A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot!

[MaudantWit]

Join us for ongoing gardening chat in the MN potting shed. Blow the cobwebs off a deckchair, help yourself to a glass of elderberry champagne and tell us about your garden.

[echt]

And another thing. I've been sitting here with tingling skin, just realising I'd planted up the dratted hyacinths and tulips on the Last Day It Can Be Done, i.e. Queen's Birthday weekend.

[funnyperson]

Happy Queens birthday! I think of a possum as being like a squirrel in its garden habits.
Mum and I visited a (very) local open garden yesterday. The bottom of the garden had the most wonderful backdrop of mature trees and huge rhodedendrons and a massive samboucus nigra with pink flowers next to a tall clump of bamboo and magnolia exmouth and all sorts of very mature clipped yew and tall tall conifers etc so it was all enclosed and quite private and large enough to have a wonderful sunny lawn in the middle.

[echt]

That garden sounds lovely, funnyperson.

Objectively, possums are quite cute as they peer down at you from the phone wires. Their eating habits are reprehensible, especially when we have lots of native trees they like to chomp on. We have the ringtail variety, though at our last house we had a few brush tail: easily as big as a decently-sized cat.

[beccajoh]

We're doing a lot of structural gardening this summer. Last year we built a garage (ourselves!) but made an unholy mess of the garden in the process. Yesterday DH rotavated the entire lawn, then levelled dug a trench for a path to the gate. He levelled one half of the lawn, rollered it flat and scattered grass seed. The other half of the garden looks like something out of the Somme, minus barbed wire and dead soldiers of course.

We've got some raised veg beds at the side of the house that are falling apart and full of weeds. We haven't got round to planting any veg this year. The whole lot needs pulling apart, de-weeding (napalm might do it) and starting again. I'm not sure the raised beds were any more useful that just planting things straight in the ground?

[mousmous]

imo raised beds are usefull if you have bad or no soil (concreted yard) or a weed invasion. my parents have ground elder and having a raised veg bed is the only chance to keep it out.
and of course they are great for people with mobility issues.

[beccajoh]

I think DH onlybuilt them because he saw them on Gardeners World! We've got really good topsoil so I think I'll try and persuade him that they need to come out.

[echt]

Raised beds are not to be sniffed at, as the soil is warmer than the surrounding garden. Easier to keep weeds at bay, too. If the beds are there, then keep them. We have them because our soil is sand, so it needs to be a bit better for veggies.

[UptoapointLordCopper]

Can I join in? I'm a bit of a lazy gardener and we have a lovely gardener nearby who did the little patch of garden in the front of the house with plants for lazy gardeners. All I do is lop off dead things.

But we have a raised bed. Now it's got garlic chives, sage and strawberries in it. (Have decided that perennials are the way to go for lazy gardeners.)

And I've thinned the fruits on my plum tree.

And the raspberries are taking over.

[MaudantWit]

Welcome, LordCopper (excellent nickname, by the way).

I got ridiculously excited because my plum tree was going to fruit for the first time this year (it was bought as a little stick from Lidl a few years ago) but I noticed last night that it has precisely one fruit and even that is blemished!

[UptoapointLordCopper]

Our little plum tree was erratic for the first few years. It skipped a year once too. It was planted in 2008 when it was a tiny tree (can't remember how old it was...) But last year we had quite a crop.

[funnyperson]

Welcome LordCopper
2008! That's five whole years! Oh well. My 2 Lidl sticks (pear and plum) planted Autumn 2013 have leaves and growing branches, so are clearly thriving and look as though they could be pruned/trained to interesting shapes at this early stage, but blossom and fruit they don't have as yet.

[Callmegeoff]

Welcome lord Copper, my Tesco Victoria plum planted last year is growing well but no blossom. The Gooseberry bush planted last year has fruit though.

I have finally met one of you, Rhubarb and her lovely family have visited :)

echt when I lived in Australia my friend and I used to go looking for possums in the park usually on the way back from the pub! The wild life there is fabulous I can just picture those white cockatoos.

I'm a lazy gardener in the fact that I love growing things from seed potting on etc. I'm less keen on the heavy manual stuff- digging, pruning and even planting out because I can't decide where to put things or how close together.

