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

[funnyperson]

Kristina I have neither greenhouse nor potting shed so all the seed trays are in the utility room till the seeds germinate and after that the seedlings takes their chance outdoors in a sheltered spot (the patio) till they are ready to be planted out

I do have a £25 shelf thingy with a plastic covering if the weather turns bad

I am a member of the Hardy Plant Society which helps

I would love a largeish potting shed but don't really have room

[echt]

I have a potting table from Aldi under the carport. We had one of those cheap plastic, zip-up little green house shelves, but it's perished now, and blew to bits in the last big gale, so we'll get another. The combination works well. While it's never in direct sun, there's plenty of ambient light through the carport roof.

I love this time of year on this thread. As spring approaches, the UK posts pick up speed with all the new stuff sprouting in the garden.

[SeaRabbit]

My ideal would be a large greenhouse, but I can't justify the space it would take so I have a series of trays in the dining room until they germinate then they go into two Wilko plastic greenhouses tied to the house and weighed down with large stones, after a couple of windy accidents. It all works OK.

Last year I sowed 2-3 seeds into each of those individual cells, which was a lot less work than sowing broadcast then pricking out.

[Callmegeoff]

kr1stina they don't look that amazing in the picture. Your garden sounds lovely, my in laws live just outside Edinburgh.

I've had a lovely hour in the greenhouse. I potted on ammi visnaga . Tidied up my Dahlia tubers which I should have done in October and checked on the now dry Acidanthera bulbs. I might buy more I love them.

The grass is still boggy but badly needs cut. I've not much in the way of plans for this year other than training climbing Nasturtiums Over a couple of pheasant berry plants. How about any one else?

[shovetheholly]

kristina - I got a plant of Aquilegia Munstead White last year. Gathered seed when it set, and I've just planted it. I will report back to let you know the colour later in the year - the books suggest it's one of the few that come true, but who knows? I've done 3 other types: a yellow, a purple and the outrageously OTT Nora Barlow, which I thought looked lovely but has now been completely ruined by my DH persistently calling it Nora Batty.

[toomuchtooold]

Hi, can I join in? I'm currently trying to take my new inherited garden before the spring goes roaring off. I live in south Germany (where glyphosate is banned, aargh) and I am a fair beginner (I've cleared an overgrown garden before and planted a lawn but that's all) but quite enthusiastic at the moment! The weather is murder at the moment - 17 degrees yesterday, sleeting today - I took a picture this afternoon as a sort of "before" picture - this is the terrace, and when it's not so grim, you can see Switzerland over the river...

I am also now a bit erk because I was removing two Cypresses to put climbing roses in, and while the stumps are still in the ground, I just got the despatch email... still waiting for railims to be pit in on the terrace too. You can stick bare root roses in a bit of damp compost in the garage for a few days can't you?

[Callmegeoff]

Of course you can join, welcome

I'm sure the roses will be fine, I once forgot one and left it still in its bag all winter. It still grew - though it was possibly the root stock never mind I still like it.

I'm looking forward to the after pictures , btw if it was -17 degrees here I'd be inside with a cuppa!

[SeaRabbit]

Welcome TooMuch. Fancy (sometimes) being able to see Switzerland! It'll be especially interesting hearing how you get on - with different challenges - like no glyphosate, for example.

[toomuchtooold]

Ah no, that was a dash, not a minus sign! It was lovely and warm yesterday and then freezing today. I have sunburn!

I'll keep my fingers crossed for the roses then! It would be possible in theory to plant them now and the guys could just work around them, but they're not usually good at that - the area around the terrace looked like the surface of the moon after they were done.

Searabbit, I often go over to Switzerland to buy bread . I did look to see if they sell glyphosate over there, and I'd have chanced bringing it over in the car - nobody ever checks a car with kids in the back! I've gone over a few times and forgot my ID card .

[SugarPlumTree]

Wllkommen toomuchtooold I think with bare root plants in winter it is fairly common nit to be able to put them where you want due to frozen ground etc so Monty on GW says to put them somewhere temporarily. I love roses and discovered Kordes roses last year when I was looking to send one to my German Aunt for her birthday .

Lovely pictures Geoff

I have started Spring pottering and stuck a couple of dahlias in compost, taken cuttings from chrysanthemums and am pinching out my sweet peas.

[SeaRabbit]

I can't quite get my brain round popping to another country to buy bread!

I've been doing some pottering too, including feeding my roses & clematis, but yesterday's work consisted of popping a pot over my lemon verbena to try to protect it from the first hard frost of the winter last night.

My poor gardening lady cut herself on her hedge trimmer yesterday and had to spend 6 hours in A&E waiting for stitches. She was meant to be cutting back our apple trees, but I don't know if the accident happened in our garden - there was no evidence...

[SugarPlumTree]

Oh no Searabbit, hope she is ok We stayed somewhere where half the town was Germany and the other half Belgium (I think, not good at geography ). That was a bit strange.

I need to strip a small bit of turf to make a new bed from the top soil from drive excavation.

[toomuchtooold]

Thanks sugarplum - I've managed to get one of the cypress stumps out but there's so much digging over to be done still so the roses will be sat in the garage for a while yet I think. Were you in Aachen? I don't really know the Belgian border, DH used to live in Brussels but we rarely left the city (beer chips and chocolate, what more do you need?).

SeaRabbit it's worth it for the bread! German bread is awful.

