"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.

I think I may have stirred up something about the glysophate in my response to a thread further down. It looks more like a good number of people would like to see it banned than on the cards, though its use is banned near water courses in Au.

For myself, I never spray it, only use the watering can or wallpaper paste method.

Sorry about the fish, sugarplum and hello shells.

Thanks for that Sugarplum.

Hello shells summer fruiting Rhaspberries should be left to fruit on last years growth.

I'm tempted to come and meet you all at HC but I'd have to leave tickets till the last minute due to work. Although I can request not to work, it's no guarantee that I'll be given the day off. Off duty is done by a computer who frequently says no!

Dh is very good at DIY, but has a tendency to not finish things. In the case of the lounge the door still needs a second coat of paint. In the case of the greenhouse he didn't attach it to the base -which I was unaware of. Yesterday the high winds shifted the whole thing a foot and a half over. I only noticed because it had pushed all my lavender off their outside shelf. Thankfully it is in one piece and got carefully shifted back.

Eek. I need to go and see whether the fence is still standing.

::braces self::

bertha I'll watch your pond building with interest, we really want one too and for it to be full of randy frogs and surrounded by giant Hostas!

My word Geoff a. those were strong winds and b. lucky they weren't any stronger. You'll have to check on his DIY in future I think. Mind my DH doesn't do any, so you are lucky to have some done.

Eggshells pots are lovely Bertha, and that's a shame about HC Maud. Do any old hands know how sensible it is to drive to HC show, or is train the better way to get there, and driving is totally daft?

I think driving to HC is fine if you're happy to pay quite steeply for the car park. I once went by train, which was quite fun as I took the ferry from the station to the show ground, but it was more challenging on the way home, as I tend to shop when I'm there and womanhandling a load of plants onto the ferry and then onto the train was quite testing! (The train itself looked lovely, like a hothouse on rails!)

The last couple of times I've been, DH has dropped me off outside. That works very well except that there is no official dropping-off zone, so one had to watch out for parking wardens. Funnyperson kindly gave me a lift last year from the car park to the rendezvous point with DH at the pub.

My best advice for HC, especially if you're going to be there for the sell-off, is take a trolley.

i was VERY anxious yesterday as the high winds tipped over next door's trampoline and it was in line for the cold frame if blown much further, but it got stuck on some brambles and didn't get any further thank goodness. hopefully they will anchor it better now

Hello Shells Coffee and tea leaves are brilliant for the compost and I make an indoor plant feed with leftover coffee,teas and water etc. it's great for acid loving plants like roses too.

Organic gardens are just as beautiful as any others (think Bob Flowerdew's ) So be free people, save money and the wildlife etc., throw away the glysophate !!!

Bertha I'm in the process of resurrecting and making a wild life pond, I'm saving a load of newspapers to go under the tarp (liner).

Monty doesn't spray either

I aim to emulate Monty in (nearly) all things, but do wonder how he would tackle Japanese knotweed (although maybe that's not the best example as it needs professional treatment),

True that's a tough one, but after cutting it right down then if you keep cutting it the moment it shows a sprout ,or pour boiling water on it religiously, then it gives up eventually. I think.

Luckily I've never had that problem but it does work with ground elder. Also they're experimenting with particular bacteria that 'eat' things like Japanese Knotweed. There are interesting technical advances happening all the time

I don't think the micro-organisms to eat JK are anywhere near ready to go on the market and the sort of glyphosate available to the domestic gardener isn't up to the job either, as far as I know. That's why I'm hypervigilant about it arriving from next door again, after last year's minor skirmish.

Apparently now is the time to set beer traps as the slugs are breeding. A gardener friend of mine uses cheap value beer from tesco -£1 for 4 cans. I'm going to try it - I saw a hedgehog last week, crossed the road and into a neighbours garden.

Re the winds I caught the last hover before they stopped which was fun!

i've put nematodes down this year, which will obviously need to be done every couple of months if i keep up with it. it's only a small space so might be manageable. supplemented by my usual torch-and-sharp-implement method of course

i'm also planning to introduce a pond in a pot, but that might have to wait until next year

Chopper did you see the pond in a pot on GW? It was pretty and safer than a normal pond with the L.Os about.

i did - i had seen them before but it spurred me into considering it because it was so easy. i don't ahve DC yet so less of a worry

You can drive to Hampton Court and park there or you can take the ferry/train as maud says.
A trolley is essential to sanity though.
And ice cream breaks of course.

I really ought to mow the lawn

The pond in a pot on GW was just lovely - the pot itself was a work of art (I thought it was stone). I will let you know how my pond in a tin bath develops; it has settled down and the water is now clear, but so sign of growth yet from the waterlilies.

I have never got in the habit of using beer traps properly; I have some rather nice ones, thanks to a recommendation a couple of years ago on this thread, but I keep forgetting to fill and empty them.

I had some unscheduled garden time this morning, extricating the bamboo from the shattered pot. The pot will live on as shards in the bottom of other pots (I know latest advice is that this is unnecessary, but I'm a creature of habit) and I was able to dig out the crocosmia (montbreatia) that had infiltrated the bamboo, so that's good. All that remains is to find a pot that is big enough for the bamboo but doesn't cost treble figures, as one I found on Ebay last night did.

Oh yes to ice cream breaks at HC, which are even better if one can dangle one's aching feet in the Long Water.

I've never been to the HC show but I love the surrounding gardens (I remember a lovely spring 'glade' in a clearing) which is what I'm trying to create in my front, left of the gate garden, with mixed old and new daff/tulip species and wild violets growing through the grass. Pic upthread, but the tulips are just in bud now.

That sounds delightful, ppeatfruit. I am very much enjoying all the violets in my garden (and growing as weeds at our railway station) at the moment.

I have just seen another very apposite quote that might be useful as a future thread title:

"To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow" Audrey Hepburn

Love the idea of a pond in a pot, but our only shady bits are full of possums, so the pond would be full of poo in no time.

Yet again, echt, you have highlighted a gardening problem that the rest of us are unlikely to face - possum poo in the pond!