…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.

funny thanks for those lovely suggestions. I have jotted them down!

Bertha has got me thinking more about the wildflower idea, thanks for the links Bertha. I have just emailed an Irish wildflower seed company for a quote and recommendation for my area, just to see...

I may have temporarily forgotten I live on a farm....and that the cows will be passing up and down by the bank from time to time and God knows, I don't want to plant anything that would poison them should they take a cheeky snatch or two...not to mention the damage they could do to my border!

Maybe wildflowers are the way forward. I've just been reading up on that this morning and there seems to be a lot of pre-planting soil prep and weed killer spraying etc and then, it seems to take quite a number of years and lots of maintenance to establish a wildflower area... hmm . Round we go in circles!

Mous you seem to be flying it with your seeds and veg patch.

Castle I am reading everyone's suggestions for your bank with interest. We have a steep bank too and after 5 summers battling with brambles, we decided to scrape it clean and start again...

Hearing all these lovely combinations is putting me off my ground cover of cotoneaster horizontalis.

Re David Austin roses: I have obviously heard about them on here but never actually visited the website, until yesterday [swoon emoticon] - I am seriously concerned for the future of DH's my bank account!

I do love Monty's well-organised potting shed.

Monty's potting shed is indeed a thing of great beauty. As is his greenhouse and so much else about him.

So pleased with the Lidl geraniums... potted up all the pink ones today, rsn out of pots for the purples. I was afraid I would find them all dried out and withered when I opened the boxes up, but they seem in great health and I was surprised to see 2-3 inches of green shoots growing out of the roots on each plant! I had bought 8 pinks, but there were two in some boxes so I've 10 pink hardy geraniums potted up til I figure out what to do with them/the bank etc. Need to get more pots to pot up the purples! Felt great to be freeing them from their boxes...!
Tempted to go back for more of something else, there were so many more summer perennials for the same price. Still, the budget isn't really there at the moment...Rome wasn't built in a day!

Have prepped 3 seed trays and am going to plant them up later on with sweet pea, morning glory and dwarf cosmos.

How was everyone else's day?

Yes Rhihaf there have been so many lovely suggestions on the thread for planting a bank! Isn't the David Austin website divine. They emailed me a code for £10 off orders before April 18th - I must post it up for you! I keep coming back to roses for my bank, possibly some of the DA rugosas and then underplanted with wildflowers maybe....maybe not! What are you thinking now for yours?

I WISH I could watch Monty on Gardeners World We haven't the channel. Wonder is it on YouTube? I have one of his books and it really inspired me!

I have had a few very productive hours in the garden, Castlelough.

I have lopped a lot off the tree peony, paeonia lutea, that was getting far too big for its space. I don't know how tree peonies respond to pruning, but if it dies I won't much mind. I have also lopped a lot off the sambucus nigra Black Lace, which was badly overgrown. I have dug out the dead cistus and filled the space with a paeonia rockii and a poppy (Royal Wedding) and finished the mulching.

Last year I forgot to mark the pots of the lilies that had grown too weak and feeble with age, so that I could dispose of them, so I have now lined up all the lily pots on the garden path so that I can be ruthless with those that don't show a decent amount of growth.

I also had a slightly worrying conversation with my NDN about the fence that blew down in the storms. I got some quotes from local fencing companies (we agreed to split costs) but she wants her uncle to do the work. She also seems to be backtracking on what we agreed about design and I'm worried that I'm going to end up paying half the cost of something I haven't chosen and don't like. Hmm.

Castle you can watch gw online.

I planted another wave of seeds, some more bulbs and planted up some pots.
I dug out the new clematis spot and planted it in the ground, so pleased at having it done.

Lidl had lots of bulbs on 5 packs for £5. So I treated myself to some of those. and added more bulb planting to my list

There were some lovely wild flower verges in Germany when we were there a couple of years ago.

Woukd love to do Hampton Court but DD has an exam in London plus work experience round then. Plus I'm going to Chelsea - Maud, tips on the bargains please, we are going on the Saturday this year.

Yesterday's David Austin bargains are all in plus a climbing Iceberg that was also £2.50. Sowed a few carrots , lettuce and radishes. Plus some sweet peas directly which was probably very very optimistic.

I'd like to go to Hampton Court again. Will have to put the dates in my diary. Last year I got one of the cheaper Sunday afternoon tickets and had a lovely time pottering around with the lovely funnyperson.

I don't think I have any particular expertise about finding bargains - I just hovered around the gardens as they were being broken up and bought far too many a few things that caught my fancy. My one tip, though, would be to take (or buy there) one of those collapsible trolleys. By the time I realised I needed one, because I had bought so much a few choice plants, they had sold out and manhandling everything onto the river bus and then the train was a little testing!