Today I dug up one cypress stump and clipped the greenery off the feeled tree. Tomorrow the same for the second one. Just after watching Big Dreams Small Spaces and now I've seen how an elder should be pruned I'd really like to have another go at ours but suspect it's a bit late. Also I have about 10 other things I wanted to do before the end of Feb.

[SugarPlumTree]

Yes just outside Aachen. We've driven past Brussels a fair few times but never actually gone there. You've done more than me today, I've planted a few seeds and that's it. I'm appreciating the sun on the garden though.

[funnyperson]

Hope the garden lady recovers. What did you feed your roses and clematis with, searabbit ?

My roses have now been nurtured for 2 years in pots so need to be planted out v. shortly. The thing is that I know they will do better in the sunshine out front so options are a) plant in bigger pots b) prune to current pots c) plant in mums sunny rose border.

Having seen the bonsai walk at Wisley I am seriously considering pruning a tree to a bonsai pot outside

Welcome toomuchtooold My eyes are going so I'm not sure which bit in the picture is your garden. Tell us a bit more about your garden!

I like your photos Geoff

[SeaRabbit]

Funny I fed them Q4 as advised by our local nursery, rather than specific rose food. I will also mulch them shortly with manure/garden compost.

[MyNightWithMaud]

I had a quick mooch around the garden today. There were lots of signs of new life, which was very heartening, but I need to get back out there to prune the clematis jackmanii, which is already romping away.

[toomuchtooold]

An yes that's more the (now cypress-free) view than the actual garden...

There's three main bits - a sloping bit next to the kitchen, a bit of lawn in the front (plus a rockery which is currently trying to make its way out onto the lawn) and up the side some bushes and a massive pink trampoline. Its a bit neglected and my plan was just to tidy and cut back before spring butnthen we went a bit nuts and ordered blueberry bushes, a hedge, a fig bush and roses so thats kind of piled the pressure on as regards timing.

It's a decent garden - the slope is a bit awkward but it's south facing and the soil is decent if a bit heavy. Despite being cut from pine forest originally and playing host to two massive aggressive rhododendrons, it's not too acidic either. The old owner had lavender on his rockery so I have high hopes that I can grow that, would be lovely. Its mostly grass on it at the moment

[funnyperson]

What a beautiful garden too much

I am being seriously irritated by the voiceover on Monty Don's 'big dreams small spaces'. She is very awful. Its the tone and the content.

I would really rather have subtitles. I really like Monty he looks more wizard like than ever. Or is it gnome like. Whatever he says sounds sensible and doable

[toomuchtooold]

I'm watching Big Dreams Small Spaces right now. The voiceover is very BBC3! The music's quite annoying as well. Pity because it's a good programme.

Aargh it's nearly March! How did that happen?

[SugarPlumTree]

Glad you've both said that. I watched it the other day and found the voiceover really annoying yo the extent it was ruining my enjoyment of the program.

[shovetheholly]

I have just been out frantically moving my standard lilac trees. It's too late really - the sap has started rising and they are close to bud break. But I have to do it because they are in the way of building work to happen later in the year and I don't want to lose them . I hope they're going to be OK. Any tips for helping them through?

[funnyperson]

shove I havent any horticutural advice to give you except dig out a generous hole for them to move to and get on with it! I dont see why they shouldnt make it but you could always propagate by cuttings just in case!

sugarplum yes it detracted from the programme for me too. I felt more suitable for cbeebeis and not really suitable for tv or radio at all. I'm surprised she got the job they must be really short or perhaps (as Wogan would say) she is related to the director general of the Beeb. It is difficult to know how to feedback through the proper channels though without sounding too personal. I wonder if they wanted someone young sounding but there are plenty of young people with lovely reading voices

I agree with you about the music though I do think the Gardeners World music choices are such genius that anything else probably sounds pale by comparison and whereas I think it is easy to be a good narrator I also think it fiendishly difficult to provide good incidental background music. I mean what music would suit a mud man? That said I had a good friend once who died early who was a keen musician whose ambition it was to provide incidental music for tv shows. So clearly some people are good at it and interested in it. In fact DS likes doing that sort of sound stuff for productions.

Totally at a tangent, Barrington Pheloung who does the music for Morse and Endeavour is a divine personage in terms of incidental music imo.

[bookbook]

Hi shove - I have only ever moved one lilac- as a shrub, not a standard, and it survived, (though it did produce a lot of suckers ever after). I think they are quite hard to kill off mind you.
Can I ask any dahlia experts? I have stored tubers for the first time over winter, never having grown them before. When do you repot to start them up again? I have today just done my geraniums, probably a bit early perhaps, but they were starting to break into leaf.

[SugarPlumTree]

I've never moved a lilac, sorry Shove. Maybe some of that Mychorizal (sp) fungi to help it establish?

I've started a couple of dahlias as they were starting to shoot, they're in the greenhouse. One of the gardening magazines had it listed as a job for the week . But I'm new to overwintering dahlias so not sure.

FP I felt a bit with the voiceover that I was watching a college production which was such a shame as I thought the program itself good. I like that Monty advises rather than doing it all and that the Salisbury couple took on board what he suggested then tweaked it to suit them and I really liked the allotment. Sort of hoping Beeb researchers find this thread. I think GW starts again next Friday.

A few months ago I got a bare root alstroemeria offer and was pleased to see a couple of them have growth peeking through. I've stripped the little bit of turf there was in new border and they are ready to take topsoil when driveway construction starts. Quite pleased with my recycling there as border edges are trunks from the conifer that came out to make way for drive.