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

[echt]

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.

I've been planting seeds in my propagator :)
No idea if any of them will germinate but inspired by the thread I have acquired some Tumbling Tom seeds....

Just getting myself a glass of wine and settling in for a bit of Monty...

That looks lovely Bertha

The Borage are up, nothing else though.

I'm planning a whole weekend of gardening, I'm planning that eventually when the trampoline has gone it will be replaced by a pond, so in anticipation, I'm Dh is going to dig out a a corner bed and plant the Gunnera and some other stuff. I've just been looking through the seeds, bought from Heligan last year- cosmos, bells of Ireland (now in the fridge) cleome pink queen, Gunnera, Globe thistle all to sow in the next few weeks.

Does any one know if there are any rules as to when to take cuttings? A few of my neighbours have a shrub that has Camelia type leaves and is currently in flower - small white smells gorgeous , and oddly also has red berries. I'm tempted to nick a bit .

Me too cheers

Anyone else lost sound or is it just me?

I've taken wisteria and cyanothus cuttings today. hope it works.

No sound here nor can I work out how to put sub titles on.

We lost the sound for a while too. But even so

Monty

::sigh::

Monty was looking great and had his clothing sorted this year. Carol was on fine form too.
Yes we had no sound so i turned on the subtitles for a bit. Yet even before the sound went the editing seemed a bit odd, because we had Carol telling us twice that we had been told all about crocuses, yet we hadn't been told very much at all.
I'm getting old: 8.30 is quite late for a Friday night programme and by the time it comes on I am shattered. Not that it ever lasts long enough. Though it does give time to get back from work, get jobs done, see parents, get some supper and sink into the armchair!

I have just had the most perfect Saturday morning of 2014, breakfast in bed with Monty. Love this time of year, so much anticipation in the air. My chillis are germinating quickly in the Vitopod at 30 degrees.

Will be interesting to see how Monty does presenting Chelsea. I was talking to someone whose worked there in the past and she pulled a bit of a face at the idea. She said Alan is extremely professional under the pressures that presenting there brings and is lovely to the production team.

No gardening for me this weekend as hopefully exchanging on Mum's house next Friday so lots to sort and move.

Oooh, what's a Vitopod? Am just about to go outside and lift and divide elephant's ear clumps, and cala lilys, plus want to transplant as many primroses from the bank at the back as possible - we plan to scrape it clear and plant with cotoneaster horizontalis in the autumn.

Am assuming that cala, primrose and elephant's ear all tolerate moisture and a bit of shade? If they die they die.

Loved GW last night despite sound issues. I agree with you Wynken, this time of year is just so EXCITING!!!

yes, especially with an early spring. so much to do.

I am just about to venture outside for an hour's pottering, before I get on with the rest of the day.

It has been gorgeous in the garden today.

I redid the last remaining window box and very skilfully (ha ha) divided a heuchera, as instructed by Wynken, and had two little baby heucheras each with a chunky bit of root and a couple of leaves. Sadly, as I planted one of them, the leaves fell off so all I planted was a stump. I'm hoping it might regenerate. Also in the window box is a hot magenta aubrieta, inspired by Rhubarb.

Inspired by the "he ate a fat ball" thread, I have bought a new fat ball feeder for the birds. I have thrown away the old seed feeder that was so manky with rotting seed stuck to the bottom that I couldn't face cleaning it. Yuk.

BabyBearleigh & I sowed some early peas. I had tested the soil with my elbow, and it was 'pleasant to the touch' so I gave it a go.

I bought a bargain Dorling Kindersley vegetable book at the garden centre last week as it seemed to be practical - instead of saying to use pea sticks like my other books (no idea where to get them from) it showed you how to build a frame for peas with sticks and netting.

Half of our chitting potatoes had gone mouldy, and the replacement bag was also half mouldy. I assume it's because of the mild weather.

It's that lovely time of year when suddenly you notice daffodils everywhere, it's lovely.

