"in the midst of winter, I found there was within me, an invincible summer" Potting shed chat continues here

[funnyperson]

So as agreed (by 2 other people!) I have started this thread for spring gardeners follwing on from the previous thread : Welcome one and all. experts and novices alike and draw up your chairs and join in discussion on all things garden related (and even not garden related)

Thank you Shove. Thank you to every body who sympathised with me regarding my missed visit to Monet's Garden.

Now for some amazing news. last night at about 11 I got a message from my DiL.

Dear Kwirrell, so sorry to hear about your trip, if you like we will take you. Can't be till next year as need to arrange hols and someone to mind the kids.

Don't you just love a happy ending.

Aw kwirrel that's amazing! What a lovely DIL you have. Your clematis are amazing! Mine doesn't want to grow at all, think it might be in the wrong place!

great news Kwirrell :) and jealous of those clematis - I have one arguing at the moment as I am trying to persuade it that it does want to climb into the hornbeam I planted it near, not straggle along the floor...

That's so wonderful kwirrell!! What a lovely family you have.

That is so lovely and really good to hear positive Inlaw stories. Beautiful clematis too, what a bargain.

Yes, it is so nice to share my good news after such understanding.

That's great news Kwirrell - what a lovely DiL - and your clematis are gorgeous - my cheapies haven't flowered as well as that in the first year.

RHS's wonderful advice line hads confimed I have Enchanters Nightshade n my garden - and on the link they sent was this note, about which I had heard rumours:

*A note on glyphosate May 2016: After reviewing glyphosate, the European Parliament has given the go ahead to relicense it but proposes disallowing certain uses such as public open space and restricting it to professional use only. The final resolution will be decided by national authorities this summer which may mean the withdrawal of glyphosate-based weedkillers for home gardeners in the UK. Check the RHS website for further updates.

Thank you, SeaRabbit, you have just helped me identify the mystery weed under the apple tree as Enchanter's nightshade! I had been meaning to look for an identify your weeds website. Luckily, it's quite easy to yank out.

My ticket for the Hampton Court preview just arrived. I am very excited.

Maud

Heh Maud. Hopefully mine will arrive soon too.

My enchanters nightshade first appeared a couple of years ago but I didn't pull it out regularly so now it had overrun a bit. I attacked it with glyphosate 2 weeks ago, and it's now curled up its toes I hope that does the trick. The roots are brittle so it's easy to leave bits that re-shoot.

Hi there,

so as well as the new allotment, I have a new garden this year too. It's so so exciting, but also a bit overwhelming, and I'm still trying to build up my 'kit'...
I think I'm almost there re: tools, but wondering what you more experienced gardeners would advise having at all times, in terms of composts (john innes or other etc) and other earthy materials (sand? grit? where do you prefer to buy from?) as well as feed and protection from pests... Would love to see where I have holes and gets things ordered so I can be a bit more thorough as well as spontaneous in my gardening!!!

thanks so much!

Hello Hiahia, you're going for it then - how exciting ! I tend to use whatever compost is around when I need it to ge honest and am not organised to have sand and grit . For feed I use Shropshire seaweed off Amazon, Vitax or chicken manure pellets and sometimes tomato feed. I do sometimes resort to organic slug pellets bug haven't really this year and my host as and Angelica have been munched. Favourite tool from allotment days is Wolf Garten push pull hoe.

Just seen something I didn't recognise for a moment but I think it is the knautia I planted year before last from seed someone here gave me (Bertha I think ?) It's finally about to flower which is very exciting. Also picked two roses from some fairly new bushes in my cutting patch. Amazingly I had actually labelled it, Peter Aycliffe and a lovely unusual lilac which look lovely with some lovely fragrant stocks someone gave me. Picture to follow.

The roses. I am not working at the moment so have a bit of time to literally smell the roses.

HiaHia - the things I have in all the time is
Fish, blood and bone - when planting out
Tomato feed for when things look 'peaky'
John Innes number 3 compost for big things in pots
Multi purpose Compost for everything else
Hormone rooting powder for when I take cuttings, randomly!
Twine
Labels so I don't forget what things are :)
no sand and grit though, as I garden on chalk/flint

SugarPlum - those roses are gorgeous!

Those roses are indeed lovely.

I also use John Innes no 3 for big pots and multi-purpose peat free for everything else - I find annual lobelia grows slowly in it but everything else seems fine. I recommend rummaging in the recycling bin at Squires garden centres for free plant pots (including some quite attractive plastic ones), and I swear by empty square tomato trays from the supermarket with holes in the bottom for seed sowing. I would not be without my Burgon & Ball Japanese hoe, and reckon time spent putting down well-rotted Manure is time well-spent. Slug pellets save a lot of heartache, over lost seedlings, especially as we are surrounded by cats so no longer get birds in the garden - before our neighbours got cats, we had few slugs and lots of birds.

