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

[Blackpuddingbertha]

I find my agapanthus grows better if I hide it away and ignore it. Then when it throws up flower spikes I can be surprised and bring it to the front for a bit. Hidden again when flowers have faded. Then I'm not tempted to try and encourage it in anyway. This seems to work; all previous attempts at actually 'doing stuff' to them has resulted in dead agapanthus.

[Blackpuddingbertha]

A quick check on mine shows two flower spikes and I've now pulled it forward out of its previous position buried behind the dahlias.

[funnyperson]

Lol. That looks a bit like my veronicastrum which has 3 small flower spikes at the end of a very long floppy stem. So much for the packed herbaceous border.

Agapanthus grew very well in the ground in that Gardeners World episode with the agapanthus man. They needed sun though.

Good for you with the sweet peas maud. Persistence paid.

Whats your MA going to be in, Humphrey? Go you. Will you get funding? After my flurry of undergrad and postgrad stuff in my twenties I did a Masters in my 30's, my sis did hers in her 50's part time from Birkbeck, (she got a distinction) and I want to do a PhD when I retire.

Before that I've got a lot of planting to do! That Sanguisorba and Achillea combo on the Tatton Park coverage was nice, so makes one planting decision!

[funnyperson]

The Clare college garden looked really large. I've been in it at a conference do and didnt get as far as the place to watch the stars from.

[Bearleigh]

Maud I have the same problem - I bought a bargain pot of agapanthus a couple of years ago, which turned out to be very tall white ones, or so I thought until I split them, and one is coming out blue. But either way there are not many flowers. Before I knew I would have a blue agapanthus flower, I bought a pot of smaller blue ones earlier this summer, and there have been lots of flowers, with more to come. Helen Yemm advises tomato feed once a fortnight so maybe that is the key?

Mind, I have just been in Cornwall & everywhere i looked there were agapanthus flowering away like mad, even at Sainsburys, and on roundabouts and I can't believe everyone was dousing fortnightly.

[MyNightWithMaud]

My agapanthus get frequent dousing with tomato maxicrop - my favourite feed for things in pots - and if anything I overfeed. I think lack of sun may be the issue, and possibly sulking on the part of the one I divided last year, which had already stopped flowering because it was too congested.

It was seeking some merrily flowering in a municipal bed that prompted me to bemoan mine!

[Callmegeoff]

maud hurrah for sweet peas.

No Agapanthus here, I planted with Hostas and forgot where so accidentally put Foxgloves on top. It is still there but no flowers. Possibly it needs more sun, or tomato food!

funny are you back at work? Impressed by masters, MAs and PhDs,a midwife friend has just completed her PhD - she doesn't recommend it. I'm too thick or lazy or both to even try.

I watched the Autistic gardener for the first last week, I have what he referred to as a washing machine garden, all borders spun out round the edge and lawn in the middle. I'm not sure quite what to do about that, dc's and dog like the grass.

[HumphreyCobbler]

I have agapanthus! We kept them warm and dry all winter and fed and watered sparingly. They look nice on the steps.

My MA isn't funded, sadly. I am doing the Diploma in Specific Learning Difficulties and extending to an MA, hopefully becoming a BDA associated teacher in the process. The aim is to work with individuals rather than classes.

Just been to shut up the poultry and seen the white buddleia next to the old privy is fully in flower, it looks amazing. Must go down and look at the butterflies.

After seeing Gardener's world a few weeks ago we realised the the beautiful umbelliferous flower that has grown around the pond is hemlock. Have no idea what to do with it! At least it is all behind the fence at the moment.

[echt]

I found agapanthus very difficult in the UK, and the advice contradictory. What does seem to work is being warm. I've seen it grow prolifically out in the regions, where it gets very cold, even by UK standards, but days are often sunshiny, so maybe that's it. Certainly the clumps are neither fed nor divided. They are seen as a weed by the native plant purists, but I love them.

Good luck with the studies, Humphrey. I seem to be the last of those who got a fully-funded MA, back in the 80s. The MA was education-based, I was working full-time as a teacher and did it by evening classes. All that kind of support has gone now.

[funnyperson]

If I plant agapanthus among the irises do you think they will crowd out the irises? It is a sunny spot and the irises are over by this time of year, so agapanthus would provide a nice succession. How much leaf and bulb space does a flowering agapanthus take up?

Yes good luck with the studies!

It is extraordinary that most people I know in the 80's took post grad studies in their stride whilst working like you echt! (and me)
It is sad that the funding support is very thin on the ground now especially as the cost has rocketed. Though I thought teachers got some kind of golden hello and funding for post grad degrees. I do admire school teachers. I could never teach large classes of children though in the past I've done lectures videoed across 3 sites lol. Who knows what the students were doing on the remote sites!

geoff apart from when I went in with a fractured leg because I hoped it was a sprain I have been off but go back part time next week. (Admin from home doesn't really count esp when combined with sleeping on the sofa) I keep meaning to retire but haven't got round to it yet, though it has been approved. I need to help DD with postgrad funding and work needs doers. Having a gammy leg means my heart gets a rest anyway! Also I can't cook a lot so am loosing weight (finally, hurrah! not enough though!)

