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.

Ravenswing is one of the many things I have planted over the years that have sunk without trace - it hung on feebly for a couple of years and then perished. My ammi majus seedlings seem to be doing well, though.

My newest four heucheras have just arrived, including Obsidian which is going (inevitably) in my B&W bed.

I like the Laurent-Perrier garden, although I'm undecided about the huge metal structure.

I have lots of wild areas in my garden-through necessity.One is the old compost heap which was cleared for building[which subsequently wasn't allowed].It is now covered with Herb Robert,foxgloves and aquilegia[and masses of bees].I leave weeds in if they are pretty.My woodland area has a mix of a pink geranium,orange and yellow poppies,bluebells,and that plant with little blue flowers plus purple Rhodedendrons[sp?] and more cultivated plants like a white large Aquilegia,Viticella clematis and going over Sarah Raven tulips.The only weeds i dig out are Brambles and Ivy and Buttercup.I do the garden by myself ,dh doesn't help at all.A couple of times a year i have someone in to trim the shrubs and strim certain areas.But it is a now a romantic self seeded cottage garden[partially though neglect] with a backdrop of National trust hills.The bottom lawn is now a wildflower meadow[mini].

That sounds gorgeous, teta.

Teta that sounds lovely.

The wind is horrendous, everything is taking a real battering. I dread to think what we will wake up to in the morning.

So today I asked DS (16) and DP (lazy) to move my Cornus kesselringii from its place where it has grown too large. It's about 8 years old (grown from a cutting) and impedes the washing line, anyway I have a Sambucus nigra I would like to plant in its place.

I had previously cut it right back, quite brutally, so the chaps could get in there. Now in the days when I could do these things for myself (as we all know, it's the only way) I would have taken quite a long time excavating and preparing to lift a plant like that. However after only 5 minutes DP announced it impossible and requested to take is chainsaw to it at ground level.

Being a hostage to a buggered back I had no choice really. They proceeded to hack it to pieces with the chainsaw and a splitting axe and got some of the main roots (but not all) out.

I'm left with some major chunks of rootless Cornus and a big hole.
I managed to take 5 cuttings so will start the long process again.

Very sad that this is the kind of help I'm going to have to rely on now to keep up with my handmade garden.

Oh dear, cutteduppear plus ca change.
What an extraordinary plant that cornus appears to be. I googled it. I suppose the sambucus is going to go in the big hole now. I can't move big plants at all as I have no one to ask. I wouldn't dream of asking the DC to do a big job like that as DD would boss DS about and it would all end in tears (on my part). I once paid someone lotsofmoney to dig out a buddleia and he (a recently out of work insurance sales man) took the whole day and the money and it still came back the following year. Perhaps your cornus will too. Perhaps even you wouldn't have got it out whole.

Oh Cutted, I feel your pain.

My DH can be a lazy arse too. He will occasionally mow the lawn or clip the hedge (as these involve power tools) but he doesn't have the patience or determination to take out a big shrub. Our lawn was cut into by a group of 7 over mature shrubs which snails, foxes and DD2 l

...loved to hide in.

I carefully excavated and unknotted 6 , then triumphantly lined up their complete roots like the severed heads of my enemies. i asked DH to do the last as it was a tiny bit larger. He poked at it with a shovel for five minutes then proclaimed it impossible. It is still there. Occasionally he l

...looks puzzled and asks me why there's a big bush in the middle of the lawn .

I keep having to remind myself IABU to expect him to LOVE ggardening as I do.

Oh dear cutted. Bad backs are awful. So frustrating for you.

Wind damage not too bad, thanks to staking. Only casualty are the shirley poppies on the crab apple walk. We have run out of plant supports so will have to get wire and make some more. I am going to pot on the cosmos today, I can't bear to put them out quite yet and have them eaten by slugs. Sadly I am stuck at home due to ANOTHER chicken pox scare with dd, who has rather a suspicious spot on her chin, having been exposed about 20 days ago.

The kale is starting to get pecked after the rain we have had, so looking like the grazers was actually working until it got rained on. Will have to spray as soon as it is dry. Luckily it is only calcium so not toxic in any way.

