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...

Today is mulching day, but first a weed, thorough application of soil wetter granules, then general slow-release fertiliser, being careful to avoid the native plants, then mulch away.

Bamboo, cannas and gardenias get their own special chook/cow manure.

The mulch pile the tree cutters left was immense, so there'll be plenty left for the neighbours.

There have been very high winds lately, and the unidentified tree that flowers for 10 months of the year in the front raised bed is leaning over. I'll have to get big bungies to see if I can get it to stand up. I'd hate to see such a useful, if spindly plant get the chop, as the native nectar-eating birds love it.

This entails a trip to Bunnings, and the temptations of the sad plant unit. :o

Garden surveys, NGS enteries and Ozzie mulch days, I love this thread. Just had my weekly Saturday cuppa with Monty then a trip to Scotland with Beechgrove Garden lot. There was a fabulous garden on that with lots of sculpture in which I loved.

I need to go to the allotment today as it's very neglected and when I asked a friend what it looked like she pulled a face so it must be bad ! She did say it's mostly that the calendula is going over. And no doubt there will be loads of marrows.

The thing with the alliums is I had already ordered 75 with Parkers so my garden will go from one purple sensation to lots. The back garden is starting to develop a bit. It's been started pretty much from scratch when it all kicked off with Mum and is all very much things jammed in and I haven't dug proper borders in one bit.

I will probably be going back to work full time and am a bit worried about whether I'll be able to keep the allotment up so have been thinking about whether I can grow more veg at home or making the allotment lower maintenance. I have to actually get a job first though and everyone keeps saying how tough it is at the moment which makes me panic and I need to look at flowers to calm me down.

We're also still waiting to hear whether my Mum will be staying where she is or coming home so a lot of uncertainty. Whilst she's been in the flat I've had someone come in and her garden is under control again for the first time in years. It's sad to think she might not go in it again but I am realistic.

Highlight of my week last week was finding a frog in DS's pond

Good luck with the allotment and job hunt, Wynken, you've got a lot on you plate. I hope all goes well with your mum, and yes it's sad about her possibly not getting into it again.

I had to cut back my spindly shrub/tree and lost lots of flowers. The upside was rescuing a bottle tree - brachtryton rupestris from the sad plant unit. The women who work in the gardening section came over to coo at it, as they were gagging to see it go to good home. One of them had recently been to Kew and was drooling, and both watch GW, too.

haven't done much in the garden. but have fed the lawn and weeded a bit.
the first bee friendly flowers are about o bloom. was worried that they have got too dry when I first sowed them.

but we have been picking brambles in the local park. loads of them. now have 4 liters! of blackberry sauce in the freezer and have had lots of blackberry sauce with pancakes.

had o google the bottle tree. beautiful. hope it grows well in your garden.

We're keeping our bottle trees in big pots, though they'll never get to their full gigantic size. They're not bad in a garden as they store water rather than need an endless supply, so don't compete.

A lady in Melbourne had one, grown in the ground, so big she had to donate it to a park. After the very long drought, the return of normal service meant her bottle tree took off. Fortunately, they're easily moved with a digger, haulage and a decent lorry, but it costs a bit.:o

Built and filled up compost heap and planted clematis yesterday.
The clematis viticella abundance is flowering which is nice.
The verbena bonariensis remains spindly and flowerless, and sometimes, especially when I pass a neglected roundabout with more flowers than the garden, I despair. Because the garden is shady and north facing, it never really develops a profusion of colour, more green foliage dotted with the odd flower

The garden survey is just an accurate plan of the garden, like an architect's drawing of a house. So the patio, hedges, walls, level changes, borders, steps and perimeter fencing etc all drawn out to scale, plus locations of large trees and spread of their canopies.

It will allow me to plot the new structure - I want to widen the south and east facing borders, and create west and north facing ones. Then I shall put in paths between the borders and the lawn, so I no longer have the annoyance of plants flopping over onto the grass - they will be able to flow over path instead and not get in the way of mowing. It will also provide a means of getting around the garden without crossing lawn - essential for winter access to the compost heap etc.

Then, I'm considering bisecting the main lawn with another path, covered with a pergola. This would make the part in front of the house symmetrical and reflect the dimensions of the house. It would also create a triangular bit 'chopped' off by the pergola path, which would contain the north facing border (including new magnolia tree) and something yet to be decided. Possibly new location for the trampoline and a better sand pit.

Next phase will be to rebuild the steps that go down through the Leylandii arch into the middle garden. At present this garden is just rectangular lawn surrounded by high Leylandii hedges, with my gunnera and a few old perennials in one corner where the pond used to be. I intend to leave this garden as it is for the foreseeable; it could function as a football pitch/tennis court/run around space for the kids to keep them away from my borders up by the house. One day, maybe I'll turn it into a little 'homage' to Great Dixter's tropical garden and fill it with big leaved craziness. Or a natural swimming pond! Sigh.

The bottom garden will be the functional bit. I already have my lovely new compost bays in there; I need to remove the former chicken run (would love chickens but dh has vetoed) and move the raspberry canes up into the walled garden. Why they were planted underneath the copper beech remains a mystery. The old greenhouse base needs removing, then that area can be a nursery bed < laughs at self for thinking I may one day have the time and the need for a nursery bed>.

LOTS TO DO.

First stage to get it all down on the plan. Then get quotes for the path, steps and pergola building. Then have dh laugh hysterically and point out the leaky roof, rotten window frames and holey pointing. Etc.

