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Gardening

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

Original poster

Gardening chat

461 replies

Procrastatron · 27/01/2021 11:53

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.

OP posts:
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Original poster
Procrastatron · 11/04/2021 18:17

Ooh I have! I cut the lawn and fed all of the plants in my one bed and many pots. I then treated myself to a trip to the garden centre to buy some climbers to grow up the worlds ugliest shed. The shed and it’s base are so big we can’t afford to remove it at the moment.
The utility room nursery continues to thrive which the dahlias now about 8 inches tall so I researched how to pinch out the growing tips when they are ready.
Husband looked on mystified

OP posts:
CheerfulBunny · 11/04/2021 18:34

Which climbers, @Procrastatron ? Ive been thinking about getting some clematis to cover a new fence but I have no luck with climbers. I bought some honeysuckle plugs last year and they've not really done very well. I remember my dad hacking ours back with gusto when I was a kid, it rampaged everywhere!
Sowed a load of seeds today, mostly annuals and veg. I'm trying craspedia and achillea which I'm excited about and those cute cucamelon things. Tucked up in the propagator now, hope they come up.

MereDintofPandiculation · 11/04/2021 18:38

@CheerfulBunny You're being impatient with the honeysuckle. First it will put down a good root system, then it will throw out long shoots to scramble up and into the sunshine, and only then will they start to flower. If they were plugs last year, then I'd be looking for long growth this year and hoping for the first flower next year.

CheerfulBunny · 11/04/2021 18:49

Oh blimey, thanks @MereDintofPandiculation. I didn't realise honeysuckle was such a long game. It's one of my favourite scented flowers so I will persevere.

Original poster
Procrastatron · 11/04/2021 18:56

@CheerfulBunny funnily enough it was a clematis and a honeysuckle. Both in pots though so I can move them when the shed finally goes. Both in 2-3 ltr pots so quite a bit of growth on them already

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LoveFall · 11/04/2021 19:10

I am seeing signs of life in my balcony planter despite our cold and windy weather. It is supposed to warm up this coming week. I have arugula sprouting, plus lettuce and spinach. I have transplanted tiny little chive sprouts outside.

Sadly I think the cold wind knocked out my nasturtium seedlings, but I still have some more indoors.

Vancouver's cherry trees are blooming, as well as rhododendrons.

NutellaEllaElla · 12/04/2021 16:41

Well i'm not seeing anything from my Rudbeckia seeds on my windowsill which I am impatient about despite only planting them probably about a week ago.

I'm looking into having a garden designer come round to completely overhaul the shape and construction of the garden. Looks like just the design will cost £1k but DH reckons that he and I can do a lot of the labour ourselves. I think that might be quite optimistic but we don't want to spend ££££ on it so we will do our best and buy in the specialist stuff. They're all busy bees though. It seems that people have not just been getting on with home improvements.

whatswithtodaytoday · 12/04/2021 19:03

I potted up three new dahlias two weeks ago and they're not showing anything - they've been in a nice light conservatory as my greenhouse is full, so I'm getting a bit worried and am glad to hear others' aren't up yet. Have started putting them outside during the day for even more light.

Beebumble2 · 12/04/2021 19:07

Whatswith I think it’s a bit cold, I’ve only got 1 cm of green showing on one of 3 pots.
LoveFall I bet Vancouver’s looking beautiful with all that cherry blossom. A beautiful green city, I’m envious! Hope to get back there one day.

Bluebird2021 · 13/04/2021 00:30

Went to clear the leaves under a photinias today and found a spattering of snakes head frittileria I had forgotten was even there. Nice little surprise

My themed bed needs some additions so off to look round our garden centre when I’m back in work (I work there). I fill this little bed with purple plants/flowers.... just purple. My polonium is flowering with a scabiosa and aubretia. Very pretty

AlwaysOnTheRun1014 · 13/04/2021 01:03

Hi all,
New to Gardening & loving the thread, please can someone tell me how they save their dahlias over winter ? I had some lovely ones in the pot last year got from Sarah ravens & they were left on patio over winter. Haven’t come back this year :(

I have a log cabin, should I be moving all tender plants over there in winter ? Will they survive without light and water ?

