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...

Arf at Mousmous's DH's "do something". Sounds like my DH's contribution - his latest gem was "we need more colour". He did at least chop up some firewood today.

Beautiful day here. Not a cloud in the sky. I finished off the Savoy Hotel pruning, raked up all the leaves off the middle lawn (too soggy to mow and the inadequate electrical leaf blower won't reach), collected up a tonne of dead twigs and branches fallen out of the big trees, and then lit a bonfire to burn all the stuff I can't compost. No council garden waste collection here, annoyingly.

Didn't get onto the alliums. Again.

Bacopa are easy to grow, yes. I raised about fifty plants for the wedding and my wedding venue was on Downton tonight! without any bother.

Just clambering back onto the thread. No garden activity to report here, alas.

Oh and our wedding car was on Downton last week, I think.

Rhubarb was it the where Mary had tea with Gillingham

My rugs on Downton every week! it came from ikea

? Oops

Tee hee at all the Downton-spotting, especially the Ikea rug!

DH's contribution is producing accelerant for the compost heap...

My 200 spring bulbs for postage offer came yesterday and are all in. My alliums for postage bulbs are in (there's a theme emerging ) plus the others I accumulated somewhere along the line. I'm now sick of bulb planting but hopefully it will, pay off next spring.

Bumbez yes it was, the Great Conservatory at Syon Park. Well, I had to have it in a greenhouse, really, didn't I?

There were some lovely cars this week.

And I shall be looking carefully at rugs next time!

Funny, what did you plant at the feet of your Clematis Marjorie? Thinking of getting one for the wall next to the driveway gates, but need something to keep its 'feet cool'. Considering Erigeron karvinskianus.

We went through your village on Sunday Rhubarb - I'd forgotten how pretty it is.

my roses have arrived.
good excuse to go and buy a pretty pot to plant it in.

do I need to protect the roses from frost?

Hi Bearleigh, you should have popped in for a cuppa! Sunday was glorious. You picked the right day for a scenic drive!

Mousmous no need to worry about roses and frost.

Blimey Wynken, that was fast work on the bulbs.

I was off work with the poorly DC today so managed to plant some more spring bulbs - Alium Moly, Russian snowdrops, ipheoin and alium ostrowkianum (sp?) (all from the T&M value spring bulb mix). I was dithering about where to plant them, as usual, when DD2 picked up the packet and scattered them about so I thought "that'll do!". Hopefully it will leave me with a nice naturalistic panting scheme.

I found the ultimate kneeler in the shed. It is raised off the ground and has handles for pushing my knackerred old bones up when I've finished digging (like www.tooled-up.com/product/draper-folding-metal-framed-gardening-seat-or-kneeler/19693/?Referrer=googleproductlisting&gclid=CI61mabU4roCFZCWtAodmHwAqQ ). The family we bought the house off kindly agreed to leave the contents of the garden shed (the elderly owner had passed away), so I occasionally come across these gems. I think they must really have loved the garden too.

The leaves of my young magnolia are turning black - any ideas as to why this might be?

None of my roses look v happy either. I will have to get hold of some manure to perk them up.

When should I put the baby plants I'm growing for next year (delphiniums, pantsemon etc) inside for the winter? My grass looked quite white this morning.

Most of all, how do you find the will to keep gardening through the cold, muddy winter?

Sorry, here's the link to the kneeler...

www.tooled-up.com/product/draper-folding-metal-framed-gardening-seat-or-kneeler/19693/?Referrer=googleproductlisting&gclid=CI61mabU4roCFZCWtAodmHwAqQ]]

I am really not v good at this linking malarkey, am I?

www.tooled-up.com/product/draper-folding-metal-framed-gardening-seat-or-kneeler/19693/?Referrer=googleproductlisting&gclid=CI61mabU4roCFZCWtAodmHwAqQ]]

Rhubarb those little flowers are lovely!As I recall there are Gaura,lilies,peony bowl of beauty and irises near the base of the clematis Marjorie and a cherry Amanagawa tree and a lacy hydrangea which I will be moving .But there are always gaps.My worry with it is whether its flowers will be as lovely as the plant I saw at an ngs scheme garden in May. Do you have any suggestions as to what I could plant at the base of Wisley cream and Broughton star? The Downton Ikea rug is which one exactly? Wynken your bulb planting is awesome I'm not nearly that finished.I blame Peter brakes for not delivering my roses so I don't know exactly where to plant everything. I bought an espaliered 'red devil' apple tree and a little 'Blenheim gold' apple tree at Brogdale today!

