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.

Mousy hang in there with the rhubarb. I planted mine winter 11/12 and had to let it grow a full year before harvesting. (Same with the asparagus incidentally.) The leaves need to do their photosynthesising to feed the roots so the roots are strong enough to send up lots of stalks to eat next year. Then you get three years of harvest, (you might force the third) and the next winter you split the crown into two or three new plants.

Any plant when it is first put in the ground has to do a lot of root establishing and getting settled in. I would keep it mulched with compost or bark or leaf mould, water around it (don't keep the crown itself too wet, it'll just rot in the middle) perhaps make a bit of a trench encircling it that you water.

A pro will now correct anything I've got wrongedywrongwrongwrong...

Hi Mousy. Not much to add to Lexy's excellent rhubarb advice there. Snail slime is a sod but even if that's the problem you may still get new leaves up to replace the ones lost. Personally I'd leave it two years before harvesting, but one should be ok if you don't overdo it.

What a heavenly day in the garden. DH spent hours moving two box balls nine inches to either side. He is very glad that this is now done. They will now be level with the new box hedge he is about to plant on either side of the path, through the crab apple walk. I moved a lot of chives into the herb beds, weeded all the feverfew out of the cottage borders and then weeded one third of the round vegetable garden. I don't want to dig it over as it is full of tiny purple orach seedlings that I am desperate to keep.

Discovered that all of the tiny grass like seedlings in the cottage borders are seedling alliums! Hoping they will thrive. Also found lots of borage seedling in the herb beds.

I think Monty Don has a garden he doesn't do any public work with. He bought the farm called The Vision which is where the book On the Black Hill is set. It is not far from me, near the Llantony Valley, which I always think of as the perfect place to live. There was a big fuss in Abergavenny once a year or so ago, as he was spotted having tea in the Angel!!! Must be odd being famous. I wouldn't fancy it at all. Not that I need to worry about that

lovely poems funnyperson

Having spent more time out of doors, I have now caught the sun. Much like this --> .

Welcome, Mousy. Please stick around.

Sun!
Actual sun!

Sorry Mousy, meant to say hello in my earlier post.

cheers! much appreciated.
I have spent most afternoon watching the tulips grow and the washing gently swaying in the breeze.
ok, so this year I will still have to buy rhubarb for rhubarb+custard.

have a few seedlings (tomatoes, sunflowers and sweetcorn) on the window sill. still looking for the perfect spot in the garden.

Today I planted/sowed lots of things, titivated some pots that had got a layer of moss on the top, bravely took out the oldest stem of each of my blueberry bushes, and we had lunch outside on the deck for the first time this year. What a glorious day, and tomorrow should be good too! Feel very blessed, and a good dose of gardening really feels like it has "earthed" me after a long winter indoors.

Love the box ball precision Humph!

Dog is a labradoodle but she looks more doodle than lab! Cute but bouncy; we've spent the afternoon busy in the garden today so she's spent the afternoon stealing things when we're not looking. Got cross when she nipped into the veg plot and stole one of the mouse traps I was setting over my newly sown peas.

The arbour has jasmine, clematis and solanum Glasnevin (last minute decision on that one but had a baby one so in it went). Had a lovely cup of tea in it in the sunshine this afternoon. Also threw some cosmos seeds in the planters as I quite fancy some cosmos flopping around the sides. This may not work, but hey ho...

Humphrey, I have hundreds of allium seedlings too. I don't really know what to do with them. I think I'll leave them to establish a bit more then see if I can lift them and nurse them in pots until big enough to put where I want them rather than where they fancy.

I'll pop back later; I have an appointment with Monty on the iplayer.

DH at a gig so I had to put the geese away. Was pleased that now they are all female I did not have to put up with any aggression, or have to chase them round the house fifteen times. These things make me happy. That gander used to go for me, he smelled my fear

I am going to just leave some of the allium seedlings in position and see what happens. If you grow from seed the internet said to plant out after two years, but it didn't specify how long till flowering time.

Pleasant Monty interlude. Tempted to try again with agapanthus but stick to pots this time. I do love them, that garden was amazing.

Forgot to say hi to Mousy earlier. Welcome.

My favourite Celandine poem:

Before the Hawthorne leaves unfold.
Or buttercups put forth their gold,
By every sunny footpath shine
The stars of lesser Celandine.

Cecily Mary Barker (otherwise known as the Flower Fairies, my and the DDs favourite set of poetry

The celandine in my garden is a lesser celandine. It grows in a little clump with the geranium under the oak.
I think it is nice when Gardeners World points out growing things which I think are weeds and looks at them in detail. Last year it was ferns, and I discovered 3 different varieties in the garden, which I had simply not noticed: an Adantium (maidenhair fern). A humungous Pteridium (bracken fern) and an Athyria (tatting fern). I think they grew because it was so wet.

Stopped at 1.00.pm after marathon garage clear-out and new planting.

Three different kinds of spring-flowering sweet peas; two in the sunny raised bed in the back garden, one in a pot in the front. These are the first I've tried in Australia. I'll plant spring for summer ones in September. Freesias, triteria, hyacinths, sparaxis and daffs all in pots and popped in a cool place for a while.

We're still set for 25 degrees during the day by the end of next week, while at night it's 9, so a pain.

A yucca having outgrown its pot has been sitting around pot-less for at least 6 weeks, occasionally hosed down to keep it green. Today I hacked its roots with an axe to get rid of the circular roots and re-potted. It will sit on the driveway and cheer up. I hope.

The lemon tree sapling has got crinkly leaves, as has the kaffir lime, so I need to google this to see what on earth's going on.

