The first rule of potting shed is YOU ALWAYS talk about potting shed. The thread continues.

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Here goes, and feeling bit cheeky as I didn't post much on the last one.

A fine autumn day here, with much seasonal clearing done. Now I come to think of it, is there ever a non-clearing season? :o

I will be staking this year!

Ooh where did you buy good dahlia seeds from?

I got Bishops Children dahlia seeds from Sarah Raven.

Yes i was looking at those this morning!

My orchids are on a sunny windowsill and get a thorough soak once a week/fortnight and occasional pour and feed. Three are currently starting to flower. I have them in glass pots which they seem to like.

On staking, I need to find a better way to support my climbing beans as they were leaning a lot last year! Currently thinking longer bamboo canes that go deeper into the soil and some proper corner posts, but open to ideas!

Last year I wondered about leaving some Chrysanths in over winter. I took a chance and one of them had flowered already.

Una I found a supplier of hazel poles, which are so much sturdier and more attractive than bamboo canes. They are about 2-3 inches diameter, with pointy bottoms. More stable - Possibly because you have to dig a hole to put them in which I never do with bamboo... anyway I find they are so much better than bamboo and I also grow clematis up them now.

Sounds promising Searabbit, will have a look for those. Part of the problem is that our raised beds had lovely light soil which was perfect for carrots but useless as pole support!

Hazel poles would be SO much nicer than bamboo, will have a look for them here.

Has anyone ever grown a David Austin James Galway rose? I emailed them to ask what would be suitable for a container (for a year or two as we're moving round a lot) as a climber, and they were so nice and emailed back immediately with recommendations (one of which was James Galway) and planting instructions. Really impressed.

Also surprised to see that Sarah Raven dahlia seeds cheaper than thompson and morgan and there's 15% off seeds until tomorrow with code SOWJAN18.

Hello green fingered gods!
For some crazy reason I thought it a good idea to buy some seeds in the autumn sales. In my haste to grab a bargain I forgot I’m not a very good gardener! I also rent and made the mistake of having to leave a lot of lovely (varying cost) plants that had just established in the last house

So here I am! I’ve bought a small plastic greenhouse to get going (my bargain is looking less like a bargain now). Is it too early to sew —kill— the seeds?

I went seed crazy this time last year, and got a load of lovely plants just by doing what it said on the packet. Being pretty much a total novice.

I unearthed a heated propagator that had come with all the OH's stuff from his old place which was brilliant for getting them started, i would be starting now but my propagator spot is otherwise engaged just now!

Smashing, it's probably too early for almost everything. Where about in the country are you, and what sort of seeds do you want to plant? I'm south coast of England and won't be planting until February at the earliest, and that will be on a windowsill inside.

Hello.

I’ve had a lovely few hours planning a cutting flower raised bed and a couple of veg ones. Cup of tea, seed catalogues, journal. Bliss!

My target for this year is to sow more seasonal flowers ( I love pinks purples blues and whites so flowers peak June with little colour in Aug/Sep ) - I’ve ordered rudbeckia seeds and am planning more dahlias and snapdragons.

Last year we had a courgette and tomato glut, so plan on reining in those two a bit and growing more broad beans, salad crops and herbs. May do some carrots too.

I had a mooch round the garden yesterday and was glad to see lots of narcissus bulbs beginning to break through. There's lovely scent from daphne and winter box, too.

My gardening resolution is to be more prompt in planting things as I buy them.

What is the best way to test soil please? in a new house so unsure.

We may only be here for a year so having to do everything in pots. But nice biggish lawn for the kids so not all bad.

Nemaslug were the saviour of our tiny London garden which was above the river Fleet and so eternally damp and overwhelmed by slugs and snails.

But the thing that really worked as a double whammy was Sluggo from Sarah Raven which claims to be organic and biodegradable - but surely it must count as a pesticide?

What do organic gardeners use on e.g. greenfly on roses?

Looked out at the garden yesterday & thought "I should probably get out there soon"
What are you all up to this week?

Giddy - you can buy a pH testing kit in any fair-sized garden centre.

I tend to ignore greenfly on roses in the hope that hungry ladybirds will take care of them. I do have a huge slug problem, though, so am off to look up Sluggo.

I bought ladybird larvae for my lupins last year. Not sure it did much good!

I have some of the "good" slug pellets which are effective, but I don't know if they are really OK for foxes and hedgehogs and birds.

Yes, I felt like no small wildlife like hedgehogs and certainly not foxes etc could get into my walled yard-type garden (mostly paved except for brick walled borders. Which was probably one of the reasons why there were SO MANY HUNDREDS of slugs and spiders - my god, the spiders - and weird things in such a tiny space. The spiders I used to catch with a humane spider catcher thing and remove to park short distance away - I mean, i like spiders but it was at the point where when i was in the garden I could feel the billions of spidery eyes watching me, there were so many huge stripy ones! But the snails had enormous colonies stuck to walls. But they LOVED sluggo, I used to stand in the kitchen fasincated/horrified at my own snail-blood-lust as they galloped across the paving to gobble the pellets up. Unbelievable. Also, snails can move remarkably fast!

Ah. Turns out Sluggo are just the "good" slug pellets only at SR's inflated prices.

The other thing I could recommend is a small pond. I have a tiny pond in an old zinc bath, in which two frogs now reside. Because I was concerned about the frogs, I didn't use slug pellets last year and the slug and snail problem didn't get any worse and (although it's hard to tell) might even have got slightly better.

Oh, that is disappointing. I don't know if I would use them then in a bigger garden. Have to see what the slug population here is like come spring but imagine (damp, cool) it's pretty healthy.

We have bird feeders in the garden, so lots of birds, and at first we didn't have many slugs. Then the neighbours on 3 sides got cats, we got fewer birds, and then we seemed to get more slugs. But it could have been wetter weather. For a variety of reasons the cats have gone, so I look forward to seeing if I have fewer slugs in future.

I tried that expensive sheep wool slug stuff to protect some blue meconopsis but sadly it was useless.

Before I gave up on hostas and before it was withdrawn, I used to use the Slugclear liquid. I wonder how soon it'll be before the frogs become active ...

I too have noticed a decline in bird numbers since several more cats arrived in the neighbourhood. I find it hard to attract anything but squirrels to the bird feeders, but keep trying.

Ooooo hello! Can I join this thread? Getting excited about the garden again, started clearing and tidying up at the weekend and found a dead mouse in a bowl of water my Ds uses for a mud kitchen 🤮

Anyhow, so looking forward to spring time!