…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.

Sorry Squeaky I'm not familiar with nutsedge....someone else should be along in a while I'm sure to advise!

Speaking of roses , my cuttings have been massacred by greenflies. I meant to treat them before heading away for the weekend, but I forgot to buy a spray. Have picked up a treatment today. Hope my little roses stay alive until I get home tomorrow to wage battle with the greenflies.

Today has been a glorious autumn day, most of the afternoon spent sitting in the front garden, discussing the new planting and having a livener or two.

A trip to a new trash and treasure market yielded lots of cheap green tomatoes, so DH is busy sorting them out for a 100 year-old Gippsland recipe for chutney. This being back in the day, the list of ingredients is very small indeed.

Our espaliered lemon tree has not been productive, so copious amounts of chook shit has been applied. It is badge of shame to live in Au and not have a prodigiously fecund lemon tree. Having Tony Abbott as the PM is also embarrassing, but this is a gardening topic, not a colossal twunt topic.:o

echt that sounds like a heavenly day, relaxing and planning your garden! What is a livener though?
Your espaliered lemon tree sounds fabulous! Do you grow other fruits like peach? I would love to be able to grow peaches! Do you grow avocados? I lived in Australia (Sydney) for almost three years, and learned to loved avocados, bok choy, sweet potatoes, butternut squash and pumpkin while I lived there, but oh the best....Macadamia nuts! Tell me you have a Macadamia tree?! I would love to grow one here in Ireland, but I fear I would be wasting my time!

So what are your garden plans?!

Oh! And happy Mothers' Day to all you mummies!

Sorry Squeaky, I forgot to say hello! Think with a new baby just getting as far as reading a gardening thread is good progress! Your Mum is a lucky getting roses on Mother's Day.

That's a right pain with the greenfly on the rose cuttings Castlelough, hope they are ok. I love roses but am pretty much at the limit of what the garden can take rose wise I think.

Very useful tip on the satay skewers Echt. Wonder if it will keep the dog off as well? Quite happy for them to do what they want to the other borders but not the one I want it grow veg in.

I'm thinking I might possibly like the idea of a few dahlias after GW. Can't be doing with lifting etc but see Sarah Raven says you can probably get away without so I might see if somewhere like Wilkinson's have some cheap ones that I won't be too gutted if they don't last. The garden does currently struggle a bit from July / August.

DD earned major brownie points as bought me a lovely pot with Ranaculusto plant which I'd been admiring in the last GW magazine.

Hi Squeaky.

Missed GW on Friday so will need to catch up. Just got back from MIL with a bunch of cuttings, some Margherites, a variegated leaf pelargonium with beautiful dark purple flowers, and something else that I can't remember. No idea where they're going to be planted. Ho hum.

My daphne is flowering, the garden smells Devine . So much to do though, I hate being away when the sun is out. Missed opportunities...

Meant to say, I was leafing through MIL's Sarah Raven catalogue and came across the live ladybird section. £25 for 25 ladybirds! I get more than that in my bedroom every morning at the moment as they're coming out of hibernation in the sash window boxes. My bedroom is a gold mine! If only I could figure out how to package them for shipping out...

Ugh 3 hour traffic jam to Kew as the tube to Kew wasn't running - magnolias there were largely underwhelming though an astonishing Phelan Bright magnolia and a very good gum tree. Had a lovely time wandering in the warm with DS though (DD went to a political demonstration with her BF. Typical). I think we are spoiled round here as so many large front gardens have old established and very beautiful magnolias, and Kew I suppose was so devastated in the 87 storm that it just can't compare at present.

The rest of the day was taking dad for a walk in the wheelchair (with mum wandering randomly all over the road behind us) to look at the local magnolias, planting up their m campbelli and m lennei which have arrived from Burncoose, and at home potting on the sweet peas. Nice day.

Echt sometimes we cant help what prime minister we have.
Wynken I don't lift my dahlias, I simply cut away the foliage and put the pots in a sheltered frost free place and the ones in beds dont get lifted or put in a sheltered place at all. It will be interesting if Sarah Raven's dahlias from last year flower this year with this treatment!

I do lift dahlias but only so I can keep the slugs away while the shoots come through - my hosta survives, but our local slugs like dahlias best.

