…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.

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone! I'll be busy googling and researching this weekend! And maybe a little planting too!
The raubritter is lovely Rhubarb, is it underplanted with perennial geraniums?
The rugosa grows wild all over the place here, so that could definitely be an option.
I love funny's thyme/rosemary/heather/lavender idea too!
Actually everyone has been really helpful! Thanks!

Do you think it would be alright to plant a section and then extend it gradually? I suppose I could sprinkle a wildflower mix in with the grass seed for the short term and gradually propagate enough cuttings to plant the whole bank.....

Castlelough I think doing it gradually is a great idea. Less of a huge Thing to face, and you will learn as you go what you like and what works. It also occurred to me thatas it's so long and seen from the house that you could do something like change the colours, or feel of it as you go along the sweep.

Yes, perennial geranium. Could well be Rozanne, Maud. Hallowed combination.

In an effort to make my garden look more unified (and less bitty) I have decided to have a recurring theme of roses, geraniums and heucheras.

This is lovely readin what everyone is doing. Sympathies to Humph and Clingon baby, not a lot happened here when DC's were little.

Agree with doing the bank bit by bit as a lot to do in one go. Maybe a mooch round some local nurseries to see what they have at decent prices. Our neighbours had a bank (much smaller) to fill after developers ripped out a well established laurel hedge. They were able to do it pretty cheaply using plants from a local nursery that has a really good sale in the summer.

Guess you need to think as said about what it looks like during the winter as well so look out for some plants that will give structure and winter interest as well. I'm not hugely into grasses but saw a lovely combination of black grasses, snowdrops, heuchura and hellebores recently. Primroses are lovely in the spring along with bulbs. The idea of roses, perennial geraniums and herbs sounds lovely.

Someone asked what a Vitopod is earlier. It's a heater propagator but one where you can set the temperature. It also doubles as a mini greenhouse. Went out for coffee with DH to a garden centre this morning and found a few David Austin bare root roses, 2 for £5. So have Winchester Cathedral, Countryman and Graham Thomas to add to my collection.

Need to sow some sweet peas. There's loads to really but am shattered from moving stuff out of and cleaning Mum's house, not helped by rare night out drinking last night. So I'm taking it easy and enjoying looking at the primroses in the sun and enjoying the fact that things planted in previous years mean I can sit back and still have colour without doing anything.

Another who loved the Cornsh garden on GW and felt for Monty with his box hedge.

David Austin roses at two for £5? Wow!

::jumps in car::

I have Winchester Cathedral and am very pleased with it. I was reading a book about old roses in bed this morning, in the peace and quiet after DH and DD had gone out.

None left Maud, there were 5 and all are on my bench ! That sounds like a very civilised way to spend the morning, how lovely.

I couldn't really jump in the car, as our day is already full enough, but I can never resist the allure of a bargain.

The book is lovely - I can't remember its exact title but it's something like The Pan Guide to Classic Plants: Old Roses. Lots of gorgeous illustrations.

I knew you were joking ! I too find it hard to resist a bargain but keep finding them too often so it adds up...

Yes, I was musing today about how much I spend on the garden. It doesn't seem so noticeable because it's in dribs and drabs, but over the year it's probably far more than I realise.

Well, I have had a productive time. Pruned the mad climbing rose on the back fence (and noticed that the fence is probably on its last legs), pruned the rose New Dawn and clematis Jackmanii that climb up the apple tree, in the hope that some of the floral action this year will be at eye level rather than in the top of the tree, and spread some organic mulch around. Also, sadly, noticed some fatalities. A rather lovely white cistus that limped on not very happily for years seems to have expired and there's no sign of life from the rose Breath of Life. As I'd rather gone off that, I don't much mind and the cistus' place will be taken by a tree peony Rockii, which is in the queue waiting to be planted.

Well done Wynken! I would love to bag two DA roses for £5!!!
I have managed a bargain today though!
I've bought 17 perennial geraniums in Lidl @ €1.29 each! There are 2 varieties: Geranium himalayense (a purple) and Geranium sanguineum (a pink).

I'm really excited!

Now to decide whether to plant blocks of colour or intersperse them...and whether to plant a longer single row or a shorter double row...opinions?!

Also, the packaging has a sign to space them 10cm apart. This seems very close, I've read online that they spread 50cm wide when fully grown....opinions?!

Wow! Fantastic Lidl bargain! I love hardy geraniums.

::just can't get enough emoticon::

10cm apart sounds like a muspront (geddit) to me, because they will spread fairly quickly. Because I am a bit of a colour-theming obsessive, I think I would plant them in blocks of colour, possibly in a sort of staggered row to make it wider.

And just realised that price is in Euros, not , so even more of a bargain!

Off topic, but does anyone know why a pound sign comes out as a ? I'm on my (so ancient it doesn't have a Euro symbol) PC.

Yesterday I spent a very productive day cutting down spent kangaroo paw and verbena bonariensis flowers. Some were 7 feet tall. I was pleased to see the new growth already coming on, and scattered some landscape fertiliser. I'll plant one new one later in the year.

