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Gardening

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

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

999 replies

SugarPlumTree · 29/09/2014 22:32

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 !

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Castlelough · 25/12/2014 06:32

Happy Christmas to all you potters! Apologies for long absence - I couldn't bring myself into the shed there for a while, as we seemed so far from getting into the new house , not to talk of gardening!

But finally, we are in! Baby is due in 11 days and I am on maternity leave until September - so hopefully I'll have plenty of time to chat and dream about the garden!

Hope everyone has been well?! Hope Santa brings some lovely gardening supplies to you all! Grin

Xxx Castle

SugarPlumTree · 25/12/2014 08:19

Merry Christmas to you all. How exciting that we nearly have a new potting shed baby !

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MaudantWit · 25/12/2014 09:17

Merry Christmas one and all!

Lovely to see you, Castle. I was wondering the other day how you were. How exciting that the baby is nearly here!

SugarPlumTree · 25/12/2014 11:45

DD has given me a book of gardening quotes, thought I would share:

The trouble with gardening is that it does not remain an avocation. It becomes an obsession.

Gardening is an exercise in optimism. Sometimes, it is the triumph of hope over experience.

A garden is never so good as it will be next year.

You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem and smarter than you think.

The last isn't from the book but I have an 11 year old and a nearly 16 year old highly engaged in Pooh ' s most grand adventure Smile

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LightTripper · 25/12/2014 15:09

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

MaudantWit · 25/12/2014 19:41

Wonderful quotes, including from Pooh!

Castlelough · 25/12/2014 22:23

I love the second one Sugar - it HAS to apply to my garden anyway ! Wink

funnyperson · 26/12/2014 10:58

Happy Christmas everyone!Xmas Smile
Sorry I haven't posted:

Not much is flowering in the garden apart from winter jasmine, camellia sasanqua and the occasional hellebore , though it looks tidy enough. None of the December flowering clematis have flowered thus far.

Congratulations on the house move finally Castleough! Good luck with the new baby when it arrives keep us posted!

I got given some good gardening books!

MaudantWit · 26/12/2014 19:27

I was very pleased to receive some backdoor shoes - many thanks to whoever on this thread recommended them - and some garden centre vouchers.

Blackpuddingbertha · 26/12/2014 21:17

What design are they Maud? I have poppies on mine.

I got some gardener's soap and hand lotion. New gloves would've been a bit better Smile

MaudantWit · 26/12/2014 21:44

Ah, was it you who recommended them, Bertha? I thought it might have been, but couldn't quite remember. They are Meadow, which is very sweet, but I think I may go bolder if I get another pair for the front door.

I was thinking I might get some stout, rose-pruning gloves with my garden centre vouchers. What is the posh brand that always gets recommended here? I have a major job to do on the rose on the back fence and my dinky little gloves won't be up to it.

NotAnotherNewNappy · 28/12/2014 18:56

Nice to hear from you castle, great to hear baby castle will soon be here!

I'm a bit envious of all your gardening gifts, I didn't get any this year. I did get a little bit if cash, so I will put that towards the overdraft slate patio.

It was a lovely crisp sunny day here today, so I've been out in the garden. I cut back our tamarisk tree, broom bush and another couple of unidentified shrubs . Pruning very tall things, with a telescopic looper, must be the perfect antidote for bingo wings... Ouch!

Squeakyheart · 28/12/2014 22:44

castle I can't believe baby is nearly here, good luck with the new house and everything!

Sugar I have the pooh quote painted on Dd's wall must read it more often

Well I got a lovely seed tin so can upgrade from my shoe box! And solar lights and some little metal ducklings so am inspired to plan the garden. It also helps that I found pictures of the border that will remain roughly the same and looked lovely this year, and hopefully better next year!

Missed out on the snow so far which is a shame as that's the only time my garden looks anything like next doors!

Wishing you all a happy new year with exciting surprises in the garden!

funnyperson · 29/12/2014 05:00

I visited the garden centre yesterday on the way to a friend's house to get a late Christmas present: Camellia Japonica in flower were on sale: huge silky flowers the texture of Gardenias! I didn't buy as I'm not sure how hardy they are: Settled for a pretty, pale, ivory and green Hellebore and a bright winter primrose.