I'm worried at the moment that one of my best bits of booty - geranium Rozanne - might have died over the winter because it was standing in a copper cauldron and might have drowned. Boo hoo.

I also planted my tree peony rockii. I have been nurturing it because I got it very cheap on a BOGOF offer 2 years ago and have to thank you maud for reminding me about it.
The sweet pea seedlings have been put out to acclimatise and one of my next jobs is to take lavender cuttings. Mum has requested a lavender hedge and now, when the plants are beginning to spurt into growth, is a good time.
The beds have been mulched. I have a small and genteel suburban garden and therefore mulching consists of me spreading organic peat free shop bought compost whilst wearing garden gloves.
I sat in the sun with the wrinklies again in the morning. They have fencing issues after the storms too. Sigh. When one has been hard at work all week the thought of negotiating with the bolshy young neighbours of anxious elderly parents is daunting. The fence belongs to the neighbours but they say it fell over because mums tree fell over and don't want to pay a penny to put it back. We've offered to pay half but nothing dong and they want agree to trellis and roses on our side of the fence either. Also their blasted posts still lie on top of the rhodedendrons planted for mums birthday which have therefore died.

Castle that code would indeed be a lovely bonus, thankyou! I am seriously considering roses now... and possibly some lavender, thyme etc underneath. It's a shale bank but with heavy clay on top, but it's also pretty steep so seems to drain fairly well...
Is there such a thing as a ground cover rose does anyone know? [fingers crossed]

Maud I totally agree with you about Monty's everything greenhouse.

Have just found out that BIL can acquire railway sleepers for us for free (more or less)! We will use the existing 2 foot block walls as a base and build up the raised beds with sleepers.

Have done nothing in the garden this weekend, although I have been admiring last week's transplanted primroses through the window. Our daffodils are bursting open - they are so cheerful aren't they?

Yes, there are ground cover roses. I think they're called flower carpet roses. Let me Google do some clever horticultural research.

[[http://apps.rhs.org.uk/plantselector/plant?plantid=5059 Ta-da!]

Or even ta-da!

The code for the special offer on David Austen is KRJ and you can get £10 off if you spend more than £40! Hope that helps everyone find a good excuse for more roses!

Rhihaf the DA website has a section called 'Shrub Roses' and some of those are ground cover roses.

Mothergothel how did I not know this?!!! DH works late most nights in the pub, and I am always threatening to find another man to keep me company....Monty would be perfect! ;-)

Oh and that offer code is valid until 18th of April! :-)

Castlelough - Are you able to get BBC Online where you are? Another MN pal of mine who's not in the UK had to resort to some sort of internet trickery to fool the BBC website into thinking she was in the UK. I don't remember the details but if you can't get instant access to Monty I will ask her, if you wish.

And now I really need another rose to replace poor old Breath of Life which has (oh the irony) expired. Off to the DA website ...

Maud that's a gorgeous rose!

Isn't it just?

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03ybpb0/Gardeners_World_2014_Episode_2/

Oh thankyou Maud and Castle! This really is most welcome news and quite the excuse I need to buy my first DA rose.

Just watching GW. Poor Monty and Sarah - I didn't realise that they were losing ALL their box I know he was looking on the bright side but how depressing.

I am so pleased to have found this thread. It's taken a week to read from beginning to end and it's just perfect.

I love how you've got very clever experienced gardeners and learners all together. I bet there are lots of devoted lurkers, but having googled Magnolia Black Tulip I just have to come and say thank you, thank you, for introducing me to a plant I must and shall have one day! What a stunner!

I have a tiny garden (today I was using a kitchen fork to weed in between forget-me-nots, if that gives you a sense of scale!) It is about 8m x 5m but half of that is an ailing lawn.

I have lots of lovely things in it, principally a little cherry tree and a collection of hellebores, a stunning peony, David Austin roses (Mary Rose) and my current passion heucheras.

Castlerough that bank is a very interesting problem. I'm leaning towards Rosa rugosa as you say it grows wild anyway? Practically indestructible, gorgeous scent, beautiful flowers and beautiful hips, what's not to love? I can't remember if it's deciduous in which case it will look crap in winter but that's the only down side? A big down-side I admit...

Welcome, Peggy. It's always good to meet another heucheraholic. I got the bug a couple of years ago. And I too am a great fan of old cutlery - forks and spoons - for small-scale gardening jobs.

Rosa rugosa does lose its leaves in winter - at least the one that's sitting on my patio waiting to be planted has lost its leaves and is just starting to sprout.

Thank you Maud. But how irritating of Rugosa! Still, with so many minds focussed on it, there will surely be an answer. Castelough how much time / effort / complexity are you looking at for the bank? I believe you're planning a fence at the top - could you have nice roses on the fence and just stay safe with ivies / vinca on the slope itself?