Blooming into Flaming June

[Blackpuddingbertha]

Keeping the potting shed party going from the previous Rhubarb Society thread and all threads before it.

Please feel free to join in all gardeners, whether novice, professional or aspiring. Plenty of blackberry gin for all.

Oh Cantspel that's fab that you're getting a greenhouse! My greenhouse dream galloped a little further over the horizon this week as we have been wrong footed by a couple of unexpected and substantial financial hits. To make me feel even more cheerful, I had to turn down a free trip to New York today because of childcare reasons.

I'm going to buy a large cake tomorrow and eat it all myself.

I think it depends where you are with frosts really. I think I read somewhere that at Wisley they've recorded frosts every month of the year?

Todays task is to dug up the strawberries and dig over the bed - as im recovering from a broken wrist I am employing DD(7) to do it not sure how successful this will be, but shes keen to do it to earn a £5 spending money.

Ah Rhubarb. How disappointing. Hope the cake is chocolate and very squidgy.

Little to report here as VERY busy at work. Cold mornings, lots of rain and afternoons/evenings mild enough to have the cicadas clicking.

I suspect the result will be beaucoup weeds.:o

They will have to wait, as this weekend is the DD's 18th birthday thrash, so we'll be prepping the house for a teen onslaught, and the garden will have to go hang.

Poor Rhubarb, enjoy your cake.

Bertha I've planted bulbs etc that specified planting after all risk of frost has passed... I'm in west Wales which is way behind most gardening programmes... I have just realised, is it Friday today? GW?

DH has disappeared on a stag do (oh the joy) so am left with DS (11 months) and the cat.
On the plus side, DS has slept magnificently this morning and this afternoon so I've managed to plant out my radicchio, bulb fennel and rainbow chard - anyone planted this in their borders as an edible ornamental?

Forgot to say, I also have a mixture of delphiniums, aqualeiga, cosmos, scabious, lavendar, poppies and some other cottage perennials big enough to plant out (I hope)

What sort of size do they need to be to survive? (are currently in 1" modules)

Am about to feed the dog and collect the eggs then its' o'clock!

Humph you would hate my garden.The bluebells are going over and we literally have a sea of purple[in every shade possible],pink-ditto and white Aquilegia[all caused by distributing compost from an ancient muck heap last year].They are disguising the gaps before the later perennials show their faces.Surprisingly some Gladioli seem to have survived the winter cold but not the dahlias.The Camellias we planted last year have barely flowered,some not at all.My garden is becoming increasingly naturalistic.I am waiting for the cowslips to seed before i mow the lawn[will have to hand chop i think because the grass is so long].

my garden is a sea of blue and purple.
the bluebells are mostly dried out now but now there are forget-me-nots and other blue/purple flowers (am am clueless when it comes to names). and my blue tree and the neighboursblue trees that border my garden.

veg seem to have made the transition to the large bed, hopefully they will get a nice boost with the warmer weather now.

one of the sunflowers however has become the victim of snails, despite plenty of coffee grinds.

I have been a bad mummy to the cosmos I raised from seed - let them dry out while hardening off and now lots of them are likely beyond redemption. I have planted three of the healthier ones in the large pot which had salvia and dahlia in it last year. That's Dahlia 'honka red' which did not survive being left in the pot over winter (it was laziness rather than an experiment), and 2x salvia 'black and blue' which are coming up very healthily and could even be candidates for a bit of root cutting propagation if anyone would like one? I also put in this pot the black viola (Molly Sanderson) I got from the NT plant centre at the weekend.

DS then finished his ice lolly and demanded we do more gardening so we did a bit of weeding on the rockery and then planted phlox subulata emerald something something. I would go out and check the label but I am too big and pregnant and just want to flop in front of GW... it is on, isn't it?

Just checked, GW is on at 8.30. The only we have in the house is pink and bubbly so DH has put it in the fridge to chill

Planted out my tomatillos, anise hyssop, and chard today plus in-filled the gaps in the beds where things haven't germinated. Carrots very patchy again this year. Going to put the sweet corn out tomorrow as well as they are way too big for modules now.

Getting some good colour in the long bed now thankfully, starting to look nice. Sodding rabbits have totally destroyed one of the new heucheras. Going to get the air rifle out!

no to accompany GW so a cup of tea and bowl of rhubarb crumble had to do!
I love watching it but it does make me slightly nostalgic - I grew up in Ivington and went to school and was friends with Monty's children, I have fond memories of scoffing hot mince pies in the kitchen after carol singing at Christmas. Hes a lovely man who always had time to show you something -and was proberbly my inspiration to study horticulture.

Nightshade - you've met Monty and done Chelsea!! We're easily impressed on this thread you know and slightly in love with Monty

Anyone else think those people with the flower covered cottage were ever so slightly batty? In a nice way...but definitely batty.

lol I know I know, I had gathered you are all Monty lovers- I think those are my only two impressive things to tell you mind

seen as im now a sahm and don't do anything remotely exciting anymore

more that slightly batty!!

nightshade1 silver at Chelsea and has spent time in Monty's kitchen! It would be lovely to hear minute detail of both those experiences! I'm reading the Ivington diaries at the moment. Very interesting and very very different to Vita Sackville-West's gardening book.

