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.

What happens in a 'garden survey' Rhubarb. I like the sound of that even before I know what it is!

Yes, pull the sucker if you can - it'll be growing from the root stock that your rosé is grafted on

Ha - I'm leaving the autocorrect on rose above! Anyone got an idea why my iPad thinks I want to write about wine rather than a flower? Erm...

You can always eat the ground elder. Lots of recipes on the net. It's been scoffed since Roman times. So, like the Japanese knotweed, not entirely useless.

thanks, maybe I get some time between parties and rain to tackle the buttercups.

yep, ground elder is quite tasty, a bit like spinach. maybe a bit more iron-y.

Having been inundated by reports/marking/builders, the two-week holiday is here, the renos nearly done, i.e. not done, and I can think about the weeds.

Interrupted there by DH arriving with the new microwave for the new kitchen. None of the new sockets work. Hmmm.

Anyway, one good thing is that the cuttings of verbena bonarienis I put in water three weeks ago are now showing little white roots, so I'll take more cuttings this weekend. While the plant doesn't flower, it still puts on new growth even in winter, so I'll snip away and then cut it down late in July.

a lovely day here. We were off at Longleat for a couple of days, the first thing we did when we got back was rush into the rose walk to see what else had opened. Bleu Magenta is looking really good without sign of mildew. I had no idea how prone this rose was to disease, I would not have planted it otherwise.

I have had a lovely time this afternoon, selling plants to the cognoscenti of south London. I managed to moderate my buying impulse, but nevertheless have brought home a few goodies.

Meanwhile, I heard this for the first time today. .

Eek! This fell off my "threads I'm on"... That's not surprising though, I have been very neglectful. Well, just a placeholder for now, back later with a bit of an update, nothing very exciting though.

First strawberries for us too today. We even had a few from the Mara des Bois I planted not long ago. They were really delicious; a far better flavour than the normal ones.

And the Alexandria wild strawberries that i grew from seed are a better variety than the ones I had got from the garden centre: much bigger berries.

Bertha a garden survey is just an accurate plan of the garden. Like an architect's drawing of a house. It's the starting point for a garden design so that you can get the lines and geometry right, and accurate measurements for hard landscaping. It can be done by basic triangulation with a tape measure, pencil and paper (how I do it) or more quickly using surveyor's tools like theodolites.

Spent the most lovely and inspiring morning at Sissinghurst yesterday with Funnyperson. I will report more fully when I haven't got kids chuntering to be got up and a cat purring in my ear for breakfast.

Maud that sounds fun! I should like to have bought some of your plants.

maud love that song makes me want to dance too.

bearleigh I am at your strawberries mine are small and green. I think I'll dig them up soon I never have much luck with them.

wynken I've pmd you as eager to see Facebook photos

Finally I have a dozen different roses, all with the most exquisite smell plus a teeny bunch of sweet peas (attempted to grow the supposed to be dead easy sweet peas last year and got nowhere!)

Also picked my first carrier bag full of strawberries!

2 weeks of gluttonous strawberry eating until we're sick of them!

Now wait

Now waiting for my new cherry tree to turn its small crop (about 30 cherries) red.

God I love summer!

Nother one with a strawberry harvest. Last year the allotment produced the grand total of not one strawberry. This year there's loads. Brought back the first broad beans as well.

Gosh, am v jealous of strawberry harvest. Ours not ripe yet, but the squirrels are undeterred . The graziers spray does not seem to be working on them. The year before last we were sick of strawberries, I would love that to happen again. We have had our first ripe raspberry though.

we have quite a few strawbs too, but not huge amounts, around 10 a day (so not really in danger of getting fed up with them quite yet).

have tackled the buttercups this morning, was very satisfying pulling one root out and getting 6feet of plant. 4 large buckets of green stuff for the compost bin and loads of snails uncovered. and a toad! we don't have a pond and the garden is walled, so no idea how it got there. but it looked juicy and fat and is good news on the snail/slug front.

Squirrels were responsible for our zero harvest last year. However this year looks to be really good, think I picked around 4kg today and there's a fair few more to come.