I've given growing verbena from cuttings, and just wait for the seedlings to appear in the beds. As soon as they're about two inches tall I move them, or pot them up for friends. I've never seen it in any Australian garden.

The best bit of the day was an amazing thunderstorm with lovely bucketing rain, so I can get on with some autumn planting.

It is getting a bit dry here. I wonder if we are in for a long hot summer.
Those geraniums from Lidl sound a good bargain- I might go along tomorrow.
I'm not going to spend any more on the garden until Chelsea now (I will save some to spend then I think)
Seeds arrived from Sarah Raven and I sowed sweet peas (Mrs Collier: cream and Lord Nelson: dark purple). The raspberries have finally been planted in the vegetable trough, along with calendula officinalis seeds, red onion seeds and some salad seeds.
I cleared out and tidied the old empty pots, inspired by Monty's very neat potting shed, but am not sure whether to wash them with bleach or just hot soapy water. My pots are mainly old plastic ones and will be useful when potting on young plants, just as the old seed trays were useful. At Great Dixter there were impressive piles of terracotta pots.
I too have a gap where the cistus has died and also have a tree peony which has overwintered waiting to go in that spot!
In fact I have learned not to plant out young new perennials in the autumn as they don't always make it through the winter in the open garden, but to overwinter them and get them used to the garden in a sheltered spot and then plant them out in the spring.
That said, the little sanguinia sorbis plants haven't survived in their pots, sadly, and neither has the verbascum.
I have a very pretty little vase of hellebore flowers on the table. They are even more stunning up close, such delicate colouring.

yes, hellebore flowers are amazing. I love them. I have never even contemplated washing the pots but I see that it would be a good idea. We now have a working sink in the potting shed, so that would make it a little easier.

I managed to get outside long enough to pot on 90 or so plug plants - 66 geraniums for the terracotta pots and 30 snap dragons for the class raised bed.

We are planning to go to Hampton Court on the 9th July, is anyone else likely to go? Sadly won't make Chelsea this year.

DH started to mulch the front garden. I always think it is a bit like vacuuming a room, it looks SO much better afterwards. A quick fix.

Castleough: blocks of colour. Possibly waves of colour to go with the line of your drive way and landscape?

Agree with whoever said you could have a sequence of planting along your sloping bed. What do you think about a purple/green/ivory with splodge of crimson or orange for a colour scheme? It would fit your landscape. You could move from hellebores snowdrops and primroses in the spring to geraniums alliums roses lavender rosemary and thyme in june to sanguisorba, grasses, cyclamen, and heleniums and echinacea in the autumn. I know Oudolph is scornful of colour schemes but I find it helps me discriminate.

The west facing bed will have white plants this year and the east facing bed mainly pink purple and blue plants and any other colour going. But I am mirroring the plants, so white digitalis mirrored with pink digitalis, white japanese anemones, with pink ones, cream sweet peas with blue ones, white aquilegia and on the other side purple aquiliegia, white alliums on one side and on the other side, purple alliums etc. I'm not being too rigid as some of the larger plants just wont do on both sides and I'm not into too much symmetry, but it provides a bit of continuity.

That's a good job done humphrey I might be away on holiday in July, but Hampton court would be nice.From last year's experience, maud is very good at getting bargains at the end of shows. The vendors look at her and their hearts melt and the prices go down.

mirroring plants sounds wonderful, I love that idea

Castle, I'd be tempted to sow it as a wildflower bank. I've seen one done beautifully before but might mean some degree of upkeep each year. Something like in this link

Spent three hours sifting out ground elder roots from the veg patch today. Still only about a third of the way through the affected patch . Fairly relaxing work in the sunshine oddly but kept thinking about all the other gardening jobs that I should've been doing with that precious time...

My rescued quince from my Mother's garden that is in a huge pot in the patio hospital corner has it's first blossom on this year. Only the one bit but I'm hopeful for its full recovery. At some point I'm going to have to decide where it's going to go in the garden as it can't live in the pot forever.

Ew lots of busy busy people.

Today looks like a good day, I have a clematis to put in the ground. It's going into a bed that had shocking soil so I grew it in a big pot. The soil finally looks ok ( after three years or adding muck and removing rocks) so three wheel barrows of manure were added last week and I'm planting in the bed! I must finish the bulbs today. I have a sneaky few hours as the children are going to a party.

Gardening is such slow progress with small children, the two years that I was pregnant our lawn went to meadow. It was cut twice one year! by a friend Then the dog likes to help running after her ball in the boarders. It's all a challenge, what doesn't break us....

Poor monty, I have a lost conifer to remove, nothing like the horror of removing a 15 year old box hedge.

potted on the sweetcorn and sunflower seedlings yesterday.
the tomatoes are finally showing some green, they look so fragile.

I'm lucky that my dc are a bit older now, my 7yo likes mowing the lawn. and digging and planting stuff is always a hit. I just have to let go and let them get on with it and live with uneven rows.