It will not always be summer; build barns. The potting shed goes on...

[echt]

Please ignore my first, illiterate thread. I'll try again.

I hope this quotation from Hesiod captures the moment of movement from high summer to the splendours of harvest and the planing for the new year.

:o

I agree it looks lovely , but probably better in California than Cardiff or Clapham . With our wet weather it would be permanently covered in muddy footprints . And when begins to wear it woudl look very unattractive .

Also the White ( in my opinion ) could look really garish in our winter light . Thought lovely on a summer day .

Why don't you stain it or paint it a darker colour ? Or save up for a patio and steps ?

A soft green would look nice - or grey, or anything by Farrow & Ball really (except Dead Salmon perhaps). Decking in wet weather is also a slippery experience.

I think we're stuck with it as have lots of other things to do to house so maybe something a bit darker like a soft green. We've got over the slippery issue with a small path made from those rubber mats that look like they are iron so I don't break my neck enroute to the garage (couple of close calls !)

White only an option if you have the staff to maintain it
Suggest green, blue, purple etc cuprinol garden shades

Have added Galanthus Hippolyte to my plants today as I went to a snowdrop place with a friend. It stopped raining while we walked round and so a lovely time was had by all. I love walking round a garden with a rareish snowdrop peeking out of my pocket. I realise it is very pseud but it makes me feel happy and somehow ....knowledgable. Almost on a par with knowing about mitochondral myopathies and similar.

< impressed >

Though I think we need a photo of aforementioned rare posh snowdrop

Galanthus hippolyta
does well in shade

Carpets of snowdrops are apparently found near old monasteries where they were planted centuries ago by monks. e.g Anglesey, Welford.

That's very lovely and as someone who has planted a fair few snowdrops over the years and ha e the grand total of zero recently, I'm quite

I spent a pleasant couple of hours catching up with friend who has 'the secret garden' I posted about well over a year ago. Lovely to sit looking out onto clumps of snowdrops and hellebore, the garden is transformed and I love it.

I love the idea that monks planted snowdrops centuries ago and they are still being enjoyed today.

Sugar, yes, it would look grubby in a year. Minimise the grubbiness by having natural decking and paint on the risers and banisters.

YY to grey-ish shades.

I still do not get the slippery decks thing. It does rain in Melbourne (pisses down, though not this spring or summer and this never happens. We use decking oil, which might be the difference.

Thank you funny person, that very pretty

I'm also impressed by your photography

Hopefully this will be the start of lots of spring garden photos . I can't oblige as its snow here

What a lovely snowdrop, funny. Will it be the thin end of the galantophile wedge? Where are you Kr1stina?

We're on holiday in the south west, at the moment, and driving around Dartmoor this morning, we saw a dusting of snow on the top. None in Dorset, and few snowdrops and daffodils either. Yet this time last year, in Norfolk, there were loads. Maybe there were more monks in Norfolk?

Well Walsingham is in Norfolk, that famous old place of pilgrimage, and Wikipedia has a map with loads of old monasteries in Norfolk (Cluniac, Benedictine ), so may be there were more snowdrops there than in Dorset
On your way back from Dartmoor though you might be able to see the Hillier winter gardens, John Sales' garden or even East Lambrook!

That photo was not taken by me as I dont upload stuff from my phone but from the internet but it is an accurate image.

I know too little about snowdrops to answer your Q searabbit

I just had the fright of my life.

Postman just delivered a huge brown box. I open the tape with a knife, only to see something move inside. Opened the box a little further, and something that looked horrifically like a spider's leg was visible. But no ordinary spider's leg, a gigantic spider with long, bendy, waving spindly legs.

Screeeeeeeeeeeech.

Then I realised it was green. And that actually I had ordered some grasses Calamagrostis brachytricha from a company recently.

Shovetheholly

LOL at holly

IIRC you have similar soil to me, so I'm interested to hear how they go for you . I'm guessing you won't plant them out for a while yet?

Nope, they're going to sit in the greenhouse for a couple of months, especially if the weather keeps as cold and wet as this! I will report back to let you know how they're getting on. Am intending them for the dryest, sunniest spot of my garden, but that's a very relative term when you are on heavy clay, north-facing and really very shaded and in Sheffield.

Loads of snowdrops round here (N Yorkshire). Carpets of them. And yes, plenty of ruined abbeys too - I have a fragment of Gilbertine priory built into my dining room wall.
I hadn't heard the connection with snowdrops though - the story round here is that the monks planted the daffodils along the verges.
I have been digging in the rain. Am cold, muddy and happy. My guerilla gardening lodger is turning out to be an excellent partner in crime when it comes to buying ridiculous amounts of seeds :-)

Am cold, muddy and happy

The garden doesn't look too bad at the moment, through the window the small Hellebore plants from Crocus are all in flower, I'd read about them cross pollinating so planted them close together but having read others experiences up thread I might move them.

I made a concerted effort with bulbs last year and am enjoying all the daffodils, they smell good too. Room for more though. I'm most looking forward to the Tulips and Alliums.

Has anyone sown seed yet? I feel like I'm behind, but am intending to wait a few more weeks.

I've got my eye on William Morris Dahlia collection from Sarah Raven, and an edible Fuchsia berry plant from Thomson and Morgan.

This thread has made me get out into my freezing cold garden . It's definitely still winter here in Scotland, not early spring.

I have found a few snowdrops , Crocus Snow Bunting looking a bit sad and one JUST ONE miniature daffodil in flower ( N. Tete a Tete ) which must be confused. Presumably it thinks it's in Surrey .

Strangely the buds on my buddleja and clematis viticella are breaking so I've had to cut them back two weeks early . Usually they are done 1 March . Same with the sorbaria ( which I don't cut back ) .

I usually lose evergreen plants to the cold winds and so far they are all looking ok, except for one hebe . I've tried quite a few different shrubs to see which ones can cope with the cold wind and wet here ( an unfortunate combination )

Geoff - can we get a photo of your lovely hellebores and daffodils please ?

Compost has been delivered and seed trays washed, seeds from last year sorted, and I will sow seeds this weekend
I have made a list and have about half the seeds on the list so will order some more when I have sown this lot
Ammi, nicotiniana, calendula, cornflowers, anthracis, verbena bonariensis, aquilegia munstead and some other rare ones
I have pruned back the hydrangea finally, and am wondering whether to save and sow the seed heads.

I'm impressed at your industry . Are you sowing in a heated green house or do you use bottom heat ? I thought the days were still quite short, but I guess it will be different in a few weeks when your seeds pop up their wee heads .

I can tell you are raring to go ! . It's very wet and cold here , so I won't be able to get much done for another month ( I don't have a green house - too lazy ) .

I have a wet garden on heavy clay, so on dryer days I pick my way around the paths trying to stay off the swimming pool that masquerades as a lawn , grubbing out early weeds and trying not to prune back shrubs and herbaceous stuff . My secateurs are itching , but we still get frost here into March so I don't want to risk it

I am getting my gardening fix by reading gardening books - currently Beth Chattos Damp garden and John Simmons Managing the Wet garden ( can you see a theme ? ) .

When it all get too technical , I pour a glass of wine and admire the photos in one of the big glossy books the kids gave me for Christmas. You know, the kids where posh gardening expert interviews Lord and Lady WhatNot about their country estate . Fan bloody tastic

I've just googled Aquilegia Munstead White and they say it's stable . I'll be interested to hear if they are , because all mine have ended up muddy pink