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...

Favourite vegetable plot plant this year was the oca. Closely followed by the tomatillos and the kohl rabi.

Resolutions for next year.

To list out my dream projects and actually achieve at least one of them.

Currently on the ever expanding list are (in no particular order):
Board walk through the wood bit.
Small pond.
Cutting garden.
Wildflower meadow area.
Herb hopscotch.

Lessons learnt:

Don't over plant.
Remember to weed.
Turn compost.

Thanks so much Wynken

Thanks Castle I'll give you a shout!

Thanks Wynken I shall be sure to share my planting lists once I've done my planting plans!

Favourite rose this year was Savoy Hotel. Not necessarily my favourite colour but they flowered their socks off from spring through to late autumn.

Lessons learned: not to overbuy bulbs. Not to light bonfires on windy days (hedge still not recovered). Snowberry bushes are bastards indestructible. That I can live with cow parsley in the borders (thank you Maud).

Things flowering now that shouldn't be: two potted Gazanias.

Best gardening moment of 2013: dd's annual bed. Glorious colour and a delight watching her fascination with it.

Favourite garden visited: really enjoyed Sissinghurst visit with funnyperson, also loved Groombridge Place.

Gardens I want to visit in 2014: determined to get to Hidcote. Perhaps Stowe. Gravetye Manor although it's a hotel and not sure if the gardens are open to non-residents.

Thank you rhubarb.

My gardening resolutions: plant plants when they arrive and bulbs on time; keep the patio tidy: sort out the front garden wall;

Best gardening moments: When the Hellebores and Japonica flowered in spring; this year I have planted more hellebores and added in anemones and snowdrops and I am looking forward to February;

Favourite garden visited: Yes, Sissinghurst's roses were a great pleasure and better when seen with rhubarb. I hope my rosa Magenta and Christophii alliums grow a picture to remind me.
Chelsea flower show Australian garden was an eye opener and so are echt's posts. I also liked seeing clematis Marjorie and other flowers growing in a little open ngs garden in Herts.

Favourite post: Maud talking about clematis.

Favourite rose: Munstead Wood.

Garden to visit in 2014: Great Dixter

Things flowering now: winter jasmine

Things flowering now that shouldn't - blue irises

Best gardening moment - harvesting the apples.

Best flowers - cosmos - before this thread I didn't even know what they were!

Best garden visited - Lost Garden of Heligon in Cornwall.

Gardening resolutions - just to get stuck in and not worry about schemes and planting, things are easily changed. I also want to grow more from seed, it's somehow more satisfying.

I'm really enjoying reading everybody's posts about the best of the year!

I had a very low-keyed gardening year, due to still not actually having a garden and trying to reduce debts so that we can draw down our mortgage and get into our house and then begin garden! And I realised that I have a great propensity to spend money in the garden centre that I just can't afford at the moment!

But....thanks to Aldi, I did have some lovely gardening moments. I bought some lovely wooden planters and terracotta pots and strawberry plants, a raspberry plant, and a fabulous wisteria which is doing very well! As well as various seeds (rocket - went wild, cosmos - great success!)

Best place for Gardeners on a Budget: Aldi!

Aims for 2014:
Attend a local course on planting an orchard!
Visit some public gardens!

Went to check in Mum's today, she has a calendula in bloom and the roses are still going in places.

I have spent a lot this year on plants but finally the house is more or less so I started the back garden. A new bed needs digging now the huge conifer has and I'm collecting plants to fill it. Which I'm finding the half price sale at the garden centre helps a lot..... Crocus rose and Clematis Jackmanii were today's buys. Along with picking up Clematis Freckles that had arrived. However it doesn't seem to know it is supposed to be flowering now as it is 'plant of the month' . My Friend's Dad sadly died on Christmas day and I was dithering about which plant to buy. Wasn't sure whether to go for a rose with his name for the summer or something for now. Ended up wit going for Callicarpa and Clematis Freckles which I hope she'll get some pleasure looking at in the winter.

Erigon starting to come out too and the two Autumn camellias have their job in Mum's conservatory and have come back here adding to the colour. My garden seems quite mixed up at the moment.

DH bought a couple of Lidl raspberry canes a few years ago and there are a fair few now. Aldi is harder to get to for us but agree about the bargains. I'd love a wisteria.

Another resolution. Net the cherry tree so we get to eat some (that was a failed resolution for this year I seem to remember )

Garden to visit in 2014: Humphrey's

When are you open Humph? We can come with tools and help with last minute weeding!

