Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.

[SugarPlumTree]

Potting shed thread for those who enjoy talking about gardens and plants. Plenty of garden chairs and the wood burner lit now there is a chill in the air, please join us !

They will go in a window box in the front garden (which is also where some of the pots of tulips will go). I always put tulips in pots, as they seem to fare very badly in the beds (cold, wet clay). Apart from chionodoxa and narcissus February Gold, I've never found bulbs that are happy enough to multiply in the beds. All the other narcissi have dwindled to nothing and I'm waiting to see whether last year's muscari (posh purple variety whose name I've forgotten) come back.

funny oh dear, hopefully it will turn up in the nick of time.

Those tulips are lovely maud

No wreath making yet but I did bring in my small potted tree and decorate it.

Dds have written their Christmas lists, dd2 has asked for a real bow and arrow so she can hurt dd1

Children, don't you love them ! Mine are at an age now where they get on bug suspect that is more to do with their personalities. Nightmare with the passport FP. I had hoped it is easier when they are past the age of leaving home but it isn't so ding like it.

We bought a pot grown Christmas tree in B & Q of all places. I hope it might do a couple of years. It's still outside at the moment.

Well done on all the bulb planting

DD had great fun for a while with her wooden bow and arrow from English Heritage, but that had sticky arrows, not vicious points! I had always wanted to try archery, until we did half a day of it on a holiday in the Welsh borders. I found it incredibly hard - I could hardly draw back the bow - and was sore for days afterwards.

No one noticed my deliberate mistake Or were you too polite to say? Santa Lucia day is on the 13th. Silly me!!!!!

A question about watering hydrangeas that have been planted a month or so ago ;if it's frosty do we water or not?

Ha, ppeatfruit! Although I have long meant to buy a French calendar with all the saints' days on it, I always forget when I'm there and so am blissfully ignorant of when Santa Lucia day falls!

I wouldn't water anything when it's frosty, as the water is likely to freeze quickly. Maybe wait a day or two? (I realise that is not much help in a sustained frost).

Maudant * I think it's more celebrated in Sweden than here (there the eldest girl of the family wears a crown of candles,electric ones nowadays of course , and brings specially baked buns to her parents!), though the Fr. love their Saints days they don't go that far!

Thanks for that I was thinking the same about watering in frost, not a good idea, but difficult with thirsty plants . (I have very porous earth). It doesn't look like the frost is going to be sustained, there's plenty of rain today!

ppeat too polite in my case, glad you cleared it up.

Lovely sunny day here today- frost in the morning but no rain. I planted tulips in a pot, miscanthus, scilla, alliums spherencephalon (I know its late), daphne auromarginata all in the front bed. Potted up sarcococca in a pot near the front door inspired by maud. Potted up a clematis, pulled up dahlia tubers (now need to find a shed to overwinter them) and then got locked out by the wind in time for Lexi to arrive for tea!

Lexi was bearing gifts of gardening books she said she had read and didn't want (I'm not sure I believe this very generous little ploy) so I feel very grateful, and we had a lovely time chatting and eating stollen and playing with Lexi's lovely little one, once my DS let us back in!

Perfect winter day.

Probably water plants that need it with lukewarm water at 10 am ish so that the water doesn't freeze into ice immediately?

I spotted Horse manure in bags: 3 for a tenner on my way back from my hospital appointment this morning. Very tempting. When the car gets fixed I shall get some!

That (apart from being locked out by the wind) sounds like a perfect day, funnyperson.

I hope to do a bit more planting tomorrow, after a trip to buy a new window box. That is my reward to myself for clearing and cleaning the kitchen floor, possibly my least favourite domestic task (made more difficult by the heap of gardening paraphernalia kept by the back door).

If Rhubarb's around, she may have an expert view to contribute to the 'how much does a garden redesign cost' thread.

Nothing to do with anything much but I saw the loveliest Fatsia Japonica plant in the nursery with the horse manure: pale green variegated leaves with very pretty white flowers rising: on the rhs website it says this is the indoor version of the plant, it is very different from the dark green fatsias with few if any flowers which grew in Central London: this is more delicate and also more cheery.

I hope you get a nice window box maud last time I looked they were harder to find than I thought or maybe I'm just fussy and stingy

My garden paraphernalia need some storage. Its all stacked up in the utility room and a corner of the garden atm. I'm against a shed as round here, sheds are notorious for harboring rats. humphreys potting shed is ideal. A roof and shelves and old wooden table.

