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 !

We went ice-skating at ruxley garden centre. They had some lovely white hellebores and red cornus. I had to use super human restraint not to buy any.

Does anyone know where I can buy a job lot of pot feet? Pref terracotta - or does it really not matter?

No potting shed babies here please (nervously checks for coil...). My DDs are 6 and 3.

Good idea for new thread. I also like the first one and remember liking the Pooh one on the previous thread but can't actually remember what it was.

Very cold here again today. I ended up in a Morrisons after dropping DD off somewhere and did nearly buy some of their primulas (that is what they would be isn't it or am I losing the plot? )

Ppeatfruit if you are around, the foliage on the garland is drying out but still looks good. I'll definitely repeat that.

NANN I don't buy pot feet, I collect pebbles off the beach when I'm in holiday. It's quite fun collecting three that are the same level.

The Winnie the Pooh quote was, 'Weeds are flowers too once you get to know them.' Probably not a truly inspirational title for a thread leading into Spring though.

Oh I don't know, Bertha, there's a lot of truth there!

I went to Anglesey Abbey today, for the winter garden. It was a lovely crisp morning, and the WG was indeed fabulous, especially the white-trunked birches against the dark earth (apparently they wash them!). There is also a winter walk, snaking through all sorts of winter-scented shrubs, grasses, and other goodies. It's beautifully designed, and imaginative - Euonymous underplanting of a bare-branched Daphne, for example.

I hadn't expected that it is a lovely garden for winter elsewhere, with winding paths through evergreen woods, parkland for children to play in, and a canal leading to an old mill. It was gorgeous. Very child-friendly too, for the many on the thread with children, and with an excellent café ( one of the best NT ones I have been in).

Oh yes, I love Anglesey Abbey and we often stop there en route to Cambridge, although we seldom stray beyond the winter walk and the cafe. Last time we were there, I was very tempted to buy one of the gorgeous wool blankets in the shop, but until I eradicate the clothes moths here it would be a short-lived luxury.

Are you a member of our group on Facebook, Bearleigh? The cover photo there is a pcture my dd took of the white-trunked birches. ::brag::

I'm not a member of that group Maud: I don't usually do Facebook - what do I need to do to join?

The first day of the year and many good intentions fulfilled:

1. All veggies fed.
2. All container plants that needed re-potting, re-potted. I had much to do picking off keikis from the crucifix orchids to make new plants, three! I should say that's three pots with five or six keiki in each. A sago palm I'd neglected grew new leaves, so has been rewarded with a more attractive pot and new compost, as has a cardboard palm. Of course they are neither of them palms, but there you go. The old faithful Firecracker fuchsia in its decorated bidet has lovely new compost and a trim. Despite the boast that it can survive 40 degrees, which it can, it comes into its own in winter, though it flowers all year round.
3. It's the wrong time of year, but the rhubarb was sulking so I've put it a big container with lots of manure, some blood and bone and see if it cheers up.
4. What is the collective noun for courgettes? - glut doesn't quite do it.

Happy new year, one and all!

Wow, echt, that's a very productive session! I had to look up what a keiki is. How wonderful to have orchids growing so freely.

To join the FB group, Bearleigh, you'd need (to state the blindingly obvious) to be on Facebook, PM me your name and then I can invite you to join.

Happy New Year to you all. May 2015 be productive with beautiful blooms

Happy new year every one :)

AAWW thanks everyone for the New Year good wishes and may I return them to you all too? I've been off screen a bit . My best gift was a tablet that I'll get sorted and then I'll be able to post pix!!! Hooray!!

Our unwanted 'guests' in the attic have turned out to be bleedin' house martens or Fouines which are immune to poison or sprays or throwing stuff at the ceilings .

BUT, and I discovered this after some bad nights, they are nocturnal so hate light, I now sleep with all the lights on upstairs and an eye mask!! And feel human at last!!

Bearleigh Please tell me how you got your greenery to look good for so long.

funnyperson Lovely poems thankyou

Oh and we went to a Marche de Truffe and I treated myself to a special baby oak that has been impregnated with the truffle mycorrizums (sp?) so in 4 or 5 years we'll train our cat to dig them up!! Not planted yet though.

That was a joke about our cat we've been looking after a Golden Retriever, hence less screen time, I don't know if she'd manage the digging though!

Sorry Bearleigh It was Sugarplum's greenery wasn't it? Please tell us how you do it

Happy New Year everybody!

hi everyone, haven't been here or my garden for a while...
hope you all are well and had a lovely holiday and a great start into the new year.

have brought frim holiday some hibiscus cuttings (pink and blue) hope they take.

plan to do some pruning the next few days, the fig tree needs a serious pruning (have finished the last of the fig jam over christmas)

Happy New Year!
"To read a poem in January is as lovely as to go for a walk in June."

• Jean-Paul Sartre

Hello, mausmaus.

That's a very rousing thought, funnyperson!

Happy New Year!!!

Happy new year everyone!
Glad to be able to provide some excitement, no sign of babycastle yet. The weather is horrendous here, and I've a terrible cold, so am stating indoors...but looking forward to checking out my poor abandoned collection of pots to see how my plants and apple trees are faring down at the sheds.

Our 'driveway' consists of several barrows of gravel on top of the mud at present. There will be a lot of work to do here this year to put shape on the beginnings of a garden/driveway/ patio and of course I'm dreaming of the garden and potager and orchard beyond all that...baby steps though...

Funnyperson I missed your poetry .

And one from me:

Deep sleeps the Winter,
Cold, wet and grey;
Surely all the world is dead;
Spring is far away.
Wait! The world shall waken;
It is not dead, for lo,
The Fair Maids of February
Stand in the snow!

The Song of the a Snowdrop Fairy - Cicely Mary Barker

That's lovely Bearleigh!
we make up winter haiku when bored
ie japanese poem 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables
eg

Willow catkins move,
Snow fluttering in the wind,
Lenten roses beneath.

whoops too many syllables! (not a poet)