[funnyperson]

*geoff I find grass restful and am keeping mine.

[echt]

Yikes, funnyperson, you've been in the wars, hope all is well soon.

Thinking of agapanthus and iris, while they both like the warm, I've never seen them in the same place at the same time, rather like Tony Blair and Darth Vader, so possibly they're not good mates.

Today has been very sunny and very cold, the wind making it feel about 3 - 4C. I dug up five fountain grass - pennisetum cetacean - tussocks, put one at the back of the yard, three in containers and one in the bin because it was infested with weed grasses. This is to clear space for kangaroo grass- themeda triandra. I don't dislike fountain grass, I just want to grow more natives if I can. We're fortunate that the local council has a nursery where you can buy indigenous plants at rock-bottom prices, so you know they'll work on the sand dune that is our garden. :o

Also re-potted a bottle tree into its next size container. Quite a lot of the plants are due bigger pots, though I'll wait for August to get under way.

[GnomeDePlume]

In a reflective mood as the weather is looking decidedly autumnal. I managed a couple of hours on the allotment very first thing this morning so missed the rain.

Broad beans have struggled with blackfly so I pulled the last of them out this morning.

Despite a dry early summer (making up for it now) the early potatoes have done well. Also a good season for strawberries. I have 5 gallons of strawberry wine hubble-bubbling away.

Fingers crossed for the rest of the season!

Oh and we obviously got the barn-building memo early as we have built a new shed. Stupid how pleasing a new shed can be!

[MyNightWithMaud]

Also in a reflective mood. Used some vouchers at the garden centre today to buy a few goodies, planted and arranged those when I got home and was feeling very cheery until I noticed the return of the dreaded Japanese knotweed from the neighbouring neglected garden. Sigh.

[Blackpuddingbertha]

I am cowering inside with my slippers on pretending that nothing needs doing or picking in the garden. I wish I had a new shed.

[MyNightWithMaud]

You know how sometimes people fantasise about if only I had or did x, my life would be so much better? For me, it's acquiring a shed.

[GnomeDePlume]

Sorry, I did not mean to kick off shed fantasising

The shed was very necessary. The previous one was an old 5th hand allotment society one. It was very rickety and I think it was only the bolt holding the whole thing together.

[MyNightWithMaud]

No need to apologise. Shed fantasising - and, better still (although it could never happen for reasons of space), summerhouse fantasising - is one of my favourite things.

[Bearleigh]

We have a large shed - the sale particulars described it as a garage, but the side of the house leading to it is so narrow, it would be impossible to get any car into it except an old (1960s) mini or cinquecento.

Returned from holiday with norovirus, so a combination of that and heavy rain mean there is still a lot of tidying to do. Boo. Mind having then watched GW and the feature on that blind deaf and disabled lady, makes me feel I am a bit of a wimp...

I have however returned to a lovely crop of yellow wax beans - yippee!

[echt]

Hmmm… shed envy. We have a garage where all the gardening stuff is stored: it's colossal, with an inspection pit, but still not a shed…with windows. We really can't, and wouldn't knock it down as it stores all our logs for winter/bikes/tents, etc.

But I long for a proper gardening shed. There was one of sorts, with no door or floors, that we knocked down and now has a flowering gum growing where it stood, with ferns, clivia and aspidistras as ground cover.

[MyNightWithMaud]

Ugh to the norovirus, Bearleigh. Poor you. Hope you're better soon.

I notice that, where my parents live, fewer and fewer people use their garages as garages - there's been a rash of rather ugly conversions into living rooms - because they no longer work with the dimensions of modern cars.

The lady on GW was inspiring, wasn't she? Absolutely indomitable but, yes, she did make me feel rather feeble by comparison.

[Blackpuddingbertha]

Need to catch up on GW.

DH has a large shed. It contains bikes, ride on mower, strimmer, brush cutter, power tools and other stuff that we seldom use. I have a shed near my veg plot which contains my gardening stuff. It is not big enough. I can't get in the door anymore, it's too full. I have been eyeing up larger sheds. I was hoping that after the Christmas Eve storms a couple of years ago which ripped off the roof of my shed that it would quickly fall to pieces. But apparently not. My shed roof temporary fixing was too good and it remains solid. Some wood panels are starting to lift though and the door bracket has fallen off

[MyNightWithMaud]

Perhaps you could find some woodworm grubs and secrete them in the shed?

[echt]

bertha possibly your shed needs a shove. Look at the weather forecast for high winds.

Just saying.

[MyNightWithMaud]

I have been meaning to thank whoever advised me not to give up hope for my apparently dead clematis in the front garden. It has indeed revived and produced one glorious flower. Which has been eaten by molluscs, but never mind.

I've just had a very satisfactory hour potting up a few dahlias and strawberry plants which have been lying around. Will the garden ever be 'finished'? Probably not!