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!

I've been continuing to pot things up for our forthcoming plant sale but in the course of that noticed that a whole area at the bottom of the garden looks completely dead. The honeysuckle Belgica on the fence is just a collection of dessicated sticks and the swathe of geraniums underneath it have vanished. I wonder whether it's the effects of drought. I don't water that bit of the garden as the hose doesn't reach and it's in the shade of the apple tree, so quite dry at the best of times.

Meant to say, Geoff, that your layered pot sounds great. I had Brown Sugar tulips last year and liked them - I love orangey/brown/bronze colours.

Thank-you, I never liked orange but you have all shown me the error of my ways apparently they are scented so will be my front door.

Sorry about your Geraniums, is it possible they have just died back for the winter? My Hayloft Geranium collection are all doing well bar Johnson blue which had rotted away. They are very kindly repeating my order, I assume that just means they will send 1, but if I end up with 20 again I will have some spare I could send on to you?

Our garden has lost a lot of plants due to drought Maud, and all the hornbeam hedging has got mildew.

I am very frustrated by my lack of gardening time at the moment, I am itching to sort it out a bit.

I am going to swap the geums from the back door bed with the hilltop beacon that are in the pigscot borders. I think the heights will work better.

One of the things we are going to try to address is the way we have so many plants flopping over the paths all the time. It drives us both mad.

Oh, and lots of our box has gone brown with being too dry, I THINK it is not blight but fingers crossed here too.

I am not going to plant any more box, it is too worrying.

Oh yes, two roses !

The scent wafting through the window idea reminds me of when Monty pruned his honeysuckle which was growing round a window.
My last home (a while ago and one of those things which has risen over 800% so that bizzarly I can no longer afford to buy it back even though it is smaller) had honeysuckle growing up the garden stairs to the back room windows and the scent was heavenly from late spring onwards.
So i'm thinking of taking out some of the paving in the patio next to the house and planting honeysuckle there. Maybe a scented rose too.

Maud it sounds like it got dry under the apple tree.

My niwaki.co shears arrived today . Together with a book on creative pruning. So excited!

That's a very kind offer, Geoff. I think I will be able to fill the gap by moving stuff around - and I have at least one geranium waiting to be planted - but perhaps we could take stock, once your plant(s) arrive(s) and once I've shifted a few things about. And was it Hayloft who were supposed to be sending me a freebie because I had recommended their website to you? If so, it never arrived.

These apparent drought deaths are a puzzle because the geranium that seesm to have died is one that was (I thought) tough as old boots and had seeded itself all over the place, having started as one baby plant. I did wonder whether my neighbour had been strafing the end of her garden (and therefore mine) with glyphosate, but the arum itlaicum pictum is coming through there, so the ground is obviously not blighted. And there is a very promising-looking honeysuckle Graham Thomas in the free for postage climbers that I got recently from GW magazine, if the other one doesn't perk up.

Oh and the VB in the front garden has finally made decent sized plants, but they are covered in mildew.

Agree that combination sounds gorgeous, Geoff.

Sorry to hear about the plant losses. I am a bit worried about some of my new fruit trees. I haven't watered them as much as I should have done. I hate to say it but we really could do with some rain now.

It is odd that you have mildew, caused by damp, and drought, all in the same garden. humph
Ever since that bit in one of the episodes in Gardener's World where a gardener mentioned she had azalea/rhodedendron friendly soil under the fir trees because the needles made the soil underneath quite acid, I have been thinking about how soil can vary in different parts of a garden, not just sunlight but soil.

It rained here after I had spent an hour and a bit watering.

combo sounds wonderful geoff better than my bulb layering combo currently non existent.

Have you ruled out Mme Alfred Rhubarb?
It repeat flowers, starts early, finishes late, dies off reasonably nicely and smells divine.

just seen Bearleigh already mentioned it.

But my understanding, funnyperson, is that powdery mildew is associated more with drought than damp.

I do think it is worth considering how well a rose dies and how well it copes with rain. I regret planting the two noisettes as they spend half the time looking dreadful.

In any event, the VB is in the front garden in a big pot, whereas the dead zone is in the back garden.

I think it is drought too? We have not kept up with the watering. DH is frantic at work (this never happens!) and I have the original non sleeping baby so am knackered. The poor garden...

No, we don't speak Japanese Maud. I lived in Hong Kong for a while and taught in a school with lots of Japanese children, all of whom had beautiful names with beautiful meanings. I've been partial to Japanese names ever since.

Hopefully the box issues are all drought related. I'm hoping that my crispy acer by the front door is going to return to life next year.

We have lost forty or fifty box plants in the round veg garden

Oh, ok, so powdery mildew is due to the plant being too dry?Live and learn! I'd better water the hepatica then.

humphrey wont most of your plants just go to ground and come back in the spring?

I've been watering intermittently: rescued the magnolia stellata in a pot which nearly died but is now ok. Not too many casualties in the garden so far: just plants waiting to be planted! And the echinacea white swan all dissappeared.

The plants in the unglazed terracotta pots get dry very quickly so if I ever buy any more they will be glazed

sadly the box has had it funnyperson. We have cuttings ready to take their place though and there will be a hose put in that part of the garden by next year, so watering will be easier. The hornbeam hedge has all survived but looks a bit manky.

Glad you rescued your stellata funnyperson.

echt mentioned nerines

are anyone's nerines flowering?

Im sorry about your box, humphrey. Though the creative pruning book has some wonderful examples of pruned box so maybe it will all be worth it in the end!

I have Mme Alfred on the south facing wall, so I'd like something different on the front really. I agree she is gorgeous.

My Nerines are not flowering. They had got a bit crowded by forget-me- not seedlings and weeds and I thought that most had given up the ghost. I weeded and thinned the forget-me-nots yesterday, and discovered that nearly all the Nerines are still there after all, just chewed to stumps by slugs. Hopefully now I've given them some space and a nice soak they might come back.

I once knew a girl named Nerina. I always thought that was lovely, and it was on the shortlist for dd. I agree that some Japanese names are beautiful too. I considered choosing Dutch names, as dh is Dutch, until I actually researched them. There are some truly awful Dutch names.