"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)

Two of the 2012 Olympic roses have buds on and are about to flower in time for the opening ceremony next week which is extraordinary . It is also very useful as they weren't labelled so I had forgotten which ones they were

Has anyone looked after an olive tree?
My DD ( who doesn't garden!) has been given an olive tree ( quite small) in a pot. Had a quick google, and the chances of it surviving outside in winter are - well, lets say 50/50. She doesn't have a conservatory or greenhouse. Garden is sheltered and very sunny. Will a sheltered porch be sufficient protection I wonder - (cold, dry East Yorkshire.) ... Or will I need to house it in my greenhouse over winter?

I have a little British grown olive tree bought at a local fair for £1.50 which has survived 2 winters in a pot in my sheltered sunny front patio.
On Love your Garden (which appears to have a massive budget) this weekend they planted an olive bought for nearly £500 said to be over 100 years old outside in a garden.Titchmarsh seemed to think it wouldn't die.
I'm not sure how that programme works really as the cost of materials, labour and design must be way over any normal persons budget.

I wondered that too. Imagine spending £500 on a plant only for it to die in the first season.

I have one. It was outside one winter and looked really ill plus needed perking up with seaweed feed after being taken in belatedly into greenhouse. Last winter it stayed out as it wax mild and was fine. As it's little I'd stick it in the greenhouse.

Thanks - shall bring it home I think :)

Hello everyone. I accidentally fell off the thread.

I've just been hacking back the jasmine and clematis that have finished flowering on the obelisk. They're both much too big for it, really, and spill off the top in a sort of mushroom cloud, so they need a drastic prune, which I'll do in the autumn. I've also finally planted two box balls which have been languishing in the planting queue for far too long. One's looking rather miserable (not blight, I think, just pot-bound) so I hope it'll perk up.

And I can trump your bargain olive trees. Mine was thrown in for free when I boght a bot on Ebay and the seller hadn't bothered to empty it. Olive trees seem happy round here - small gardens create a microclimate - but I'm sure I'll never get a ripe olive from it.

Yes my olive tree had lots of promising fruits which dropped off when it dried out a bit too much and they were the size of small peas.
Microclimates seem to work best when the gardens have plants in. Either side my neighbours back gardens aren't very green and so there isn't as much of a microclimate as the old garden in Belsize Park which had ancient stuff in and gardens either side and backing on- creating this long enclosed magical green space which lots of London streets have at the back of old terraced houses going on for at least half a mile.

We have loads and loads of shasta daisies atm which I am deadheading when time permits.
I never know whether to deadhead clematis. Is this the same as hacking back or pruning?
Polish Spirit has flowered. It is so pretty I am really delighted. I think it has liked all the watering I have been doing. Photos never really show up the translucency of flowers and the way the light shines through. The flowers are lasting for ages and makes me think the viticella clematis are the way to go up boundaries.
Monty had a pretty pink viticella in flower on gardeners world today does anyone know what it is called?

Helol, S P T here . I've been away so just back and catching up.

Was staying with a friend in Devon, and very impressed with their Walnut tree. It's 10 years old and has walnuts on. They haven't had any yer though as the squirrels always steal them !

Sunday was weeding day on the nature strip, which I'm preparing for planting and mulching. The beautiful weather helped, glorious sunshine and the dog and cat watching from the side most helpfully. There's a real sense of spring in the air, the first dog walk while not wearing coat is always a good sign.

Do they have snowdrops there echt?

My nerines are coming up and I am planting some more

Yes, some of the older gardens have snowdrops, funnyperson. Am very of your nerines. After one season, mine have refused to flower for three years now.

Something nice was seeing swallows clusters round a big puddle in the goalmouth of the oval at my school, scooping up mud to make their nest. I've never seen it before. The place where I walk my dog has a pair of sulphur-crested cockatoos nesting. It's less and less usual as they need big tall trees to dig a hole into, and people do like to cut them down and plant sterile rows of yuccas and agaves and acres of hard standing for their ugly no-fuss gardens.

Can I join in - I am such a novice gardener, although wierdly know about soils. I love soils. Even my clay / inert builders substrate. I have spent the last few years trying to improve it - & judging by the number of weeds I am currently growing it seems to have worked. Unfortunately marestail was in some compost I was given. Fortunately I only had enough for the front garden.

This week I finally took the bull by the horns & cleared the back garden of rubble and old crazy paving raised part of the patio. I am digging in & top mulching with multipurpose to 50cm and planting a herb garden. The drainage was improved by breaking up the iron pan so hopefully it works.

I have been given some random plants by people trying to encourage me - I have no idea how to look after them, although the internet is proving useful. The one thing I am struggling with ( I am sure there will be more & it is just ignorance of what to ask that there aren't more)
Wisteria... does it prefer morning or afternoon sun - most of the day it will be in full sun. Also if I restrict it's root ball will that reduce its vigour - I have visions of it taking over.

echt I grew up in Sydney - your descriptions are making me home sick. I would love a Lemon Scented Gum or an Iron Bark but both are far too big for my garden.

