"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.

Well, I've just got in from a few hours in the garden, and I definitely smell of dirt. And rain. And my hair looks like a force 9 gale has blown through it for several hours... on the upside, I managed to get everything I have been collecting in pots for some time into the soil, which is excellent as I'm away for a week on Saturday and panicking about things drying out. I'm trying to grow some Meconopsis Grandis for the second time, the last one having succumbed after DH trod on it . I've dug in loads of grit but still worried as my soil is really claggy...

Was v inspired by a visit this weekend to the Scampston garden by Piet Oudolf. Very interesting take on an old-fashioned formal garden in a modern style. I was far too early for the perennial-based centrepiece but there were some amazing and unusual plants in the peripheral borders that I had never seen before.

I should have included Pulmonaria and honeysuckle in my list. The downside, though, is that many if these plants flower in the spring, so the garden goes off the boil in late summer, although Japanese anemone comes into its own then.

in my damp shady border (mixture of partial and full shade), in addition to other plants mentioned, i am also planning for summer flowering:

astilbe
campanula medium (biennial - not until next year)
nicotiana (annual)
digitalis (biennial - i have bought plugs for this year)
turk's cap lily (planned for next year)

and for autumn flowering:
liriope muscari

and further spring flowers:
cardamine pratensis
primula japonica
camassia
erythronium
hellebores
false anemone
primula vulgaris

and just thought of one that i think copes well with dry situations - Amsonia tabernaemontana

Definitely embracing middle-agedness here. Slippers, fire & a cup of tea!

Welcome IKnowRight.

HapShawl - lovely quote. The naming of new threads generally goes something like this: realise we are near the end; start talking about possible thread titles; quote some lovely appropriate poetry; get distracted by stuff; forget we're near the end; panic; the person panicking most uses their favourite of the quotes and starts new thread; everyone piles in to the new potting shed, drinks virtual beverages and feels collectively relieved that they found everyone else. Simple.

Blowing a bit out there tonight. I have lost a bit off my solanum Glasnevin already but not sure whether it could have been caused by a cat getting it wrong with holly stuck to its bottom

That's a perfect summary of how we name our threads. I likd the quote earlier, by the way.

It's very blowy here too. I haven't noticed any damage, although the Christmas tree has blown over in its pot and much of the apple blossom is laying like confetti on the lawn. I'm hoping it will be dry tomorrow, for some painting and planting.

Well I don't know about middle age, but resting is always attractive!

"Tell you what I like the best --
'Long about knee-deep in June,
'Bout the time strawberries melts
On the vine, -- some afternoon
Like to jes' git out and rest,
And not work at nothin' else!

........
But when June comes - Clear my th'oat
With wild honey! -- Rench my hair
In the dew! And hold my coat!
Whoop out loud! And th'ow my hat! --
June wants me, and I'm to spare!
Spread them shadders anywhere,
I'll get down and waller there,
And obleeged to you at that! "

This one is possibly my favourite

More Than Enough
By Marge Piercy
The first lily of June opens its red mouth.
All over the sand road where we walk
multiflora rose climbs trees cascading
white or pink blossoms, simple, intense
the scene drifting like colored mist.

The arrowhead is spreading its creamy
clumps of flower and the blackberries
are blooming in the thickets. Season of
joy for the bee. The green will never
again be so green, so purely and lushly

new, grass lifting its wheaty seedheads
into the wind. Rich fresh wine
of June, we stagger into you smeared
with pollen, overcome as the turtle
laying her eggs in roadside sand.

OK, probably a bit heavy as no one has posted.
I sowed ligusticum lucidum seeds today

I very much like the Madge Piercy one. It captures June very well, the green everywhere (except my lawn, thank you dog) before that gradual fading that happens in July and August. The only time I like brambles in the garden is when they flower and I think to myself for a fleeting time they aren't so bad. That lasts until the flower goes and I inevitably catch myself in them again.

That was an excellent summing up of new thread procedure from Bertha

My tulips have been ravaged by the wind and look a sorry sight. First signs of shoots on the Dahlias in greenhouse.

