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...

I couldn't resist digging up more veg so added in some parsnips and some carrots too. Was all very yummy.

I too have a mountain of squash to get through, today was Turks Turban, which was beautiful. Think I'm going to tackle the spaghetti squash next but need to investigate what to do with it first as it's not a variety I've tried before.

I like the sound of your recipe Funny.

Almost time to start planning next year's veg plot I think. Trying to decide whether to do even more oca and dedicate a whole bed to them. Might grow fewer beans to make room as I always have too many and they get wasted.

Welcome Aethel. Family trees are great. I've never grown one myself but I've seen them elsewhere and they seem trouble-free. You could also consider step-over apple trees, which are handy in small spaces.

I got my fruit trees in at the weekend after all, no thanks to the useless garden centre which had hidden it's stakes and tree ties under piles of reindeers and flashing lights. Bah humbug.

I tried making an apple cake with some of the apple glut. It wasn't very nice.

Rhubarb, I have a fabulous apple cake recipe if you want it? It's a Delia one. SIL brought an apple/lemon tart over at the weekend which was amazing. I need to get that recipe off her, that one's a Mary Berry I think.

I planted some more roses this weekend. When i dug the hole the soil was fine to about a spade's depth then became really really sticky solid clay. So i dug quite a lot deeper and wider and filled in with organic compost and added some alliums and chinodoxa and a little hellebore for good measure when I planted the rose. I now have far too many roses for my little garden and may have to move them when they grow to any size.

Anyway I ended up buying some large terracotta pots and Coopers Burmese rose has gone in one along with lilium regale and allium Everest which should be lovely in the summer while I decide where to really plant it.
I bought a Mary Berry book at a discount in Tesco a fortnight ago and have been leafing through it rather tentatively. I'm good at scones and quiche and crumble but that's about my baking limit.

Can I just say that apple muffins are easy to make and good for childrens lunchboxes. Normal muffin mixture ie eggs brown sugar butter organic wholemeal flour baking powder and milk mixed together poured into cupcake cases over a thick slice of apple in each case and garnished with a sliver of apple on top before baking

ooh, I've just ordered three dwarf fruit trees!
Two are Quince C dwarf rootstock (apparently grows to 2-2.5m in 10 years)
one a Canadian sweet cherry and one a Concorde pear. neighbour won't even SEE them over the top of our fence but will make the garden border look so much nicer hopefully. plus the DDs love pears and cherries.

And a slightly bigger one that's a green Gage tree, its got Pixy rootstock so may hit 3m-3.5m, ie still not very big! will put that one on the other bit of the garden where the neighbour won't notice it. Anyway they are all supplied as 90cm maidens so won't look like trees for a while!! they are all meant to be OK with northern facing, and if I plant them close to the trellis I'm hoping to train them to some degree, thinking a fan type arrangement may work. I am SO making this up....will be googling like crazy to work out how to try it!

Trellis arrives tomorrow and then hopefully the trees will be soon after.
I like the idea of a family apple tree at the other (sunnier) side of the garden, but my trellises are the bit that need coverage first, and all the family type trees were either non dwarf or didn't sound suitable for growing near trellis cos one side of it could end up squashed.

ooh, so much to do and so little time!

oh and funnyperson you can't have too many roses!

Just catching up with the thread.

Hi Aethel Aethel

Love the sound of the squash recipe funny I'm going to try that.

I don't have any gardening news but have been busy in the front putting up lights with Dh

Tesco have really tiny potted Christmas trees £3 each I bought 2 for the table plus a 1 foot one decorated with lights for the hall table which was £10. Hopefully I'll be able to pot it on for next year.

Hello all and especially to Aethel

I agree, there are never too many roses.

Do you remember the spring green tulips that turned out pink? The replacement bulbs from Peter Nyssen arrived today. 250. Think they are going to go in pots on the low stone wall around the front garden, I want to do this as it is easier than putting them in the ground

That squash recipe really does sound wonderful funnyperson.

We need to fill up the thread, our title is no longer seasonally appropriate!