I blame Peter Beales.not brakes. Gah.lost an erudite comment o. Gender I. The garden which you are all spared.in any event Monty puts it well in his book

Downton/ikea rug now on my profile all be it sideways. :) I think it is similar to the one in the hall.

Nappy I fess up to being a fair weather gardener, it's getting pretty chilly now and even frost some mornings.

I didn't know you had to throw old seeds away I thought they lasted years! In which case does any one want some coriander as I got an industrial size pack from the nursery closing down sale and will never use them all.

Does anyone subscribe to a gardening magazine? I thought I might ask for one for Christmas, quite like homes and gardens but any recommendations?

I was looking through Dh's photos yesterday and stumbled on 'lost gardens of Heligon' it really was lovely - I'll put them on Facebook when Dh shows me how

Nice rug!

I have subscriptions to GW magazine and Grow Your Own. Of the two i prefer GW. Did you successfully grow coriander? I've never tried but love it so I may take some seeds off your hands.

I used to get Gardens Illustrated and The English Garden. Both lovely garden porn. But I never have time to look at magazines any more so I only read The Garden which comes with RHS membership. Actually it mostly just lies around the house, unread, these days. This makes me feel a little bit sad and vaguely guilty.

Nice rug.

I'm getting GW from Dad for Christmas. Talking of GW I have just watched the last for this year and feel all sad now.

We're off to Compton Acres for a coffee and a look at their craft fair this morning whilst DS at a club nearby. After that I'm going to the Camellia nursery as am cracking and going to get an Autumn flowering one to fill the other half of the gap created where the big conifer has been taken out. There's a spring flowering one which is red that I got in the sale this spring marked 'unknown ' for a tenner. It's established brilliantly, has grown lots and full of buds for next year.

However I drove past a gorgeous pink one flowering now and need it ! I now have a plan for the back garden. I'm having one traditional veg bed then a curvy border which will take in the Mirabel plum and apple trees (will be kept small on dwarf rootstock) with cottage style borders including my gooseberry bushes from allotment and other veg. I've got loads of calendula at the allotment so going to try to get that established here.

In front of the greenhouse in the front is a newly created bed with a cherry tree and I've transplanted some rhubarb from allotment. It's got a Willam Shakespeare rose in there, some other perennials and I am going to use it as a herb bed, transplanting some of the huge sage plant from allotment. Found a patch where the strawberries will go but struggling with a spot for raspberries. Think I'm going to try a raised bed for them behind next doors conifers and see what happens.

Lots of digging, constructing etc needed so have enlisted help but hopefully next spring I'll give up allotment and just be able to pick veg outside. And I want to make more use of my Aquaponic system and fully utilise the greenhouse so need to think about that.

Don't know why, as I've lost my gardening mojo a bit of late, but I've just succumbed to YouGarden's email offer of 12 lucky dip perennials for £15. Usual price is £20, so anyone who wants the code for the £5 off is welcome to PM me.

I get GW magazine but find I can read everything I want in it in about half an hour. The Garden seems better value or - as Rhubarb says - the real garden porn like The English Garden.

That all sounds fabulous Wynken. The mirabel plum in the orchard is definitely dead as not a single fruit on it this year. the first year we were here it was laden and we were giving them away by the sack load. I may have get a replacement because they are amazing fruit. Trouble is, as the orchard isn't actually ours, I'd have to find some room in the garden.

I started watching GW last night but got interrupted by sleepover dramas in DD1's room. So will have to catch up on iplayer again.

I love mirabels, where I grew up there was an alley (well a footpath) flanked with trees.
we picked them and ate them straight from the tree and made lots of things from them: jam, cake, schnaps...
am thinking of what to replace the fig tree with if it comes to that. didn't have any fruit for 2 years - well loads of fruit actually, but it just doesn't ripen. so a mirabel tree is on top of my whishlist. that or a quince, or a pear. I have actually seen a tree that has both pears and apples. or victoria plum and mirabel.