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!

[MaudantWit]

Oh yes. If I devoted half the effort to cleaning and DIY that I do to gardening, I would be living in a show home!

[Rhubarbgarden]

Lovely post, funny. I don't think it's that unusual to be trying to combine small children and gardening though. This thread is testament to that. I do know a few women in real life too, who are juggling veg patches, pruning and preschoolers.

I received a tree in the post today, as a birthday gift. It's a Magnolia liliflora 'Nigra'. So there ends my dilemma about which Magnolia to get! I also got a voucher for Architectural Plants, my favourite nursery, so I'm looking forward to a trip there.

[Blackpuddingbertha]

I find time to garden by just being neglectful in my parenting.

"I'll be outside if you need me girls. Try not to kill each other..."

[HumphreyCobbler]

Our garden definitely looks like it has been abandoned lately There are just lots of things that need doing. The paths are tidy now all the catmint and geraniums have been cut back but that is about the only thing that is under control.

It is possibly my own fault for having so many pots that it takes about half an hour a day to water in hot weather I must have well over a hundred biggish pots, without even taking the small ones into account. DH says that we must reduce this next year but I can't see it happening really, they are integral to our garden.

I always lose momentum at the time of year anyway, the main jobs are harvesting and processing stuff but other plants look a bit tired. I get another surge of energy in autumn, which is definitely my favourite season. Autumn makes me very happy and for some reason rather nostalgic.

[NotAnotherNewNappy]

Humph - I have learnt to love rainy summer days, the relief at no watering tonight! Have you looked at getting one if those watering systems? I am going to try to fit one on after I've redesigned the garden. T&M were advertising them recently, I don't think they're too expensive. Better than getting shot of the pots!

My bargain SR dahlias are finally in bud and I was telling my friend I was worried they are all going to come into flower while I was on holiday. She told me to snip all the buds of the day before I go and I should come back to lots of lovely new flowers. Genius idea but it seems so cruel!

[ppeatfruit]

I have a lot of pots but not anywhere near yours Humph I notice that even when it rains the pots are still very thirsty indeed! I like to water with rain water so don't have the technology to do the watering system with 5 different water butts .

Ref. dahlias mine are in pots because there aren't enough full sun spots to dig them in. `apart from one they have failed (even the one that's growing well has no buds just chewed leaves ). I give up !

[Callmegeoff]

nann can you cut them as long stems and put them in the house? It's like dead heading I guess and will encourage new flowers. I've taken to picking mine, they last ages.

bertha like your style

rhubarb belated happy birthday, what a lovely gift

I tasted a pheasant berry last night, weird a bit like chocolate except not sweet.

Heavy rain last night finally :)

My American style fridge freezer has packed up and would cost nearly as much to repair as it would to buy new. I am feeling extremely grumpy about it. It was only 6 years old but apparently that's how long they last. I am over run with produce that I'm having to give away

[Rhubarbgarden]

Thanks Geoff!

Humph I used to have a huge collection of pots outside and house plants inside. Since the offspring arrived I've cut it down to just two (neglected) pots and a fraction of the house plants. They are just too high maintenance and made me stressed. I'll ramp it up again eventually. It's only a temporary measure (I tell myself).

[ppeatfruit]

Sorry Geoff I don't know what a pheasant berry is . Tell me about those damn fridges; ours blew all the electrics here when we first moved in, so it's sitting unloved in the barn and only used to store extra food in when we have everyone for Christmas, you could store some of your harvest in yours I suppose.

It makes sense not to stress out over pots Rhubarb I just used to have permanent planting in mine when the DCs were little; you know like hebe or bamboo.

[funnyperson]

I like having lots of pots as they are easier to water than the beds and its the only way to have plants in the south facing patio

[HumphreyCobbler]

Glad to see I am not the only pot obsessive enthusiast! Hardly any of mine are planted up with annuals, we have a lot of box, all the ferns in the verandah, all of my mint in tin baths or buckets, everything in the pigscot gardens, a few half barrels with six hills giant, an old boiler with a weeping pear at the front, everything in the sempervivum garden by the dairy. I really don't think I can reduce the number. If it is big enough then watering once a week is ok. And if I want some lavender then that will have to be in a pot. Or a few pots

I am absolutely rubbish at houseplants Rhubarb. What did you have? I really like rooms with lots of plants but my house is not light enough. All north facing windows sadly.

[NotAnotherNewNappy]

Here are my favourite spots in my garden at the moment.

1. The end of my sunny border (verbena bon, penstemon wedding bells and dahlias con amore just about to flower). This is where I lumped all the sickly/wrong colour plants I wasn't sure about - of course the clash of purples, reds and pinks now make up my favourite corner.
   

1. The Ibiza plant - a descendant of the original succulent I brought home as a cutting from my first holiday with DH. this plant is the only thing to live happily in what had been previously described as 'the pot of death' and is now disguising my ugly gas metre.
   

