Gardening chat

[Procrastatron]

I find some areas of Mumsnet quite stressful at the moment due to strong opinions and covid related doom and gloom. Not the gardening section though.
I spend a lot of time daydreaming about my little, slightly wild, London garden and all the lovely things that are on order with various online nurseries or stashed on the decking for planting out soon. I’m definitely novice gardener and happily so and my criteria for plants are along the lines of hard to kill, colourful and weed suppression.

Right now I’m pondering where I should plant my verbena and how well my rose will respond to the cavalier pruning I have it at the weekend.
I’d love to hear what gardening related things other people are thinking about at the mo.

@MrsBertBibby were your SR lavenders a good size? Mine arrived on Thursday too, but look like a plug has been planted in a 9cm pot only the day before. Healthy looking though. I too love the surprise element of Sarah Raven deliveries.

They are indeed very small. I can't say I'm impressed. Sure they'll grow happily enough, though, and at least they've space to grow in their pots until their spots are ready!

@viques

For anyone with empty spaces to fill. If you sign up to H and M (I did it for the free postage) you can buy 300 summer flowering bulbs for £12.00. Not sure if the free postage applies to them though.

Had another look, they are charging about a fiver for the bulbs, the rest in postage. Offer lasts until the 17th.

Is it too early? Too cold to plant yet? Dh says it is. Is it?

I just want to plant some lavender in the back garden.

I had 3 plants last year but Dh hacked it back too hard in the winter and completely killed it.

I've had what I thought were small clumps of healthy grass growing in some of my pots, which I've just transplanted into the bare patches of my lawn. After a quick google it seems I may have just put couch grass down, which is a weed!

Think it might be safer to pull them up again and just let the lawn do its own thing in re-growing.

I have cut the buddleia back. I need a new pruning saw!

Oblomov SR 's planting guide says hardy perennials in pots can go in any time as long as the ground isn't waterlogged or frozen.

Thanks Bert, I don't have pots for it to go in, I want 3 or 4 in my flower bed.

Sorry that's what I meant! If they are in pots now, (as opposed to bare root) they can go in the beds.

Bloody hell, digging up shitty lawn (10% grass, 20% moss, 70% assorted weeds) is hard work! And I haven't yet started carting the sacks up the tip.

However, the shrubs are slowly multiplying all over the patio, and the Gingko arrives on Tuesday, so it needs doing!

I’ve been repairing the lawn, a 4x6 patch along next doors Leyllandi hedge. It was basically bare, with a few weeds. Removed the weeds, gently dug over, top dressed and sowed shaded grass seeds.
The area now looks like a fancy art installation with the protection to keep the birds and cats off!
Hoping it works.

Can I join? We moved to a new house that has an almost completely blank canvas for a garden a few months ago. East facing with tiny narrow borders down two sides but not much in them. We're thinking of building out the south facing border with sleepers to raise it up and make a deeper border. We've marked out the space today so hopefully we can get some sleepers soon, I'm desperate to start planting things.

So far I don't have much inspiration for the North facing border. There's a large tree in the corner of it and other than ferns (which I love) I probably need to research.

Morning all. I have a greenhouse arriving this week!! I've been sowing seeds in the house so far but still have a few packets left to do. Can I sow the new seeds into seed trays in the greenhouse now? And move my existing indoor ones out to the greenhouse too?

They're all flowers, and some tomatoes, if that makes a difference?

After a quick google it seems I may have just put couch grass down, which is a weed! It's a grass. it's got a rather broader leaf than other grasses used for lawns which is why it's not liked in lawns. How have you identified it as couch? Another common grass with underground creeping stolons is creeping bent, commonly used particularly in golf course mixes, and that has quite fine leaves.

I’ve sown all my seeds in the greenhouse, they’re popping up now and the sweet peas are romping away. I prefer to sow in the greenhouse as the seedings don’t go leggy and appear hardier.
I would put your seedings in the greenhouse, as long as no deep frosts are predicted.
It’s useful to have a max/ min thermometer in the greenhouse so you can monitor the temperature.

My ‘sticks’ are coming into leaf! Hurrah

Bloody hell, digging up shitty lawn (10% grass, 20% moss, 70% assorted weeds) is hard work! And I haven't yet started carting the sacks up the tip. Do you have enough room to compost it? If you strip the turfs off (which shouldn't be that hard work delineate a spade's width strip by driving your spade in along the edges to about 10-15cm, then slide your spade underneath and loosen and lift the turf in 30-40cm lengths), then stack the turves upside down, and in about 12 months you'll have humus rich compost.

@Kitsmummy Yes you need to get your tomatoes sown pretty soon, but I'd still have them either indoors or in a heated propagator if they're in the greenhouse. Flowers I'd probably leave till April, but there's no harm in trying a few seeds of each just on the off chance. Seed packet should give an indication.

If you're moving your indoor ones out you'll need to harden them off a bit. Or wait until the weather forecast is warm for a couple of weeks, which is what I do, but that's playing a bit dangerously.

Thank you @MereDintofPandiculation

Sadly Mere, we already have one compost square completely full of terves from a job in October, and my second square (we have two "bins" made from the trunks of some conifers we felled previously) is pretty full of other stuff. Also this lawn is at the front, and the compost bins are right at the back, and a long way up, so it's a lot of work to get them there.

The real effort is loosening them to get the earth and worms out, my fingers ache from scrabbling at the roots. Not taking my worms to the tip!

Also this is so full of really nasty weeds, I don't reckon composting would kill them, they'd just rampage off all over the place.

Anyway, the trees are here! Gingko Biloba fastigiata blagon, and Ceanothus arboreus Trewithen Blue.

Thank you again @MereDintofPandiculation after considering your post I've decided to leave the grass. It's slightly different to most of the other grass on my lawn but I don't mind that. I'd rather it all be green even if the blades aren't all uniform!

@Beebumble2 what are you growing? They look like my tiny apple tree

They’re hydrangea and Weigelia cuttings, struck a bit late last summer. I overwintered them in the greenhouse, but did think they’d died.

Ooh please can I join?
Currently enjoying my small garden with some very productive camelias and oodles of promising looking tulips, and feeling rather smug - forgetting of course that I have sweet FA in the beds once the tulips are over and if I don't get working soon on some plans for summer bulbs and perennials I’ll be staring at bare earth come June

Oooh if you have bare beds, may I suggest you sow linum grandiflora? I put seeds into a new bed last spring, around this time, and they were absolutely glorious. Flowered for months! Trying them in pots this year as my borders are too busy for direct sowing.

These