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...

[cantspel]

I have had a lovely day in the garden doing a bit of cutting back and general tidying. I have started to look at bulbs/seeds for next year and so far my list consists of Alliums, solomons seal, more tulips, more dafs, more bluebells (english not spanish), drumstick Primulas, violas and lily of the valley. I am sure i will add more as the weeks go on and i start visiting the garden centre.

stopusingmynicknames i just scatter the seed heads as i take them off the plant and i always get a good crop of self seeded plants.

[funnyperson]

Dividing peonies

[funnyperson]

I daren't make a list of bulbs, though I have saffron crocus on the not-list

[Rhubarbgarden]

I wasn't able to do any gardening this weekend sadly, but I did visit some friends whose garden I designed and planted a couple of years ago. It was a pleasure to see it in full bloom with the perennials all looking glorious, even if the shrubs are still small. It restored my confidence in my ability to combine plants and colours, which has not been my strong point.

Rain at last. Thank goodness.

[MousyMouse]

crocus park husum -> this is whar might happen if you want to grow safron but get sold he wrong kind of crocus. still beautiful, though.

[MyBoysAreFab]

Morning ladies, can I join? I love gardening, and also am partial to a bit of Monty.

In the last 2/3 years I have become passionate about gardening. We have lived in our house for 12 years, and over that time I have planted quite a few shrubs and bushes, trying to keep it low maintenance when the dcs were young, so the garden is now looking mature and I am really quite pleased with it. I am in central Scotland, and everything is about a month behind here with the weather we have had.

I have got much more into the cottage garden look since I have had more time to garden, so am really enjoying finding other things to plant. My favourite plants at the moment are things like aquelegia, valerian and achillea.

One thing you could maybe help me with - on our grass we have a low tree stump which has been there since we moved here. We are happy to leave it there - the dcs have played on and around it over the years. I would like to plant something around it which would grow up it. This year I planted some nastutriums around the base, and some on the top where there are hollows which I put compost in. I fancy something more trailing though - any suggestions? Thanks!

[WhispersOfWickedness]

Hi boys

Rhubarb - I have been much relieved to see rain too, my veggies really need it!

Well, I have had some good luck on the pumpkin front, I just popped out to water and I have a male and female flower open at the same time I have helped them out a bit with a paintbrush (that seems so wrong ) so hopefully we will have a pumpkin now
Being able to eat our nasturtiums was short lived, they are now covered in caterpillar eggs! I'm hoping that'll distract the butterflies from laying on anything else more important!

[MousyMouse]

hi boys, my parents have the tree stum of an old tree, about 5 feet high. they have planted a climbing rose and now it looks more and more like an overgrown fairy tale castle.

it seems a good year for butterflies, the dc like watching them and all the caterpillars.

[MyBoysAreFab]

That sounds lovely Mousy, but my stump is only about a foot in height so probably need something which is low growing. Any suggestions welcome.

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

Hello, MyBoys.

My parents had the stump of an apple tree that sounds just like yours. About forty years ago they planted an ivy to grow over it. Now, the stump has completely rotted away and they just have a hummock of ivy in its place.

[funnyperson]

I think camomile and thyme so that if you sit or tread on it it smells lovely.

[MyBoysAreFab]

Good ideas, thanks though if it takes 40 years it will outlast me!! I have an established ivy and have loads of thyme growing in the garden so will try some of each and see where it goes. Thanks a lot.

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

Well, it'll take a long time to get to the point of being all ivy and no stump, but until then you'll get the prettiness of the ivy colonising the stump!

[Blackpuddingbertha]

Hi MyBoys, welcome. If you have a look at the pictures on my profile, the giant 'rose dome' grows from a stump. Not that you'd ever know and probably not what you're looking for...

Picked our first lemon cucumber today which had been growing hidden on one of the outdoor plants. We cut it up and shared between the four of us. 'twas delicious.

[Rhubarbgarden]

Just watched GW and Carol was showcasing two of the three trees in my must-have list for when I re-do the borders! Cornus kousa and Cornus controversa variegata. I have lusted after these trees for years. I just can't quite figure out where they are going to go yet. I have been doing a lot of standing in the garden and musing on it.

Booked in the garden survey for the week after next though, so perhaps that will help me to figure it out.