My trip to Sissinghurst today was lovely. The morning was beautiful, and probably because of the clock change there weren't many people there when it opened, so for ½ hour we had the garden almost to ourselves (most people who had arrived headed for the restaurant). We've never been in spring bulb time before, and it's well worth it. The orchard is full of daffodils, and the lime walk is just a carpet of every spring flower you can imagine.

We could really appreciate just how much work goes into making it as stunning as it is - there was a thick mulch of compost almost everywhere, and not a weed in sight. We did however spot a viola labradorica purple flower and leaf if you don't know it) hiding under a pot in the white garden. I imagined it sniggering at its boldness, but can't think it'll last long. I bought a plant at the shop the species of which I haven't come across before, and the variety of which I can't find when I google: Sphaeralcea "Elroy".

It is a member of the mallow family, and has medium sized deep rosy pink flowers from now until September or so the label says. Its foliage is very pretty too. It is like a very refined Lavater with prettier coloured flowers. It also seems to be quite tender, so I have tucked it in a south west facing corner by the house, and will take cuttings.

I've not planted my Dahlias yet, as I have no idea what colours they are I suppose I'd better grow them in a pot, I'm hoping I have at least one dark maroon.

I managed to do a bit of mulching this afternoon, potted on a few seedlings, and sprayed more weeds. I've also pulled out some violets, which I felt a bit guilty about and divided some irises.

My Mother's Day gift was a pruning saw

Imagine living where not having a productive lemon tree is a badge of shame! Bearleigh, I agree that looking at gardens at this point in the year is very instructive. I wish I lived nearer to Sissinghurst, it is just such stunning place. I stayed in the area about five years ago and went there, to Knowle, Ightam Moat, Batemans and a fair few others. All wonderful.

I have had a BLISSFUL day of gardening. Dug over and manured the playhouse borders. Planted up my mint buckets. Sowed lots of different seeds, potted on various things, finish tidying up all the ferns - only lost one this winter which is rather pleasing. I moved lots of stuff out of the greenhouse to harden off.

Funnyperson, I am v jealous of those who have a mature magnolia. We have planted a few but they are not doing much.

I tried (and failed) to detangle my honeysuckle from neighbours kreeper (don't know what it is, ut has pretty white and fragant flowers).
discovered that I actually have another honeysucke, but it's dead and totally overgrown with neighbour's clematis (there is a theme there :) )

why is that one rose not thriving?
it has some new growth, but not much. was covered in aphids but they are gone now and I have fed it. what else could I do?

I love this thread, just letting you all know!

Sprayed my roses with a treatment.
Stared at my wisteria, willing it to please be alive although if it died I could buy one that already has flowers on, as advised upthread!
Mous you have reminded me that I bought a rose feed but never used it - tomorrow's job, if it isn't too early to feed them...my three DA roses are thriving and my grandad's cuttings are battling on strongly despite the greenfly attack .

I have my eagle eye on DH's grandmothers overgrown old cottage. I'm told she was a wonderful gardener, so I'm looking at the ruins with scavenging eyes. There is definitely an old spray rose that I'll have to take cuttings, and a monstrously overgrown forsythia (recurrent thread theme!) but it is hard to make out anything else at the moment through the brambles...

Have been leafing through Sarah Raven's Cutting Garden. I don't really like her floral arrangements but she has some lovely companion planting ideas and lists shrubs for foliage and flowers. It all seems a huge effort and waste of lovely flowers when so many of her floral arrangements only last for a few days...still, I'll steal a few ideas...

Mous the mystery climber sounds like jasmine!

Humph that sounds like a heavenly day!!! How long until you open to the public?!

Not till June. A while yet. It is a strange thing, opening a garden. I have come to realise that, as we do all this stuff anyway, it hasn't proved to be any extra work. This is the first year there are no major garden projects, it is just maintaining what is there.

I love these threads too Castle. No one in RL loves their garden as much as you all do

Also loving a pruning saw as Mothers Day gift. Those are really sharp, everyone I know with one cut themselves the first time they used it. Hope you bucked the trend Bearleigh!

Just realised i haven't said hello to Squeaky - well done for even THINKING about gardening with a seven week old. It gets a bit easier with a six month old, but I only got anything done today because DH held the baby all day as a Mothers Day gift to me. It was much appreciated.