Sulphur-crested cockatoos - wow echt!

Welcome unescorted - I am afraid I can't help on the wisteria- we have access to one that comes in from next door, but I give it no care. I look forward to helping you in the future- boo to being given mares tail. Have you eradicated it yet?

This is my 5 th attempt to post since I got back from hols. I tried to post photos of the National Dahlia Collection in Penzance, and the files must have blown my computer's capacity. I'll try & post separately.

Has anyone else found things are weird this year? My quinces are tiny and very furry ( too cold poor things?), my gherkins are romping away, my Mara des Bois are fruiting again, like they are meant to but never have before! The fun of gardening I suppose!

DS(17) has a friend who's 16, and has just taken on an allotment (her granny has two, so it's in the blood). He's been going over & helping. I wish he'd help me too but I am delighted he's that into gardening.

Photos

A fortuitous event in the garden. For some time I've been eying the cestris parqui with a view to chopping it and replanting with native trees. I've always held back because it flowers for 11months of the year and is used as last resort by nectar eating birds, and a first resort as a perch for scrub wrens. New planting would take some time to kick in as perches/shelter.
A fierce wind tore down one of the trunks this week, the one that held up the other trunk ( it's an odd, non-woody and feeble plant). Nature has intervened, so I'll dig up the roots and plant a tree next week.

Nature has intervened yet again, and fierce winds have ripped out what little remained, so now I have room for three trees. I'll go for banksia integrifolia and marginata. Each can be huge, but when planted closely behave them selves.

I'll try again so that quoting myself makes sense:

A fortuitous event in the garden. For some time I've been eying the cestris parqui with a view to chopping it and replanting with native trees. I've always held back because it flowers for 11months of the year and is used as last resort by nectar eating birds, and a first resort as a perch for scrub wrens. New planting would take some time to kick in as perches/shelter. A fierce wind tore down one of the trunks this week, the one that held up the other trunk ( it's an odd, non-woody and feeble plant). Nature has intervened, so I'll dig up the roots and plant a tree next week.

Nature has intervened yet again, and fierce winds have ripped out what little remained, so now I have room for three trees. I'll go for banksia integrifolia and marginata. Each can be huge, but when planted closely behave them selves.

Name changed again as realised other new name was similar to someone else on here. I want nectar eating birds now , sounds so exotic !

I'm very behind with Gardeners World so about to start my Saturday morning catchup.

Searabbit I'm impressed with your DS bad lovely pictures.My DD has finally shown some interest in plants now she's left hide and wants an amaryllis as she was impressed at the speed mine grew. She sounded quite disappointed when I said she'll have to wait for a bit.

The kiwis I started from seed are doing well, I'll sort some photos soon.

Every cloud has a silver lining echt! Had you got bored with cestris parqui, as it looks pretty, or does it have particular disadvantages?

The English Garden magazine has a feature on the National Dahlia Collection that I visited, and that features in my above photos, in this month's edition. Does anyone else read it? I really enjoy it as I find the gardens featured are more interesting than in The Garden, and you get a better quality of garden objets featured. I get free online access via our library's Zinio which is fantastic. Zinio also offers Country Life: from copies in our dentist's waiting room I realised it has very good garden sections. And I can drool over the houses. One of the recent girls in pearls was photographed in a hard hat on an oil rig, as she's an engineer, so I wondered why she wanted to feature in CL as having just got engaged. But hey that's her choice.

sea no - that is my next project. I am raising the front garden ( weirdly larger than the back) and starting it from scratch again. It is going to take a lot of chemicals, I suspect over more than one year. I feel a bit bad about that but can't see any other way to get rid. First spray next weekend, next at Easter and then a couple of times over the next summer. Hopefully it will give me time to redo the hard landscaping & get rid of yet more hardcore / extension rubble.

I wasn't bored with the cestris, SeaRabbit but wanted to plant native trees. Cestris should really by kept low and shrubby, as the "trunks" are not woody, so bow under the weight of their leaves. This is why long term they'll get torn by the wind.

Anyway, I took an axe to it today, and also cut down lots of dracaena to make light and space for a banksia serrata, the third one I've planted in the garden.
It's all looking very bare now that the screening plants have gone. The dracaena will, like the Terminator, be back.:o

It's probably very therapeutic to have a good old hack echt. How are you doing?

I've just placed a tulip order with Sarah Raven. After years of dithering I have finally ordered her Brandy snap collection, plus Dolls Minuet and Prinses Irene. It's sort of sad as it's the end of summer, but I do love tulips, and this is what one does at the end of summer (though I also ordered some from Shipton Bulbs back in May, after seeing Tulipa Sprengeri at Sissinghurst). I don't have that big a garden and I have ordered a lot of tulips.

New to all this and only have a small balcony
Debating getting a plant stand so I can buy some winter bedding plants to put in a low trough but not sure as its a windy spot and I can't fix it in any way

Now looking to see if I can fashion something home made, if I can make some sort of low step that will be fine I think.

I should probably get some indoor plants as realistically by the time I get home from work in winter I won't be able to see what's on the balcony anyway!