The first courgette is forming on the Autopot courgette which is a monster plant and massive compared to those from same batch out on the allotment. Wasn't going to plant any at allotment but more germinated than anticipated so I weakened. I have however stood firm and only planted Borlotti at the allotment and am hoping the Autopot beans will produce a decent amount here without us being sick of them and I can pick them whilst smaller.

On the flower front the climbing rose by the front door has a lovely scent that people keep commenting on when they arrive. And having seen Rhubarb's gorgeous pictures I really want to go to Sissinghurst .

I am at your toad Mousy.

My compost bins arrived today, so exciting! Now there's a sentence I never thought I'd write. I have already half filled the first with grass and shredded paper then made DH pee in it. A friend at work has offered me some of her worms which was v kind of her... Another sentence....

We also enjoyed our first feast from the garden, juliet salad potatoes which were vv tasty. I think I planted them too close together as from 8 plants there was only enough for one dinner (or we may just be greedy!). There were lots of little tiny ones. I may have harvested too early but the flowers were out so I thought it must be time?

I have a trellis/obelisk dilemma. DH is not keen on nailing trellis to our new fence (sunny border) and I'm sure my neighbours wouldn't be thrilled with us putting trellis on their new fence either (shady border). I am also not keen on doing DIY with sulky DH. However, I am very keen on climbers - I have 3 clematis (inc. 1 montana) and one climbing fuchsia that need some support.

What shall I do with them? Will 4 obelisks look bonkers? Where can I get them cheap enough to not blink at buying 4? Pref in some kind of cottage garden style. We did fashion some out of bamboo, which looked lovely... Until DD2 destroyed them. I do have some trellis, but it's on patio and I didn't think clematis liked being in pots?

Phew! What a busy weekend!
notanothernewnappy I think you are right not to put trellis on your neighbour' fence as this could lead to tenshun and legal ishoos. My mother had a dilemma because the police pointed out that the weak point of entry to her grounds was the neighbours low and rickety fence. When we offered to a)repair it and b) put trellis up, they got very shirty. A fence man who does fancy fencing for slebs said there are ways round it, for example you could put planters next to said fence and put trellis up on the planters and there is no legal issue because the planter and trellis are on your land. We simply planted rhodedendrons and will probably plant other thorny bushy high things such as roses.

Which brings me to Sissinghurst, and I have to say that Sissinghurst surpassed memory. The roses in the rose garden have been well looked after and there is no doubt in my mind (and luckily rhubarb was of the same opinion!) that Vita Sackville West was a genius. The vista of roses upon roses, with a backdrop of old brick walls in the sun, covered with more roses, was really stunning, and the scents and colours and shapes of plant had all been carefully chosen to create a really beautiful picture and sensation. There are many rose gardens- for example Queen Mary's Rose garden in Regents Park, but though they are very nice indeed, the roses aren't particularly positioned for the way the colours or shapes combine with each other. Whereas at Sissinghurst, each rose has earned its place in the garden and is placed near another rose or plant which will bring out the best in the garden as a whole.
The interplanting of alliums, peonies, iris siberica, geraniums and gillina trifoliata was really very beautiful. Allium Christophii (or was it schubertii?) was lovely with the Rosa Magenta Korda which had a really nice antique pink colour with purply buds. Rhubarb liked the Mrs Oakley Rose which was so pretty with its open flower, velvety orange petals and gorgeous scent. Not that there was shortage of gorgeous scent. Rosa nuits de young was wonderful in the sun. Alfred Carriere was trained against a wall with a burmese Cooper rose. We had a lovely sunny morning and left as the coaches arrived. rhubarb took brilliant pictures with her smartphone. I took scrappy notes -enough to order online which I have done. I won't even begin on the white garden except to say there was a fabulous Crambe Cordiflora! It was great to be with rhubarb.

Oh it sounds SO lovely. I wish we could all have been there with you funnyperson and rhubarb.

The guilt which came from not doing family and household stuff on a Saturday morning was really serious though! Although on the way out I realised how sensible we had been to go early before the crowds.

Humphrey you would have loved it. It would be nice to all meet up at another garden.

The photos are amazing. I went when DD was a baby, but it was at the beginning of May so missed the roses.