He who dares not grasp the thorn should never crave the rose

[Blackpuddingbertha]

New thread for the potting shed crowd using Rhubarb's rose suggestion and Squeaky's quote for the new title.

Spring is underway with promises of summer in our gardens big and small.

Elderberry wine for all

Ugh, massive cross post - I have been drinking.

Gentle stroke delivered thank you funny and grateful purrs sent your way.

V exciting on the seed front, Castle!

I am also of pogglebonkdh - Rhubarbdh could not be more opposite.

And a stroke for Rhubarbcat from me too.

Pogglebonkhusband is emerging as something of a manly paragon, isn't he?

Tomorrow, I think, I shall be mostly planting.

Humphdh always sounds like he's a bit of a paragon too, I always think, what with digging lakes and building splendid potting benches and the like.

Purr purr from Rhubarbcat

Oh yes, he does. As I said earlier, LushDH is a paragon in many ways (especially in the kitchen) but I cannot imagine him building me a pergola or excavating a pond (which in our garden would have to be the size of a bucket).

::Enjoying the purring of Rhubarbcat::

Sounds like lots of exciting stuff going on with wildflower seeds and pergolas and eating ground elder! Will have to pass that on to my DM.

Glad to hear rhubarb cat is home, I lost my cat about a year ago and miss him still, however I had lovely cat cuddles with the cat from two doors down the other day as he took advantage of the open doors to visit. DH is not a cat person apparently but the first time the cat visited he gave him some double cream hence the frequent visits!

I have managed a little bit more weeding and watched lots of gardening programmes whilst doing the ironing, which almost counts hopefully. I watched the great British garden revival which has encouraged me to order the fruit trees I have wanted for ages. The plan is to grow them as small slightly espaliered trees in pots in front of the greenhouse as natural shading ( and protection from footballs when DD is bigger).

Have been waiting for DH to lay garage base so can move camper van (project -it doesn't work) and various other things so we can use the patio and get rid of the scrappy area at the end of the garden for three years so of other helpful DH's...... Dreams of pergolas.....

Yes blackpudding I think I would like close up photos of ground elder. I'm not that good at recognising weeds: I can identify oak seedlings, dandelions, oxalis, celandines and pull those up, and always keep a patch of nettles for the caterpillars. The mint is now under good control. However there are still or three plants I'm never sure about.

www.seasonalwildflowers.com/may/ground-elder.html does this help?

Dh is fab at DIY, the only downside is that things have to wait until he has time. He has a fairly demanding full time job, plus is chair of governors at dc's school. I am surprised that things are happening this quickly, one minute we were discussing vaguely where to put the patio - and I was kind of preferring a stone one the next he's convinced me to have decking and ordered the wood! I'll upload some pictures when it's done.

castle glad to hear the seeds have arrived.

it sounds like she is in very good hands.

Gosh there's been lots going on. I am glad to hear Nutter's going OK.

I am very envious of those with husbands who do DIY as MrPSB is lovely in many ways but not generally very practical. He does mow the lawn though which I wouldn't do, and I am hoping he'll spread some manure today, as he keeps asking what he can do and there isn't much.

I pricked out some seedlings yesterday and used some paper pots made with a paper potter. It occurred to me that maybe these will have the same effect as Monty's soil blocks, and effect air pruning. I shall do some research. It's fun making them though I do keep reading the old newspapers of course.

Someone upthread mentioned Tagetes minuta for getting rid of bindweed, but Sarah Raven says it also works on ground elder ( though as it tastes good maybe we don't want to get rid of it?):

www.sarahraven.com/shop/tagetes-minuta-mexican-marigold.html

Yes I think so. I have a plant which I m fairly sure is a weed which has three leaves on each stem.

This morning I moved the hellebores, which have been out the front in pots this spring, and planted them in the back border. This has proved inspirational as the back border now looks stunning rather than just pleasant. Green hellebores and blue forgetmenots, saxifrage, white flowering japonica and pale creamy white tulips.

There is a Ted Hughes poem which has the lines
'green into blue. The hills run deep and limpid'
and though the poem refers to the pennines, my border now reminds me of those colours and that feel.

close-up of ground elder.
if they get into flower, the flowers are a bit like cow parsley.