-not the only 2 things btw nightshade I love your idea of growing flowers for posies for the wedding.

Oh yes those begonia growers were seriously batty. They made me feel so grounded. The truth is I have recently been thinking that every gardener is a bit batty. Flowers are so transient and impractical and veg, lets face it, can be bought in the shops so why do we do it? Ans: Because we are a bit batty. All that sowing and watering and potting and weeding. I love it to bits. I love messing about in the garden.

Did anyone else notice Monty's wheelbarrow was painted a tasteful blue to match the jumper?

Japanese cherry blossom must be amazing. I must go to Australia and Japan.

I was still too in awe of Monty's greenhouse to notice the colour of his wheelbarrow.

Yes that greenhouse is very beautiful: Gabriel Ash: Saw them at Chelsea. May get one if a) I win the lottery and b) decide not to give the money to the poor and needy.
Love Monty's dog.

Cherry blossom viewing: other ways to spend non existent lottery money
www.jnto.go.jp/eng/indepth/exotic/JapanesQue/1202/sakura.html#

I swear I saw a slug in he pot Monty was putting the Canna in...

Another productive day here... We had two old wooden M shaped frames here when we moved in, which I had already tarted up with cuprinol Seagrass. Today I cut he shape of the bed against the grass, dug some compost & plant food into the clay soil, covered it with bark and planted the sweet peas an mange tout I grew from seed.

I faffed around for ages trying to encourage the tendrils to cling to the first rung of the zig zag of string. Am I the only one who does this? Do you let yours get on with it themselves? I can't understand how they'd ever find it.

The other M is now in shade but I am trying sweet peas & runner beans on it.

Funnyperson Yes, I was thinking that earlier - why do we grow veg and potter about desperately trying to harness nature when it does whatever the hell it wants anyway?

Nightshade oooh, Monty's house at Christmas, I bet it was super cosy and country-chic no?

Bertha You are making me feel desperately inadequate in the seedling stakes! I need to sow stuff, quickly! I did plant 40 runner beans earlier, into small pots so I can put them into a long raised (4" max) bed. Begonia couple were properly batty! made me chuckle.

I accidentally dug up some gladioli bulbs earlier, next to my (ancient) hosta, which is doing incredibly well after hell last summer. They'd all sprouted encouragingly strong roots and some had shoots on too. I've never grown flowers before and it's quite exciting!

Notanother I am constantly trying to get my beans and peas to grip where they're supposed to. One of my favourite pastimes! The runner bean arch is just in front of where I park my car; that gets lots of my attention...

40 runner beans rhihaf! That's a lot of runners.

Yes I was noticing the zig zag string: so do you wind zig zag string round your tripod and tease tendrils onto it, or do you tie twine gently round climbing plant stalk and tripod stick? I have to do this tomorrow with the sweet peas and mange tout so am interested in the answer: I have the correct poncetastic soft twine though: this which I bought at .....(yes, poncey flower show)
www.twool.co.uk/index.html

I have put photo of the pea frame on my profile, it s more m than M shaped so the string goes from side to side. I don't think you'll be able to see the actual string as the pic is so small, even though it is bright green and from poundland

Last year I just flopped the taller peas over the first rung of string and sort of teased their tendrils around it. The shorter ones then climbed up the the plants next to them. This means they scramble all over each other rather thn going up in straight lines,which makes me twitchy... But I had a great show of flowers last year so am trying not to fuss too much with them. This is the first time I've tried mange tout.

nightshade your wedding flowers sound lovely.

Rhubarb sorry your dream greenhouse is on the back burner but i am sure you will get it one day and in the meantime cake will make you feel better.

funnyperson my son tells everyone i am a mad plant lady and wonders how i can spend 2 hours every sunday morning wandering around the same garden centre.

Saturday morning, first cup of tea of the day and GW, perfect ! I noted the music whilst the things for the week was on, the casual way Monty threw his coat over the wheelbarrow handles and the shots of Nigel and Monty strolling through the garden and did grin a bit, but enjoyed it. I do feel Plog could take lessons from Nigel in how to be the perfect garden dog.

Pretty much all my seedlings are in now, except the Cerinthe which has only just germinated. Plus I need to get calendula from the allotment to try again and establish on a raised bank next to the coreopsis that has just gone in. My bluebells are going over and the front garden is struggling a bit with the absence of choisya and rhoderdendron flowers due to someone attacking them with a hedge trimmer last year. However Artic white clematis. My new Harlow Carr and Tranquility roses plus an established Queen Elizabeth climber in with honeysuckle are all waiting to step into the breach.

Pleased with how the newly planted back garden is going and very much looking forward to the Tree man coming this week. Jobs today ar planting up my newly painted trough and the magnolia plus wondering along to an alpine plant sale.

I put sticks in for my peas to scramble over. The first batch went in yesterday, it works well but does look a bit like a dead hedge in the veg plot until the peas are tall enough to cover it. My purple beans go up poles and seem to do so without too much help but the arches (runners and sweet pea) get additional zig zag string and that's where I focus my meddling assistance.

I want to know why Nigel doesn't chase Monty's chickens.