Tickle the earth with a hoe, and she will laugh with a harvest

[Rhubarbgarden]

Potting shed chat for all those interested in wittering on about gardens and sharing the love of plants. Plenty of dusty old deck chairs to sit on and sloe gin to warm the cockles; join us!

Fingers crossed it's not Maud.

I've resigned myself to letting the garden go for a while and hoping that it will pretty much look after itself this time of year. I have managed to make tomatillo chutney and green tomato chutney the last couple of weekends but very little work or garden maintenance getting done here

I'd love to go to Japan. We have promised DD that we'll take her one day (she has a Japanese name and would quite like to go somewhere where everyone knows how to pronounce it).

Yes, fingers crossed.

I need to buy bananas tomorrow so that I can put my green tomatoes in a bag with them and let the ethylene do its magic.

I think I had noticed your dd's Japanese name. My dad had lots of Japanese colleagues and I used to know about ten words of Japanese. Do you speak it?

Oh well done to everyone who gardened today .

It was a lovely day for gardening today but my frontal lobes just don't seem up to it atm. ie the will is there but the body isn't complying. I sat and read a Piet Oudolph book 'dream plants' which turned out to be a bit of a list and not very informative. I think I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by garden geniuses and need to get back down to earth to my own little imperfect patch a bit.
rhubarb it wandered into my mind that your brickwork will probably fade in colour with time so maybe you have a wider range of possible roses than you think.
maud I hope you havent got box blight. That niwaki website reminded me to dip shears and secateurs in diluted bleach every so often to stop bacteria and viruses being transmitted between plants when you prune them. I've ordered some nice shears from them and some new secateurs!
I've managed to get the black spot from the roses by dint of removing the affected leaves by hand and binning them, and the new growth weems healthy, but I'm going to spray all of the previously affected ones before their leaves finally fall for the winter, as well as any trellis, with chemicals as I gather that black spot can overwinter and infect the new spring growth which I definitely don't want.

I'd love to go to Japan and see the cherry blossom and the niwaki.

Echt when you come back do tell us all which places you went to and what you liked best in garden terms

The thing is I would also like to see the Pyramids and the Northern Lights and Mandalay and the Fjords and also I would like to go with family which means a LOT of money so I end up not going anywhere.

I am going to use Bayer garden systhane fungus fighter as recommended by the RHS
maud your box could just be stressed by the lack of rain in early September , but if not, apparently this Bayer Garden systhane fungus fighter stuff can be used for box blight.

I don't know the first symptoms Maud but thought my box (in a pot ) had it as went brown but it was lack of water and it recovered.

My DD speaks Japanese, it's her 'thing'. She had her results from sitting the Japanese language proficiency test level 4 in the summer arrive Saturday but was ambitious and should have done the lower level first and failed so will do the lower level in December.

She's also persuaded school to let her drop one of her options and study for Japanese GCSE instead. Which is great apart from it has an oral exam and I need to find someone to take that with her as her tutor is in China and teaches via Skype.

I have promised her if we ever have the money we will all go but I think her best bet of getting there is an exchange or something.

Just looked at outside temperature, it's only 3 degrees .

My niece did Japanese at school for a while. There seemed to be a lot of support and underwriting from the Japanese embassy: have you been in touch with them about locating a tutor?

I saw a headline yesterday suggesting we were going to have warm days and cold nights for another month. I'm beginning to fret about my brugmansia and lemon tree. Will a plastic greenhouse be adequate winter protection?

But funnyperson as someone on GQS said if your rose blooms are not affected and you're not showing or professional then a bit of black spot is liveable with (i live quite happily with it!).

Maybe soft soap spray is the least of the evils.

Yay autumn is here at last!!! All our water butts are full so I can water my new hydrangeas with rain water again (I reckon they're already going a bit pink round the gills )

I bought a couple of smaller ones for the terrace at last. Oh also fell for 2 penstemons in the local s\market; has anybody any tips about them?

We went to have a look at Mt. Fuji today, and noticed from the railway sidings that hydrangeas grow wild, as do banks and banks of coral-coloured nerine. And to think I can't get mine to flower. What was also common were gardens crammed into the tiniest of spaces, lots of plants in pots crowded onto minute frontages. Anyone with more than 6 square feet grew veggies. We haven't been to any formal gardens yet, but will soon.

My brother lives in Japan and I have a Japanese SIL. We managed to get out there for cherry blossom time once but it must have been 15 years ago! It is lovely - definitely worth going.

I had a massive lawnmowing sesh yesterday and pleased myself by managing to get the lawnmower up the bank at the back of the garden, which up till now only dh had managed. Me and my lawnmower are getting to be very good friends.

