"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)

I went to another nice NGS open garden today with splendid magnolias and pretty azaleas.
When I got back I marked out a herb wheel from the patch where the grass doesn't grow and edged it with forgetmenots.
I cleaned up the garden table and sat outside in the sunshine and drank some apple juice bought from the open garden.
Indoors I soaked some more sweet pea seeds.
It is perfectly possible to spend a lot of time pleasantly in the garden. I realise I escaped being a wastrel all these years by the skin of my teeth!

I like the sound of your herb wheel funny

I made a concerted effort with last years Tulip bulbs and they have all re flowered, If I remember correctly I buried them quite deep and fed them.

Dh put willow screening up to hide the neighbours uneven hedge hacking. It looks soo much better and relatively cheap to do.

I spent a lot of yesterday pricking out seedlings in the greenhouse. Purple Nigella, from some saved seeds 2 years ago. Globe artichoke, as I love the flowers and Cosmos.

Holly you made me and thank you all for the cat poo offers. His new GF has a cat and a tiny one bed flat with no outside space, so he probably has to deal with cat poo quite frequently but a bit more would be good!
funny what a busy Sunday you had, well done. It was sunny here but not as warm as I thought so had to garden with jumpers on.
I've given my young next door neighbour some of my herbs and hostas and a few foxgloves. I've sown some 'free seeds' that I found on a plant in a council park ( I wrote on the bag that they were cosmos like brown things!?). I've planted out the foxgloves that I grew from seed last year and moved some aquilegias...huge roots on them, I was surprised.
geoff so with your tulips had you dried them in the shed or just left them in the garden? I did a bit of both to not much success. How deep did you bury them, that's probably where I've gone wrong!

We can be like the Macbeth witches stewing him up a proper potion, Maud!!

Gosh, he sounds like a complete tool pizza. You're doing so well to stay busy in the garden. I remember when I found out my ex DP had been cheating on me- my garden looked astounding that summer!! Though it felt awful at the time, it turned out to be for the best in the end - I am much happier now.

pizza it was something I heard to do on gardeners question time. I removed them from pots -leaves attached and buried them quite deeply -as deep as the bulb planter thingy goes, in the Dahlia border. Apparently this prevents them making offset bulbs. I'm pretty sure I fed them too.

Brown cosmos -could it be dahlia? Or chocolate cosmos?

I've got some sunflowers to do that were nicked from a park -brown/orange. I've got foxgloves to give my mum, She has just confided in me that she could never understand why I focused on the garden and not the house when we first moved, since recently moving from town to a pretty village she gets it!

I can add some foxgloves to the potion !

Sounds like lots of gardening action went on this weekend.

Pictures are of a visitor that was in the Pyracantha outside the window earlier.

What sort of a bird is that sugarplum? (assume it's not a sparrow wearing a yellow leaf as a hat as I first thought).

Thanks for the tip Geoff - I'll feed my bulbs this year I think.

Can I recommend Winston Churchill daffodils?

www.jparkers.co.uk/15-daffodil-sir-winston-churchill-1000123c

They are pretty, though the stems are too thick for true elegance - but oh the scent! About 4 in a vase filled the dining room with a gorgeous smell.

Have bookmarked the daffodils, they look lovely. I think it's a Goldcrest, never seen one before and then there he was hopping around on my window . A sparrow with a hat on sounds more fun though !

GOLDCREST! Oh wow, sugarplum you are lucky!!

searabbit - I'm really tempted by your daffs. I had a pretty honky bunch of the bog standard ones in the house when my cat died last year, and I can't get over that association with the smell. Maybe this is the way? What's the smell like compared to normal daffs? (Hard question to answer, apologies).

oooh sugarplum I have only ever seen them in the countryside, and they fly away so quickly and hide. And there was me being really pleased that we finally have a siskin on the feeders this year!
I am starting to feel quite lucky - I now have 5 dahlia tubers sprouting from the ones I rather neglected in the greenhouse over winter. Think I may have to try some more after seeing the dahlia man on Gardeners World on Friday...

I feel very lucky and was quite when it was literally sitting on the window staring at me. Was on the phone and told Brother to hang on whilst I took a picture! At the same time there was a bluetit in the honeysuckle the other side of the window and then later two male robins were fighting it out on the lawn, lots of bird action today. I'm not sure I've seen a Siskin.

Try some dahlia cuttings Bookbook, they're pretty easy.

I'm meeting a friend for coffee on Saturday , in a plant sale. We're just there for coffee though, honestly. She's just confessed to buying 2 peonies at the garden centre this weekend and I remember she bought one at the last plant sake we went to. It makes me feel better knowing I'm not the only plant addict round here. My neighbour is moving and rang today to say new owners are keen gardeners so that's good.

Its my first for dahlias ever SugarPlum - bought as a little bedding pack to fill up some empty space at my allotment. May just try the cuttings, but will probably buy some as well.......:)
I have been at my daughters today, babysitting DGS and she has pots of flowers I did for her last year ( a free packet of a perennial flower mix, which had the most amazing germination rate ) ) I am sure this is a wallflower, but there were none supposedly in the packet. ( showing my total ignorance of wallflowers - never grown them in 35 years)

Certainly does look like wallflower !! Babysitting and pots of flowers, please will you adopt me ?

I put a few astrantia seeds in a pot last Autumn. Things are coming up and I potted one up separately, but the don't look like astrantia. I'm nurturing weeds aren't I ....

Those don't look like baby astrantia leaves, no. I bought a collection from Hayloft last year which I've been growing on, and was pleased to notice earlier that all but one seem to have got through the winter.

While we're identifying plants, any idea what this is? It's another one of my unplanted plants. I think it looks like filipendula, but I'm sure I didn't buy one last year!

