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.

Don't know about on pots but in the house Simple Solution is great for dealing with animal stains. We were told at puppy classes that tomato ketchup is good for fox poo.

Ooh, that's a very handy tip about bio washing liquid. I don't use it on our clothes and bedding but keep some because it is handy for burned-on marks on saucepans.

Don't you just wonder how someone discovered that tomato ketchup is good for fox poo? ::mind boggling::

Thank you all.Dd has found a bottle of simple solution.I will try that tomorrow before the bio powder.He pees on top of the bird poos along the edge of out patio though as well[3 inches from the clematis roots] so am very worried about hurting my plants,not to mention the pale stone patio[which is unsealed].He seems to mainly do this in the morning even though i send him into another part of the garden.

Right, so DH has bought himself another a big copper pot for his birthday. It is going to go on a corner that is quite shady. I want something to go in it, does anyone have any ideas? I think something with red/purple foliage would look nice with the copper.

this pot thing is only going to get worse...

Red/purple foliage may get lost in a gloomy corner, but I am very fond of this (although I'm now wondering whether mine really is Red Dragon because it gets much taller than 50 cm).

That looks really good. I love the different colours. It isn't too dark in that spot, just shaded for about half of the day.

The thalictrum aquilegiafolium is doing well here Maud, how about yours? I do love that plant.

I wrote a really boring long post but it's gone pfft!

I will plant out the magnolia, thank you for restoring my faith in my original dream garden.

I made up my new peony border on Sunday, which was v satisfying after all the hard ok it's taken to get to this stage. I have six bargain lidl tree peonies (cerise, pink & white) but held back one in quarantine as I'm worried it's suffering from peony wilt (or more likely too much googling). I dug in lots of horse manure nod used rootgrow, o am hoping for great things.

I also put in a couple of a plants which were on deaths door failing to thrive elsewhere in he garden: an azalea (at the shady end in a big hole full of erracious compost) and a clematis baron villwhotsit (on a homemade wigwam). I made a few mistakes, with putting things in the wrong place and choosing plants which were destined to fail in my soil, last year. Hopefully being part of this thread will make this summer more successful!

Just been googling different images of it. It is a really lovely plant. DH thinks it is fab too. I think I will order it

You have been busy NotAnother - I love the sound of the peony border.

The foliage is gorgeous - the eventual flowers are a non-event, though. I have it growing behind euphorbia Chameleon. When the geum Mrs Bradshaw nearby comes into flower it will be eye-popping!

I think only 2 of the 3 thalictrum delavayi that I bought from Parkers have appeared this year. I am just coming to terms with the fact that, as my huge lovage plant has not surfaced by now, it is dead rather than just delayed.

Oh, and what do we all think of this? Just before we went away, my NDN (not the clematis hacker, the other one) said he would like to come in to do some fox -proofing. I - assuming he meant to do something to strengthen the fence - said he would be welcome to do so, as soon as we got home. I have just found some bricks laid along the bottom of the fence, on our side. They have been placed on top of some of the plants. In any event, they will be totally ineffectual because the foxes will just shove them aside (I know because they have managed to shift bigger barriers than that). AIBU to be a bit miffed?

Oh yes, NotAnother, that sounds fabulous. What did you use to make your wigwam? I am always very jealous of people who have a ready supply of hazel poles as bamboo just doesn't look the same.

What do we think of sowing more seed now? I have just found some forgotten seed in the kitchen.

Thank you Humphrey - we still have a way to go so posting on here is keeping my motivation levels up!

I love the sound of 78 pots too, it certainly makes me feel less guilty about my pot habit! If I had a copper one I'd grow something slugs & snails loved do that I could taunt them (ornamental lettuce?). For years I only had windowsills and doorsteps to garden so pots & hanging baskets are my specialty. Mine are currently blooming with violas, pansies, lily and lobelia.

I am going to try another lot of cosmos from seed tomorrow, as I have only one remaining plant from my first attempt. I lost a few at each stage, it was like watching the cosmos X factor

I would be fricking livid Maud. If your NDN wanted to lay bricks, why couldn't he do it his side? It doesn't sound like they're cemented in? If not, you're right the fixes will have them out of the way in no time.

The wigwam is just bamboo & string. I want a posh willow trellis, but I have to prove to myself the plant is worth investing in first. I seriously thought i had killed it by planting it in shade but found an inch of new growth before our new fence went in. It's grown to about 8 inches in a pot but now looks much happier in its new home. I am ridiculously excited to see it rising from the dead

Thank you, NotAnother. Frankly, I'm inclined to give him back his bricks and - smiling sweetly all the while - explain that as the foxes have been able to tunnel under upended paving slabs and shove my other fox-defences aside, they are not going to be deterred by bricks laid uncemented on top of the jasmine soil.

