Potting shed summer party

[Blackpuddingbertha]

Following on from the Blooming into Flaming June thread and all others before it.

The potting shed is open for summer. Elderflower wine aplenty and room for all. Monty will be along later...

Did the fox just go ahead and wander over the strings mousmous? Or was it lion poo?

Did anyone else notice that Monty put perfectly reasonable flowers on his compost heap? I sometimes think he is on another plane. Amateurs like me dance about over every flower that blooms and Monty pulls up stuff that is ever so slightly going over. Though I do read it is very rainy and cold where he lives so perhaps he has to bed down early for winter. He is always pulling up things and planting other things. I suppose it is because he has to be seen to be doing stuff for the telly. I pulled up the sweet peas and stored the canes, but other than that my garden is still being neglected cos I still cant bend down. It is well and truly Autumn here. It is lovely hearing about the babies, Humph and Lexi.

I put a new photo up.
I guess it jumps over the strings as it digs between.
when Ic leared up last weekend there were a few grubs (junebug?) just under the roots, so maybe that's what the fox is after.

I noticed that Funny, I'd never heard of cosmos before this site but have seeds ready to go for next year, certainly won't be pulling them up whilst still in flower.

Is anyone worried about the storm I've been out with Dh securing the trampoline, moving pots and finally dismantling the ugly plastic greenhouse. My cast has got a bit grubby, I'm so going to be judged in #clinic on Monday

There used to be a row of pine trees in our road, loads toppled in the storm of 87, the only 2 still standing are in mine and my next door neighbour's garden, and are very tall!

If Thomson and Morgan are no good does that mean I shouldn't mind that I still haven't finished planting the allium bulbs? Will they store or should I put them in a pot? Think it will be December before I'm back to 2 hands.

Apart from pruning is there anything else to do with roses? I have a fair few, and they haven't done very well, was wondering whether to feed them?

I have one rose that is still in bloom.
should I prune it now? it has been so warm recently, so I left it.

I'm thinking prune tomorrow and tie in any climbers then the roses won't be so wind rocked. Too early to feed them:I'm thinking autumn mulch when Monty and others give the go ahead.
bumbez yes I just read about the storm. I bet mum's ailing fir tree topples over. it is ever so straggly and if it goes I will donate a magnolia grandiflora exmouth in its place.
I think I am going to have to grit my teeth and get all the plants planted tomorrow. Either that or bring them in and ride out the storm.

Sorry to hear about the hand, Bumbez.

Monty was sacrificing the Cosmos because wallflowers need to go in in October in order to put on a good show in the spring, and he had to make space for them by removing the cosmos. The irony is that he'll probably pull up the wallflowers just as they reach their peak in May, in order to replace with new cosmos... This is how it goes in parks and lots of public gardens, and what we were taught to do at horti college. Seems a bit nuts but ensures a continuous display.

Some of my roses are still flowering too - mainly the Savoy Hotels, which have flowered their socks off since early summer. They've made me think that repeat flowering roses are vastly better value than the old roses that put on one flamboyant show then that's it.

I have started the rose pruning. Prompted mainly by the forecasts of stormy weather. But I've started with the ones that have finished flowering; I'm unlikely to get them all done this weekend anyway. Now is a good time to mulch them with composted manure, but they won't be getting that treatment here this year unfortunately. It's tricky actually, the Savoy Hotels are underplanted with lavender, which like poor soil and would hate a rich mulch. Next time I'm in a public garden where they have roses with lavender I must ask them how they square this circle.

Anyone else concerned with how the garden will cope if we get the promised storm on monday?

I am going to spend tomorrow in the garden trying to get it as storm ready as possible. Move pots into sheltered positions or into the greenhouse, put the hanging baskets into the garage, lift the rest of my begonias even tho they are still in flower, put the garden furniture away, and check the stakes and supports on any bushes.

Then just hope for the best.

I'm not too woried about our garden, it's quite sheltered.
but a couple of houses down are some very large conifers that could land on our house if they fall in the wrong direction. they move quite a lot in storms ...

We've had some corking wind here in the last few weeks. Every single flower and budding avocado has been stripped from the dwarf Wurtz. Now I know better, I'll park the tree between two hug wheelie bins when storms are on the agenda.

I am very worried about our garden in high winds. The perry pear is vulnerable as full of leaf and fruit . We also rely on willow and horse chestnut to shield us from the pylon.

sorry about your hand bumbez

dh is out pruning the Frances Leicester and planting wallflowers in all the beds by the back door. These have been bought as sadly mine failed to grow bigger than about three inches, possibly due to using a cheap bag of compost someone gave me.

anyone want any cheap garden supplies wilko have reduced a lot of the summer seasonal stuff. Yesterday i bought bags of John innes seed compost for 50p each (normally £3.99), big bags of miracle grow £1 each (normally £8.50) boxes of pathclear for £1, slug copper tape £1 a box, seed pots 25p a pack, cloche lids 30 p each and some assorted bulbs which were half price.

