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.

[Rhubarbgarden]

Absolutely fascinating, Bertha!

Hello LadySybil. Agree that beige is, um, a bad sign in a sweet pea. They are unlikely to be terribly happy in a hanging basket, as they dry out so quickly and don't offer much climbing potential. Next time try them in a nice big pot with canes tied together at the top to form a wigwam for them to climb up. Or in the ground would be even better.

[LadySybilLikesCake]

I'll 'watch' this thread and remember that, thank you.

All of your gardens sound lovely

[Rhubarbgarden]

Oh please feel welcome to witter on!

It's funny isn't it, how childhood memories of the garden are so vivid, and make us want to recreate them. The Aubretia in my garden has a special place in my heart because it takes me back to my childhood. I would never be without Aubretia.

[LadySybilLikesCake]

We used to have a huge apple tree towards the house and my father would climb it and shake them down. There were always too many for us so we'd share them with the neighbours. The pussy willow was with lilac, crab apple and the forsythia at the bottom of the garden, through a gate and with a wire fence. I wasn't allowed down that half of the garden so I'd sneak down and sit on the grass so it was 'my' garden as no one else would go there. We had new neighbours and the three boys trashed it. A few months later it was dug up and my father filled it with potatoes. 30 years later I'm still sad when I think about it.

[Callmegeoff]

Your garden sounds like my grandparents garden sybil, half of it was an orchard, with a rusty broken sit on mower that birds used to nest in. The top garden had a massive willow tree that my cousins and I would play under. The orchard got sold to developers and is now 4 houses, my grandparents down sized to a bungalow. I finally have a garden with fruit trees :)

[Rhubarbgarden]

That is sad. Gardens are always transient though, and your memories of sneaking down there sound lovely.

I came across a good quote the other day that I thought might be nice for the thread: "Tickle the earth with a hoe, and she will laugh with a harvest"

I can't remember who it was by or where I read it though.

[LadySybilLikesCake]

You must have been gutted I'm so pleased you have your fruit trees. I think my plum trees are annoyed as there were no plums on them this year. There wasn't a lot of cherries either come to think of it.

[LadySybilLikesCake]

I remember the grass, it was so soft, very fine blades that never needed cutting (or it could have been moss, it was a while ago). I tried to reseed my garden but I think it needed more than one packet of grass. I'm not sure if it's too late now.

That's a lovely quote. It's by you until you find the owner

[MaudantWit]

Do stay with us, LadySybil. Your purple butterfly-magnet sounds like buddleia.

That quote would make an excellent thread title, whoever coined it.

[LadySybilLikesCake]

Yes!! It's lovely but it's so big I can't trim the top! It's made an arch across the steps leading to the grass and the trees

I'll stay. I need to learn things like not to plant sweet peas in a garden basket

[Callmegeoff]

You need to cut it right back in the spring. Love the butterfly on it!

[LadySybilLikesCake]

Oh, sorry. That's not mine, I've borrowed it from google images. I did take one of mine but my phone has a crap camera. There hasn't been a lot of butterflies this year. It was covered last year and they stripped the flowers

[funnyperson]

Here is a good video on sweet pea growing ladysybil though it doesn't show layering and growing single stems. You probably know all of what is on the video but its a nice one anyway. Monty Don did a trial of sowing sweet peas in the autumn or spring and it was fine sowing them in the spring.

www.thompson-morgan.com/how-to-grow-sweet-peas.

I loved the sound of your special place 'neath the pussy willow in your childhood garden. How different life was then: unstructured, with long periods of time and space at the bottom of the garden, while parents did whatever it was that parents did elsewhere. So different to all the chauffering around for ballet/tennis/music lessons that modern children and parents endure.

[funnyperson]

On the subject of pussy willow: chinese poetry appears to be the thing

One day, while watching the snow fall, Xie An asked Xie Daoyun and her elder brother: "What does this snow scene resemble?" His nephew, Xie Zilang replied: "It is just like salt sprinkled from the heavens." Xie Daoyun offered a different answer: "Is it not like a sky full of willow catkins blown about by the wind?" Xie An was so delighted with his niece's reply that he and future generations, often referred to her as "the talent that praises willow catkins".
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[MaudantWit]

Hurrah! Another new recruit and more poetry!

