"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.

Sorry about your cat Ppeat, hopefully things will go well

We moved the chicks today into a newly bought run as I was getting worried about them negotiating the ladder out of the house they were in. I worry unduly and am being very PFB about them I think!

I also managed to sow some courgettes, cucumbers and squashes today.

I like the sound of that potato soup, I grow lots of herbs but rarely find good uses for them all. Although a massive handful of mint went into our pea pasta this evening. We are also very much enjoying our asparagus at the moment. And I've been growing pea shoots in the conservatory to eat in salads, they work very well.

I am tempted to 'borrow' some frog spawn for the pond but am concerned they won't have enough to eat when they hatch. Then I'd be worrying about chicks and tadpoles

Thanks for that rhubarb and for all your kind wishes ,she,s being scanned on Thursday. and we,ll see from then, the nearest scanner is in Nantes, which is a 4 hour round trip!. Dh comes back from Budapest .tomorrow late.

Fingers crossed from me too for ppeatcat and best wishes for a speedy recovery to all who are ill.

I have some ajuga in the back garden, too, so my new, thrifty plan is to plant the leftover vinca under the hedge and then perhaps split the ajuga and use some of that too. I have two - one with bronze leaves and one with multicoloured leaves - and I'm guessing that either could do well there.

Just popping into say 60% off Sarah Raven bulbs including Dahlias!

Noooo! Just as the realisation that I have enough unplanted plants to fill the space under the hedge prompts me to stop buying plants, you tempt me with this!

I hope you get better from your pneumonia NANN

My hostas from that offer are coming up nicely but need lots of watering in this weather
My sweet peas aren't doing that much
Mum asked her gardener to dig over the veg patch after the beans had been sowed
maud true but dahlias wont go under the hedge will they?

I meant to mention that the new clematis I got last autumn and I thought had died has sprouted up happily! I think you lost one too Maud didn't you? Have a look at it you never know .
Oh it's lovely in parts of Hampshire and Dorset funny Even our oak tree is coming into leaf which doesn't usually happen till May. It's a bit worrying!

Yes wishing you better Naan Try echinacea and ess. oils of eucalyptus and or lavender I swear by them.

The cherry blossom all round here and in the garden is getting better and better! The boughs are heavily laden.

Watering has made everything grow at least a foot during the day!

Yes, my oak is coming into leaf too

I finished turning the compost heap today. I added a layer of pony poo. Then I did a load of pruning and tidying and piled it all on top, so I think I need another layer of pony poo before I cover it and leave it. And rain. It really, really needs rain. There was a lot of bone dry grass in there.

Yes, very dry here too. I've been out again with the watering can.

Do you have a private source of pony poo, Rhubarb? Our local stables give away common or garden horse poo.

A friend of mine has ponies so I have unlimited access to their poo pile. It's composted to an extent, but not enough to use directly, so I add it to the compost heap whenever I get chance to drive over and fill the boot.

How lovely - unlimited access to equine poo! My compost bin looks very odd at the moment because it is so empty.

I watered the compost this morning. I must put some pony poo on it.

Morning all - I lost the thread for a while and simply couldn't see it on the Gardening list of threads - I emailed funnyperson to ask if we'd been banned fearing someone had objected to a discussion about clitoria or something.

Anyway NANN Can I reassure you I also only have some dahlias through, and they are in a mini-greenhouse, plus only a few shoots on my mega-hosta.

Oh this is a glorious time of year isn't it - flowering trees everywhere in St Johns Wood, when I walked through (drooling) this morning.

Maud have you thought about moving some snowdrops to under your hedge? Also maybe Euphorbia amygdaloides - either the purple or the ordinary green one?

Ppeat - thanks,what should I do with the oils? Put them in the bath? Do you take echinacea supplements? Will the tea do me any good?

Bearleigh - phew to dahlias. My mum's hostas (also London) are not through yet either.

AIBU over potting bench? When we bought our house it came with an ancient solid iron table with a slightly rotten wooden top. It looks like something out if a ship yard and weighs a ton. It is the perfect potting bench. DH hates it and wants to get rid but can't move it. Yesterday I told the builders to take it up the end of the garden and put it outside the shed, behind some bushes. DH is annoyed the table is on our slate patio and wants to ask the builders to saw it up and put it in the skip. AIBU to keep quiet and hope a) DH never gets around to asking the builders to get rid of it and b) the builders don't tell him I asked them to put it there?

YANBU NANN! I do hope you get better soon.

None of our dahlias are up. The hostas in the copper pot are showing through though, but are in a very sheltered spot.

Asparagus for tea today!!! Hurrah. OUr first crop. We have waited a while.

It sounds like the perfect potting bench yadnbu! Can we see a picture?

That sounds like a perfect potting bench. Tell your DH it's a valuable architectural antique. YANBU to want to keep it!

I think euphorbia amygdaloides may be a bit too tall to fit under the hedge, but I do love it and was offered a freebie last weekend, so I might give it a try. I won't add snowdrops to the mix because I am a bit anal about colour schemes don't have white in the front garden.

Just checking in! Hope you feel better soon, NANN.

Congratulations on the asparagus crop, Humphrey!

at Bearleigh and Clitoria. YANBU NAAN. Hope you are starting to feel a bit better.

I have just found hosta shoots appearing.

of the asparagus and the potting bench. It sounds fabulous - if your DH makes you get rid of it I'll have it!

I'm on the train ATM, just starting a 2-hr journey North to South, and it's fantastic seeing the blossom, greenery and general springiness. Everything looks ravishing in the sun. It's just frustrating that I can't be in my own garden doing stuff.

My dahlias aren't out yet either, but I confess to being v v late to getting them in any soil, and also to using slightly dried-up ones that I'd had hanging around. So I'm resigned to their possible non-appearance.

NAANN, the potting bench sounds perfect. We inherited an ancient metal garden-roller which dh keeps insisting he'll rehabilitate, but it's too heavy to drag out from where it was left....

My Dahlias are in the box ! Just arrived from Sarah Raven at a not very reduced price. Have fought my way into shed and found cloche to assemble and a sort of fruit cage which I'm going to put over raised bed as animals still using it as a short cut.

If it makes you feel any better sugarplum I paid full price for mine because I didn't want to lose valuable flowering time not all of mine are through though I've even furtled under the compost - does anyone else do this?

I've just ordered 24 orange begonia plugs because they were £1.99, If anyone is passing my way I definitely don't need 24!

Love asparagus you lucky thing humph