Ooh good call cantspel! I will try our local Wilko tomorrow, perhaps have an outing on the bus with baby.

So, I said I would report on the Shades of Autumn show. When I went to the Harvest show I loved how small and intimate it was, and the evening session (when the Hobgoblin and cocktail stalls opened for business and the lighting went down low) was really atmospheric. It was in the Lindley Hall only, and was well laid out with the competition benches in the middle of the hall and the 'clubs' and retail stalls around the sides. Shades of Autumn, on the other hand, was split between the two halls. We accidentally started in the Lindley hall (because that's the one I assumed it was in, not realising both were open) and it was a bit of a disappointment to be honest. There was a weird show display in the entrance hall, then some other high concept show gardens in the main part (something about Remixed gardens). Also a small but interesting competition section of foliage and berry branches like acer, viburnum, Cornus, anything with attractive colours as they die down.

Bizarre interlude in the cafe in the Lindley hall when some youngish bloke went to every table that had someone wearing glasses, interrupted their conversation, and gave a pitch for some total quackery weird glasses that your wear for a short time each day to 'train' your eyesight back to full acuity. I quietly shopped him to the RHS staff and he got ejected.

Went over to the other hall (fabulous Deco exterior and entrance hall). Much much better, more like a Chelsea or Hampton Court floral marquee, where you have a display on one side and the nursery's sales side the other. There were a few purely sales stalls at the edges (naice teatowels, mugs, greetings cards, and the RHS' own outlet) but almost all the hall was proper nurseries with beautiful autumn-interest plants for sale (salivate, salivate). What arguably gives this show the edge over HC and Chelsea is that you have to work harder on a display at this time of year, and a few of the stands had used this as an excuse to do some educating. I had a squirmy grizzly baby on me (really wished I had taken the buggy not just the sling) so didn't take it all in, but the ones I remember were the agapanthus and (separate) lily stands which made a show garden display out of the propagating process.

Excellent cake too. Well-advisedly, there was a cafe in both halls.

I came home with four plants - two autumn-reddening shrubs, a yellow crocosmia and a very gorgeous little thing with blue flowers, red leaves (green earlier in the year). Can't remember any of their names and they are now down in the wind-protected bit between the rockery and the shed.

Drat. We don't have a local Wilko.

I nearly went to the RHS show but had to change my work schedule. Drat again, as it sounds like it was a good one.

And in other news, we have undertaken Step One of our front garden plan. (I will put pics on fb group). It reminded me just how much I really love working with DH on these things. Just alongside each other, cooperating easily. So much more rewarding than giving him a job to do or writing something on the kitchen blackboard, or even the 'tag-team' way we do most things like shopping, parenting, cooking.

A couple of weeks ago we dug up the lavender border to the path, chopped back the solanum by the front door, and took up as many of the gladioli, crocosmia, iris and acidanthera bulbs as I could find, storing them in pots rather densely. A few days ago I dug up the pathetically stunted pair of Honeyberry plants and one of the gooseberries. Yesterday we dug up and after a few seconds consideration decided to discard forever the three buddleja that were not red white and blue after all JParkers I'm looking at you , uprooted and saved the second gooseberry, four raspberries and their offspring shoots, chopped down the rest of the solanum growing between soffit and guttering that I previously couldn't reach, took the perennial sweet pea against the fence down to the ground, tied in the Open Arms rose to the fence, got a few more gladioli and iris bulbs up, and shredded all the cuttings into a big sack which (amazingly for us) went to the tip with DH and DS the same day! (Only because the car was going for a service today and we couldn't very well leave the sack out with the expected winds imminent. He also bought me three bags on compost on the way back so I could properly pot up all the rescued raspberries etc., but I have a feeling they stayed in the car and have gone to be part of the MOT...)

So now our front garden is like a bit of wasteland that has been cleared down to the ground. Which it is, really. When we get a few dry days with sun (HAHAHHHHHAAAA) I will get a glyphosate dose on it to kill off the mint and weeds, hopefully having had the chance to dig over and find any more bulbs. I've got snowdrops and aconites in there somewhere. I need to decide what to do with all these rescued plants, we won't be able to put much other than the bulbs back in the remodelled front garden, and I can only fit a few in the back. I would offer them to you guys, but I am nervous that they will come with a free gift of horsetail, no matter how forensically I go through their rootballs. I may have to send them to Devon as my parents' orchard and farmland can cope with weeds much more easily than a suburban garden. My mum has said she doesn't know what she'd do with raspberries (uh, jam?!) but even rambling through the hedgerow would be nice wouldn't it? I'm just incapable of throwing perfectly good living plants away - like funnyperson I involuntarily winced at the sight of those flowers on Monty's compost heap.