One thing I do as soon as I get home, is rush into the greenhouse if baby cobbler falls asleep in the car, I just leave him there and I can often get quite a lot done before he wakes up. I also have a babyswing in the potting shed. Desperate times and all that..

Hello everyone, isn't it lovely to be outside again?

Castle - i love being able to indulge my obsession on here - and chat to others who appreciate what a labour of love having a beautiful garden is.

Funny - I've been admiring my neighbours' magnolias too. I never noticed them before then, wham, in the last 2 weeks they've sprung up everywhere. A few doors down have a gorgeous white one, mostly hidden by an ugly conifer. I want to knock and ask them to fell it so I can joy the magnolia.

Some of my enthusiasm has finally rubbed off on DH... We planted some dead looking raspberry canes in an otherwise useless shady spot when we moved in 2 yrs ago. They are now over 6 ft high and promising to deliver a bumper crop, so he has built a frame to support them. Totally unprompted, with absolutely no nagging from me.

He also (with a little guidance) cut back our lovely tamarisk tree to detangle it from the large spiky orange berry bush (any guesses what this is?). In doing so, we discovered another totally dead bush we had no clue was there, so that got the chop too. We'll have to have a big bonfire to get rid of everything (no side access ).

My neighbours bought a new flat packed shed but couldn't get it through their house, so we had fun passing that over the fences.

I'm recovering from a cold so didn't much energy. I finally potted on the penstemon which were hit by the fungus. I threw out the worst but have just cut the affected areas off the others and am hoping they will bounce back. I also potted on my second attempt at delphiniums (last year's were lost to slugs) and have sewn sweet and ordinary peas in trays but have left them outside. Is it too early for this? Shall I bring them in?

My verbena are looking v tatty. Do you cut yours right back in the spring? How savage should I be?

My tulips and some of my alliums have buds, but no flowers yet.

Mousmous might the white scented climber be clematis armandii? My neighbours have a one - I hadn't realised how scented they were until I was disentangling it from a rose.

A pruning saw is just the sort of Mother's Day gift I'd appreciate, too.

yes, I think that's the one. made my compost bin smell nice for once :o

Think it's ok to harden sweet peas off now. I'm smiling at the baby swing in the potting shed !

Productive afternoon planting up the completed half of the new bed. I moved a few bits that were in the wrong places. Split some primroses for it. Split my not very big but hopefully ok Geranium Rozanne and Elke, some heuchura, lobelia. Planted an azaelia that came free last year with a Parkers's order and the rose DH gave me for Christmas. It's looking much more planted now.

I was really pleased to see a clump of Cerinthe survived the winter.

Castle I also love this thread. I am learning so much and enjoying googling all the lovely plants. Am trying to think where I could fit a daphne in and still smell it.

Bertha the ladybird filled bedroom sounds lovely, if you do figure out the packaging matchbox with holes I would be interested as have only ever seen one in my garden

Humph what a lovely day, I am strangely looking forward to your opening day vicariously! I will now be trying to fit a bouncer in the greenhouse!

notanother I hope you can cut the verbena back savagely in spring as I just have.

Everyone else I am enjoying reading all your posts but have to go now as LO stirring and DH getting up ( he appears to have set his alarm clock forward by two hours, silly man)

I have the house to myself tonight which is very odd but meant I spent an hour and a half in the garden once I finished work and have just caught up with GW. (Also been through the playroom and filled two bin bags of crap worn out stuff. Shhhhhh, don't tell the DC)

Jobs achieved in veg plot:
Sifted through another tub of ground elder infected soil, only two more to go...
Planted/sowed my pre-germinated peas and broad beans. Pre-germinated in plastic bags of compost in the conservatory in an effort to foil the theiving mice.
Weeded a few small patches.
Spoke to baby seedlings in an encouraging manner.
Admired flowering borage

I picked a handful of mint to go in my tea when I first went out and stuffed it in my pocket for safe keeping. So I did the gardening enveloped in a beautiful mint scent every time I moved. It was quite lovely.

Hello. I haven't done much in the garden lately as beloved Rhubarbcat is unwell and I am too worried about her to function properly. It's a comfort to read what everyone else has been doing though. I love this thread too.

If anyone can tell me how to package ladybirds for safe postage I'm more than happy to share them out