Hmm sorry that was a bit of thinking aloud that got carried away there.

Echt your bottle trees sound fabulous - I too googled them. Wow. I love mulching - can I come and help?

Funny it is a challenge to get colour into north facing gardens. But foliage can be beautiful too - I bet your garden is lovely.

Wynken I'm not surprised you need your garden to take your mind off things. That's a lot going on. Maybe you need to come and do some therapeutic mulching over at Echt's too?

Oh and Humph, loving the sound of your alpine corner. I'm so coming on an expedition to visit your garden when you open it!

I know there are some Monty Don fans here. He is going to be hosting 'An Evenng with Monty Don" at the Harlequin Theatre in Redhill in Surrey on Tuesday 8 October at 19.30.

Ooh thanks Bearleigh - a night out for the Osteospermumsnet gang??!

I caught the very end of Around the world in 80 gardens this morning which I hadn't previously been aware of. Have missed the first three episodes, anyone know how long the series is? Downloading today's on iplayer to watch at my leisure...

I like the thinking aloud. I like the planning of gardens. When I was sitting in mine today I realised that while have been steadily developing the sides and seating area, the end of the garden, which to a certain extent is a major focal point, remains rather neglected. At present in front of the wood fence there is the venus de milo (painted with national trust 'chartwell green' to look like rusted bronze) flanked by choisya and jasmine and a new dawn rose with autumn flowering cyclamen, geranium johnsons blue, shasta daisies and digitalis alba...all in deepest shade of the oak tree behind, so a challenge to say the least. I keep thinking it would be a good spot for acanthus mollis.
Before the oak tree comes into leaf, spring bulbs and forgetmenots flower well there, and this autumn I plan to plant more spring plants. Possibly where my clematis 'jingle bells' could go. I have already planted some hepatica. I'm thinking more anemone appenina, hellebores, saffron crocus.

rhubarb Did you decide what sort of magnolia to plant? Also could you please advise on the best rhubarb to plant in a sunny vegetable plot at mums house and when to plant it?
Wynken I am thinking of you. Looking after ageing parents is not easy. There is so much emotional and practical and financial stuff and it goes on for so long. I think gardening is a good thing to be doing meanwhile.

hello! enjoy this thread a lot but fear I am too novice a gardener to contribute much! can anyone help with a mulching question? having a large synacmore cut down from garden next week? would the woodchips be suitable for use as a mulch?

hi freddie
many of us are beginners, welcome. I am learning from the other ladies a lot.

how do I know the sweetcorn is ready to harvest? have a few thick bulbs but am, as so often, clueless as to when they are ready...

Freddie's mother, I think the answer to your question is yes.....the timing might be better delayed a bit though till the autumn.

Hello Freddie. Depends on what you want the mulch to do. Wood chips make an excellent mulch where the principal aim is to keep weeds down around established shrubs. They are not good as a soil improver however; as wood breaks down, nutrients are actually taken from the surrounding soil during the process. Composted manure, garden compost or Strulch are the best soil improvers.

I've always grown Victoria rhubarb purely because that is the ancestral rhubarb my family have always grown, from the days of my great grandmother picking it by candlelight at 1am to send it on the overnight train to Covent Garden... But I'm sure any variety would be just as good. Best planting time is spring but autumn would be fine. The key is to keep it well watered until established (as with anything, really).

I am working on the orange, yellow and red planting plan today. Lots of big-leaved architectural plants, variegated leaves and, deeply unfashionable BUT at client request, conifers.

What are your favourite plants that fit this? Any suggestions?

I am enjoying the very pretty flowers from Sarah Raven's venetian dahlia collection- 'new baby' from this collection is orange, very pretty and goes well with geranium phaeum album. There are nice dark maroons too.

My variety of phaeum album has variegated leaves with maroon edging and this is nice because it softens the planting.

Out the front I quite like the way the pink and maroon coreopsis
hollyhillnurseries.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/coreopsis-coloropsis-mambo-12-2-12.jpg?w=529
picks up the deep dark dahlias but I'm not sure I would want this combination in a flower bed, I have it in pots and with various sweet peas, roses, fennel, dill, clematis etc in other pots around

The orange dahlia and geranium is fortuitously in a bed out the back

Nice suggestions funny, thanks. Not allowed any flower colours other than yellow, orange and red though.

this is a picture of 'new baby'
pics.davesgarden.com/pics/2012/09/10/saya/73f901.jpg

crocosmia of course
there are so many kinds of reds- scarlet through to deep maroon.

this fuschia?

m0.i.pbase.com/u23/selvin/large/11526700.Fuschiasm.jpg

mum has a massive clump of orange day lilies growing alongside a well established fuschia bush atm- looks gorgeous-though I have to say there are deep purples in the bed as well.

'bishop of landaff' dahlia of course-the combination of bright scarlet with deep maroon foliage is just stunning. maud grows dahlias with clematis- clematis 'rebecca' is a good red one, as is 'niobe' which is darker and might go better with the 'bishop of landaff'. Monty always grows his 'bishop of llandaff' in a pot with calla lilies but I've never been that convinced. On the other hand calla lilies come in reds oranges and yellows and mass planting of them in one colour in a bed in a curve round a pond like at Chelsea could be good. I dunno- I'm more of a lister than an artist!

www.hartcanna.co.uk/

I love that Fuchsia. That could work. Cannas are too tricky for my clients unfortunately - they want ultra low maintenance as it's their first garden. This rules out a lot unfortunately!