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

the slugs ate all the sunflower seedlings. funnily enough they seem to leave the parsnips and carrots alone. hope I didn't jinx it now

bought and planted some tomato chilli plant today.
my rhubarb is looking rather sad, as if the leaves have burnt...

Could the blackcurranty plant be salvia Hot Lips (or maybe another salvia)? The cuttings I have taken from one smell wonderfully of blackcurrant.

I have never seen Breaking Bad, but thought I might take a look if ever we subscribe to one if the online telly services.

Poggle - I've used beer traps. I cut the bottoms off plastic bottles to make a saucers then filled with random left over beer (ale, Guinness). When that ran out I bought cheap larger - but then I discovered a nice cold larger when watering the plants on a sunny evening was delicious.

I return from my peony hunt to lidll triumphant!! I couldn't find them at first and thought they'd all gone - so decided to console myself with a pack of lobelia, bidens and 6 pelargonium (3 dark pink, 3 light with inky centres). Geraniums used to be my favourite,but i haven't grown any geraniums since I left the ones in my window box when we moved here 2 years ago, so I'm excited about these.

Of course, when I got to the till with a massive trolley of shopping and about 5 mins before I had to pick DD2 up from rainbows, i spotted the peonies. I did a quick grab on the healthiest looking plants and have ended up with 3 pale pink and 1 white.

I don't even have time to pick up any canna lilies.

I have kept all the plants inside to ight as i'm worried about shocking them with the cold. I really want them to live - if anyone has any fail safe peony planting tips please do share.

Sorry for typos - am on phone watching Fargo

Nann Snap just watched Fargo, despite my day job really struggle with gory things! My Peony has appeared - pleased about that. That's the trouble beer and lager too tasty - never any spare at poggle house

Lush - I think it could be salvia and am wondering whether to move it to the sun. Hasn't flowered at all.

Drat. Forgot to watch Fargo tonight.

I bought some posh beer traps a year or two ago, as recommended I think by Wynken on an earlier thread. I didn't really bother with them last year, but I have a feeling this is going to be a bad season for slugs and snails - having used SlugClear the other day, I am now finding hundreds of cadavers - so must get round to filling them up.

Oh I meant to congratulate NANN on her fantastic Lidl haul. Mine had standard fuchsias and I very nearly bought one, but I am fussy about fuchsia colours (some I love and some I don't) and it was obvious that some, possibly all if them were wrongly labelled?

Can you tell us what your day job is, pogglebonk?

Please forgive errant punctuation there.

I'm a midwife, actually not a day job as since dc's I work nights. Sorry used to be on my profile I must have made it private.

Lush - I have learnt from experience not to buy anything which is not in flower in lidl as the colours can be amiss. They had petunias with lovely pink, white and blue on the label - but the ones in bud were actually deep burgundy. That would annoy me no end.

That whole stash cost me £48. They also had compost accelerator - but I was hoping I could save my pennies just wee in the bin? or maybe buy some special worms?

Christ Poggle - I thought you were going to say you were a police officer or worked in an abattoir, but I guess midwives do see the goriest things!

Now, I would love some deep burgundy petunias!

I'm not sure whether it is reliable advice or an urban myth, but I have heard that because of the hormonal differences it has to be male wee that goes onto the compost heap. Bob Flowerdew recommends weeing into a milk bottle.

::lowers the tone::

Well done, pogglebonk, on having the stamina to be a midwife.

Happy long weekend everyone! Sounds like people have lovely plans for garden visiting.

I'm afraid I will be raking the remaining 77m of wildflower bank (again! ) and sowing the seeds. It is so late now, I wonder will they even germinate. Raked the entire bank before I went away for the wedding, but when I began to sow seeds I discovered the wind was just blowing them away .

Have to say I slightly regret this idea. It is very labour intensive for such a huge area, and the bank is tricky. It's easier to rake when standing at the top of the bank, but I can only reach halfway down in places which means trekking around and down and raking the bottom half sideways cos I can't rake it uphill as the rake is backwards and the seed sowing is the same problem. I can't reach the top half from the bottom or the bottom half from the top.....sigh. Then it all has to be raked again after seeds are sown.

