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!

[SugarPlumTree]

Thank you all very much, for the good luck wishes and garden advice. I would love to go to Giverny but it's 1.40 hours from where we're staying and I know that my enjoyment of it will be spoilt by moaning children. I am goubg one day but when i know I will have peace and quiet to appreciate it.

Will check out the Albert Khan garden if I can though, DD would like the Japanese garden bit. We're driving to the Vendee the second week and I have a feeling that Tours is fairly en route so Rivau might well work for a lunch stop, sounds lovely.

My Acidanthera is in flower - all of one flower stem.

[SugarPlumTree]

And my little sunflowers

[funnyperson]

ppeatfruit its bronze fennel apparently

[Callmegeoff]

fp I wish I'd got the Venetian collection, but like you I'll be waiting for them to be on offer next year. In fact I've already been looking at the different colours online. I will definitely be lifting mine, thanks for the tip

sugar good luck with your business sounds exciting.

ppeat I had to google bastard balm - there's me thinking it was something you were a bit cross with

[Bearleigh]

Hello everyone - just back from two weeks in very sunny and not-rainy Cornwall. So much has happened on the thread, and it's been fun catching up with everyone's garden and other news.

It seems to have rained at home (Surrey) so the garden is looking quite fresh. We have loads of tomatoes just about to ripen, which BabyBearleigh is thrilled by, and the pumpkin Is climbing up the fence alongside the rose and clematis to get more sun.

So many stunning hydrangeas in Cornwall. I really want a soft blue one, but our soil is too alkaline. I may pop out tomorrow and get a pot of blue agapanthus as they are everywhere in Cornwall too. Not much surf so we went on lots of walks, and I learned to identify a few more wild flowers.

[MaudantWit]

Just clambering back on the thread.

We're away from home at the moment, so I'm quite pleased to hear there's been some rain, although my lovely neighbour has also promised to water the garden.

[echt]

I thought I'd get with pots theme. This is from our living room at the back. The deck has a two-foot drop to a raised bed, so the pots act as barrier, as well adding as some winter interest.

P1040911.JPG

There are three bowls of dendrobium speciosum, one getting ready to flower, two of zygocactus and the one in the blue pot that I've never been able to track down. Sellers always call it rocklee-a (but no version of spelling has traced it for me)

[echt]

I'll try again.

[funnyperson]

Wow!
Seeing a Christmas cactus thriving and flowering outdoors like that is stunning, as are your pots echt.
Where did you get your blue pot from?

It is raining here. I managed to get some more planting done in the white border just in time.

I need to source a wooden large circle arch to train an apple tree.

[echt]

I've only ever seen these pot frames in au. They are in four parts, connected by clips. I don't know their dates but collect them whenever I see them for sale at a reasonable price. I paint spray them.

[funnyperson]

Awesome

[ppeatfruit]

I meant to say happy holidays everyone!

Yes Geoff The nice lady in the market who sold it to me called it balsamica which wasn't in any of my ref. books or on google! Only in What Plant Where by Roy Lancaster as Bastard Balm!

[ppeatfruit]

Agree about the pots echt I buy end of lines and paint them too

[ppeatfruit]

funny Bronze fennel !! It's bright blue! i love it where did you get it? We love eating fennel it's brilliant for dh's gerd. !

[Rhubarbgarden]

That's stunning, echt. And your cat is very handsome too - I spotted him on the cats thread! I bet he likes lounging on that immaculate deck.

[Callmegeoff]

Lovely echt

Speaking of pots has anyone seen pots made from cement water, it's apparently very easy. I'm tempted for Dh to have a go.

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[mausmaus]

it's raining here.
the plants look very happy

I wanted to 'shape' my ceanothus today, but will have to see if it is dry this afternoon. but I'm glad now that I put lawn feed down last night, it's watered in perfectly

does anyone remember the result of monty's tomato taste test last year? I seem to have missed it.

[MaudantWit]

I don't remember Monty's tomato taste test. Is it on YouTube?

We have just been to a brocante and I am now the proud owner of a rustic zinc bucket, exact garden use to be decided.

[ppeatfruit]

Ooh are you en France Maud?Have you got the wind? It's just blown our parasol down!! The best tomatoes are the plum shaped ones with yellow ends according to DH I don't know which ones MD liked maus

[ppeatfruit]

You could make nettle feed for plants in the bucket Maud .

[MaudantWit]

Hmm. I think I'm too lazy to make nettle feed - nettles are about the one weed I lack and I generally dose everything with tomato food - and as the bucket is quite shallow I'm not sure it would work well. I'm thinking more of ivy-leaved pelargoniums tumbling out of it.

[funnyperson]

It is windy and rainy here. I hope you are having better weather in France maudantwit

We had nettle quiche today. The rest of the nettles went on the compost heap. I need to find a place to grow comfrey and borage- probably near the compost heap if I decide to keep it. The test is to see whether the compost heap can provide enough for a decent mulch for at least one flower bed at the end of this month, which will be a year after last year's oak leaves went on. If it doesn't, it is going.

Am I alone in thinking I should plant the rest of the perennial plants asap? The forecast is for rain till Autumn so I'm thinking its best if the perennials go in now.

I need some labels which will last at least over the winter in the beds. Normally I don't bother with plant labels once planted out, but there is so much new stuff this year that will die down over winter it seems sensible to label some of the less common plants. I don't want to put in white plastic labels, but am thinking wooden ones would probably just rot. Does anyone else bother with labels?

Has anyone else observed the very bright harvest moon and meteor showers?

[Bearleigh]

I like to have plants labelled too Funny, and also dislike the white plastic ones. Helen Yemm recommend black labels with indelible white pen for the writing.

I keep a Garden diary (sporadically) in which I list what I have planted, which is handy - it means I have a rough idea of what a plant is likely to be even if the label's writing has vanished. I like labels chiefly so I know that the is a plant there, for herbaceous perennials.

[Bearleigh]

Source of black labels and markers:

www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/gardeningadvice/10786003/Thorny-problems-it-it-a-bad-idea-to-plant-bamboo.html

[FunkyBoldRibena]

I use pebbles with chalk pen to label my plants.