell me what it is and what I should do about it?

Hi NANN, nice , big garden. You'll fit in perfectly on here! Can't help with photo as they come out so small on the profiles I can't tell which green bit I'm supposed to look at! (Not that I'd be able to help anyhow as I just pretend to know stuff).

No asparagus in my bed yet.

I do have woodland anenomes flowering in the wood bit of the garden though. I like them, they look happy.

Thanks Bertha, we looked around the house thinking "hmm, it'd do" then walked into the garden and thought "YES, we HAVE o have it!" . Sorry I just looked at my profile and the photo is indeed rubbish.

I'm not nearly brave enough for asparagus yet - but have started off some carrots, parsnips, mange tout and runner beans in seed trays in my larder. My Juliet potatoes haven't chitted so I've moved them to a sunnier spot. My Cosmos & sweet peas are sprouting nicely. I need to but one poppy seeds, I can't believe I just binned the million seed pods I dead headed last year

hello NANN - nice to meet you. I wanted to buy our house solely because of the garden, I barely glanced through the house Good luck with your back garden, I would just remember that you don't have to do it all at once. Ours was a bit of a blank canvas and we have evolved a design for it gradually in response to how we use the space.

My asparagus is being eaten by slugs, much to DH's disgust. I would love some wood anenomes Bertha, they are lovely. There is a patch of woodland near here absolutely smothered with them.

G'day, NAAN, as they say hereabouts. Completely identify with your rush of feeling about the garden. We felt the same about our house, bought a couple of years ago. All of our efforts have been focussed on improving it: the house can go hang.

We've tried a bit of asparagus, but will see how it goes in the spring. Mini aubergines were very successful and the rats liked our tomatoes. :o Chillies grow like weeds.

I was nostalgic hearing about the hawthorn hedges. The plant is common in rural areas but grown as separate bushes, never hedged, but you still see small groups of cockatoos scoffing the berries. They look like giant Christmas tree baubles against the red berries.

Sorry, NANN, not NAN.

Thanks for all the composting advice ladies.

Halt to gardening as I try to shake off yet another bout of flu, but the gate is properly finished now (catch and everything) so foresee many weekends ahead out in the garden (and now that DH has finished that project, it's on to the next ).

Greenhouse is ordered. Next day delivery! Now need to wait until DH has built the plinth for it to stand on and we can get on with putting it up. We went for this one in the end [http://www.gardenoasis.co.uk/palram-balance-greenhouse-p-3714.html]]

I can't wait!

mmm that link didn't work then www.gardenoasis.co.uk/palram-balance-greenhouse-p-3714.html

Oooh, lovely, Humph. And a bargain to boot. I am very .

I have just been potting up some of these, although the pink variety. I am very excited because I wasn't sure they had survived the winter.

Spotted a big fat bumblebee this morning!

Have planted up the planters by the arbour, just need them to grow now. DH has promised to put the pebbles down tomorrow to finish it all off. Planning to drink some wine out there at the weekend.

Those are beautiful Maud.

Nice, maud! And yay for the greenhouse.
Have noticed that all of a sudden lots of daffs have burst into bloom in the front and back. Spring has truly sprung.

Aren't they just? I bought them from the company that supplied the Olympic rose that bit the dust, so I was rather worried about them for a while. They like shade, so those not in pots will go in my new shady area.

Minor tragedy here as two large trays of bean seedlings have succumbed to damping off. A bit of googling suggests that watering them with rainwater was a mistake - who knew? (Probably everyone else on this thread.) I have started again with grotty London tap.

On the plus side, the tulips I bought as bulbs from Columbia Road last August have come into flower. They are dark red and very beautiful.

I did not know that MooncupGoddess. Good luck with the next lot.

I am jealous you have tulips in flower - mine are not even close.

Stunning, Maud. Not come across those before. Hurrah for Humph's greenhouse!

I ventured back into the Corner of Doom in the orchard at lunchtime. Cut back some more rampant laurel, and mused. It's all a bit weird; there is a sort of separate jutting out bit of wall that is walled off from the orchard (make sense? Hmm no) kind of like a turret (but not a turret) filled with soil and presumably supposed to be a planter of sorts. It is filled with snow berry plants whose roots, in addition to the ivy roots, are bursting the bricks open and causing the whole corner to bulge alarmingly. I suspect the roots are actually now holding the whole structure together, along with a very old rusting S-shaped pin thing. the remaining ivy roots snaking out of it are as thick as my wrist. All of this has come to light by the ivy removal.

Not sure how to approach this. I fear the wall will have to be rebuilt once the plants and roots have been got out. Bearing in mind National Park/Conservation area/listed building etc this is not going to be straightforward. Or cheap.

Oh, Mooncup, how I miss Columbia Road! There are not many things I miss about London but that is one.

Do they cope with dry shade Maud? They're lovely.

That's a pain Moongoddess with the beans There's still lots of time for more though. Most jealous of tulips in bloom.

Hi NAAN. I hope we get a decent summer so you can enjoy your new garden along with Nappy, so Bertha can enjoy wine in her arbor, Engel's compost cooks quickly, Humph can grow loads in her lovely new Greenhouse, Funnyperson's lotus flower blooms, Rhubarb's newly exposed walls become cloaked with flowers and Maud's new plants can benefit from their shady spot. Echt doesn't need sun cos she already has it, apologies to anyone I've missed. That's a bit too much to ask isn't it.

Could I have your best Chelsea tips please ? We won't be able to get there until lunch time, are coming up by coach to Victoria so planning to get the shuttle bus. What do I need to know ?

Which day are you going, Wynken? Don't bother with the shuttle bus. There is a bog standard London bus that runs the same route and is much cheaper. Just go to the bus information desk outside Victoria station and they'll tell you which bus and where to catch it.