Teta your garden sounds beautiful. It is nice to have some wild areas. I made a native woodland garden at the last house. Dug out all the brambles, alkanet and other feral beasts and planted 500 pretty native plants including English bluebells, narcissus, primroses, sweet briar, ragged robin, iris foetiddissima etc. Then enclosed the lot with a mixed native hedge. It was just getting established when we moved, so I never got to really see the fruits of my labours.

CuttedUpPear that must be very frustrating with your back. There is just no substitute for doing things yourself. I have never been completely happy when I've got dh or even professionals in to do things.

Wind terrible here too. All the newly-out roses have been battered to pieces. Sigh.

How frustrating to have to move Rhubarb. Are you in your forever house now?

Oh, I was happy to move! I'd been pushing for it for years. But I gardened like we were staying there; just in case we did. This place is forever so I can really plant for the long term this time.

Oh good.

I have potted on the cosmos. I find myself feeling very maternal towards seedlings I am potting on, it feels just like tucking my dc up in bed I am a hormonal loon obviously

No, Humph, one's seedlings are one's babies.

blimey I'd have the social after me if seedlings were babies!

it was waaaaaay back (this thread/group is rocketing along!!!) but funnyperson you asked what type of apple tree... well, the space is not very wide, so I think I need something in a columnar sort of shape, but I also wish I could have one of those where three varieties are grafted onto the same stem. I forget what they're called, but it can mean that they self pollinate if they are a compatible flowering group. My favourite apple variety is possibly James Grieve, for making juice anyway. I don't really have any other strong thoughts.

haha about the nesting=weeding!! Humph's nesting is obviously expressed in that maternal feeling towards seedlings... I am so exhausted by commuting at the moment I barely register the garden mid week. I have however booked both DH and the boy to spend most of Saturday afternoon doing my bidding, so should make some progress (I know, I keep saying that. I have looked through photos from last year and am just shocked at how different it all is. I had blueberries on the 7th July - haven't even seen any flowers yet this year. I might go round the garden taking some pictures tomorrow morning since I have a late start due to midwife appointment, see if I can take some of the same view to compare to same date 2012...

Yes, it is true that social services would not be impressed that I leave some of my babies outdoors overnight in all weathers and blithely accept that some will be eaten by predators.

Anyone who loves or wants some Heuchera.

code VMNS25Z.

give you these 4 little beauties www.vanmeuwen.com/flowers/flower-plants/cottage-garden-plants/heuchera-little-cuties-collection/V17684VM

for £4.96

Don't! Van Meuwen have just emailed that offer to me.

::Lashes self to mast, to resist the siren's call::

I really really want the russian snowdrops.

Lets see now long i can resist.

Hmm. I have had the same tiny clump of them for a decade. According to VM's catalogue they spread, but not in my garden. Harrumph.

Rake, if I were still working then I can guarantee that the seedlings probably wouldn't exist, let alone being tucked up in their beds/pots. This is the first pg I have had where I have not worked and it is much easier.

Yes I think we underestimate the impact of working on pregnancy and growing children. I'm glad it is easier for you this time, Humphrey That said, I loved seeing pictures of the very pregnant Diana doing the charity rounds and naming ships, positively blooming, in her flatties, with billowy dresses: whereas other more modern ladies of the family seem less - well healthy somehow, and less active and more high heeled. Oh well. I wish I had worked less when DC were younger, full time from womb to 16 years, at which point (perhaps a bit late in the day) I decided they needed looking after properly. I think I should have worked 3-4 days a week right from the start, instead of doing the full time thing, all that happened was I got vv tired as I didn't want to compromise on looking after DC when at home. It didn't really do anything much extra for my career to be full time. I suppose it helped that they were very healthy and independent and quite happy to have me out working!
I am not going to buy any more plants until I have planted the current plants in my garden.
Mum has received 3 rhodedendrons (Gomer Waterer, Percy Wiseman and Catawbiense) for boundary security, and 2 cherry trees and a clematis Fleuri for her birthday. These are a success. I am thinking of getting them a Magnolia Campbellii Darjeeling in the Autumn and possibly also Magnolia officinalis for its bark.

Well this time I do have the benefit of a DH at home doing literally everything for me! I get brought tea and toast in the morning, driven to the station, with a lunch box of healthy goodies, I text him from the tube on the way home and my two smiling boys pick me up again, take me home, feed me dinner (and the occasional ), and I do almost nothing else but put my feet up.

But I still haven't planted many veggies at all. It's getting to be a bit late...