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

[MyNightWithMaud]

As you know, I love Carol and all her works, but thought the combination of history, art and horticulture in the rose and tulip programmes (I haven't watched the others yet) was brilliant. And some of the photography was astonishing.

[SugarPlumTree]

Oh Rhubarb , that is horrible

I'm really looking forward to seeing Carol on iplayer when I get back.

[funnyperson]

I like the Carol Klein programmes on roses, tulips and irises too. I feel quite proud I bought some heritage Cedric Morris irises at Chelsea this year. They are very elegant and beautiful and translucent in the sun when they flower.

There was an interesting prairie garden on 'love your garden' today, and a nice planting combo with pale Echinacea and Kalamagrostis. Very much for a sunny spot.

rhubarb I'm glad your visit home was socially productive. I must say your parents' garden sounds lovely, and it must have been a good feeling seeing your dad and friends, even if a bit sad. I am so sorry about all the friends with cancer and though so many cancers seem to do well with treatment these days it is still a very horrid and scary diagnosis.

As to the sandwich generation I know I have been very lucky in that my parents have been healthy well into their seventies, so its really only in the last few years they have needed serious looking after and I do agree it is emotionally and practically challenging and gardening and sitting in one's own green space provides a haven.

My children's generation are less lucky as none of my generation appear to be going to be healthy seventy year olds, as we've all semi collapsed with one thing or another in our fifties!!!!!!! I put this down to a lack of fresh air and fresh veg and long working hours compared to our parents. Even more reason to grow stuff!! More salad got sown today.

Good luck for all exam results!!!

[funnyperson]

May heaven preserve me from those who have been to boarding school from the age of 7 onwards and their general attitude to mankind.

[MyNightWithMaud]

I'm sure you're right, funnyperson, but why?

[Callmegeoff]

for sugar and rhubarb

We had a visit yesterday from an elderly lady and her husband. She grew up in our house and told me quite a bit about its history. The garden used to be much bigger her father sold off a field at the back which was an orchard and nut trees, her father had a ride on mower to cut the grass. The pear tree never fruited so she was surprised to see the fruit. Her Df had a good deal on paint which is why the outside is painted the same colour as our local buses! The peony was planted by her mother. I could go on she was a delight to talk to and says now she has visited, her sister and brother may well drop by. She has promised to send me photos of the garden. She loved what we have done with the garden.

[MyNightWithMaud]

How lovely to learn about the history of your house, Geoff - especially the quirky stuff like the paint - and how lovely that they appreciated your gardening!

[Blackpuddingbertha]

That's lovely Geoff. I phoned the previous (ancient) owner of our house soon after we moved in. The information and history he told us was fascinating.

We all sound like we need some good news for a change. We too have ageing parent issues as MIL does not have a good prognosis. Our situation is further complicated by the ILs having custody of my young nephew & niece who we will 'inherit' as the situation deteriorates. It's a hellish situation from all angles. I think we need some more potting shed babies to remind us of the nicer side of life! Volunteers please.

On the flower side, my Japanese Anemones always struggle and no flowers as yet, however, my asters are blooming away much earlier than normal, which is cheering.

Welcome to nonna

[Blackpuddingbertha]

May have been premature there. Further investigation shows a flower on one of my Japanese anemones.

[SugarPlumTree]

Oh goodness Geoff, that sounds very difficult How lovely to hear the history of your house though. By sheer fluke I spoke to the lady whose parents built ours once.

Has a look for tulip bulbs in Amsterdam but only saw them in the tourist shops along with cannabis seeds and ice cream plus red ceramic penis Amsterdam souvenir - DS was , DD was there with her camera as she has a summer art project!

[MyNightWithMaud]

::gulp:: at some of the souvenir possibilities in Amsterdam.

I had a nice day out today, virtually in Rhubarb's back garden. One of the highlights was buying Christopher Lloyd's Exotic Planting for Adventurous Gardeners for £1 in a charity shop. Ever the thrifty gardener!

[funnyperson]

Goodness, blackpudding your garden flowers a lot earlier than mine!
maud thats a good book for a bargain price!

I do like a good tropical border with those bird of paradise flowers and they are great for late summer, going well with Heleniums and echinacea. They had a wonderful one at Sandwich. At Powys castle they planted a 'tropical' border with banana and canna lilies. I thought it was the new 'in' thing but a friend knows a volunteer there who says they have been doing it for years.

I have a pot bound palm tree and canna lilies which I need to plant out so that they can grow and thrive further: but in a small garden one cannot really have the prairie look and the tropical look and the iris bed and the topiary and the cottage garden border and the mediterannean herbs and the roses all together, even though one tries!!!!!!!!

