"In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt." This month's discussion in the potting shed.

[MyNightWithMaud]

Grateful thanks to the magnificent Margaret Atwood (via A Mighty Girl) for the quote.

I have just come indoors after a delightful couple of hours' pottering in the garden. It's far warmer than yesterday and everything feels optimistic and vernal again, after yesterday's Arctic blast.

High point: Realising that most of last year's cuttings have taken. Given that I am useless with seeds this, I think, is my propagating future.

Low point: Realising that my newest fairy lights have already failed.

Lovely ducks.

Lovely house/path/wall. The border is frustratingly narrow though - that will be tricky to get right. What's on the other side - do you need height and evergreens for screening?

Agree lovely path, house and ducks. I would love ducks but the dog would chase them. Actually the dog is a bigger threat than slugs at the moment. That border might look good with wallflowers and tulips in the spring. I wouldn't know what else to plant though.

My narrow borders in the front garden have early spring tulips, planted very thickly and deeply, with alchemilla mollis and lots of different geraniums. It works quite well, the geranium foliage grows up to hide the dying tulips, they flower at various times so there is some continued interest. I am resigned to the fact they look pretty boring in late summer, I haven't worked out what to do about that. Any suggestions welcome!

Late summer is my problem season too - there's plenty going on at all other times of year, but things are rather dull at the end of the summer. I love heleniums, but they don't thrive here.

Countess Lovely house and garden and ducks so sweet! I find the walls are dry at their base but honeysuckle is very happy up them! Without any special watering except at the beginning of course.

Oh I meant to say to Chopper that the high alkili ph levels only seem to affect some of the roses here ( i have to treat with banana skins and nettle feed also only use rain water, to counteract the yellowing of the leaves)

Humph I've bought hardy geraniums for the base of the new hedge is it a good idea to plant anything there at the start of growth?

It faces NW and is exactly 1m deep. For spring I was thinking hyacinths rather than tulips, not because tulips wouldn't look good but because I already have a tulip border at the front of the house and various scattered tulips (lovely little red ones) elsewhere.

What did you mean by other side, Rhubarb - did you mean other side of wall, or other side of lawn, ie the border opposite? The wall is high enough that screening isn't a problem, and the opposite side of the lawn has a lilac tree underplanted with all sorts of lovely things and the ground slopes upwards to another, more informal, lawned area, and then the kitchen garden area past that. Basically the garden is a long flat rectangle parallel to the street that goes behind our house, the neighbour's house and the old coach house that belongs to us. The rear boundary is a bank with a wall on top of it.

The difficulty I am having in planning it is that I want it to be the most formal part of the garden, because it's next to the poshest bit of the house and the flat, formal (slightly stripy!) lawn, but all those old apple trees make it difficult to do planting that repeats at regular intervals.

I'm thinking climbers against the wall to provide a backdrop in between the trees (a dark purple clematis would look nice) but still trying to figure out what else to do! There's lots of sedum, red valerian and hemerocallis already there that I could rearrange.

Ppeatfruit that's good news because I definitely want honeysuckle! There's a lovely original fireplace in the sitting room with a very unusual honeysuckle pattern and I like to think whoever lived there in the 1760s specifically asked for honeysuckle for some reason

The dryness at the base might be part of the reason why everything lurches forward and prefers to lean over the path when there's lots of space at the back of the bed.

Callmegeoff - I could be wrong about this, but I don't think that's a viburnum tinus but a viburnum x burkwoodii. I have both in my back garden! The former is evergreen.

Countess- your house and garden are so stunning!

Yes it screams out for formality. I would punctuate the border at regular intervals with tall box cones then infill inbetween with perennials. Hardy geraniums are a great suggestion - can't go wrong with those. For late summer interest I'd plant Japanese anemones.

i was going to say that in late summer i have japanese anemones and dahlias

For some height, you could go for Digitalis or Aconitum. Hayloft currently have an Aconitum offer on.

Yes aconitum and digitalis are lovely (they don't want too much sun either ideal for a NW garden) but of course a bit deadly If countess has small children. I was thinking of those for my new garden.