There is nothing better than seeing an ailing plant return to health and vigour.

Maud. How annoying. I would certainly have a word with him.

I've just been out to move the offending bricks and found another crushed plant underneath. I am fond of my NDN and do not want to get into a row but I am so cross now.

I am not surprised. I mean. REALLY. Has he no sense?

Evening all, lovely gardening day for those of us lucky enough to be at home. I have the celebratory on the go already as, while the DC were in the paddling pool, I managed make up my magnolia bed. it was really tough clay soil so I have dug in some manure, multi purpose and erracious compost just where the magnolia went in. It's a half moon shape, jutting out if the border before the peonies, and I've covered it with bark and flanked the magnolia with a ground cover rose and the remaining ailing peony. The idea is the rose will eventually ramble to fill the half moon and the magnolia will rise up out of it.

Directly in front of it is a huge mud patch which I now need to work out how to flatten and sow lawn. I did what I could today by stomping around on it in my wellies. Unfortunately DD2 (2yr) kept trying to help me, without the wellies!!

I probably needed more grit/compost/digging to sort the clay - but I'm so chuffed I did what I could. I've ordered some compost bins from the council, so hopefully next year I should have some more to dig in.

This leaves just the last third of the border yet to tame. There's already a mature hebe, lilac & quince, but also rock hard patch of clay approx 1m x 3 m in between. Any ideas what I can do with it? Will a hydrangea grow in clay?

I have sewn another packet of cosmos seeds in trays. Shall I bring them in and put them on the windowsill or shall I leave them outside under a cloche? I'm tempted to bring them in as I think the slugs got my last lot but I want them to be hardy.

I'm so glad I can post on here, I'm turning into such a gardening nerd..,

Can anyone tell me why I've got a baby lupin growing in my veg plot? How did that happen?

Out of interest I counted my pots whilst watering earlier. 70! And there i was marvelling at Humphrey's pot count! That does include 10 pots at the front of the house nurturing last year's self-seeded lavender. As they're going to be there for a while yet as i can't decide where they're going I thought it would be cheating if I didn't count them.

I thought I'd pop in and say hi. After a long (and sad) winter I am loving being in my garden. Everything has comeup at once.

I've got saxifrage flowering endlessly in the cracks in the paving and my new Rosa 'Gertrude Jekyl' is looking happier this year, although it still doesn't seem to realise that it is supposed to be a climber and so is engaged in mortal combat at ground level with a day lily.

Aquilegias everywhere, and it seems to be all the dusky pink ones are in the back (sunny) borders while the navy ones have set up shop in the front (shady).

I've potted up my gingko that I grew from seed and that really wants to grow in the ground - but not yet, I may move house again.

Meanwhile all the greenhouse seedlings are looking v small still because I started them too late due to work stuff.

Hello CuttedUpPear. So sorry to hear that your winter has been sad. I am glad your garden is giving you solace .

hehe Bertha. Those damn pots just creep up on you..

after the blue, now yellow is coming.
lots and lots of buttercups and my mature rose (bright yellow flowers) is about to bloom.
haven't seen many honey bees in the garden, but lots of bumblebees in all sorts of different sizes are bumbling along.
I only have 4 pots in action atm but am looking for a pretty one for the front garden.

oh, and hello cuttedup

Hello Humphrey and Mouse.
The garden is good - all this sunshine is helping me and every morning I open the window around 6am so the birdsong can disturb me

One of my sadnesses is that DP and I live apart and he won't come to live with me. Which means that if I want us to have a life together I would have to leave my garden. It's been ten years in the making and I'm sure that you lot will understand my distress at the thought of leaving it behind!

Of course I can take things with me but there's a limit, not least due to the fact that an old back injury is getting worse and limiting my potential to dig up, lift and move large plants.

Because of this I am also having to seriously consider giving up professional gardening now, which worries me (financially and emotionally).

I hope nobody minds me posting this kind of personal stuff on this thread.

Of course not, CuttedUpPear, post away. Sorry to hear about the DP/garden impasse, and more so to hear about your back.

:o

CUP all the best in this, and hope for the happiest result for you.

I love to hear about the spring/summer English plants, though seasons here are swift, moving from winter to heat in an instant, so the temperate plants do less well.

On the upside, I can grow lettuce, all herbs and pak choi all year round outside; they're just a bit slower in winter.