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...

Hello everyone

Just caught up with the thread after my holiday. Rake, I was wondering how you are getting on. Three weeks! I am rather envious, I have about nine to go and am finding it bloody hard work tbh. I can't bend over due to terrible heartburn so can only garden upright.

Came back to lots of really delicious tomatoes, I am really pleased as the first few didn't taste of much at all. Runner beans are going strong, as are peas and courgettes. Our neighbour came round with mushrooms from her field yesterday morning, that was great.

We have had the email from NGS. We now have to describe our garden in a short paragraph. I have no idea what to put.

I am just catching up after neglecting the garden for a bit. The heat wave tuned it into a scrubland and I was fed up to see the neighbours dreaded brambles making their way back under, over and even through the new fence. However, I had a nice time out there tidying things up this morning and I have had some successes this year. My favourites at the moment are

• a lovely dark purple/red nicotina
• a prolific wall flower which is always covered in butterflies & bees (is it too late in the year to take cuttings?)
• 2 giant pumpkins
• verbena plugs from t&m which have grown into actual plants and are just starting to flower

This year's casualty list includes:

• carrots
• onions
• lidl tree peonies
• Shirley poppies

At least I am learning where I should be concentrating my efforts...

PS does anyone know if I should have giant white mushrooms growing in my compost bin?

NANN I always think 'have a stab' when it comes to cuttings. Give it a go. Nothing to lose.

After Monty's compost feature on Friday I decided I need to stop chucking all prunings onto the bonfire pile. So after chopping back the Cotinus and the Lavatera (I know you are supposed to do Lavatera in spring - it was overhanging the lawn and doing my head in every time I mowed; it had to be cut back as soon as it finished flowering for the sake of my sanity) I laboriously chopped up all the prunings and added them to the compost instead. I felt very saintly although my wrist may now fall apart on my secateur hand. I have decided I need a chipper!

I am enjoying my newly built compost bays, I must say.

Welcome back from your holiday Humph, I presume your house sitters did a good job?

I have spent a good deal of the weekend dealing with gluts. We now have courgette cake, jars of courgette and apple (from last year's glut still in the freezer) chutney and even more jars of bean chutney. I managed of drop a lump of boiling chutney on my finger; I don't recommend doing that.

I pruned the apple tree and the ceanothus and the dogwood and tidied up the topiary and did lots of watering and then went round some local allotments. The compost bins were most interesting- quite a few daleks, but also Monty type ones covered with black plastic. I liked the monty ones, so have ordered 1 to begin with to go in the shady corner which gives me a good excuse not to waste any more money trying to grow things there. Beans, cabbages, lettuce, onions, potatoes and raspberries seemed to be the most popular allotment crops. And calendula.

The rhodedendron Yakushimanum has buds on, like a second spring! The Gaura is also reflowering, to my delight!

Well, my garden continues to mystify me, I was 'tidying' the pumpkin patch and found a random green tomato lying in the soil we are growing tomatoes too, but the plants are about ten metres away in a greenhouse and a different variety! How strange

So, the good garden news is that we have three pumpkins and two squash on the way, getting bigger by the day Also finally one courgette developing on the plant And coriander sprouting finally, I have had terrible trouble with it this year. Peppers and tomatoes getting bigger, I need them to ripen now!
This is my favourite bit of the summer

well exciting garden news here..............im getting a greenhouse! after some gentle persuasion and arguing that his carnivorous plants would do better DP has agreed to having a lean to greenhouse across the back off the house (it wont be for a while - wedding to pay for) but eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

and off the back of that he spent yesterday afternoon making me a huge cold frame ready for the winter

I loved how animated Monty was on Friday about his compost!!!! I've nowhere near the space available that he has, but I have chopped up woody prunings with a lawnmower after piling them on the middle of the lawn before - makes slightly worrying noises but it does get them done quicker than using your secateurs ...

Yes I liked the compost/Monty relationship: though how he managed to get it smoulderingly hot and that full of worms and ready in 4 months is still beyond me! I think there must be something he isn't telling us.

Regular stirring gets it hot and ready quickly. I used to do it. In the days when I clearly had lashings and lashings of time and energy - ie pre children.

I do think there is something very satisfying about a compost heap.

Rhubarb you have lots of energy- it is just being used to be mummy- quite rightly!
I have bought a clematis 'marjorie' to plant.

My compost heap looks nothing like Monty's. Things just get dumped in there whole as they come, then when one bay is full I start filling the other. I did try turning it when i started but I cant manage it without seriously damaging my back so quickly recognised my composting limitations. It's rough compost but I tend only to mulch with it or add to the soil to enrich it and it's fine for that. Does help having the chickens though as the chicken shit manure adds very nicely to the mix.

Drove past Borde Hill Gardens today. Sometimes work really does get in the way of enjoyment, I so wanted to go in and mooch around for a couple of hours.

I have compost heap envy. don't have one (yet) don't know where to put it.
my parent never turned their compost, they use 3 bins, one each year and then sifting through a mesh after the second year.

I'm off to www.igs-hamburg.de/en/ next week.

Thank you funny. Today has been especially trying - explaining death to a three year old, eurgh. Thank you dh for introducing the topic while strolling through a cemetery at the weekend...

Clematis Marjorie - gorgeous!

Bertha I'm really close to Borde Hill. If you ever get chance to stop there give me a shout.

Mousy that garden festival looks amazing. Please post photos.

Anyone after cheap allium bulbs? Sorry if they've been linked before.

Wow, Wynken, that almost seems too good to be true!

Alliums ordered! Hurrah! I couldn't get it to work ordering online - it kept adding on another round of P&P at the checkout; but I rang up and a nice lady processed it over the phone for me.

Thanks Wynken.

hmmm, mine added P&P as well, but I did go for the 50 russian snowdrops for £2.99 with any order on top of the alliums...

Better hope I'm in shape to plant all the buggers come end Sept, eh!!!

Buggery why do these extra items fall into my basket. I have also added the russian snowdrops and some coir pellets ready to do my cuttings.

Sorry, am I making you all spend money ?! I was really good this time and just did the alliums, however I think I ordered the Russian snowdrops another time.

Wynken i need very little encouragement to spend money on the garden

Hah, that's funny, I so nearly ordered the Russian snowdrops too! Then decided that 100 alliums was quite naughty enough and I will no doubt be cursing them when I come to redesign my borders and have to find and lift all the bulbs.

Speaking of which, my garden survey arrived so I can get on with the big redesign now. If I ever get the time to sit down at my drawing board, anyway.

Well - we wrote our paragraph for the NGS scheme and emailed it off. We can't back out now

Did a load of cuttings today. Eating broad beans, runner beans, tomatoes, peas and the inevitable courgettes. We have decided to turn the lower level/gravelled part by the dairy door into a copper/iron pot garden with lots of alpines and sempervivum. I have always had a few alpine pots down there, but we have moved them all down and planted a few others. It looks really nice.

Rhubarb, I wish we had set about designing our garden like you are doing. There are so many things I wish we had done differently.

Brilliant Gardener's world programme again. Brilliant Monty brilliant Carol, brilliant photography, brilliant music.
What did the garden survey tell you rhubarb?
humph liking the alpine sempervium thingy have been thinking along the same lines
Need to do seriously loads of gardening in both gardens this weekend- DS at a festival and DD abroad so should be blissfully uninterrupted.

Arghh. Forgot to watch GW