"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.

Yes he was paid

NAAN Thanks for the good wishes I like the bench, I also like the tulips in the pot, but everyone needs somewhere for crap, the problem in our garden is too much space !! Yes it just gets filled and you don't have the motivation to clear it because 'out of sight is out of mind' . I have a long list of things to do but it gets 'prioritised' so I end up not doing some things.

Thanks Sugar you're soo right about the stress we're both exhausted today and it'll all happen again next week.

Funny Nelly Moser is a lovely mauveish. clem. with large saucer- like flowers, it flowers quite late.

You have to supervise most all gardeners, IME. My friend (who is more organic than me) think woodshaving loos! And I share the same helper\gardener and we're educating him in organics. It's quite an ask to expect a fr. gardener not to raze everything to the ground and not to maintain straight lines and esp. leave the grass long in specific areas.

Sorry to hear about your phone funnyperson, - maybe it will turn up? I found my mobile behind the bin the other day.

Do hope your little cat is ok ppeat.

NANN I think that bench is great. I would have it in my verandah let alone using it for a potting bench.

Good news for Millie ppeat. Hopefully she'll recover well from the op.

I think that looks like a perfect potting bench NANN.

Can anyone tell me what make of glove Monty was wearing when dealing with his roses? I need those for the bramble clearance!

DH dug the bog garden this evening. Now we just need to dig a final hole for the gunnera and we're done around the pond. I have some iris, astilbe and something else I can't remember, for the bog garden, but, if you had to choose one show stopper for a bog garden what would it be? Ideas gratefully received.

I like the bench too.

Fingers crossed for Millie, ppeat.

Everyone's gardens are sounding wonderful. I really want to get re-doing my borders and get some nice plants in there instead of overgrown shrubs.

I had the tree surgeons in today pollarding the massive bay trees at the front of the house. There is so much light now! And space. The yew hedge should be able to properly recover now and I will be spared the constant sound of lorries thwacking into the bays as they drive past, which was endlessly annoying.

Rodgersia for the bog garden, Bertha.

I'm very impressed with the pond and plants progress, and with rhubarb's shrub clearance
Yes, clearly gardeners, like kitchen fitters and junior doctors need supervision
Actually whats interesting is that the need for supervision doesnt go away with the experience of the gardener, just that it becomes much more of a dialogue and 'what do you think' and exchange of ideas
So it doesn't do if the gardener is left unsupervised. It just seemed a bit odd the way they dug up the veg seedlings (and rhubarb crowns) but left the flower beds unweeded.
I think mum needs a weekly blackboard thingy with 'jobs for gardener'

On her gravel path I discovered a pretty white English bluebell!

I thought Monty's gloves were probably the Gold Leaf gauntlets. I did enjoy tonight's programme, especially Carol dividing perennials.

... Although now I've looked again at the GL gauntlets I'm not so sure.

Yes, Carol dividing perennials was inspirational. I suspect a lot more work has gone into that garden due to the programme being made than just Carol dividing perennials

Weeding and sowing day today.
And dividing some perennials!

And she made it look so easy! Whenever I've tried the two forks back to back method, I've found it really hard to do. I guess it depends on the plant.

I've still done no sowing and stil have big weeds in the lawn. Sigh.

Yes I reckon that '2 forks back to back' can only work on looseish roots. Maybe easier when there are 2 people doing it together. I've usually resorted to a broken ended serrated bread knife that I've recycled for large roots of any description, and it saws through thick root masses very well!

I find mowing large weeds every week very effective maud but then I'm not one for green carpet type lawns .

Thanks for the crossed fingers rhubarb You're all so lovely on here (very unmumsnettish ) She's getting better now. The result of the biopsy will be on Mon. or Tues.

I keep meaning to acquire an old bread knife for cutting roots - I must check out the local charity shop, although they keep the kitchen stuff hidden away now, in case one is planning to use it as offensive weapon. At the moment, I use the lovely Opinel knife DH bought me in France, but it's tough work on bigger plants. I took note of Carol's tips last night about trimming back the root ball when making divisions.

These threads have always been so cheering. It's lovely to be able to share one's obsession/passion/interest.

NANN I like your bench too - they are essential to stop back problems, and to work efficiently. Maybe you could make a virtue of it by putting the tulip pot in front of it ( and keeping the pot full of tall things) and maybe doing a Monty by having pots of flowers on the bench as a display when you're not using it. Lovely fences by the way.

Gah at losing your phone funny - I do hope you find it soon. And I have asparagus envy!

Two of my 3 lots of perennial pea are through including Lathyrus Nervosus, which is very delicate and pretty to look at.

I have also noticed in my, and a neighbour's garden that after a couple of years there is only one tulip left - you plant six, and they flower the next year but after that, There's Only One Left. I have a series of single tulips!

Really hope your phone turns up FP. NAAN I do like the bench just as a pothing bench should be !

Was also impressed with Carol and the perennials . I'm going to scour the garden to see if there is anything else I can hack at !