Yes, I'm pinning my hopes on finding a window box I like and blends with the ones I've already got. I wanted it to buy it on Saturday when we bought our Christmas tree, but by then it was dark and that part of the nursery was not floodlit and the ground was treacherously icy.

There used to be a long row of fatsia japonica behind Tate Britain that produced stupendous flowers every year. Mine never flowered in such abundance, but it was a lovely structural plant and I was quite sorry to lose it to the patio extension.

Would something like this help in managing the stuff in your utility room, funnyperson? I have something similar in the shed and it does help to stop the little stuff vanishing from view.

Hmm....we have an empty one of those in DD's room. It could be useful. I'm more thinking about forks and shovels and edgers and empty pots and seed trays and compost and so forth. They are mostly stored outside in a sheltered corner. Carol Klein's shed in her programme about cottage gardens and Monty's potting shed with his immaculate tools hung up spring to mind, but both are quite dark enclosed spaces which as I said, round here would just house rats. Next door had a shed which became a rat home, and they only went when their shed went.
Something like this might be nice but it hasnt got enough table and storage
www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/2136642.htm?CMPID=GS001&_$ja=cgid:18091942045|tsid:59156|cid:189934285|lid:96719523325|nw:g|crid:60095807845|rnd:17923803018043718899|dvc:c|adp:1o2

This is more like it
www.pinterest.com/pin/562035228469315785/

Now I've looked, this is a good find for storage ideas for a potting bench outside! Thanks for setting me off, Maud maybe I'll try and put together something home-made over the winter!
www.pinterest.com/kaarena/potting-sheds-with-their-accessories/

Oh yes, that is very lovely (although I wonder whether one would still need a weatherproof shed in which to store everything over winter?)

I now have an empty plastic chest of drawers too, having finally got around to donating all DD's old paint, pipe cleaners and craft stuff to the local pre-school. It made me feel quite nostalgic.

I feel a bit sorry for rats funny they have to live somewhere and better a shed in the garden than my attic or my dsis's soundproofed communal wall she has big problems with them gnawing the brand new insulation.

We're funny us humans ; we go soppy over a hamster or whatever, even pet rats, but other rats AAAAAh

I agree with you, ppeatfruit, about the disparity in British attitudes (and no doubt attitudes elsewhere) towards animals that are deemed cute and not cute. But even so, I draw the line at rats which, being carriers of disease, seem to have nothing to commend them.

I am just back from the garden centre which had a meagre selection of window boxes, but I found one which I think will be fine once planted (and, in time, I may move it to the back of the house where it will be less on view). I also seem to have acquired a lot of polyanthus and violas and two pots of ajuga from the shelf of doom.

I bought the Wilkinson garden tool rack (no longer on website - first result in google images) this year in the sale for a bargainous £5.

I'm really pleased with it, it holds a surprising amount of stuff. One of the baskets is detachable so you can take it round the garden with you. It has loads of strong prongs to hold spades etc. too.

I struggled to find anything similar even at full price. Hopefully it will reappear in the range next year

Do you know which mammals carry most disease Maud? Yup it's humans of course.

I'm peeved and I admit it's ironic, because i've just spent well over an hour clearing, cleaning and throwing away any open stuff from our larder because a mouse was enjoying itself in there !! Our cat had killed 3 when we got home recently she didn't get them all Darn!!!!

I never claimed that rats carry more disease than any other mammal, ppeatfruit, but my perspective is that rats carry disease and have no offsetting or redeeming features as far as I can see, whereas humans (with some notable exceptions) generally do.

Well when the neighbour had rats in the shed it was horrid because they came through into our garden and I'm scared of them and they smell. But they've gone now.
haveyouseenherlately thats a great bargain! I was looking at a website called 'store' which had some useful garden tool storage solutions but they were quite expensive

First time I showed my Dad round our garden there was a dead rat in it as the neighbour had put poison down in her shed.

I can cope with mice (and have seen a lot recently thank you cats) but rats make me shudder. My friend's DD has a pet one though and once I got over the shudders I guess it was slightly sweet.

I need to dig up the Yacon and see if there is a root at all. I've been cutting vibernum, Ivy and laurel for arrangements this afternoon and sniffing narcissus. It is distracting me from DD'S GCSE mock results

We still seem to have a visiting mouse and I wonw't put poison down because I don't want to find a dead mouse just where I don't expect it. I make DH deal with the traps.

Isn't the point of mocks that they spur you on to do better in the real thing?

::trying to be glass half-full::

Spelling mistake and italics fail.

::soots shelf::

I ignore mock results on principle. They are far too early to be any use to anyone