…if winter comes, can Spring be far behind? 2014 beckons us...

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Okay, so the height of summer is yet to scorch the nethers of those in this wide brown land of Orstrylia, but welcome to the MNettie gardeners of the world. Prop up your sagging fences, evict the rats from your decking, and find a use for that poinsettia.

Have been dreaming about the Burren landscape! castlegough please post a picture of gentians when in flower. I love gentians.
rhubarb your garden sounds fab.
I saw a cherry tree in bloom in Blackheath yesterday. I had to blink to check it was real. Spring is early this year.
Has anyone been to the RHS garden design show?
I am going to Great Dixter with a friend today for their second winter opening weekend and really looking forward to it. I might get some more hellebores. I am a bit of a hellebore freak.
All the plants are soaring up in growth,so serious gardening is needed tomorrow. I have already moved the snowdrops and planted species primroses and little purple irises in bloom out the front which I got from B and Q: they are an amazing colour and shape: about 6 ins tall and 4 ins wide and look wonderful with the primroses and hellebores and snowdrops.
About this time I also repaint the garden furniture. This year the table will be its usual dark wood but I am thinking of painting the adirondack chair sage green left over from upcycling mums old sideboard last weekend. The other garden chairs are colonial wicker white/ivory, not sure if painting the adirondack chair will make everything look bitty or provide a bit of colour. The swing seat is a light wood colour. Any thoughts?

Great Dixter was interesting.
Firstly it is a remote inaccessible place not well signposted with a road diversion at the bottom of the lane and it took ages to get there.
Secondly the refreshments were scanty and taken in the cold which was a serious disadvantage for those who had travelled long to get there and faced a long journey back.
However the garden style was incredible. Just incredible. The sort of planting which looks easily achievable but must in fact have taken much planning. Nice touches such as variegated cyclamen planted with the snowdrops and hellebores so that the leaves not only cover brown soil gaps but also provide a foil for the snowdrops. A lovely variety of snowdrops. Whitewell purple and tomasiniana crocuses everywhere. Nice yew topiary. Seriously impressive pruning of wall climbers which one could not have appreciated in the summer.
Lovely garden I will go back there in the summer I think.
The nursery has lots of wooden cold frames with stuff being nurtured and lots of pots with bulbs coming up. We had a nice day.

Oh, I'm so sorry funnyperson. I forgot that you were planning to go this week or I should have mentioned the diversion (not that I could have suggested any way round it, just mentioned that it was there and you have to keep the faith and follow the signs).

The diversion wasn't so bad. The thing is I didnt really have time to scrutinise the clematis and other plants in the nursery. Possibly a good thing.

Bumbez we haven't even thought about the ferry yet, so that would be great, thank you! Grasses are indeed a pain for seeding everywhere. I worked for a summer in the Gardening Which? Magazine trials garden, and the grasses bed was always the worst for weeding. Baby grasses popping up constantly.

Funny I love Great Dixter but yes it is rather lacking in refreshments facilities. Did you get yourself a Hellebore? Do go back in the summer, for the Exotic Garden if nothing else; it's truly wonderful. I have unrealistic ambitions of turning my middle lawn into an 'homage' to it.

I really really want this natty little water butt

That is very natty, Rhubarb, but is it too small to be of any real use?

Yes absolutely. Totally impractical. I still want it.

Well that's alright, then. As long as you know it's beautiful but pointless. ::wink::

I am a total sucker for ridiculous small beautiful things.

It's very pretty Rhubarb! And portable!
Impractical things can make a person immensely happy in my experience!

Great Dixter sounds lovely! I wish I lived near some of those lovely gardens!

me too Castlelough. Your description made me long to go there funnyperson. I love the sound of the cyclamen with snowdrops and hellebores - we don't have any of those in the spring borders. I was thinking of putting some in pots and placing them in the sempervivum bit right by the house, esp as we have moved all the movable pots under shelter, it looks a bit bare.

I like the water butt. I do have an old bucket that looks similar, I have spearmint in it and it lives by the back door.

DH once came back from France with some really great cast iron cauldron things for me to plant stuff in. His mate was rather bewildered by this choice, but Dh knew me well

We just can't seem to help doing so many pots...they are a fundamental part of this garden. I don't mind the labour now, but I can imagine that it will get a bit wearing later on.

Have been down to the site this afternoon pottering about in my wellies. Feeling very discouraged. Don't know how I will manage to bring any of my grand plans to fruition. The place is so unkempt. Aside from the piles of rubble (since 2007, so they now also have mass growth on top ) the entire field is so uneven and full of stones.
The boundaries of the site are lowish (2-3 ft) natural stone walls, which you can't even see in most places for trees and brambles and scrub. Along the back of the site it is at least 2m deep each side of the wall.... sigh.
At least the digger is starting tomorrow (widening part of the road, then digging out septic tank and clearing rubble piles). It just feels a bit overwhelming!

Maybe you'll feel better when the rubble is gone castle?

The green house is up, the rest of the garden looks crap. I want to start clearing all the ivy from the borders plus the pilewort in the south border but Dh doesn't want me to. He thinks it looks nice I've done a bit any way but its backbreaking.

bertha I weeded a couple of self seeded pheasant berry if you're about I could send them?

