When the hounds of spring are on winter's traces…...

[echt]

I realise it's later in the UK, but couldn't wait to start a new thread. If another title had been agreed, just tell me and I'll have this removed.

Other than that, seek out those deckchairs from the shed, check them for spiders and get nattering about the spring's promise.

Oh dear I tried to post a view looking from the other way but it hasn't worked! You can see the moles have been busy which is annoying because I read somewhere that moles hate daffodils !!

Lovely spring flowers ppeat.

I have plenty of nettles elsewhere for compost/tea/wildlife purposes. Down in the functional area by the compost bays and bonfire patch I let a chunk of border do its own wild thing. But the Border of Doom should be and will be the main flower border in the top garden, so nettles have no place there. I turned a blind eye to a few the year before last and they went berserk - last year they swamped everything. So this year they are being evicted. I don't want to use boiling water or a flame thrower as they are growing around shrubs which would be damaged too. The shrubs are safe from glyphosate at the moment because they are deciduous and yet to spring to life. I avoid using chemicals as much as I can, but sometimes they are a necessary evil.

Ivy in trees - cut the stems where they are growing up the base of the tree. Take out a couple of inches of each stem so they can't re-join, then leave the stems above to die off. It's much easier to pull it out of the tree dead than alive.

Yews have a reputation for being slow growing, but a yew hedge will grow surprisingly quickly if the ground is prepared well with compost dug in, and if it is kept well watered for the first couple of years.

As for space, it depends on how thick you want the hedge to be! They can be kept slim if clipped regularly.

I cleared some ivy off the hawthorn years ago because I like hawthorn and I don't like ivy.
It looked nice afterwards and has been happy since (the hawthorn). The wildlife had lots of other places to go.

Just pottered into the conservatory to inspect seeds. I have chillies and sweet peas germinating and my pelargonium cuttings are still looking healthy. I'm very excited as I've never tried cuttings before .

Should get some more seeds started this weekend & I need to get the oca in pots as they are sprouting like mad. Trying to hold off as long as possible as I have to keep them inside until all frosts have passed and they take up loads of room in the conservatory.

I would also like to report one bulb sprouting in its little egg container.

Whoops, I fell off the thread.

I've been prowling round the garden, looking for exhibits. My best pot of daffodils has been overturned by the squirrels. Grr.

Pesky squirrels. Want to borrow our air rifle and turn them into a fur cloak?

Pesky indeed. You have just reminded me that we have DH's boyhood air rifle in the cellar, but I am scared of all weaponry, even power tools.

So happy, DS wanted an apple tree for garden but its so tiny (and shady) I didn't think I could manage but picked up a mini apple tree from Coronet at the weekend and its lovely. Will fruit in first year (apparently) and has two varieties on it - I am impressed

That sounds perfect - we have a "family" tree with three varieties, but over the years I think the third, weakest variety has progressively been pruned out. Our garden too is shaded but the apple trees produce lots of fruit. What remains to be seen is whether the plum tree (yield last year, one plum) or two variety pear tree can be as fruitful.

Thanks for the tip about getting ivy out of a tree Rhubarb - that's a task for me this weekend, along with sowing lots of seeds.

Be careful to take a good chunk out of the stems - I tried to kill the ivy that's swamping our now-collapsing fence by chopping through the main stem and it's made no difference at all. The b%ggers keep on growing!

Hope everyone has had a nice week. The weather has been really lovely here, but I have been mostly indoors as dd has a cold and stuffy nose.
I did get out on MD for a bit and planted my bulbs and had a potter with my pots. Despite utter neglect (sitting in water for most of the winter followed by ice...) most things seem to have survived and are growing! Including some of my grandad's rose cuttings! I won't say that anything is thriving but everything except the lavender and box plants are salvageable.

Btw is GW on tonight? If so what time and which channel? Now that I have the English channels I'm determined not to miss it!

I love cox's apples and I planted one in Nth. London; it took 6 or 7 years to fruit the year before we moved . Then I heard Bob Flowerdew on GQT say that they are the most difficult to grow.

I'm pleased that all my hyacinths have bloomed beautifully on the terrace now because I had kept them in paper bags over winter! It was a successful experiment

It took us a very long time to get rid of inherited ivy. We had to dig out an entire bed in the end to get up the roots, it just kept coming back. The fence it was on collapsed, and the trees and shrubs it was on were so malformed because of the ivy, we ended up taking them out too - they looked awful once the ivy was gone.

Echt made the talk round-up!!

What is the talk round up?

It's the top of the pops of this week's posts, kind of. Can someone do a link to show us where?

Anyone else having difficulty with the site I keep getting logged out, error messages and have lost two posts! Have also missed echt's fame!

Have decided that tomorrow is a gardening day and the housework and DIY can wait! And am watching GW after the rugby!

How easy would it be to graft Apple trees as that would solve the pollinator space issue?

Am trying to post an image with a gardening quote on but the site won't let me! Am starting to take it personally

It worked! buries head in hands and goes for some wine have a lovely gardening weekend everyone

Me again, from the weekly update

BADGER UDPATE: "Well, it’s still there. It dug a latrine last night, my sister says the contents didn’t seem too healthy." Top marks for use of the word latrine, ratspeaker - sounds impressively official, and conjures images of badger in hard hat, measuring out the dimensions for a trench.

And speaking of official...

"The technical name for badger poo is werderobe. How beautiful. The word, not the poo." This is the perfect nugget of trivia; thank you echt.

Ah, the badger under the deck thread.

I do have a head full of odd words, though. One of those memories that retains ridiculous trivia, at the expense of remembering what I came into the kitchen to do.:o It was to make a cup of tea, as I am up betimes listening to the currawongs make noises like rubber bands being twanged.

That's a great quote from the redoubtable Gertrude.

And another fantastic quote from echt. I'm now going to research what a currawong is.

Hi gardening gang.

Sorry I've been ill for a week so haven't posted. Enjoyed the eclipse today and managed to get the first cut of the lawns done.

Hope everyone has had a good week. Just about to settle down to GW.

And it's almost time for a lovely new shiny springtime thread. Lots to look forward to!