I love both those funnyperson. Thanks for posting them.

I have managed to sort out lots of pots, mostly tin buckets with mint in that needed emptying and starting again. I don't know what to do with all the left over root, it is sitting in a wheelbarrow at the moment, I fear if I drop it on the weed pile it will just take over.

Rather gutted to realise that about half of the cosmos seedling have been munched by slugs. Found five MASSIVE beasts on the underside of the seed tray.

Off to Malvern tomorrow! I felt sorry for the people trying to set up gardens in this weather. I am hoping to buy some more ferns to go outside the new shed doors and any mint I don't have.

oh, and speaking of quotes, I have just read Lorna Sage's Bad Blood again. It made me think 'Nature never did betray/The heart that loved her' would make a good thread title.

See, lovely appropriate poetry.

I particularly like this line in the Margery Piercy one, "Season of joy for the bee."

Sums it up really. Although the bees are still in hiding today in case of being blown away.

thanks for the précis of the Official Thread-Naming Procedure . Lovely poetry

Lovely poetry and great quote from Lorna Sage.

I am happy because geranium Johnson's Blue is flowering and enraged because a snail in the cold frame has eaten two of my three cosmos seedlings. Grr.

My Johnson's Blue isnt in flower yet, but the phaeums are very floriferous!
How are your hostas coming along? Mine are unfurling, the ones in the ground, and the ones in pots. They are not as humungous as Monty's last year though. I will probably feed them with some compost etc in the spirit of competition. The robins are keeping a sharp eye out for slugs!

Clematis integrifolia has lovely deep blue nodding flowers, and the azaleas, newly planted out from their longstanding pots, are providing very cheery colour under the oak!

My phaeums and the macrorrhizum have been flowering for a while. For anyone who's considering it, I'd say that geranium phaeum Raven is a better colour than the bog standard one.

I have no hostas now, having admitted defeat in the battle against slugs.

Oh yes thats a lovely dark purple maud My favourite phaeum is also very very dark purple with a yellowy centre and has variegated leaves it is called 'morning widow'. There is an album in the bed opposite which is nice. The light mauve varieties aren't quite so nice.

geranium macrorrhizum is a bit of a thug in my garden but I've kept it because it is easy and hardy and the flowers make me happy and I'm still a bit nervous about my gardening capabilities with respect to better behaved more unusual plants.

humphrey i think it depends on the heat that your compost heap gets to, or maybe shake off the earth into your compost heap and let the roots lie in a hot spot of your garden to really die!

My [old] lilies are sprouting well but are getting a bit chewed by the red beetle despite my knocking them every time I remember. The oak leaf hydrangea tree is glorious this year and contrasts nicely with the dark red leaves of the forest pansy tree.

I like the poems funny the 2nd one is about Greece or somewhere? With turtles? I'm like you about my "unusual for me' plants, like the phlox and echinacea that I've never grown before, they're happy but I not sure if I need to put a slug pub down to get in there before they do!

Yes, somewhere Mediterrannean. May be something more English/Scottish like good old Burns will be nice. Actually IMO one of the best titles was still Humphreys' "My garden makes me so happy" or Lexi's "Osteospermumsnet"

Irises are forming buds full of potential here!

What with all the winds we have had, Shakespeare is apt

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:

Oh yes that's lovely, I like a bit of Will.

As things have been for the last few days "rough winds do shake the darling buds of May" seems very apposite!

welcome iknowright*

I like all the poetry suggestions, don't know any myself I'm afraid.

Shame about the cosmos maud sow some more? They germinate really quickly.

I've just cut the grass, circumnavigating, 6 trees, a trampoline and a slide. Attempted stripes but gave up in the end. I love how all the birds descend to furk around the clippings, I am currently watching a male blackbird,hotly pursued by its offspring, a robin, a tree sparrow and 2 great tits. Oh I also found a peacock butterfly sunbathing in the mulched bed. It flew off before I could get a picture.

ooooh Had a BRILLIANT time at Malvern! Will update in full later.