Castle, I am sure it looks daunting as hell but you can do it. Clearing ground is hard work but achievable. What you need is a plan with some costings, then you have somewhere to start? Or can you just start with the bit immediately by the house and deal with that first? You can have an immediate list for 2014 and longer term plans for the rest?

We spent an entire year just spraying endemic weeds and removing leylandii when we moved here.

So happy, we have chickens again. Four point of lay, no special breeds or anything. It has been a year, during which DH has sprayed the nettles in their run at least four times. They had got completely out of hand.

Congratulations on the greenhouse Bumbez.

Do you think you will be keeping any of the trees castle? They might provide a good windbreak?
Keep going, do.
Congrats on greenhouse bumbez : good timing- you can grow lots!
Perhaps the chickenpoo encouraged nettles.

Thanks for the encouragement! I'm going to need it!

Funny It isn't that I wouldn't keep some of the native hedgerow - it's just the sheer volume of self seeded mess. And also, they obscure the natural stone wall, as they grow either side of it!

I've just done a rough count along the front of the site. Apart from the section cleared for the entrance there are more than 30 established trees crammed in a space about 20 ft long. An ash here or there and some type of tree (with lovely yellow catkins at the minute) but mostly scrubby, thorny blackthorn/whitethorn (not sure which!) and then in an area of disturbed ground/rubble about 24ft sq on the left of the driveway there are more than 40 saplings of the same stubby, spiky tree grown over 2-3 ft high. This is just a sample of the volume of trees (and doesn't include the brambles!!!)

Still, if the diggerman ever starts his job () I suppose the rubble and accompanying saplings will be moved...anybody want one?!

Think I will be taking your advice Humph to proceed slowly!
Is there a particular variety of grass I should sow initially? If I don't sow something I will be back to square one with the scrubby, spiky trees!

Well done on getting your greenhouse up Bumbez!
And Humph lucky you with hens!

Just catching up after a week in the snowy Alps. My solanum Glasnevin has been torn off the front fence and partially uprooted. I think it will survive but don't want to reattach it to the fence just yet as it's in danger of falling down and the neighbour seems in no hurry to repair it. I shall have to make more pointed comments...

Am I the only one who had to google charabanc? Will now aim to use it in conversation at least once this week.

Planning to start some seeds off in the conservatory this weekend and waking up some things that I have tried to pretend aren't dead over-winter.

Yes please for the pheasant berry Bumbez

Loving everyone's plans.

Humph, great you've got chickens again. Keep an eye out for the fox! Next door neighbour inadvertently got a cockerel with his chickens, I'm working on DH to let one of ours rear some chicks when they go broody in the summer. The DDs are very keen.

Lovely morning here, I've managed to pull up 6 jasmine runners from the front path, and have bunged them amongst the gappy hawthorn front hedge.

The raised bed is for the Rhaspberries, which should be arriving any day, the ivy is proving tricky to remove! Dh just needs to finish them and then we have loads of homemade compost to go in :)

I thought you'd like to see the palm yucca things I moan about! Despite being deliberately neglected they continue to thrive!

I've been researching well rotted compost and am contemplating an order of 1 ton for £42, gets delivered by crane. Does that sound too much?

The greenhouse is just lovely I am so happy, just need to fit a water butt and start off the seeds

Just catching up with what you are all doing. Greenhouse looking good Bumbez.

Castlelough it must seem intimidating having lots to do. Wha about looking on something like Pinterest for end results similar to what you are hoping to achieve to keep you focused on the end the result?

Iris Reticulata or what ever they are called are all out here looking good. Went to look at Hellebores and snowdrops the weekend which were lovely. I was very restrained and did not buy any plants as I really should give the Hayloft ones on order a chance to do their thing.

I've noticed the greens and pea plants are starting to grow now there is a bit more light and the first chillis popped up in the propagator. Propagator needs to come in as struggling to hold its temperature in greenhouse.

Wynken were you that bright young family at Gt Dixter?
Bumbez that greenhouse looks beeyootiful
I have those sorts of yucca thingies in pots (well, one in one pot) and round here some people have planted them in their gardens and they not only thrive but grow to a significant height and look quite elegant and tropical and appear to be hardy over the winter.
There fore this year rather than repotting mine, which has been sadly potbound on the verandah, I am thinking of planting it out, to provide structure and vertical interest and a touch of the exotic. Probably out the front.
Other touches of the exotic will be sown tomorrow- papaya seeds, bo tree seeds and more sacred lotus: nelumbo nucifera. Indoors in egg boxes except for the lotus which is sown under water.

Castle I often feel overwhelmed by the task in hand too. Just remember - you don't have to do it all at once, and it doesn't have to be perfect. It's okay and completely normal for gardens to develop gradually. I talk about my big redesign, which is indeed grand in scale, but I shall only be tackling it one portion at a time.

We planted the fruit trees in the community orchard on Sunday. It was such a fab day! Some guys from a permaculture organisation led the day and showed everyone what to do. It made me realise how badly I'd planted my own fruit trees back in the autumn - well, badly staked them anyway, so now I need to dig them all up and replant them.

They were also giving away some seeds left over from a recent seed swap, so I got some foxglove ones and have scattered them on the verges along our lane.

Bumbez I am at your greenhouse.

funny I am excited about your lotus plants.