[Bearleigh]

Your garden is pretty jungly actually, funny. Would it be mild enough to pop in a banana?

So how many of us are thrilled by the rain we've been getting recently in South East?

I have some anemones that flower really early - they are now almost over, some almost out, and others that have no buds yet; all different varieties.

[MyNightWithMaud]

I am quite thrilled by the rain, especially as the window cleaner's tweak to my water butt has been effective and it's now full to overflowing. No more filling it from the hosepipe. Yippee!

Neighbour's agapanthus are in full magnificent bloom. I'm going to have a cull, keep the choicest varieties of mine and get rid of the rest. Not even a bud on my Japanese anemones. I think I need a radical prune of the apple trees, like dear Monty did with his, as the garden is getting shadier and shadier and I doubt that helps.

[Rhubarbgarden]

How wonderful Geoff to find out all that about your house and garden. There is an old man who runs the horticultural society here who grew up in one of the cottages at the bottom of our garden. He has told me bits and pieces about how things used to be, although the last time we got chatting he described how his beloved cat drowned in our well.

to Maud roaming my neck of the woods. What were you up to? That book is possibly my favourite gardening book. Certainly it's one I refer to time and again.

I am very pleased about the rain although slightly frustrated that I could have had a full water butt too if it was connected. At least I won't need to water the showstopper garden this week (they have gone away).

I am now designing a sensory garden for the preschool. Quite exciting!

[MyNightWithMaud]

We took my aged parents to lunch at the seaside.

I am thrilled beyond belief to have a functioning waterbutt and, seeing how rapidly it has filled, am wondering how I could contrive to put a second one beside it. I have started on the CL book and suspect it will supplant all my other planned reading for a while!

[Callmegeoff]

Do you still have the well rhubarb ? poor kitty

That book sounds marvellous maud happy reading.

It only took Dh a year to connect a waterbutt to the greenhouse. We have 3 others left by the previous owners 2 are filled with wood the other upside down by the shed.

We're off to Cornwall tomorrow and have invested in a watering system for the greenhouse -it looks tricky to set up and obviously hasn't been set up yet

[funnyperson]

Yes my garden is overgrown jungly enough, bearleigh and the micro climate is mild, but it may not be sunny enough for bananas and suchlike.

The myrtle tree is flowering though! Pretty scented white flowers

And Munstead Wood has really taken off since being provided with plant supports and is growing tall and repeat flowering brilliantly! It made me realise that floppy plants really do like a bit of help otherwise they spend energy trying to reach for the sun which could be spent flowering! I am such a slow learner sometimes.

How brilliant to have garden/house history worth having!

Also how brilliant to be doing a sensory garden!

I havent got a water butt. too techy

[Rhubarbgarden]

The well is long gone. We do have a pretty old water tank with a gravel filtration system, but it was too slimy to use as the guttering had been fiddled around with and rerouted over the years. It was on my long term to-do list to sort it out, but events overtook that recently when the neighbours discovered damp in their cottage on the other side of the wall, so we had to drain it and reroute the guttering to a drain. Hence the water butt purchase, as it was suddenly the perfect time to get one.

There's no sign of a well location where the horticultural soc man described. That bit of the garden is a bit wild and neglected though, so I could have missed it.

Funny you are so right about providing supports for floppy plants. It makes all the difference. I try and avoid floppy things as much as possible though, as I never have time for staking.

[Rhubarbgarden]

Any suggestions for scented and tactile plants most welcome. I've started some pinterest boards and spent a happy afternoon pinning away and turning a blind eye to the kids tipping sand onto the patio and pouring water onto it.

[MyNightWithMaud]

Apart from all the usual herbs, how about curry plant (for a surprise) and salvia Hot Lips (foliage smells of Ribena)? Stachys byzantina for the fluffiness?

[Rhubarbgarden]

Got curry plant and Stachys. Salvia Hotlips is a good idea, thanks.

[Bearleigh]

I suspect they have to be hardy, but if they don't, how about Begonia Escargot:

www.flickr.com/photos/20264760@N07/5449288987

Oodles of sensory experience. And of course scented geraniums.

How about Lad's Love? We have a bush by the back door in celebration of Old Man by Edward Thomas, and it's so lovely when you brush against it.

Twisted willow? Lemon Verbena? It is such a good idea.

[MyNightWithMaud]

I am really beginning to feel the love for begonias this year, just as long as they're not the municipal bedding type. Escargot is lovely. I think they had it in the conservatory at Standen.

[Bearleigh]

On the way to the Albert Hall the other night I saw a block of flat with begonia window boxes in sherbet colours. They looked gorgeous.

Normally I dislike begonias but I too am beginning to look at some with fresh eyes, and a positive spirit.