I've been thinking the same thing, Humph! It's terribly inappropriate now that Christmas cards have started to arrive.

Thanks for the recipe suggestions. Funny your apple muffins sound lovely. I'm just really bad at cooking, I'm going back to letting dh do it all and sticking with gardening and car maintenance! Know thy strengths and all that...

Congrats on the tree arrival, Aethel. You have reminded me that I promised to sort out an apple tree order for my brother back in October. Still haven't done it.

Yes need new thread in time for Christmas. What title though?

What gardening related presents are you all giving?
If I were romantic I would give my love a cherry without any stone.

Meaning a cherry tree obv

Yes, I noted the seasonally inappropriate thread title the other day too. We've taken a while to fill this one! Maybe someone should start a new thread anyhow. Definitely someone else's turn this time.

I want to buy a cherry tree. Being able to pick my own cherries from my own back garden would make me very happy indeed.

What do I need to know? Am v. ignorant about fruit trees.

the birds have all the cherries from our trees sadly

bertha you are so good at the titles

www.rhs.org.uk/Gardening/Grow-Your-Own/Fruit-A-to-Z/Cherries

Hello, Aethel, and welcome to the thread.

It's been raining like hell here in Melbourne and the veggie bed loves it: rocket, er..rocketing; lettuces going bonkers, as well as the bok choy.

Gardenias I dug out of the yard and potted are magnificent, and I can hardly believe how much they'd cost to buy. The ones I put in the bed to replace them aren't doing too well. I can take a hint, so I'll dig them up in autumn, put them into big pots and see how they do. I've been trying cut down on pots, but really big ones don't need so much water. Now I have to think of what to replace them with, but that can wait.

A find on someone's nature strip was 4 large plastic/terracotta pots; the ones that cost more than real terracotta, but so much easier to move. I leapt out of the car, flung them onto the back seat and away. I'll scrub them up, maybe spraypaint a few and get transplanting.

Hello everyone and especially Aethel.

We have a family apple tree. It fruited badly this year, I think because of a slightly bodged pruning in the spring. Maybe next year ...

I've put up me first two trellis panels!

The tree box arrived yesterday: hope it won't kill them if I can't plant til Sat morning? (No chance tomorrow as have to dig the holes and I've got work in the day and the school disco in the evening!) they are bareroot and I'm hoping if I do 't open the box they'll make it a few days??! Hopefully????

They'll be fine. They're sleeping.

Will ponder a new thread title but feel free to beat me to it anyone...

Welcome to aethelfeda - I love the thought of your inner trellis dripping with fruit - v inspiring. I love climbers but seem to have the touch of death with them. this is mainly because I am always interfering and trying to train my clamatis/beans/roses up precariously placed wigwams or too high trellis. A completely trellis fence could be the answer to all my problems....

I remember the spring green/pinks Humph. What are you going to do with the unwanted pink ones?

It was surprisingly nice and sunny here this morning so I spent a lovely couple of hours pottering about in the garden with DD2. We potted up the baby Xmas trees we got from santa's grotto at Ruxley Garden centre - which I thoroughly recommend if you have small DC and live anywhere near SE London/Kent. My plan s to keep one in the front garden and decorate it with lights every Xmas, if it survives.

We also potted on the pantsemon, delphinium and silene jack flash I've grown from plugs. I expect its far too late in the year to do this, but their roots were poking out the bottom of the seed trays and its the first time I CBA had the chance. I have put them back in my blow away green house, fingers crossed they sat the winter.

I am trying to read carol Klein 'grow your own garden' but its a bit more like a crash course in botany than I expected. I need the Jamie Oliver equivalent of gardening books, something with simple ideas I ca read with a glass of

Some of my smaller alliums are shooting up already.. Does this mean they're gonners?

Hi notanother, sadly I don't think anything will be fruiting for a few years yet! The motley twigs maiden trees and raspberry canes are in and tied to the perches, need to put my three bargain hydrangeas in the front garden I think, as they don't quite look right next to the hebe I planted. Planning fail :)

Will be trying to get some chard going on the windowsill this week, at least if I get a moment spare....