Also we went to Castle Howard and I was very struck by a herb border in the walled garden. You know how lots of late summer borders are all reds, yellows and oranges? This was all subtle whites and pinks against a background of different foliages - thymes, rosemary, variegated sage. They had some garlic chives/alliums in flower which surprised me - I thought they flowered much earlier in the year (though my chives are flowering again so perhaps a second flowering is normal).

That must be have been fabulous Echt and the herb border at Castle Howard sounds gorgeous. My chives from seed look like tiny thin blades of grass rather than flowers atm.

Penstemon, chuck them in, dead head, don't cut back till spring and easy to take cuttings is what I think you have to do but could be wrong.

The Japanese embassy are very helpful but there don't seem to be tutors in our local area. There was one and she started but she hadn't taught the GCSE and was pitching it at the wrong level when I checked it out. Apparently one of the teachers at a local Middle School lived there for 8 years and people think she would be happy to help and there is a lady at a college in the next county who teaches GCSE at a college there. I think this is when it is probably easier living in a city.

What do I have to do with Asters once they stop flowering ? Not sure about your plastic greenhouse, sorry Maud.

Rhubarb did you get the 15% off until 24 Oct code with your DA catalogue? Just in case not it is KF1.

My grass seed has germinated!

I genuinely didn't expect it to. I tried to reseed the edge of a lawn in the old house, and zilch.
I don't know whether it's because there were more pigeons in the last place, or because this time I've been more conscientious about watering.

Thank you for all the rose opinions and suggestions. I really like funny's suggestion of Wollerton Old Hall, but it has the same problem as Lady of Shallot in that it only grows to 8 feet.

I haven't seen any white roses I like the look of as much as Iceberg. Most have a hint of pink or yellow; I like the purity of Iceberg as it is properly pure white. If only it wasn't lacking in scent! I'm trying to convince myself that's not critical as we rarely actually use the front door - it goes straight out onto a busy road, so everyone except the postman uses the back door. Hmm. The jury is still out.

Echt's Japan trip sounds fabulous.

Maud your box is probably just dry. Soak it repeatedly and it should recover.

Yes, the pots are barely big enough and there's little compost there to wet, but I have been giving them a watering can-ful a day. I would have planted them out a week ago, but for my concern that the brown tinge to the leaves might be the beginnings of box blight which I didn't want to pass to my carefully-nurtured box hedge. But I have an unexpected free day on Wednesday and may do it then.

I'm less familiar with the highways and byways of the DA catalogue, but would something like Kiftsgate - which would reach the rafters - be suitable?

Thanks for the DA code, SugarPlum

Kiftsgate is wonderful in trees, but I think I need a climber rather than a rambler, as ramblers are a bit too, er, rambly for on a house front. I once worked in a garden attached to a wonderful historic and very formal mansion house which had rambling rector up the side. It looked spectacular for the brief period it was in bloom, but an almighty tangled mess the rest of the year.

Well, quite. But I did just wonder whether, as you have a large frontage (fnarr, fnarr) you could safely break the rule about not training a rambler up a house.

Thanks sugar I now have to make room for them. Tunip ref. lawn mowers is yours an elec. one ? we've splashed out on a battery powered one and OMG it's given me so much more time to actually GARDEN! I can't recommend more highly!

rhubarb It's a conundrum about scent isn't it? I have this fantasy of living in the times when the "scent of the roses wafted through the window". Like J.A. land

I have 2 mowers, the one I brought from my old house which is a little electric one I do the front garden with, and a big petrol mower my dad bought 20 years ago and decided he didn't need any more when he noticed that if you pay someone else to mow your lawn they usually bring their own.

The electric one used to be a massive pain in the arse because you had to climb on the kitchen worktop and put the lead through the window and generally spend ages untangling the extension lead. A battery powered one would have been much better. However, it's fine for the new house because the front lawn is long and thin so not much messing around with the lead, and there's a socket right by the front door so no need for extension.

Rhubarb, can you have 2 roses, one for show and one for scent?

Brilliant idea Tunip 2 roses !

Arf at me and my large frontage.

Two roses may well be the solution! There isn't much space in the plant 'holes' between the wall and the brick path, but I could make extra holes, maybe.

I'm not much help I'm afraid rhubarb could you write to a rose grower and see what they suggest? I did see a few weeks ago a solanum jasminoides alba, growing on a red brick house that looked stunning.

The weather is just glorious I really love Autumn and have been quite busy, mowing, trimming and weeding. I've also made up a few layerd planters today ala Monty, brown sugar Tulips, Daffodils, and topped with black Pansies, Autumn fern, For-get-me-not and glowing embers Begonia. I don't normally like Begonias but this one has lovely dark foliage and orange flowers.