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

[echt]

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

Have PMed back!

Hope it all works out. I donated some cuttings I'd taken of our redcurrants to our local Community Farm, and got a lovely earth-mothery feeling from it.

I'm impressed at people getting any gardening done at the moment as the weather is pretty foul.

And finally... I have had a sprig of Daphne Aureomarginata by the bed for 3 nights and it still smells gorgeous. It also looks more elegant than I would have thought. I just love the clean cold scents that you get from plants that flower at this time of year.

Yes, that earth mother feeling is rather comforting!

Blimey, the Dahlias and mesembryanthemums have sprouted in 3 days flat!

Wow, Bert! Well done!

I think I'll have a go at cosmos and cobaea from seed this year. I'm a bit rubbish at seeds, but it's worth a shot.

I've been having a plant spree today - have bought some little shrubs for growing on and then gone rather berserk online. But one can never have too many clematis, right?

Indeed one cannot maud*. I am thinking of getting another evergreen one, perhaps a white flowered one.

Thank you for validating my spendthrift habits, FuzzyCustard.

I have an obelisk that's looking rather bare and want to grow clematis up some more shrubs, so I need them. Really need them. Ahem.

Of course you do (note to self, must buy obelisk)

I bought several clematis (clematisses??) from Morrisons last year. £1.79 a throw and they have all done very well. I'll probably do the same this year. I've got lot of hedge I could grow them through.

Taking up gardening is a licence to splurge money, isn't it? I do try to economise - I am a doyenne of the plant stall at fetes and so on - but there's something about the arrival of spring (and the exciting chat here) that encourages me to flex the plastic.

I feel a bit ambivalent about my obelisks - wrong size, possibly in the wrong place and I've certainly planted the wrong thing up one of them - but they did add the much-needed height to the garden when it was new and (like Norfolk), very very flat.

I bought a load of baby plants in the Autumn which are currently residing in the cold frame. Penstemons, astilbes, astrantias, phloxes. I can't wait to get them in the garden.

I have a bolt of willow in the shed and might make a small willow obelisk or two. Height in my garden can be a problem because of the wind. I'd love a rose arch but fear it wouldn't stay upright. We're right in the path of the Atlantic gales.

I have a few babies in the cold frame too - aquilegia and verbascum. Any surplus will go into our community planters.

If I put anything in the cold frame they are going to be very cold as the lid is currently minus the polycarbonate!

Definitely something about Spring that gets me spending on the garden. I think possibly as gardeners it’s about the promise of things to come and the vision of possibilities we see clearly in our heads . We know rationally nature will most likely conspire against the fulfilment of this vision but at this point hope and optimism reigns supreme. And if it all goes horribly wrong there is always another year

Spot on post That's exactly it,...the hope.

I noticed the buds on my Prunus Triloba are fattening and a tiny rhubarb shoot has shown its face. (Not bad since the pot it is in blew over and emptied itself on the patio and the poor rhubarb was quickly shovelled back in with no finesse!)

Yes, it's precisely that. Hope and optimism are the essence of spring gardening.

That, and forgetting that slugs are still a thing.

There's a future thread title in your post there Maud !

Definitely agree about the slug amnesia. I have forgotten that they totally devoured 2 courgette plants and an entire tray of lettuce last year.

Got given a Prunus triloba for Christmas and noticed the buds starting on that. When I said patio almond i'd meant an edible one so ended up buying one and a small nectarine which I must remember are in the shed. DH'S hops dwarf hops plant currently sharing a pot with the Prunes triloba so need to get that in the ground.

Oh slugs. I had forgotten how they ate all my courgette plants, made lace of my hostas, and popped up to say a slimy hello when I was weeding.

After an early January splurge I am trying to not buy any more plants. This is made bearable by the fact that the ones I've already ordered keep arriving :)

What are slugs?

PM me your address, Una, and I'll send a selection of slugs for your perusal. They're the reason I no longer grow hostas.

Una

Thanks for the kind offer Post. As you see we have a few of the blighters of our own. This was a broad bean.

I went out this morning and came home with a Virginia Creeper (the self-sticking sort) to try to cover the AWFUL fence the neighbours put up - right against my boundary but behind their hedge so they can't see it. In my defence it was half price.

And I NEEDED the sweet pea seeds.

Ooh sweet peas. I've not done them before. How slug-tempting are they? I fancy trying to put them up an obelisk in the middle of a bed, or would I be wasting my time?

In my experience (such as it is) sweet peas are quite fussy at the seedling stage, but fairly robust after that and not especially attractive to slugs. I tried starting some off in the autumn (I'll try almost anything that Monty advises) but ended up with very spindly seedlings that perished. The best sweet peas are the ones I buy from the school fair.