AlwaysOnTheRun1014 · 13/04/2021 01:06

I have potted up agapanthus, watered and left outside on patio. Hope that’s the correct way.

Gardening is soothing and keeping me sane around my teenagers.

Beebumble2 · 13/04/2021 07:45

Always none of your tender plants will survive without light or water. So not a good idea to put them in the cabin. If you’ve not got a greenhouse, porch or covered space with light, you could construct a shelter in part of the garden. Only a few, well established plants survive in winter with a little watering, but all will need light.
Dahlias in pots can die back and regrow the next year, it’s a little early to see any regrow that yet. Do give them a little water now, but not too much.

AlwaysOnTheRun1014 · 13/04/2021 09:03

Thank you, I will try to build a shelter and group them together under it.

Original poster
Procrastatron · 13/04/2021 09:22

Just had a surprise Sarah Raven delivery. Dispatch emails seem to be optional 😁

OP posts:
whereiwanttobe · 13/04/2021 09:27

@AlwaysOnTheRun1014 dahlia survival overwinter depends quite a lot on where you live. Ours would die if left in the ground or pots outside (East Midlands).

I dig mine up after the first frost each year, when the leaves have blackened and died. I cut off all the dead vegetation and some of the smaller roots, then they get stored in cardboard boxes in the loft, cushioned in vermiculite. Your log cabin would be perfect for that.

There's a Gardener's World clip where Monty puts his to bed for the winter which is worth watching. I think he just uses old, dry compost or newspaper though.

Mine are now in the greenhouse in pots and a few shoots are just coming through. They'll be planted out in May, when there's no more risk of frost.

MereDintofPandiculation · 13/04/2021 10:52

Only a few, well established plants survive in winter with a little watering, but all will need light. Plants that die back over winter won't need light until they start putting up new growth in the spring.

Beebumble2 · 13/04/2021 12:45

I assumed Always was referring to her tender plants in the green.

MilduraS · 13/04/2021 22:13

@Procrastatron I had two deliveries from Sarah Raven this year... in both cases my dispatch emails arrived a day after the plants. Gave me a good laugh but I still can't help keeping an eye out for a dispatch email for a fern I ordered from them over a month ago...

hedgehogger1 · 13/04/2021 22:14

I grow dahlia from seed. Works really well and you just dig up the tubers at the end of the season for next year

GrouchyKiwi · 14/04/2021 13:10

Our new fence is up and it is so good to be able to use that part of our property. It feels like we've almost doubled our usable space. The children are having a great time riding their bikes and the dog is enjoying giving passersby a fright by barking at them (I don't encourage this, don't worry).

I've bought 20 colourful little pots to hang on the fence and will go to the garden centre on Friday to buy plants to fill them. They'll look so pretty hanging there.

Am halfway through weeding and prepping the vegetable garden, so when that's done I'll have to get on with the flower borders. There's far too much to do at this time of year; I might have to think about making things lower maintenance.

AlwaysOnTheRun1014 · 14/04/2021 13:37

So Meredinto, can I put plants in the cabin over winter months ? It has glass windows so gets some light.

MrsBertBibby · 14/04/2021 17:03

Just had a surprise Sarah Raven delivery.

What did you get?

MrsBertBibby · 14/04/2021 17:05

Took a friend to buy plants for a long stretch of top-of-a-wall border yesterday.

Plant shopping with non gardeners is hard!

MereDintofPandiculation · 14/04/2021 20:59

@AlwaysOnTheRun1014

So Meredinto, can I put plants in the cabin over winter months ? It has glass windows so gets some light.
Depends! If they have top growth and leaves over winter, no. I they die down to ground level, probably yes, as long as you can move them to somewhere light (if nothing else, right up against the window) as soon as they start into growth. But if they need to be frost-free, you'll need somewhere a bit warmer than your shed (or put a paraffin heater in on frosty nights - beware of fire risk).