So of course I sat in the garden with my breakfast and read the poem and then read this
www.theparisreview.org/interviews/1669/the-art-of-poetry-no-71-ted-hughes

which I thought I would share

I havent got any ground elder

sorry, I couldn't click your link funnyperson, but I offer you

If ever I saw blessing in the air
I see it now in this still early day
Where lemon-green the vaporous morning drips
Wet sunlight on the powder of my eye.

Blown bubble-film of blue, the sky wraps round
Weeds of warm light whose every root and rod
Splutters with soapy green, and all the world
Sweats with the bead of summer in its bud.

April Rise by Laurie Lee

Oh yes thats perfect.
And Houseman of course
A. E. Housman (1859–1936). A Shropshire Lad. 1896.

II. Loveliest of trees, the cherry now

LOVELIEST of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.

Now, of my threescore years and ten, 5
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score,
It only leaves me fifty more.

And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room, 10
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow.

Oooh, poetry

Some photos of my long bed which I'm enjoying at the moment although it would appear that most of my cat mint has died mysteriously. Garden centre is calling...

It is the day of the 'Big Easter Egg Hunt' here today so no gardening planned.

Nice long border bertha What are the red low flowers?

I'm going to get a gadget thing to enable me to upload photos from my camera

In Perpetual Spring
BY AMY GERSTLER

Gardens are also good places
to sulk. You pass beds of
spiky voodoo lilies

and trip over the roots

of a sweet gum tree,

in search of medieval

plants whose leaves,

when they drop off

turn into birds
if they fall on land,
and colored carp if they

plop into water.

Suddenly the archetypal

human desire for peace

with every other species

wells up in you. The lion

and the lamb cuddling up.
The snake and the snail, kissing.
Even the prick of the thistle,

queen of the weeds, revives

your secret belief
in perpetual spring,
your faith that for every hurt

there is a leaf to cure it.

Can't resist Chaucer (though completely irrelevant to gardening)
Geoffrey Chaucer (1340(?)–1400)

WHAN that Aprille with his shoures soote
The droghte of Marche hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth

Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne,
And smale fowles maken melodye,
That slepen al the night with open ye,

(So priketh hem nature in hir corages:
Than longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,

That's the saxifrage Funny. It's gone completely mad this year and looks fantastic.

Loving the poetry and the long border! That Laurie Lee poem in particular describes the glorious week we have just had, and the cherry blossom describes the blossom I can see now on the tree at the bottom of the garden.

I read yesterday that if you pick biennial wallflowers they keep on flowering - what a wonderful reason to pick them. Researching wallflowers, I came across this article, which I think is talking just about the perennial sort, but has some interesting-sounding varieties - Hector's Gatepost anyone?

www.gardensillustrated.com/article/plants/brightest-and-best-wallflowers

That sounds gorgeous, funny.

I'm intrigued by the Tagetes, I've never heard of that before. How does it kill perennial weeds?

Nutter is on good form today and purring like a trooper in her pool of sunlight by the French windows.

Beautiful border, Bertha. I love the colours.

I need some wallflowers.

Lovely photos, Bertha, and lovely poems. I especially liked the Laurie Lee, which was new to me.

I have spent several hours in the garden today, potting things up for a sale tomorrow and planting some of the things that have been in pots on the patio. 'Twas very enjoyable. Now if I could just get the lawn into shape and get the laundry airers off the lawn, the garden would look almost presentable.

Chiltern give a bit more info about the action of Tagetes Minuta:

www.chilternseeds.co.uk/item_1222d_tagetes_minuta_seeds

Interesting...

funnyperson - In Perpetual Spring was new to me and I absolutely loved it. Thank you.

Long bed looks fabulous Bertha.

Sat in the garden with visiting family today, watching whilst DH edged the lawn and the children played on the newly hung tyre swings in the orchard. The wood for the tree house has been purchased and a plan made. It was a beautifully sunny day, although a trifle chilly.

That sounds delightful, Humphrey.

If we had had the right sort of tree in the right sort of place, I would have liked a horse tyre swing for dd.