Hello Mousy

Echt, I always think of Neighbours when I read your posts, and wonder who does the gardens of the sets...

DH mowed the lawn for the first time this yr while my dad mowed the paddock that our garden backs onto. I sat with DS and watched progress in the sun, it was bliss.

Planted two supermarket parsleys I'd hardened off in greenhouse into my herb bed, and potted up 3 curly ones into one big terracotta pot for by the patio doors. Shoved some lettuce seedlings into my potato planters - am hoping the lettuce will be harvested before the spuds reach the top of the bag!

I have what I think are Hollyhock sprouts in the front border despite dog's best efforts at dive-bombing. Shoved a load of poundland (sorry Wynken!) bulbs in, labels all mysteriously disappeared...

Humph, I HATED our gander, he was terrifying! Used to actually grab a beakfull of my hair and tug (I was 4 at the time). I do love roast goose.....

20% off T&M at the mo

I just planted the stawberry thingies from last year, you know the satellite plantling (excuse me for using funny terms). hope for many many strawberries, have about 15 mature plants and 30 satellites.

have only inherited the garden last year, so every little thing that suddenly appears is a mystery.

when I grew up our neighbors always had geese to fatten up.
they arrived in spring as little fluffballs and then were slaughtered in november for christmas.
to get to the school bus the shortest way was across the field with the geese in....many happy and scared memories :o

We slaughtered one of our geese for christmas one year. DH looked up how to do it on youtube. It was ghastly. I stood stricken as he did the dirty deed. He then put it under his arm to bring out of the orchard and it SQUAWKED. So he squeezed it again, and it squawked again. Goose bagpipes. I was hysterical. From horror to humour in ten seconds.

I'm putting in a growing small order with Spaldings at the moment and they have added some fiskars bypass shears free of charge. Must be an offer although there is no mention of it on the website.

Also, lots of cheap Oca tubers to be had on ebay at the moment for those wishing to dabble who haven't already done so. I got 12 for £4 as I was sick of waiting for T&M to get them back in stock.

Maud or whoever may know, I have planted out the Verbena Bonariensis that I took from cuttings last year. They overwintered in my conservatory and are very leggy (like 2ft tall) Should I just leave them to it or cut them back? (The 'mother' plants aren't even sprouting yet)

Rhihaf I really like the idea of putting the lettuce seedlings on top of the potato planters. I've got some potato planters to plant up - do you not have to keep earthing them up?

I'm flattered you ask, DawnyWoo, but I am the last person to ask about VB as just about every plant I;ve ever planted bar one has died almost instantly. They don't like my cold, clay soil. That said, the one in the planter in the front garden is sprouting merrily and I have just given it a short-ish back and sides. If the cuttings are large, a slight prune might be a good thing as it will encourage bushier growth.

Funnyperson - I think I owe you an answer to a question about what's going in my ::cough:: ::pretentious alert:: Venetian border. There's a Darcey Bussell rose, crocosmia Lucifer, persicaria Red Dragon (irritating white flowers to be removed), another persicaria with lime green leaves, potentilla Monarch's Red Velvet and Geum Mrs Bradshaw, belamcanda chinensis, euphorbia Chameleon and euphorbia Ascot Something, a purple salvia and a purple geranium. On their way from Parkers are more of the potentilla and some VB (will I never learn?) and I am going to add some magenta to the mix with geranium psilostemon.

Oh and lonicera heckrottii American Beauty (chosen in part for the name as I just loved the film).

Oh and various heuchera with purple or lime green leaves, some of them expertly grown by LexyMa.

Hello mousymouse !
*dawnywoo I dont know the answer to your question.

Today: planted out sedums, rosemary, various herbs, japanese anemone, digitalis alba, convallaria, little hellebore plantlets I have been nurturing for the hellebore collection, potted up dahlias, watered all seedlings, pruned hibiscus, fed all the clematis. There are still lots of gaps but 2 orders are due in so I am not going to buy any more plants. The original planting plan has been long forgotton.

Some plants are coming up in a more or less rectangular patch looking very like seeds have been sown there but I can't remember what! Alchemilla mollis did in fact survive the winter and little leaves are unfurling. All the geraniums (phaeum, johnsons blue, catherine adele etc) are thriving, peonies and phlox and valerian are coming up. The chinatown viridiflora tulips which were rescued from the squirrels and then moved to the front porch are also alive! Viola Rothschild is flowering dainty little flowers and today a cabbage white butterfly was fluttering among the forgetmenots which brings the number of species of butterfly seen this year to 3 already!

Dawny: I only planted the spuds a fortnight or so ago, so no sprouting yet, and the lettuce will hopefully be grown and eaten by the time the spuds shoot up/have enough leaves to be of any detriment. I haven't done this before though.

We are building a new shed this year! I want a catering sink, freezer and big stainless steel table so we have room to process our livestock pig/beef steer etc. Can't wait to make sausages!

The blackthorn is on the brink of exploding into bloom, the birds have been singing their hearts out and a bay I thought I'd killed has tiny teeny new leaves on it.

I'm looking most of those up, maud!
The Darcy Bussell rose always looks so beautiful in the catalogue and she was such a lovely dancer I oscillated between that and Munstead Wood for ages.
The geranium psilostemon looks wonderful. The colours in your Venetian border are interesting reds and purples, must look fabulous.
What do you think of Sarah Ravens Venetian Dahlia collection?www.sarahraven.com/shop/venetian-dahlia-collection.html

Had a lovely time at the Marathon and have seen the ageing parents lots.

Feeling very very gloomy about the ageing parents.