Was in B&Q earlier and got 2 perfectly ok clematis for £1 each.

Sugar - nice bargains.

Thank you all for being so kind about my battered old potting bench (and fences Bearleigh!). There is normally a tidy selection of composts and neatly piled pots under the potting bench. I appreciate it looks as though its spewing tarpaulin at the moment. The builders shoved it there and I haven't had the energy to clear up yet....

I did, however manage to do some light weeding today - plus (inspired by carol) dividing of hardy geraniums. I've lost my touch a bit and had trouble telling the weeds from the plants. The first thing I pulled up turned out to be a Japanese anemone I thought I'd lost.

The tulips are Sarah raven. That woman really knows how to put plants together, they are far superior to the T&M tulips I grew last year. I hope they survive being transplanted to the borders when finished.

NAANs bench is rather nice, as are the lovely tulips. Ours is a bit flimsy in comparison, but sheltered under the carport.

Yesterday I went guerrilla leaf-raking to make leaf mold. All my trees are native so 1. Don't shed in autumn 2. Have very tough leaves, so useless for hold. The solution was to scour the local streets and nature strips with black bags and the leaf rake. Within an hour I had eleven bags full of liquidambar leaves (seemingly the only big deciduous tree round here). I'll do the stabby thing, bone meal and water today. I'm experimenting with different hidey places for it, two shady ones and one that gets sun all year round. I reckon the winter sun might speed up the process.

Another good bit was completing the pond in a pot. I'll take a pic as soon as it gets light.

I have a stupid question for all you pond experts. When my friend gave me the waterlily, I just chucked it into the tin bath as (so my logic went) that's pretty much how it would be in the wild. But after reading a piece in GW magazine about ponds, I'm now thinking I should have put it in a hessian-lined aquatic pot. So, what should I do? Leave well alone or haul it out and plant it properly?

nann I love the potting bench, if you were feeling handy you could put a slatted shelf underneath for small plant pots? I'm always mistaking plants for weeds and vice versa.

A few weeks ago Dh helped one of my friends clear out the bottom of her garden, it's a narrow strip of land belonging to the cemetery that her garden backs onto, all her neighbours had claimed the land years ago and she finally decided to go for it. There is a hedge between land and cemetry. Anyway decades of compost had built up. I was horrified to find a humungus pile of it on our drive. -horrified because in the summer this area of land is full of weeds mainly bindweed.

The bindweed is starting to grow on the drive and I know can be sieved out but inevitably will be transferred into the garden.

Oh, geoff the bindweed. I feel your pain. The equivalent here in Au is oxalis, and feral couch grass.

Well, I bought four comets for my pond in a pot. The plants are papyrus, millefoil for oxygen and pink rotala for cover. Lots of reflection in the pics due to gazillion windows. The other plant in a container is a dwarf oleander, so might have to re-think it as even the spent petals might bugger up the fish. The groundcover is plectranthus Nico, cut back viciously while a window was fitted, but it will bounce back like a good 'un.

Gorgeous, echt, gorgeous.

to the bindweed dumping. Why did it end up on your drive, Geoff?

That's a simple but nice pond in a pot. The fish indoors looks a bit wistfully at it out of the corner of its eye!

-yuk to bindweed
-we have a dandelion invasion and in the iris bed a celandine invasion.
-the nettles are being allowed (just) for caterpillar purposes

I saw a Holly Blue butterfly in the garden!

Geoff - bindweed is the devil's work. I find it so difficult to pull out, it just snaps off then regrows.

Echo - lovely photos and well done on tidying up your neighbourhood! Around here, the council bag up fallen leaves then leave them by the side of the road for collection. I haven't had the nerve to take a bag home yet, but I'd really like to...

I have been on a plant rescue mission today. The new path will cut through our 2 small raised beds so I have transferred most of my strawberry plants (Cambridge favourite) into 5 big tubs. I don't think I will replace the beds, it was a full time job trying to stop the cats doing their business in them and it really put me off eating whatever we grew.

I've also lined some pots lavender, thyme and rosemary up along the top of the controversial potting bench. You're right, looks much less offensive now.

Dahlia watchers - I think I have 1 shoot!

Hi, I've been enjoying reading and getting inspiration from this thread as I'd like to do a lot more gardening while I am on maternity leave. I am very much a novice! However I would be grateful for some advice about how on earth to get anything done while looking after a 4 month old, plus a nearly-3 year old who is at home 3 days during the week!! Any suggestions welcome!

i saw a holly blue the other day but i didn't know what it was called - thank you funnyperson! it was, erm, on the holly bush

i had a terrible bindweed problem in our old house because the tiny yard backed onto the site of a derelict building choked with bindweed that no one was ever going to clear any time soon. i usually gave up by midsummer and let it go

welcome parsnip! hopefully others will have advice on the children front, as i have none i'm afraid, other than to suggest lashing them to the wheelbarrow??