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...

Brilliant reading all your gardening news! Lexi was your front gardening blitz inspired by the messiness of mine? Yesterday I determinedly weeded all the valerian and corydalis on one side out the front and out the back I finished pruning and tying back the roses, clipped a bit off the ceanothus and began cutting back the perennials. Swept the back patio and measured up possible spaces for potting sheds.
I am either going to get an octagonal one with window and staging all around or one like this
www.waltons.co.uk/waltons-new-premier-groundsman-potting-shed-wooden-greenhouse.
www.primrose.co.uk/palram-harmony-aluminium-frame-greenhouse-6ft-4ft-green-p-40956.html?cPath=696_3594_2269&src=list_img
Depends if the DC want to do postgraduate degrees, though, as if they do then savings will need to be made.
Monty's dahlia tubers looked superb. I rather liked Esther Rantzen in her garden- she looked so much less severe! That section of the programme brought up an interesting juggle- that of the weekend garden and working away from home during the week.

Hi everyone, lovely to catch up with your gardening news. Sympathies to Bumbez on the poorly hand, and a belated congratulations to Humh on your new baby.

I have been a bit scared of my garden so hasn't done so much recently. My cosmos are glorious, I'm sure Monty would have chucked them by now but I'm quite happy with flowers creeping all over the lawn. My pumpkins turned into giant monsters, perfect fir Halloween.

Everything changes today, as its my aim to get the spring bulbs sorted. I have the T&M allium collection, about 70 tulips (blue wow, silver parrot and queen of night) plus some random bluebells and daffs to go in. I am daunted, I can't get my head around a 'design' and I'm worried I'm not planting them right (too much clay, not deep enough, squirrels will get 'em etc). But if I don't do it, I'll feel so guilty next spring when I have a cupboard full of bulbs and a bland garden.

One thing I'm really pleased about is our new trampoline. It may be a blot on the garden scape, but at least the DD leave me in peace for five mins to get stuff done!

Just caught up with GW. Really need to get my tulips in. I rather liked Esther Rantzen too; she was obviously very emotionally involved with her garden, it was quite touching.

Yesterday I bought two raspberry canes and am going to try them in a container: easier to drape netting over when the inevitable birds come to scoff the lot. Also planted four ivy-leafed pelargoniums to climb up the fence on the drive, in our bid to beautify this rather ugly part of the property.

In the veggie bed we've got mini aubergines, tomatoes, beet, rainbow chard, lettuce and bok choy. I'm going to give kang kong, a kind of water spinach, a go again as soon as the days hit 20 on a regular basis.

The kangaroo paws are huge this year, nearly 2 metres high, and the verbena bonariensis are doing well. My efforts to grow them from cuttings came to nothing, but they seeded all over the place, so I've transplanted loads to give away.

A small experiment is growing clivia from seed, though apparently they don't flower for at least five years, so if they prove hard to maintain in pots, they'll be shown to the composting bin.

Just catching up with you all.

I loved Esther's garden especially the arches, and rambling rector. I agree it was touching. I suddenly remembered a camellia, I'd planted to remember my dad, got left at the last house, oh well I'll have to think of something else.

I've been thinking a lot of my late Grandfather, we were close as I was the only grandchild who showed any interest in his garden. It's fuschias that were a particular favourite of his and they are looking magnificent at the moment. Some of my neighbours have some and it's a possibility for the front garden.

Sorry to hear you've been attending a funeral rhubarb.

I haven't done a thing, Dh cut the grass, the 40 odd alliums are still to do, if it stops raining I might attempt it one handed.

Trampolines are ace, I put bunting round ours

My neighbour has buried his trampoline so you can't see it anymore. Cost a lot of money though. I now want bunting around mine too

This verbena bonariensis thing is something I am determined to succeed at next year. The front garden is earmarked as it is sunny provided the buddleia can be severely restricted.

Hard prune it, funny. Cut it down to about a foot high.

I gave the Savoy Hotels a brutally hard pruning today. Most satisfying. I shall have to make amends to them with a mulch of composted manure so that they don't hate me. Still haven't resolved the issue of the lavender at their feet though. I guess I'll just have to be very careful how I spread it.

I've finally finished the alliums, only 30 were left and I tried a few in the bottom border which I suspect will be too wet for them, but I'd ran out of space.

Im another one nappy that can't get my head around planting design and am afraid they just got bunged in!

I've also fed all the roses, pruned a few and left the large rambling one as I'm not sure if it flowers on this years growth. Dh has promised me he will make an arch for it in the next few weeks.

Some of my roses are still flowering, so I've not pruned those either. The hyacinths I potted prior to hand injury are in the garage and just beginning to sprout- hopefully will flower at Christmas.

There is a lovely tree/shrub just coming into flower in the front, from a distance the flowers look like pink cotton wool. I remember now it flowered all last winter.

Thank you for the advice re pruning.Bumbez I am v impressed at the alliums and the mulching even though you have a hurt finger.I do hope it is dry at least some of the weekend :can't wait to get in the garden

Last GW is next week! Noooooo...

Last GW next week? Noooooooo...... I missed some of it cos the neighbour phoned to say thank you for me letting her know her garage door was open Clearly not a gardener. I caught the roses though. How lovely they were, and Carol ever so good at presenting their history. Well I would be planting roses this weekend if Beales had sent them. I ordered them in July and they still haven't arrived. So I will be doing bulbs and other things instead. The compost made me laugh. Reminds me of the gastroenterologists looking at poo. But what say you all of the sexist division of the gardening psyche? I don't conform because I mow the lawn and do the compost thing as well as plant. But then I never have done with anything really. The older couple were so nice. Such lovely soft white hair the grandfather had. It was almost heartbreaking to think of them moving. The grandfather was a typical sunny optimistic male. The best sort.