[Bumbez]

rhubarb I was thinking about you yesterday dragged dds reluctantly to the garden centre and was admiring gunnera plants. I didn't buy any thing in the end but got lots of ideas. The soil is crap on my north garden so raised beds are the way forward - just need Dh to hurry up and build them!

I love the cornus controversa variegata. So pretty .

Dh's motley collection of yuccas have a reprieve - leaning out the window to ogle my neighbours garden I noticed they have some planted in their East border which actually look quite good.

Spent a pleasant evening weeding and pulling off Virginia creeper from the garage.

[MyBoysAreFab]

Wow bertha that certainly is something to aspire to!

I was also admiring the photo of your corner arbour. I have been looking at them online as I want to get one for our garden.

I took the seeds out of my acquelegia pods and scattered them in the garden - what chance of them growing? I didn't think to just scatter the pods. Dang!

[WynkenBlynkenandNod]

Hi Whispers and Myboysarefab

I've tipped the aquilegia pods upside down and let the seeds fall out. Aquilegias do self seed a lot so I think they will do fine.

Have found that members of the curcubit family have a tendency to start off just producing female flowers for a bit till they get into the swing of it and produce males as well. I have a tennis ball sized melon on my plant in the greenhouse so am very pleased.

A David Austin catalogue dropped through my letterbox so am saving that for a quiet moment at some point. I have flowering Cerinthe seedlings that need to go in and some achillea from seed ready to go out. A lot in the garden died during the dry spell though

[Bumbez]

funny thanks for the peony link, and forgot to say hello to myboys

Two men are currently tackling the overgrown hedges and shrubs with chain saws

[WhispersOfWickedness]

Hi all

Lots of flowers on my pumpkins now, and I've seen some bees about, so fingers crossed I pinched the ends off each of the plants, was this the right thing to do? They were just getting so long. I assume this means no more flowers though as there seems to be one per 'junction'/set of leaves?

[MousyMouse]

we have pumpkinkins :)
have just discovered 2 tennisball sized ones with flowers still attached.
the plant is getting really huge, it is now an 8 shape, about 1.5m at the widest point and another 2 times around. my vegpatch is looking rather crowded.

[HumphreyCobbler]

Hello everyone



It is really hot today. I have watered all the ferns and the pots by the herb beds that don't get much rain. We are going away so I am about to stick stickers on the plants in the greenhouse, explaining how much to water them . We are eating runner beans, peas, broad beans, cucumber, garlic, tomatoes, basil, salad, billions of courgettes and beetroot leaves atm, I am actually a bit gutted to be going away.

Have started to make courgette soup for freezing, it seems to work well if you add the parmesan, cream and basil after you defrost it to eat. It is a very easy way of dealing with a glut. Have also been cooking them with majoram, making an egg/bacon/courgette flan, frying in butter. I am soon going to be sick of courgettes....

[funnyperson]

I'm quite amused by the stickers, and think you should take photos so that we can all benefit and learn how much we ought to be watering the plants. humph you certainly have the gift what with having a courgette glut so soon. Its true it seems a wrench to go away from the garden this year, not that I have to undergo that particular wrench, except when I am under the neon lights at work in the week.
Agree re Cornus, can't get them trees out of my mind, or the picture of Carol standing underneath them, looking happy, or the rather good combination of magenta geranium nodosum underplanting. Geraniums are very odd: I cant stand the smell of the normal windowboxy types but I love the perennials. Does anyone else feel the same?
Lilies, roses, geraniums, clematis, honeysuckle, cerinthe, cornflowers, anchusa, phlox, a rather nice pink/purple coreopsis, all out here in a happy muddle. Pernennials going for a song at the local nursery centre.

[HumphreyCobbler]

I am worried they will overwater the tomatoes and kill the flavour And the cuttings need doing twice a day if it is sunny. I want them to feed the cucumber every day too. My poor house sitters...they have to look after the livestock too and Ginge the pig has got a poorly foot.

I have a glut because I planted too many courgette plants. I either do too many or not enough

I loved the geranium nodosum too funnyperson. But I adore the scent of pelargoniums, they remind me of my granny.

DD came in from the garden yesterday delighted because she had pulled off a bit of fennel and it smelled so lovely.

[HumphreyCobbler]

I want lilly bulb recommendations! Any suggestions? I have so enjoyed the few I have planted this year I am hoping to plant at least 10 more pots up for next summer.