Lexi I am in awe of your ability to garden so extensively with such a small baby. How do you do it?

I agree about the loveliness of working with someone else in the garden. Our happiest garden times are when we are both grubbing about on our own project, not even necessarily communicating with each other . My only bugbear is that if there is an interruption from the kids it is ALWAYS me that gets it, even before the breastfeeding baby came along.

Luckily the storm seems to have missed us. Hope everyone else has got away with it? I know Rhubarb has suffered some damage

I'm six weeks ahead of you Humph! It will come just in time for you to get your tulips and sweet peas in :). The baby has just started having a reliable solid nap in the early afternoon. 4yo DS decided he wanted a sleep too, so I had B in the pram and G on the sofa in the living room, front window open so we could stick our heads in to monitor them. It was a bit of a slash and burn type of gardening session anyway, totalled 2 hours.

Lexi I am also impressed by your efforts. I always try to make the most of ds's naps, but by the time I've cleared mess, done the laundry and made essential phone calls and checked MN there's never much time left.

A large ceanothus blew down in the night, but apart from that we seem to have come through the storm relatively unscathed. The dcs helped me collect up three trugfuls of apples blown off the trees in the orchard, and the lawn is covered with branches shaken out of the trees. Nothing too big though. It'll all be handy for bonfire night!

Reporting in with storm damage. Amazingly didn't loose any trees but plenty of branches down in the garden. Only real damage was the runner bean arch (which was still up for the purposes of seed collection) which went over sideways. We've yet to recover it and return it to an upright position but it appears to have buckled the arch structure

Watched a car drive off the road this morning. Failed to stop when the car in front of him stopped to go round a fallen branch. Incredibly he did no damage to himself or anyone else. Which was lucky as i was coming the other way and he would've got me too. Some people have no sense.

No storm damage here thank goodness, one apple we missed is amazingly still on the tree!

Shame about the ceanothus rhubarb, space for something else?

Thanks everyone for the hand sympathy, my first ever broken bone and such a small bone too. Dh had to finish the pickled onions I'd started, he added extra chili. I'm hoping as he's off this week he'll cut the grass and get the rest of the bulbs in.

Did your mother's tree survive funny?

Lexi I'm also impressed when my two were little and napped I used to watch telly do housework

No real storm damage here either, Even my cheap wilko green house came through in one piece but i am glad i sited it in a sheltered corner.

My lawn is covered in bits of oak tree and i am going to have to ring the council as there seems to be a lot of very unstable looking branches left in the oaks which are all hanging over my property. I cant touch the trees myself as they are all subject to tpo's.

no storm damage either.
our garden is quite sheltered. sheltered enough for the fox to take a little cub for a digging lesson!
it actually looked very small. and so cute.

It's Friday evening of the long weekend of the Melbourne Cup. I love the way the whole place grinds to a halt for horse race.

Yesterday I picked the first of the sweet peas and even DD, who is gardening-averse noticed how a tiny bunch, perhaps ten stalks, perfumed the whole room.

That sounds very cute mousmous... I think you may have inadvertently got yourself some pets!

I'm getting nervous about when GW is going to finish. I always feel sad when Monty says that's it for the year, see you in the spring, because it doesn't start soon enough in the spring, I think.

But meanwhile... www.mumsnet.com/Talk/food_and_recipes/1898336-Jam-makers-over-here-please-Couple-of-questions

Think I read GW finishes 15 November. No storm damage here but very glad had trees dealt with this year as there were some down around.

Had someone remove a large bit of next door's laurel to stop it shading my new veg plot which still is only half dug. The broad beans are up, am hoping the saved seed is an overwintering one. My Meteor peas are up as well. Tree guy was laughing at my random marigold plant stuck in that I found in concrete at the front.

Garlic and rest of tulips to go in soon. Dragged DC's up to the allotment to get pumpkins. There were loads of marrows and other squash to bring back, a wheelbarrow full. My friend's Dad apparently likes Marrow. Am trying to worm address out of here so I can be the marrow fairy.

Bumbez yes the ceanothus's demise will allow me to plant something else. I had considered replacing it anyway as it was a bad shape, top heavy and full of dead wood, so it's no great loss. I will probably remove the other two now too.

I just got back from a couple of days in Johannesburg for a family funeral. I discovered that my cousin's in-laws run a nursery for native plants in the Kruger National Park. They were very interesting to talk to.