Hi all, I've been off for a while - enjoyed the rest of our week in Cornwall, returned home and limped through a week at work, but it's finally the weekend and I have been awake since far too early, so enjoying a bit of quiet time before the DCs wake up.

Sugarplumtree, so sorry to hear about your mother.

SeaRabbit, we did go to Chysauster and it was fab! We were the first people to arrive, and the DCs spent a very happy hour running around noisily, before other visitors started to turn up. It's an amazing place, isn't it? We went from there to Trengwainton, but of course by this time the requests to go to the beach had started, so we didn't stay very long. We did enjoy the paths winding through some spectacular tree ferns, and a display of WWII things in the walled garden.

Our lunch stop on the journey home was Killerton in Devon, very beautiful herbaceous borders.

The discussion of washing machine gardens has been most illuminating. I love that circular York Gate garden, shovetheholly! But realistically, there are so many projects that have to take priority over spending anything at all on decorative hard landscaping in our front garden (ancient cracked concrete/weed driveway and crumbling retaining walls in the back garden being the main ones), that I am going to embrace the centrifugal.

I have another question now, about planting. The only rule I am really on top of is 'taller things at the back' - now enhanced by funnyperson's comments about see-through planting and varying heights from left to right. You knowledgeable people speak of 'National Trust' planting and putting things in threes, and I think there might be rules about the total number of different plants to use, and repeating the same plants in different places along the border.

I have a long (and expanding!) list of things I would like to grow, but it would be useful to know any rules of thumb for translating this into a plan for our small space. To extend the washing machine analogy, at the moment it's not just the overall shape of the garden but also the colours/sizes of the plants that resembles a mixed load of laundry.

the colours/sizes of the plants that resembles a mixed load of laundry.
YY

As a very new gardener I'm only just getting my head round suiting plants to the light and shade in my garden ,and fenced pathway ( the only bit I can see from the house ). Which changes ( who knew ! ) throughout the year .

I have no skills in design /colour /mixing plants .The forget me nots coming up through a hydrangea with very dark red leaves was an accident and penny dropping moment that juxtoposition of plants could be another whole world ....

Thank you SugarPlumTree, bookbook and SeaRabbit for your tips. I will be preparing an order today as I need to plant my Dahlias asap…

If anybody else has favourite bits and bobs, let me know!

And indeed, Sugarplum your roses are beautiful, that pale lilac one is really divine.

VermicularCanister and gingeroots - I, too, would be very interested in what others think of planting principles, WM vs plant/borders-heavy gardens and what a National Trust planting style is (and do you like it?!) and any other garden design thoughts - as this year, we mainly have done fence to fence lawn, and annuals in existing borders close to the house (which will be tweaked in due course) but I’m hoping to get properly planting next year, once we know the garden, and its shady and damp and sunny and dry areas better (also waiting to have more money!) but i am ACHING for colours and volume, so getting to plan stuff soon would probably help to alleviate the impatience!

Hoping you proficient gardeners will have some helpful thoughts! I really love this forum.

Goodness we've had a lot of rain today, it won't stop!
Went to a charity open garden event yesterday and saw some fabulous gardens. I asked one garden owner what a plant was and she dug up a bit for me! It's raining too hard to plant it though so it's in a glass of water on the window sill - do you think it'll be ok for a couple of days?

Bloody ratbaggey orrible little viburnum beetles are eating ALL my vulnerable viburnums. They are like lace. There was no problem a few days ago (I have been periodically checking). Would appreciate urgent advice!!

Hello,

I just wanted to say how much I have enjoyed lurking around here on the gardening board and in particular this chatty thread. It's like a friendly oasis in the depths of MN.

A few pages back there was chat about disappointing peonies, indeed the one in my front garden is the same, although it's lush, healthy and been in nearly 12 years we are lucky to get 3 flowers. However my Tree Peony in the back garden is my pride and joy and I just had to show it in all its glory.

It is an odd plant in its flowering habit. It produces about 3 sumptuous double balled blooms, followed up with loads of single formed flowers on this year's growth a couple of weeks later.

Welcome, SilverBirch. There may only be 3 flowers, but what flowers they are! We visited a local garden today which had sumptuous white peonies. I must rootle about in the bed, but I think my Bowl of Beauty has vanished altogether.

Holly - My viburnum opulis was reduced to a filigree by (what I assume were) viburnum beeetle grubs, too. I don't much like spraying and there were too many to pick off so, as the shrub was rather unwieldy and unbalanced anyway, I gave it a hard prune and put the prunings and the hundreds of bugs in the garden recycling bin.