Clematis Freckles is a lovely choice. I'm planning to replace the fallen ceanothus's along the drive with some.

I finally finished raking up all the leaves today. And did some weeding and tidying in the border where I want to plant the remaining Allium bulbs. I also popped over to visit the 'hot colours' garden that I planted in September. I was happy to explain to my clients that the plants they thought were dead were just deciduous. It's looking good, has weathered the storms without any major problems and the foliage colours of the evergreens (coppers and golden-greens) looked really lovely in the frost.

My lesson learned was to water the veggies and fruit unless it's been raining hard, even when you've had a wet winter. My garlic and potatoes especially this year were nothing like as good as last year's.

Best in the food garden were my plants of strawberry Mara des Bois and, in flowers, my oenothera 'Sunset Boulevard’, and clematis Ernest Markham, which flowered for ages. My rosa Princess Alexandra of Kent looks like she might survive after all, so she wins the prize for most-recovered invalid.

Thing flowering now that shouldn't - rose Susan Williams-Ellis and Catanache Caerulea.

Best garden was Westbury Court in Gloucestershire: it was a beautiful autumn day (sun, after rain, so sparkling), and early so we had the first walks on dewy grass, and it is a beautiful place: very different from any other gardens I have visited. Also they had an Apple Day so I got to taste Pitmaston Pineapple apples, amongst others.

Ooh I've been tempted to get a Pitmaston Pineapple. One of my lecturers at horti college used to rave about them. Were they nice?

I have heard great things about Westbury Court. It was on a documentary I watched somewhere and stuck in my mind as one to visit. Bit far though.

Rhubarb they were delicious. Very small, and a lovely yellow colour, with a very fragrant long-lasting taste. I have plans to have one of our apple trees taken down -i t's too big for where it is, and more important for me, the apples really are boring - large juicy and tasteless.

I will replace it with a PP on smaller root stock, and hope future owners of the house will realise it's not a crab apple, as the apples are so small they don't look like eaters.

2 Trees down in mum and dads garden: a conifer (rather a nice one) in the storm and an old chestnut because mum told the tree surgeon the wrong tree. The straggly pine I dislike still stands. Hey ho.
So, Magnolia grandiflora Exmouth it is. Might get a Monkey puzzle tree to replace the conifer which was conical and about 3m high. The chestnut is irreplaceable and unbelievably she let the tree surgeon take away all the wood.

I might get 3 silver birch var jaquemonti to go where the conifer was as there are rhodedendrons in that corner, and maybe fruit trees where the chestnut was. I cant get over the chestnut. The trunk was at least a metre across. I do not understand the psychology of those who can even begin to think about cutting down old trees. I am so upset about it that I find I am really really really angry with my mother. Oh well.

Oh no funny that's really sad about the chestnut. They are such beautiful trees and if the trunk was a metre across...

Yes yes yes to a Monkey Puzzle though. Arguably my favourite tree. I planted one in the middle of the front garden in London as soon as we moved in; it was a Victorian villa and just crying out for a Monkey Puzzle. I was sad to leave it behind.

Betula var Jacqumomtii also lovely. In the winter garden at Anglesey Abbey they have a little glade of them underplanted with a sea of Bergenia of a variety whose leaves turn deep purple in winter. You can't see the glade as you approach it; you come round a corner and BANG all those pure white shiny trunks set off by dark purple. It's stunning, especially on bright days when the sun makes the white sparkle and a blue sky makes for an even more dramatic backdrop.

Anglesey Abbey is wonderful in winter. Obvs the winter garden is a joy but they also have woodland full of snowdrops and the best espaliered pear tree I've ever seen.

Oh funny I would be sad about the chestnut tree too...

we were following the news whist we were away. luckily no storm damage, though the squirrels hav hidden peanuts in my rose pots.
however during the huge storm a few couple of months back a huge ole oak near my parents house came down and a few other trees as well. the tree suregons only cleared the area of weak trees a few months before that.

Happy new year everyone.

Sorry to hear about the chestnut funny, the weather is strange at the moment, seems to be extremely windy on alternate days

Dh's parents have given us both money for Christmas, we're using it to buy a greenhouse so any recommendations ? Budget is £1000.
I'd prefer to have it directly on the ground but Dh thinks it needs to be on a concrete base.

Windy here today, I'm fancying a film in front of the fire once I've sorted the messy house from last nights party.

Happy New Year Everyone!

I'm told Gabriel Ash greenhouses are the best.

I quite like the Palram ones

Happy New Year, dear gardeners!