1. My pot collection - full of pelargoniums, lobelia, lavender, yellow stuff and baby agapanthus. Ignore the mess behind, we are between sheds at the moment.

[Rhubarbgarden]

Humph I had a collection of twenty odd orchids. Not just phalaenopsis - all sorts. Various other things in different places around the house; nothing really exciting just your bog standard palms, dragon trees, etc. And my kitchen windowsill was filled with carnivorous plants, as they deal with flies very satisfactorily.

That was all in the last house. We had good windowsills there. They are crap here.

North facing are best for orchids though, by the way - they like good light but no direct sun.

[Rhubarbgarden]

Nice pics, NANN. I like your pot collection.

[funnyperson]

I like that pot collection too, NANN. My borders are wider than yours though and I have clematis which never flowers growing up the fence.
Admittedly the honeysuckle roses and jasmine thrive.

Rhubarb that's interesting about orchids liking a north facing windowsill: mine have thrown up new spikes recently.

humphrey your sempervivum and penstemons are doing well!

I hope the Gaura reflowers: I cut it back by a third.

I'm carrying on with planting, egged on by DS. He says the no of plants being nurtured on the patio out back has gone OTT. He's right. 6 nicotiniana plants went in today. A bit late. The artemesia got planted: it was terribly pot bound: I layered it with some alliums everest and cosmos purity in flower to come through.

[ppeatfruit]

Humph Do you live in a farm? . We live in an old farmhouse with a little farm behind us (partly attached) but the 2 places were separated in the 50s. We bought the back bit so now we have stabling for donkeys and no livestock (except cats) which is sad but we need decent fencing which we are without .

[traviata]

does anyone have the variegated form of akebia quinata? if so, how does it do?

I need a climber for a shady but sheltered west facing wall, and thought that variegated leaves would bring a bit of light in. Wall shrubs would also be fine, but it needs to be pretty flat to the wall and not prickly as it's a seating area. any suggestions very welcome.

[SugarPlumTree]

Like the pics NAAN. I'm into penstemon this year as they are so easy to take cuttings from.

My sunflowers that were labelled as hedging sunflowers will be out soon. Not very tall so work well at the front of veg patch. There will be seeds later in the year if anyone would like some. One of the water butts was installed today so if it doesn't rain again it's my fault.

[NotAnotherNewNappy]

Sugar - Please share how you are able to get penstemon cuttings to root!!

[SugarPlumTree]

I cheated thinking about it and rid them in the aquaplaning system. However the basis of that is the flood and drainage of water so I suspect they will root in a cup of water.

[funnyperson]

What is an aquaplaning system?

I was disentangling honeysuckle from clematis today and got some hacked off bits clematis cuttings which I have put in a pot in a kind of layering system way, pinning down the middle of the hacked-off bit rather than rooting the end into the compost, as I think spring flowering clematis are best propagated by layering. Perhaps I'll try layering properly from the mother plant. Does anyone have experience of propagating clematis?

I suspect my normal potting compost is too rich for rooting new plants: I must look into that aspect. Do you all use different potting compost for new cuttings?

All the spring flowering clematis in my garden are putting on new growth at present: Integrifolia, Wisley cream, Broughton star, Montana Elizabeth, Jingle bells, Avalanche and Marjorie. The only one which flowered this year (the first since I planted them all in early spring) was Montana elizabeth, so I am hoping for great things next spring if they survive the winter.

At the gardens in Trinity Hall Cambridge, climbers are trained up old brick walls with different climbers being perhaps 2-3 foot apart, if that. This is why I have different climbers, but the honeysuckle has proved rampant, wanting to intertwine with every thing else! Getting the more or less neat verticals as at Trinity is not the natural ine of growth it seems.

[funnyperson]

Clematis can be grown up an obelisk, into a tree, or trained against a fence/wall, and at Sissinghurst the integrifolia are used between the roses and peonies in a supported staking arrangement.

So I'm thinking to get an obelisk, and look into ways of staking. The fence just has vine eyes and wire to support clematis, I'm not sure if that is enough and if I ought to get some of that fan trellis as well. What is your experience?

All obelisks seem very expensive and I'm not sure how well they last or if they will fall over in the first high wind.

[ppeatfruit]

I love the way that honeysuckle does it's own thing, one of my books advises to let it have it's head funny

I like clematis but haven't had brilliant luck with them; the last people who lived here left quite bit of old farming implements about and there is a cartwheel sticking out of the ground up which I WAS growing wisteria and 2 clems one spring and one summer flowering. But the surrounding pines and various greenery overcame it ! I like the look of obelisks too!

[traviata]

I have bought an obelisk and I plan to get fencing spikes so the legs will be sunk very deep. However the legs are slightly splayed, of course, so it will be fun trying the get the spikes in at the right angles. I think I might get someone in to do it rather than risk marital disharmony.

The strong wooden ones should last as long as fence posts, presumably? I tried some cheapy metal ones and they rusted through in one season, waste of money.

[SugarPlumTree]

Autocorrect strikes again - aquaponics!