And to top it off I've discovered I have a very early rosebud of my own on board and after 3 mc in the last 2 years I am really afraid of doing anything too strenuous......apologies for my absence this week - I've been preoccupied!

Poggle I suppose I should invest in a good pair of gardening gloves?

Ooh, Castle, that's lovely news! Have a slightly grubby-under-the-fingernails gardener's hug!

Congratulations Castle . But yes take it easy. Can you get a willing volunteer to assist with the mammoth raking task?

Just done a spot of weeding in the long bed and pulled up hundreds of baby oaks from my shady lawn / woodland bit at the front that I've been nurturing. Loads of forget me nots there which is lovely and the foxglove seedlings that I transplanted are looking healthy. Was very pleased to see quite a few bluebells up as this was the patch that DH mowed all the newly planted bluebells in two years ago.

congrats castle, I will keep my fingers crossed for you!

any advice for/against cats? there are a couple that regularly spray, a few corners get rather smelly esp when warm. I keep adding cheap squash to the watering can. don't even mention the cat shit and the digging...

That's great news castle - and as it's such hard work on the bank,you should take it easy.

I have to admit I sneaked some of my wee into our compost bin and the compost was great - but I don't know if my wee helped or hindered.

I've been meaning to say that I have Gardening in Pyjamas by Helen Yemm out of the library and I think its a really good book - gardening basics but full of the sort of practical advice you don't get in most books. For example, she says, when you plant a shrub, have (preferably) a wheelbarrow close by, or at least a tarpaulin, and mix the soil you dig out of your hole (twice the size of the rootball) with a buckful of rotted manure/garden compost in the barrow/on the tarpaulin. Then fill in, pausing halfway to water thoroughly. That seems very sensible, but I've not seen that level of practicality in other books.

Congratulations castle definitely good gloves, would mixing the seeds with sand stop them blowing? I saw Monty sow his meadow like that.
If I lived any where near I'd come and help!

Cats hate citrus we used to put peel on the lawn and general cat poo areas, when you mow, the air is felled with a lovely zesty fragrance. No cats now due to poggle dog!

Just back from lidl with a fig tree, and more climbers.

Bless you castle and little rosebud. Take it easy, we will all be hoping and praying for you.

Poggle - How did I miss the fig trees? Will you put it in the ground or a pot?

Dd2 has started 'forest school'. Yesterday she collected lots of snails and put them in a bucket to keep as pets. I asked if she told her teacher that i do that but then put salt on them? She said "No mummy, that's our little secret."

I am trying to get the DDs asleep so DH and I can watch Nymans tonight.

Thanks for the good wishes ladies - it's early days yet, one day at a time.... .

Poggle the sand might help. In fact maybe I can google that episode of Monty for tips!
Am very envious of your Lidl haul, Poggle! Yesterday I had a trolley full of geraniums (upright and trailing) with visions of planting up the 4 window boxes I had bought last weekend . Then I put them all back, as, truthfully,I have so many plants and seedlings needing attention at the moment before I buy any more not to mention the wildflower bank.

Must rescue my clematis wilting in the bath and my rugosas still in their wrappings in a bucket outside the door and decide what to do with the morning glory seedlings and perennial geraniums..... Argh!

Oh Castle, what lovely news.

I'm stuck right now with alan titchmarch on itv3. programme called 'love your garden'.
lovely perennials so far.

nann a pot to begin with, it's quite small, plus I need to work out where to plant it.

Where is gardeners world?

not on this week due to the boooooooooooring snooker

castle thats great news!
Would it be worthwhile only sowing seed at the top of the bank because a)some seeds will blow down and b) when the plants self seed they will do so down-hill

Also I'm thinking that as you live in a blowy exposed area those little seedlings might need some protection, there's not much shelter on your bank. Maybe bubblewrap or something held down with bricks or something.