Looks like filipendula to me too - it's not 'red umbrellas' is it?

So last year, I tried to grow myrrhis odorata (sweet cecily) thinking 'how hard can it be to grow a weed'. All the seeds failed, I gave up in disgust and shoved the spent compost on the soil. This year, just where I shoved it, I have two plants!

Anyone ever cook with the leaves of this stuff? I hear you can add it in place of sugar to desserts? Does it taste nice?

Please can I join you?
I've been doing a little bit more gardening every year since we bought our house 6 years ago but I don't really know what I'm doing so would value advice! I also think it'll spur me on to do more if I can chat to others about it.
At the moment my tulips are just out and some of the daffodils are hanging on! I've just planted a hebe to fill a gap in a bed that we dug out last year. DD helped me plant potatoes in those big bags at the weekend. I've just done a load of weeding.
I've bought seeds for carrots, spring onions & beetroot which I've successfully grown in pots before and also poppy & sunflower seeds which are for the front garden, I've never planted either before. I'm also planning to grow lots of herbs in a window box.
I like to grow things I can eat or things that attract bees, birds and butterflies!

Welcome, PurpleRibbons. We're always glad to have newbies. You've reminded me that, although I'm pretty hopeless at growing things from seed (and only marginally better at taking cuttings), I want to try some sunflowers this year.

Welcome purple ribbons (forgive spelling - iPad won't allow correction). I like to grow edibles, and bird & bee friendly things too.

Holly it is hard to describe the scent of Narcissus Winston Churchill - it is very different to that of normal daffodils- it is rather like Cheerfulness - very sweet and floral, perhaps a bit like freesia used to smell and no longer do!

I also grow Sweet Cicely (in very deep dampish shade, when it's very happy). It has a soft aniseed taste, and the leaves are sweet. As I don't really like anise flavours I've never used it in cooking - one day I will give it a try though. But it is very pretty.

My dahlias are starting to come through too - I'm always afraid they won't. And this year I will pinch them out - I've only been growing them for about 4 years, having grown all but one from seed. Didn't realise you're meant to do it (doh!) - hence some have been on the scraggy side...

Thank you for the welcome. I've just planted some beetroot seeds in a container and done some more weeding. Had to stop because my back hurts!

I have just replanted my big herb bed in my south-facing front garden. My house is on a slope and the bedrock is only around 30-40cm below the front garden, though I have positively metres of soil by the time we get to the back. Acres of privet round here also mean that it wasn't getting much water- the conditions were too fierce even for gravel garden plants, so I constructed a raised bed. It was lovely and full last year, but all the organic matter has now rotted away, so I've been topping up with fresh topsoil from the back garden. It looks so much better for the addition! I've had to raise all the plants commensurately - except the central fig, which actually has some fruits on it this year!!

Welcome purpleribbons do tell us what flowers you have in your garden!

Shove what herbs did you plant?

I got sent an email by houzz detailing a modern urban garden.

This had all the features I dislike about 'modern' urban garden style ie

-the lawn ripped out and replaced by white sandstone
-tall metal planters
-small raised beds
-no roses, no fruit trees, no clematis no honeysuckle but lots of posh names for what there was.
-ratio of plants to hardstanding was 1/5 plants: mostly hard standing
-enough night lighting to attract all the local moth population
-no place for birds to nest

There has been a movement to stop front gardens being replaced by impermeable paving. I do think this should apply to back gardens as well.

I'm keeping my back 'lawn' on principle. I like its soft green look, even if the green is one third moss and daisies. I prefer it to stark white sandstone any day.

The thing with small gardens is that in my opinion it is quite easy for all the hard surfacing and 'furniture' (this includes chairs, tables, sheds, gazebos, greenhouses, decking, statuary, water features, barbecues, paths, raised beds, tented roofing) to completely overwhelm the trees and plants.

Of course garden designers put in a lot of this stuff because they make more profit out of it and because they can contract out to the landscape contractor and don't have to put in so much thought to plants or so much work into the planting. Its a quick and profitable fix to strip down an existing garden and pave it all over and add in some box balls and call it modern. But I dislike it intensely.

On the other hand I also think the small privet or box hedges bordering flower beds as at Sissinghurst are out of date. They shade the plants in the beds and hide them from the sight of the seated observer. I know Monty grieved for his but I saw a herb bed bordered with box at a local garden and no herbs could grow within 12 ins at least of the box border. No good for a small garden imo.

today as I discovered that for some reason I bought a whole load of dark maroon pom pom dahlias which must have seemed like a trendy and good idea in the shop at the time but i reality won't fit in the garden as the darker colours recede into the shade when the oak comes out in leaf.

Funny could you put your lovely- sounding dahlias in the front, or in pots?

I agree with you on modern small garden design, and the reasons for it. I also like to gaze on my patch of grass/moss/plantains/clover. The freshness of the green is calming - can you imagine the light & heat bouncing off white paving on even a moderate day? And it never changes.

Heading home early as have been at a meeting close to my station- planning to pot a Happy Halloween orange dahlia I bought a while ago & only remembered after my above post on dahlias.

Just been out doing some more weeding. There is a huge plant in our front garden called a phormium. I quite like it as it's very low maintenance but it's taking over a bit. Does anyone know if I can divide it and if so how/when should I do that please?

Purple Ribbons sorry I don't know. My mum used to have one her gardener cut it back, but I'm not sure when. It's still alive btw -she moved.

I've just discovered that hairy bitter cress is edible - bit like watercress - quite nice!

I'm with you on the grass funny I also don't like the box surrounded beds -bit too tidy for my taste. I really liked the Italian themed garden though big dreams, she took up her grass, Monty said long grass is good for wildlife short grass is not. Mine is mostly dandelions, moss and creeping buttercup.