Tears of laughter at the fat ball thread and v impressed with William Carlos Williams etc.
Amongst other things today I sat in the garden watching the sunlight play and the robins nesting.

Saw some geese flying over the garden, they are an amazing sight. Heard the curlews too.

Managed to get the solanum attached back to the fence and cut back the grasses and last year's sedum seed heads but ran out of time for much else today. Have promised myself an hour in the veg plot tomorrow.

Saw my first bumble bee today . It was a happy moment that offset the 'dog rolling in human poo in the woods' incident that I am trying to bleach from my brain.

Hello everyone, I hope you all enjoyed the good weather today and are dusting off your trowels? DH and I are looking forward to our first day of proper gardening tomorrow. I haven't felt like doing anything for months but now the sun is here I'm raring to go.

How are your spring bulbs coming along? My daffodils are the laziest in the neighbourhood and I'm worried the squirrels made off with all my alliums. My tulips are showing signs of promise, can't wait to see them bloom.

A blackbird hopped into the hole I'd just dug for replanting the mulberry, while I was standing there spade in hand. Bold as brass it strutted around picking off worms and cocking its head on one side to keep an eye on me. It was only a foot away from my feet.

Hello NANN. Long time no see. How's things?

I have just signed up again to our council's green waste ccollection service, so to get my money's worth I will be aiming to fill a bag tomorrow with all the dead flowerheads and so on that need raking out of the beds.

Managed to cut back the brambles growing up and over our boundary hedge/fence which backs onto a field/paddock and we got rid of the hideous rotten fenceposts and barbed wire and fencing. Planted up the very bare hedge with primroses and elephant's ear dug out from the slope behind the house that is soon to be scraped clean and replanted.

We also have raised beds running along the bottom of said slope, which we are planning on digging out and renewing - I am so excited, it means I will have about 11 linear metres of veg beds right outside my kitchen door!

I also bought 3 large half barrels for planting roses and a few spring primroses underneath. I've got some heuchera left over from last year too - will they grow around roses? I've put well rotted manure, multipurpose, topsoil, some clay and rose fertilizer into it, and have fresh horse manure to top dress it.

Sounds like everyone is feeling reinvigorated after a long wet winter. Hurrah for spring!

I will post some pics one day soon, when I've worked out how to do it.....

wow rihaf, 11 metres of raised bed? That's fab I am so jealous

NANN We have daffodils out, and a few hyacinths, but only in the very-sunny-in-the-afternoon bed at the front. The rest of my garden is shadier so things are slower to get going. Did get my first few snowdrops from my bargain-basement-late bulb purchase, yay! Hoping they will multiply next year. I badly need to fortify/ work on our soil, we are in a clay area so it is meant to be good but has a tendency to form large sticky lumps (was spoilt with Thames Sand in our old house) I'm just not used to working with clay soil. I think a trip to the garden centre is inevitable for a job lot of rotted horsie poo....

Can I ask those of you who kitchen-waste-compost what you put in to help it all along? I'm planning to alternate soil and waste and bung in some water and Garrota... Will that be enough? (We only compost raw/peelings)

Aethelfleda I went on a composting course and the teacher recommended shredded paper as well as kitchen waste.

Until then I hadn't actually put anything in apart from kitchen waste, and, ahem a bit of wee and did find it took a long while to rot down. Now I add paper too it rots more quickly. I am also now adding (some) weeds and old plants out of the garden to bulk it up, as I am now a compost enthusiast. I spread my first load, started 3 years ago, a couple of weeks ago. The egg shells hadn't rotted, but I have crumpled them and dug them in and hope they will help create crumblyness

I did see an advert in The Garden for a very well insulated compost bin that promises to produce loans of compost quickly. It looks rather good:

www.harrodhorticultural.com/hotbin-composter-pid8856.html?Aff=GPL&gclid=CI7G8sWLhb0CFQkUwwod-lMAtA