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

Mid-summer now and my gardening has been set back by the acquisition of a a puppy whose mission in life is to bite the head off flowers. Much fencing off of the beds has been the order of the day, probably year.

An unexpected discovery, puppy-related as he often sleeps in the day and evening on the back porch, with the door open, is that the hoya carnosa growing up a frame at the door, actually has a smell. one I'd never noticed before, rather like the carnation soap of my childhood.

Hello! I used to be on this thread a long time ago when I was on mat leave with my eldest ( who is soon to be 5)! Am currently on mat leave again and thought I would see if the potting shed was still open but seems a bit quiet. Anyway I will sidle in with a G & T ( rhubarb and ginger really as its my favourite) and see if anyone else wants to join me :)

Echt glad to hear of the puppy and carnation smelling flowers!

It's autumn in Melbourne now, the most reliable season in terms of warmth, though bugger all rain, as has been the case for nearly two years now. I cut back the kangaroo paws, one patch with flower stems 2 metres high, as well as lavender, gathering the flowers for tying up.

I will administer soil wetters tomorrow, the first time I've had to do it twice a year. 😎

Also more fencing to keep the dog off the veggie patches. He's costing me a fortune.

Soil wetters seems such an odd concept but considering how warm it is here already am thinking we will likely end up with a drought again. Obviously not like oz has though! Due to poorly kids I've not made it into the garden today despite the amazing weather. I have a lot of pruning to do and since we broke 4 panes when moving the green house I'll need to fix that ASAP now I'm going to google kangaroo paws!

Ah, the pruning, lots of that, too. I've filled the garden bin

Where I live is sand, not even sandy soil, hence the large number of golf courses, so soil wetters help hold the water near the plants and prevent run-off. One virtue of the soil is you can just stick things in the ground and they grow; succulents especially and native plants that cannot tolerate fertilisers, though it's myth they don't need water. TLC for the first year, and then they're off.

Naturally the veggie patch is nurtured with manure, and mulched liberally with pea straw. The climate ( cool winter, but no frost) means I can harvest from the veggie patch year-round.

I caught an episode of river cottage Australia a couple of days ago and saw kangaroo paws, felt so knowledgeable!

I have slightly sandy soil which is much better then the clay I used to have. We are still having nice weather so am heading out to prune and possibly cut the grass but more to lift the leaves that keep reappearing! I just needs to persuade my five year old outside!

While the Melbourne autumn is its best season, it's looking to be very warm, with little promise of rain. This last week of summer is mostly in the 30s. I see deciduous trees dropping leaves prematurely because of the dry. We need 🌧, lots of it.

I'm planting nothing new at the front as I need to replace some window frames, which means walking over beds.

Watering today, I was stung by a wasp.

On my arse.

Owww! We have plenty of rain right now so as usual I'm behind on my gardening! Need to get my arse into gear (would a wasp sting help) and get the greenhouse fixed so I can plant seeds!

Bonjour gardeners!

I managed to miss the first Gardeners World of the year, I'll have to catch up tomorrow

just popping in ,googled soil wetters echt and will have to have a good read!

any advice on where to buy plug plants for my containers ? would like verbena ,million bells ,bacopa ....stuff .

am I too early to be considering ? I'm in SE London and can shelter the little ones .

Peridito I have got good ones from Wisley in past years, but don't know if they have them yet.

Our local garden centre that always sold a good selection has been knocked down for housing, sob.

Oh thanks SeaRabbit .I've had a quick look at Wisley on line ,but I think you're right - it's a bit early .

Great that Gardener’s World is back. I love the development of The Paradise garden. If only I had the space. Sigh 😔

Our garden centre had plugs available today (NE Surrey)

Hello everyone. I’m another one returning to the fold - used to be semi-permanently in here!

I’m very cheered by the return of GW and hope to have a few hours in the garden today, sorting out the detritus that’s accumulated over the winter. Sadly a couple of shrubs in pots seem to have died, but (every cloud) at least that creates space for something new!

Welcome back Maud (I used to be Poppyseedbagel).

Would you mind telling me which garden centre that is MrsBert?

I was at Wisley this morning and they didn’t have any plugs, but did have a lot of overpriced hairy plant pot herbs. On a more positive note the hellebores camellias and magnolias looked gorgeous.

Hello, SeaRabbit. I remember you as SeaRabbit!

How was Wisley, absence of plugs aside? (I suspect most garden centres will have them in for Easter, which is when they tend to go into overdrive).

This lot, SeaRabbit.

www.knights-gardencentres.co.uk

I suspect they'll get more as spring arrives though, it wasn't a huge range.

I was toying with the idea of buying on line but the first 2 major sellers that popped up seemed to require purchases of 40/60 plus .

So ,I know this has been done to death ,but any recommendations .....

I'm not very skilled at bringing on seedlings and plug plants, so these days I buy individual plants for hanging baskets and windowboxes. Because there's so little wastage I reckon (or delude myself) that it doesn't cost me much more than buying dozens of baby plants and unintentionally killing half of them off. For perennials, I like Hayloft.

I've just had a productive couple of hours in the garden. Did a radical prune of the sambucus nigra, found some forgotten bulbs sprouting in the shed, so slung them into a window box and crossed my fingers, and bid farewell to a dead magnolia.

Me too Maud. I have no dedicated space for seedlings so it works out better to buy plug plants.

I'm unsophisticated and buy mine at Morrisons, Aldi, B&Q and Homebase

Aldi had hanging basket/planter selections of 6 for the past two years although like always they appear on the shelves for one week only. £2.99 for 6 decent sized plants including a trailing fuchsia, trailing petunia, busy lizzy, bacopa and two other trailing things. They'll likely appear around April/May.

I'm having flashbacks to all the poor neglected bedding plants on the supermarket shelves last year. It really makes me cross that they don't water them then claim the wastage back from the supplier

I clearly need to search out Aldi! It’s Lidl which dominates around here and, with the exception of one hardy geranium which is still going strong, their plants don’t seem good quality and mostly half-dead.

A couple of years ago I got plug plants from Aldi . They were brilliant and so cheap!

I missed them last year ,looked on their website a couple of days ago and they were advertising beeding plant plugs on sale for 28 Feb . Gazania, Bizzie Lizzie, Geranium, Lobella or Petunia varieties £ 1.69 for 6 !!

Made a pilgrimage yesterday ...but all gone .

Will keep checking for the next release as I did love them .Will post here .( so long as those of you who live in SE London promise to leave me some )

About 3 weeks ago I picked up the remaining tray of 6 geranium plugs
( £1.99! ) from Morrisons . Our Morrisons looks after their plants and everything I've got from there has been fine .