We have a definite sexist division in the garden. DH does what I tell him to ask him very nicely to. Although the times I have been in control of the ride-on mower have not been that successful...

No sexist division in the gardening here. There is no division because dh doesn't do any gardening. He's too busy cooking - arf!

roses are all pruned.
lawn looks as if some wild boars have been digging it up. bloody foxes. dh has now put strawberry netting on top of it, but I fear we will rather catch a fox or cat with it than stop them digging.
the dc have fun in the mud, though :o

This weekend has again been preparing furniture so we can sit and look at the garden without fear of the benches giving way beneath us.

A bit of savage pruning has gone on: the tibouchina, that was getting very leggy has been cut back so there may be loss of flowers in the autumn, but hey ho. The alogyne huegelii, a native hibiscus, has been cut back hard after its first spring flowering, but this will encourage a bushy habit to make a flowery hedge out side DD's ground floor bedroom window. Or so the books say.:o

In a moment of weakness I bought a staghorn fern and a cactus orchid in flower; huge, creamy white blooms. Love these cacti and cannot imagine how I spent seven years in Au without seeing them. To be fair it's mostly amateur growers who sell them, never the commercial outlets. The stag horn will be nailed to the fence and given a six-monthly banana skin, and that's it.

mousmous watch for hedgehogs getting caught in the netting. Or will they be fast asleep by now? We found a dead one caught in ours when we lived in the UK.

Our gardening practice is quite sexist I suppose, in that I never ever use heavy machinery or do hard landscaping. I am, in fact, a bit wimpy. But the whole time I have had a garden I have either been pregnant or breastfeeding a small child or running after a toddler or working full time! Who knows what I may be capable of? Although I have a morbid fear of the chainsaw.

I have a question for all of you - we have these twelve enormous terracotta pots on our driveway. Last year we had daffodils, tulips and then pelargoniums and it worked really well but their dead time was the end of June when the pelargoniums were planted but nowhere near flowering. This is EXACTLY when our garden will be open next year and I want the pots to be in full flower.

So this year we are starting with wallflowers that will come out by the end of May. Can I grow on pelargoniums early enough to be flowering by the end of June? Or shall I do something else and if so, what do you suggest?

Remember last year was a very late spring. I think in a normal year you should be fine to expect pelargoniums to be flowering by the end of June.

I got married in the middle of June, and I grew Bacopa from seed in miniature terracotta pots to have on the place settings as favours. They were nearly all flowering and were quite traily, so you could try some of those alongside your pelargoniums.

I want to come and visit your garden

I would love to see you! Thanks for that, I think we were very late planting them last year, so hopefully it will work.

Just googled Bacopa - they are lovely. I am going to get some seeds.

Bacopa are lovely and remind me of my Dad who grows them on his fence. He spends many hours and pounds each year on annuals for his small garden which was fine but he's finding it that bit harder. I want to encourage him to look at using perennials a bit more.

Lovely day here though a bit chilly. I'm most jealous that Echt is able to say spring flowering. I've been out bringing pelargoniums into the greenhouse . All my garlic is now in and the rest of the tulips planted.

I think possibly some of my alliums are coming through, I've never grown them from bulbs before, I'm guessing they look a bit like onions, shallots etc with a single thinish shoot, does that sound right/likely ? They went in a few weeks ago and it has been very mild here.

Don't like the sound of wild boar lurking, they are my nemesis and I live in perpetual fear of bumping into one as someone told me they are now in the New Forest.

I've one a bit of rose pruning inspired by all of you. My roses will thank you all next year. I'm hoping that next year will be the year Mme Alfred Carriere flowers (year 3). It's grown loads this year and will be the backdrop of my new veg plot so I have my fingers crossed.

wynken it does sound like alliums as I have something oniony coming up, where I planted some a few weeks ago. It's been mild here too.

Another one googling Bacopa, really lovely.

I didn't realise you had to plant tulips in November and did mine ages ago

Is Bacopa hard to grow? I do like it.

I did my first bit of gardening for pages today. Just cutting a few things back to keep things a bit tidy, plus picking up loads of apples. I filled our council plant recycling bin, and there a still more to go. Not the most exciting gardening ever but after last spring I do now realise the benefits of keeping the garden tidy. It was so cold all I could do was keep the garden tidy.

Thanks Bumbez, sounds hopeful we'll have flowers next spring. If it makes you feel better I planted some of my tulips last month, knowing that November is supposed to be better as I got impatient.

Finally managed a couple of sunny hours in the garden today. I mulched the asparagus bed, emptied the planters on the back of the pew and replanted them with tulips. The rest of the tulip bulbs went in the long bed and I put some crocus bulbs in my flowery wood bit in the front garden. There are some naturalised ones there so I think they will be fine.

I pulled up the remaining cosmos and cut back some straggly stuff here and there. Was planning to start mulching the front bed too but there's still quite a bit going on in there and didn't have the heart to cut it back yet. It's cold out there tonight though so that'll kill some more off I should imagine.

DH picked up the leaves.

dh's donain is the patio.
that is swept regularly and the furniture is moved from cellar to patio and back depending on the season.
and he nags me about the lawn.. it looks awful he says, do something