[Blackpuddingbertha]

Here's a quote for you

"Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them."

Winnie the Pooh.

About my level

[LadySybilLikesCake]

Ah, I was a 70s/80s child. No such thing as ballet lessons, we'd occupy ourselves or watch the TV. Thank you for the link, I'll watch it later

I always thought weeds were plants you didn't want.

[ppeatfruit]

Chinese poetry no less! this is a very esoteric thread I love it

Yes my dahlias have become slug food so I popped bottomless plastic bottles over them and they're much happier.

ref. your childhood garden I have a real thing about wallflowers due to my 50s childhood. And they grow well here !!!!! I did have ballet lessons though and my dsis had riding lessons , we weren't rich believe me! But have lovely memories of us making a den in a large hedge in a now built on garden

[SugarPlumTree]

Goodness I've missed loads. I'm snorting g though catching up with Beige does not sound good at all and Winnie the Pooh

Congratulations and fingers crossed to Nightshade. Hi to Sybil if we supply you with and will you stay?! FP, I hope you are better soon

Bertha, your job sounds fabulous, I am jealous. I'm still trying to sort myself out work wise, few ideas have been germinating recently. Saw something I am interested in for sale so asked for last 3 years figures - but taken aback to receive year ends 2010-11. Under deterred I tried again. Reply via Agent - figures for year ending 2013 merged in with others, accountant hasn't:separated out as he did before as no one asked and no point in paying extra. And the June 2014 figures don't get done till next year. I resorted to phoning Agent to point out if you are trying to sell a business people are going to want to know the figures and now
The year end is past it is possible to do the figures. Oh yes said the Agent, I did think that. Accountant now allegedly looking at figures. What with that and the last one not having planning, it's not proving easy, please excuse rant.

My sweet peas are still going. I have been doing what Monty's suggested and picking them all once a week or so. Also chucked a bit of tomato feed over and have watered a bit. The stems are shrinking though. Shock at the cost in London.

A couple of my chucked in the ground dahlias are up with buds on and one of those funny gladiolus I mentioned (forgotten name) before has chucked a flower spike up.

[LadySybilLikesCake]

Hi No cake or wine needed, it's good to know how to look after things. Hope you're well.

Oh, den making. I'll have to do that with ds. I hope you can make one in your new garden.

[Callmegeoff]

My level too bertha btw I forgot to say your job sounds fab.

I'm starting to get windfall apples- so cooked an apple crumble today, it was delicious. I'm wondering if its the lack of rain or the hot summer but seems a bit early.

70s child here and although I'm reasonably new to gardening it was always in me. As a child my favourite thing was digging, the dirtier I got the better, playing with rhubarb leaves and climbing trees.

Dc's were thankfully rubbish at ballet, dd2 has swimming lessons, dd1 piano that's it thank goodness.

[LadySybilLikesCake]

I think we used to harvest ours towards the end of August, so it could be early. The weather's thrown everything off.

There were 5 of us (children) and we were mostly outside. I can remember my brother trying to burn a worm with a glass microscope

[Callmegeoff]

Poor worm, I got upset when when of my friends used ladybirds in her mud cake :(

[SugarPlumTree]

7 ' s child here too. I had a pet worm who lived in a flower pot. One of my favourite memories about my old family home is when we moved in during the boiling summer of 76.

The garden was slightly on the wild side and had a huge raspberry patch absolute heaving with huge, juicy ripe raspberries. It backed onto the school's copse and had a fence made of wood and wire with a hole to squeeze through. All the shrubs there had overgrown and formed a tunnel to squeeze through.

Only downside was a fox family had a den somewhere round there and it stank. Local University were doing a project on Urban foxes and they set up a cage to tag and teack them. That didn't work so well as it only ever seemed to catch next door's cat.

[Rhubarbgarden]

Ha ha my brother used to do that to slugs!

I had riding lessons too, back in the day. It cost 50p to canter through the rhubarb fields. I've just booked dd's first riding lesson for next week. Suffice to say it will not be costing 50p!