CruCru · 29/12/2014 10:42

Hi all

I know it is probably a stupid question but can I still plant (hardy) things? We are in the Isle of Wight so it is not utterly frozen (although this morning was our first frost this season). My MIL bought me a lovely book about attracting wildlife to the garden.

Thanks!

Blackpuddingbertha · 29/12/2014 14:39

Squeaky - the snow and neighbour's garden rings so true here as well! He has a gardener though so his lawn gets mowed in stripes and every leaf gets cleared pretty much immediately. I tell myself that ours is more wildlife friendly...

Can't believe babyCastle is nearly here Grin, another potting shed baby to start a new year with. Who's volunteering for next year?

MaudantWit · 29/12/2014 15:55

Alas, Bertha, I am far too old to supply the potting shed with a baby, and yet DD is nowhere near old enough to supply it with a grandbaby!

Blackpuddingbertha · 29/12/2014 16:36

I'm far too broken to supply next year's so I'm out too!

SugarPlumTree · 29/12/2014 17:01

Crucis, I have just stuck in a couple of small Hellebores but left the big one as really the ground is too frozen here today. And I shouldn't have done it. It wasn't before today but a hard frost last night. We are south coast.

I am too old for a baby however I can provide a baby nephew on the Spring if that helps. They found out it's a boy on Saturday and I am excited - though my Brother lives abroad so goodness knows if I will ever see him.

Just spent my birthday present in the garden centre and have 3 hellebores. Also have collected a handful of Camellia seed whilst outside.

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SugarPlumTree · 29/12/2014 17:35

I found a few things outside with a flower - 1 pink rose, 1 white rose, a heuchura, Winter Orchid wallflower, Bowles Mauve, primrose and cyclamen .

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echt · 29/12/2014 20:58

No horticultural gifts here, so I'm going to have to it myself and buy an osmanthus aurantiaca. The sad thing about it is it can only be bought at a specialist nursery up in the Dandenongs, a lovely day out. In the garden, a stanhopea orchid is veery slowly about to bloom.

funnyperson · 29/12/2014 21:31

Extraordinary to have wallflowers in bloom!
Also extraordinary to have a Stanhopea orchid blooming outside in December Shock or should it be Xmas Smile
I ain't supplying no babies except the ones from work I suppose, of which there are so many that the junior staff invariably get broody and pregnant.
Anyway the first thing is to get a potting shed....or gooseberry bush.....or pelican.......
Regarding planting: it is still safe to plant tulips, fruit trees , roses, but probably not perennials.

LightTripper · 30/12/2014 00:15

BabyLight is still only 7 months old, so no new babies here in 2015 I'm sure (though I'm expecting my first baby niecephew in May!)

No gardening news here except that I am still yearning for holly...

funnyperson · 30/12/2014 04:38

lighttripper are you yearning for a holly plant in your garden or holly in the house/on the door wreath?

Incidentally , although we haven't a thousand posts, should we start a new thread for the new year?
It seems a bit retro to have a title referring to the Autumn of a previous year.

I'm thinking about winter eg this

The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.

Or this (w carlos williams)

Again I reply to the triple winds
running chromatic fifths of derision
outside my window:
Play louder.
You will not succeed. I am
bound more to my sentences
the more you batter at me
to follow you.
And the wind,
as before, fingers perfectly
its derisive music.

or this (ezra pound)
Earth's winter cometh
And I being part of all
And sith the spirit of all moveth in me
I must needs bear earth's winter
Drawn cold and grey with hours
And joying in a momentary sun,
Lo I am withered with waiting till my spring cometh!
Or crouch covetous of warmth
O'er scant-logged ingle blaze,
Must take cramped joy in tomed Longinus
That, read I him first time
The woods agleam with summer
Or mid desirous winds of spring,
Had set me singing spheres
Or made heart to wander forth among warm roses
Or curl in grass next neath a kindly moon.

Callmegeoff · 30/12/2014 14:16

You're up early funny yy new thread for the new year. I like the first one and also berthas Winnie quote.

So lovely to hear from castle and I look forward to baby news. I am also too old to provide the next baby. No gardening gifts for me but there is still my Birthday to come in early Jan.

B&Q have an assortment of fruit bushes and summer bulbs already. I didn't buy any, it seems a bit early.