"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.

Ooh, I wonder if that's why MN keeps telling me there's something wrong with a script on this page? All other pages seem fine.

On the way home from a failed attempt to buy another variety of mint to fill the remaining mint pot, I have acquired an old tea trolley that I think, after a paint job, will make a useful potting bench. Best of all, it has a pull-out shelf. I am very pleased with this purchase.

Lovely pics, ppeat. Arf at you thinking that NGS garden was mine! In. My. Dreams. and the house

My mother did the no-dig method too - not in name, as such, but we had such heavy clay that it was impossible to dig. She was constantly emptying the contents of the compost heap on top of it though and letting the worms do the work. At horti college we were taught about the no-dig method but told that you still had to double dig the soil initially for it to work.

I may try the lasagne method here.

I came in from work tonight and really felt happy with the blossoming garden....pic attached (I hope).

That is beautiful halsall - I love how your eye is led to the bench

That's lovely, Halsall. I especially love the camassias and the seat.

I am impatiently waiting for my camassias to flower! They are teasing me

Gorgeous, Halsall.

I spent most of the day leafing through my books and scrolling through websites, searching for a shrub with the following attributes:

Evergreen
Height and spread approx 1.5m x 1.5m
Late summer flowering
Fragrant
For dappled shade

I am also scratching my head looking for a small climber for shade:

Ideally evergreen (but not essential)
Max 2m height and spread
Self clinging/twining
Summer flowering
Fragrant.

Any suggestions gratefully received.

Wow Hallsall, your garden looks amazing.

rhubarb:

choisya dewitteana White Dazzler

clematis edward pritchard for shade?

That looks lovely, Halsall.

Thanks so much everyone, I'm a great big fraud, though, as it only really looks good at this time of year! I haven't posted any pics of the horribly neglected other bits of the garden . I do love camassias, though. Just wish they lasted longer, they're very fleeting.

That bench was an impulse purchase at a Knebworth garden fair years ago - it sort of folds shut, thank goodness, otherwise we'd never have got it in the car.

My camassias tease me by producing lots of foliage but no flowers. It's just struck me how long ago I planted them. Perhaps I should dig them up and see what's going on.

I can't readily think of things to fit your criteria, Rhubarb, but Traviata's suggested clematis looks very pretty.

I need something not too vigorous, to grow up but not swamp a minaret apple tree in a fairly sunny spot. Does anyone have any ideas for that?

How about a white solanum Rhubarb? You'd have to keep on top of the pruning so it didn't get too big for the space but they make great fragrant climbers.

Talking of solanums, I saw a house with solanum Glasnevin plants (about 6 of them) trained beautifully to cover the front wall by the roadside. It was beautifully done. Made a note to myself to try and keep mine more in check and make them do what I want them to do rather than leave them to their own devices!

Why don't I have any camassias? They are lovely.

And I like the bench too. Still need to get one for by the pond.

Have they ever flowered maud? Mine went in last autumn and have lots of buds, so I'd be sad if this is the only time I see them. I've never grown them before. The shame of it is though that they are in a border that I'm in the process redoing so they look a bit strange and lonely surrounded by bare earth and weeds

(I know this is a longterm game. But I'm impatient )

Ppeat, our liner is held down by a mix of turf (lifted and the liner fed under the front edge of it) and stones. I'm hoping things will grow fairly rapidly and cover the exposed bits.

Hmm. I bought these camassia (I think) at a plant fair at the Garden Museum that we haven't been to for a decade or more. So they're quite old - I was wondering whether they get congested and then don't flower in the way that some other bulbs do.

That clematis looks perfect, thanks Traviata. I toyed with Choisya but really want something that flowers later in the year, as most things in the border are spring flowering. Solanum is another I'd considered, but it's for a garden whose gardener has form for letting things get out of control, so I really need to specify mild mannered plants which will behave themselves.

Thanks for the suggestions!

I don't know much about Camassias; I've never grown them myself. They did grow in a garden I once worked in though, and they seemed to come up and flower reliably every year there. They've been on my wish list ever since.

Really nice halsall
nice path nice bench nice foliage nice flowers

rhubarb I was also thinking choisya for your evergreen shrub with fragrant flowers in dappled shade , also sarcococca, daphne, perhaps some camellia sasanqua? Pieris of course and possibly Kalmia latifolia. Hydrangea petiolaris doesnt really have fragrant flowers and I suppose neither does garrya elliptica but they are both flowering evergreens that do in dappled shade. Also mahonia and azaleas of course.

I will think about climbers.

Thanks funny, some nice suggestions but I need late summer flowering.

I'm sure you saw the bit about a second flush of flowers in late summer....

Yes but I find second flushes are usually a bit disappointing and unreliable, unfortunately.

Rhubarb, I've been hankering after one of those cup and saucer vines after seeing the exotic-looking flowers. I don't think they're scented but apparently they climb like billy-o!

I would suggest Actinidia kolomikta, as I have one and love it for the beautiful white-tipped leaves that gradually turn pink through the late spring. But the flowers are pretty insignificant, and again, unscented. It's a lovely little climber, though.

Oh I LOVE Actinidia kolomikta, it's possibly my favourite climber. It wouldn't get enough sun to get the pink splashes in this particular spot unfortunately. Cobaea scandens is fabulous but an annual - my client isn't going to re-seed every year.