[WynkenBlynkenandNod]

Welcome LordCopper. I'm a pretty lazy gardener and definitely prefer perennials or things that will self seed. planning to stick raised beds in here for veg as I'm seeing it as an easy way t get some decent soil in. You can all laugh when I'm moaning about getting them set up!

Didn't realise Possums could get as big as a cat. My linking them to slugs was in relation to them beng the main thing that chomps on the garden, is that right, or is there something else you get more of ? Your mention of squirrels FP has reminded me that we haven't had any here for ages - not that I am complaining !

There was blossom on the Mirabelle Plum this year which is on year 2, but it didn't set. I must must must try to net the cherry tree this year to keep the birds off. Am cautiously optimistic that my Calendula is self seeding, not in the most convenient place but I can live with that.

[mousmous]

gloria dei has opened this morning!

[UptoapointLordCopper]

Thank you all for the welcome.

I haven't tried to train the plum tree or anything, just give it a haircut so that it doesn't look like one of the DC's hair. But this year there are loads of fruits and I had to watch a youtube vid on how to thin fruits.

DS1 wants a little pond - just a little one in a basin. Has anyone tried that? Would an outdoor planter work? Our baby bath is now containing strawberries and a surprisingly hardy coriander minitree that seemed to have survived the winter and neglect and is now threatening to take over the world. Anyway I think the plastic is not hardy enough for outdoors - it's going to bits - so I'm thinking washing-up bowl may go the same way?

[mousmous]

from my time in the us, the possums were always lying dead by the road, they are very slow to cross and just don't have any roadsense.
they reminded me of giant goslings, bottom up and with this downy fluffy fur.

[beccajoh]

Ooh I might get a plum tree. We had one when I was a child and I remember it being all or nothing. Would be nice to have more fruit. We've got strawberry plants but DD (23m) pulls them off whilst they're still green so we've only had one strawberry you can actually eat so far.

[YeGodsAndLittleFishes]

Can I join in? Just planted 6 roses in our weed infested back garden. Hope they survive. I popped a banana skin under each one with fish, bone and blood and some compost and a good puddling. Fingers crossed!

[UptoapointLordCopper]

Our strawberries were treated quite roughly. In fact I thought they were dead. Last year we had one strawberry. But they've unexpectedly pulled through the winter and we've had about 20 strawberries already. :)

We inherited an old rose bush in our garden. The thing is terrifying. Every time I see one of those rose sellers at the road side I involuntarily flinch. Ours have vicious thorns. But it has great big dark red roses that you can smell all the way from the kitchen. I treat it with great respect (from a distant).

[UptoapointLordCopper]

I have also planted a blackberry plant last year. Anyone else has blackberries?

[YeGodsAndLittleFishes]

The roses I planted are named after a relative. :) They are are standard, thorny, pale lilac with a heady scent. I cut out (half) a huge, rambling briar rose with no scent and pathetic flowers in exchange. I have lots of scratches and punctures for my trouble!

Have had blackberries (careful, they can take over) and raspbessies (they like ericacious soil) and thornless loganberries. Just have apples here, have not got as far as thinking or other fruit, but might suggest to DD as she is asking about planting vegetables. (Is it too late to plant easy care veg?)

[beccajoh]

Bit early for blackberries I think? Aren't they more late summer/autumn fruits?

[UptoapointLordCopper]

Blackberry plants, not fruits. Ours is flowering. I've been warned that they will takeover. But I've only got one, so hopefully it will be under control. Any tips? The raspberries, on the other hand, are taking over. It will a fight between the berries and the rose bush and the humans will be banned from the garden. (Day of the triffids style. )

[Callmegeoff]

No tips on blackberries I'm afraid. I have them in abundance rampaging throughout the hedges. Having spoken to my neighbour who doesn't mind them, I've decided to leave them and enjoy the blackberries. I think they spread via their leaves, ie if the tip of a leaf touches soil it will root and become a new plant. Cultivated ones that have the big berries fruit first August, bramble ones September. I have both kinds.

[Callmegeoff]

funny the local garden sounds great, was it your neighbour?