Yes, aconitum is the only plant I have ever discarded because of its toxicity - I'm sure I've mentioned before that it killed my friend's pet before she could get it to the vet's - but there are few things to beat it for intense blue-purple colour. I've just planted some digitalis.

Was that the plant that killed a gardener last year?

My borders aren't that wide, I'm worried I won't keep up with the weeding if I make them any bigger.

shovetheholly yes possibly, I looked at that too, I think mine is an evergreen, it's rampant in the growing season and gets as tall as my bedroom window, We just keep cutting it back.

I've just planted the start of my lavender walk, it may or may not work, drainage isn't great but I did mix in lots of sand.

Wisteria got majorly hacked last year by Dh, and has its first flower plus loads of buds. I finally have a tulip for-get-me-not combo because I moved a pot

Yes, allegedly, the poor man, although I found that all very bizarre, as the press coverage suggested he'd died as a result of handing it, whereas I thought it was poisonous if eaten. Anyway, it is very poisonous if eaten, as friend and her pet discovered.

That doesn't look like my viburnum tinus either, but I have the bog standard one that arrived as a cutting, as so much else, from my parents' garden.

I have no forget-me-nots in flower, but the ones from the garden centre are going to be a fabulous deep blue. I'll try to shove the pot of yellow tulips in the middle of them.

Rhubarb, thank you, box cones, now you're talking! I love box (the smell evokes happy childhood memories of the box hedges in the garden when I was a child being clipped) and it is exactly the right style for the house - the back of the house is the earlier part and it feels just right for early Georgian. Also, it gives the structure it desperately needs to look good in winter. But would it be ok to put them in a border with a wall, and a few trees in it already? I've imagined box topiary in the garden but more free-standing IYSWIM.

Would delphiniums do for the height (assuming mine grow)? Aconitum is beautiful but probably is a bit too toxic - my youngest is 5 but we often have younger children visiting. I sowed some digitalis just the other day which was meant for somewhere else, but some of it could go there. And I have hardy geraniums waiting to go in, so that's good, and a few Japanese anemones already there which I could move.

Geoff, your tulips and forget-me-nots look great! Good luck with the lavender walk - it sounds amazing.

Box topiary is fine next to a wall. I take your point about existing trees though; I'd be inclined to rip them all out and start again but that's the designer in me talking

Yes Aconitum is probably better avoided tbh. How about Camassia for blue height?

I found myself agreeing to take on another redesign job today. Gah. Must learn to say NO!

Here are some springy pictures of my garden as everyone else is at it.

Oops - trying again

and again

Oh. They were there after all.

Those pictures are beautiful Rhubarb. I really need to work on the tulip & forget me knot combination.

Are those alliums flowering already in your garden rhubarb? (clearly too late to plant the ret of my allium bulbs now: garden fail)

Formal NW wall: what about box balls? Also climbing red (or other colour) roses? Also repeating grasses? Fuschias for late summer? They go well with Japanese anemones. Salvias also last into late summer

Re geraniums: I must admit this is why I prefer the variegated phaeum types, they are more interesting. Or something really long flowering like Rozanne

I've been really stupid and gardened without gloves and mixed up manure and compost and, being immunosuppressed, have inevitably got sick.

Not Alliums; Primula denticulata rescued from my Grandpa's garden. He always called them 'drumsticks' and had loads of them.

Sorry to hear you are poorly

hope you feel better soon funnyperson.

Love the pictures Rhubarb. Those drumsticks are fabulous.

Thank you, I'm almost always poorly so have got used to it, I just am always rather surprised to be well!

Primula denticulata? Lovely flowers. I've never been a great fan of their leaves though they are said to be a good standby for dry shade under trees but those flowers are making me rethink!

Has anyone else been out watering today? The lawn under the oak tree is beginning to dry in caked clay soil already! I'm thinking to grow that mile-a-minute stuff Joe Swift recommended instead of lawn. Do you think we are in for a really hot year or is this summer? Should we all be planting subtropical plants?