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

Ow ow what have I done?

Pyracantha thorn in the knuckle it is bruised and swollen taken antihistamine getting dettol anything else?

My slugs are bigger than the frogs and toads in my garden, big fat orange jobbies
Backing onto woods and having stoney soil = slug and snail paradise 😡 🐌

Ooh, MrsBert, that does look sore. Have you extracted the thorn or are you waiting for it to work its way out (which I believe is the advice for splinters but seems too hardcore for thorns)?

And welcome, loveablether. We've been blethering on about our gardens for years and everyone is welcome.

::proffers mugs of tea with twigs floating therein::

I can't see anything in there, it went in through thr glove, and then the blood came out through the glove.

It's still swollen and blue looking, but no bigger. Guess I will have to wait and see.

We're gonna need bigger gloves.

And yes, welcome blether.

Before impaling myself on the shrubbery, I was pleased to note several new daffs I put in in October coming up. No recollection of putting them where they have appeared. I wonder of the squirrels did some rearranging? Little furry bastards act like they own the place. Anyway, it was my first venture out since New Year as I've been cough-ridden since NYE, very exciting!

No recollection of putting them where they have appeared.

Yes I have that too, including last year the most exquisite tiny daffodil.
tat I definitely didn't plant - we've been in the house 7 years, so it's taken its time unless the squirrels move from house to house.

MrsBert are your tetanus jabs up to date? Our doctors have a thing about it & RHS says: the tetanus bacterium can enter through cuts or wounds. Since gardeners regularly handle thorny plants, soil or manure, they are at a higher risk of being infected than non-gardeners.

On your good advice, i stepped away from the mini greenhouse (im very excited!) and looked at the seed packets as suggested.
Turns out reading the instructions is good advice so thank you
Ive now realised how bloody carried away i got (they were 10p a packet) i got 20 packets

Please be careful with the 'good' slug pellets, they have less of the poison but it still kills hedgehogs and other wildlife, it just takes longer to do its dirty work on them.

Beer traps for the win!

Random comments...
I can see white at the top of my (few) snowdrops. Hurrah. maybe Spring is in its way. (Says me, looking out of the window at the howling gale and hail)
Slugs are the size of small horses here. I tried to discourage them with clippings of DH's hair, but it didn't seem to work.
The other side of the county (the sheltered side) has daffodils in full bloom. Beautiful but early...and if the wind turns they'll get shredded.

I need to get out into the garden to check on the progress of the snowdrops.

This had slipped my mind, but SeaRabbit's mention of tetanus reminds me that I got horrendous cellulitis in my toe, almost certainly as a result of gardening in flip flops (lesson learnt there) so do keep a very careful eye on the puncture wound.

Yikes! I always garden in flip flops. Actually I have flip flops or boots...no in between for me!

oh, lovely to see this thread in active!
Been reading through the earlier posts.
It is just starting to snow today , but so much has overwintered quite well so far. One of my Erysimum 's is still hanging onto flowers through wind, sleet and rain - it was a Bowles Mauve from Aldi , really cheap. Must get some cuttings .
I hav two orchids which have thrown out new flower shoots - I'm very pleased to hang on to them for another year.
And I too have some white showing on my snowdrops.
The hellebore I bought for my spring pot is flowering beautifully, , it doesn't look like the photo , its more stripey pink, I don't mind, it is still lovely.
I'm trying to sort everything out for proper winter - my enormous bay tree in a humungous pot needs moving under cover ( DH got a sack barrow for Christmas, which will come in very handy!) .
I too got cellulitis a couple of years ago while working in the garden though I think I was bitten through a hole in my crocs ....

I don't think my snowdrops have made an appearance at all - I bought them in the green last year so had hopes that they would do well, but no sign at the moment.

Una mine have only just popped up. It seems every year they do nothing for ages and then surface really quickly. I also have three hellebores in bud and a camellia ("Cornish Spring") just beginning to show pink on the buds. I can't wait for Spring I've already had enough of the rain and gales and need a bit of sunshine on my back.

bookbook I have always grown bay trees in the garden with no protection. Even here in the soggy south west!

No sign of my snowdrops yet either.

In the unlikely event that I can motivate myself to get out of bed 10 minutes earlier tomorrow, I will check on the camellia too.

Bowles Mauve is a fabulous plant - rarely out of flower.

I'm up inYorkshire Fuzzy - we get a bit cold here - it survives, but takes a bit of time to get going again ( mind you, it is picked to death for culinary purposes too....!)
I have lots of lovely pink cyclamen out . Its only the sheltered snowdrops that are showing white

I got up early all enthusiastic and gave all my fruit trees a winter wash spent the weekend weeding grass out of the front flower beds, planting primaries and now I'm looking at the cauliflower leaves and wondering if it's time to chop them down I am a bit wary as I'm not 100% sure which ones are purple sprouting broccoli . I've just read that it's a good time to weed and fork over the ground under fruit trees as it exposes eggs and then the cold weather kills them aiming to do that at the weekend. I really love sunny cold winter days.

We have another storm coming over tonight so I have been out and checked everything is battened down or wedged into a corner. Situation normal!!!

I must get out into the wind and rain and smell the Daphne in the garden today.

We went to Nymans last weekend. It was heaving, though the weather was dull and cold - full of children running about, in a good way.

It was good to be in such a lovely garden (lots of scented shrubs) and to have so many children there. We used to take SeaRabbit Junior when he was little, and there were few other children then.

Strange though, because we'd been to Wisley the previous weekend, on a glorious day, and there was barely anyone there.

I don't think I've ever been to Nymans or Wisley and found it quiet, but luckily they're large enough that one can eventually find a tranquil spot. Did you see the butterflies at Wisley, SeaRabbit?

Hi Maud we've seen them before, and although they are lovely, that is where we were likely to find the crowds, so we didn't go in. In fact that is possibly where everyone was, though there were not many cars in the car park.We do normally go into the glass houses though. We went just before Christmas and they had some witty Christmas displays.

We mostly walked in the sunshine in the arboretum. I especially love the huge old Monterey Pines. We only discovered that area recently, when we went when there with the Foucha one, and it was so busy we were in the overflow overflow car park! But even then the Arboretum was almost deserted.

Ah yes, we've been in the overflow to the overflow car park before now! It's snowing here at the moment, so I probably won't, as planned, go out into the garden to photograph my first snowdrop. Instead, I might visit the nearest garden centre in the hope of spending a gift voucher.

We have our first crocus. Yipeeeeee. What is flowering in your garden.