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.

@user1471530109 you haven't left it too late for trees! You can plant bare root in until the end of March (I've been told by the nursery who I've bought my fruit trees from), and container grown specimens can be planted at any time of the year but then they need more watering than winter planted bare roots.

user147 to repair your greenhouse you probably need a sheet plastic supplier. The Internet will give you local suppliers.

I went out today, first time in a while, and I have purple sprouting brocolli! I'm excited as most of last year I had no idea what if grown :-).

@user1471530109 most things grow just fine from last year (or even older seeds). I think parsnips are better with fresh seeds, but most things bwill be fine.

@user1471530109 I've been thinking trees too. We took down a shed and also now have an issue with privacy. I couldn't afford a tree big enough for now so am going to use 2m slat bamboo screening to attach to the brick garage wall to screen in the meantime .
Also thinking about trees. Have ordered a crabapple but made a mistake with the rootstock and it's a rather narrow unattractive shape. Going to put it somewhere less 'focal point' and chalk it up to experience.
Watched more gardening tv this evening and DH and I decided we're going to cut a wildlife pond into our long uninteresting and neglected lawn.

Have ordered a crabapple but made a mistake with the rootstock and it's a rather narrow unattractive shape. Does the rootstock affect shape? I thought it only affected vigour.

Can I use last year's seeds again this year? As in the ones still in the packets? Yes.Most seeds last for several years. The ones with the shortest life are those in the parsnip family - eg parsnip, carrot, dill, parsley. If the seeds are coming to the end of their life, the germination rate may be reduced, so sow ore seeds than you want plants.

They didn't really grow much? Any newly planted plants take time to get a good root system going before making top growth. But the fact you mention one of them having "a few leaves" doesn't sound good - it should have had quite a lot of leaves.

When you choose your apple trees, get two of two different varieties and make sure they're in the same flowering group. They don't pollinte themselves so each will need the other tree for pollination.

Great excitement today, we've ordered 2 trees! A ceanothus trewithen blue, and a gingko fastigiata blagon, which is coming from Italy. We've done huge work out the front, ripping out a hideous conifer hedge, and a crappy stretch of "hedge" made of dogwood and sycamore. We've replanted some hedge, and put a low fence out front. There's a big area of lawn to rip up (it is 90% weed) and plant with shrubs and with the gingko. I have rescued plants in pots all over the place waiting to go in once the digging is done. I can't wait for it to start coming together, it's an absolute muddy hellscape at present!

@MereDintofPandiculation apparently so according to info on the nursery website. It's a spindlebush rootstock that results in a narrow Christmas tree shape apparently.

Quick question, does anyone know if I can buy bare root shrubs or trees now and plant them in large pots? I have a section of concrete and a very unattractive view which I would like to screen with some evergreens that would need to be at least 1.5-2m tall and in containers.
I've seen Cherry Laurel online for a very low price bare root compared to in a container and can pot them ASAP.
Also eyeing up viburnums for lower level interest.

This looks interesting! Planting for pollinators webinar

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/planting-for-pollinators-tickets-135380581965?aff

Quick question, does anyone know if I can buy bare root shrubs or trees now and plant them in large pots? I don't see that's any different from planting n the ground. And since you can heel in a bare rooted plant for a year or more, I think you should be OK.

@MereDintofPandiculation thanks, that's great to hear. I'm mindful of the potential height of the tree/shrub in maturity so would put them in a large pot to start with and hopefully avoid having to repot. I've some nice big 50cm diameter pots that should do the trick.
While I'm at it, any recommendations for evergreen trees or shrubs that provide year round interest , suit a north and west facing wall and would get up to 2-3m high?

Scrap that, max 2.5 m

I love this post!! I have a small garden that has been taken over by a large trampoline that my husband got for the kids...(for the kids...😅🤦‍♀️) I am desperate to regrow our muddy lawn because our st Bernard cross has ruined it with her pee (oh dear) and everytime i try to regrow it...it doesnt last 😅😅 All i grow is garlic and geraniums because I'm not very green fingered!! X x x x x

@Alwaystired4 if you're growing something then there's some green in your fingers

I was looking for the picture thread to post these but I can't find it so posting here instead. I live the way the rain water sits in perfect little blobs in the sedum rosettes that are just emerging from the soil

Maybe photinia red robin, tiddletaddletat? The mature leaves are dark green and the young ones are red.

My parents have one in their garden that has been pruned into a lovely shape. Unfortunately the one I have in my garden had been neglected and needed radically cutting back - it now looks rather untidy with new growth sprouting every which way. So they can be lovely if you pay attention to the shape.

I did a bit of weeding this week - the weeds think it’s spring, if no one else does! My chaenomeles is coming into flower and my lilacs are showing early signs of life. And one very confused pink has flower buds on

I bought myself some orchids that are arriving today hopefully! I wanted something new and nice :)

@megafish I have purple sprouting broccoli too! Don't know when I'm meant to pick it though!

I love hearing what everyone else is doing/planning to do.

When should I start pruning my rose bush/apple tree in a pot? My DM said in spring - does it count as spring yet?

Also my rose bushes - one in the ground and one in a pot didn't bloom much last year. Should I cut them right back or just trim them?

Is there a technique to pruning I should be following?

As you can see I am a total beginner!

I’ve pruned my rose already on the advice of my BIL. He told me to look for the little scar like horizontal lines on the stem and cut just above this making sure that the cut is diagonal to the ground so rain water runs off it. You want the scar/line thing to be facing outwards as that is where the bud will grow from.
I myself am having a group three clematis quandary. I can see it has plenty of buds and Sarah Raven says prune in feb, but snow is forecast.... should I be patient?

@hedgehogger1 I asked on my facebook gardening group, the consensus was immediately as soon as it starts to sprout. Enjoy :D.

Oh thanks best get picking!

If you need weed suppression in an urban garden I would go for using urban 'weeds' like Red Valerian. It honestly flowers all year! If it gets to tall hack it all back by a third/half and it will grow again.

If you want to stop it getting to tall in the first place - like for around paths and patios. Chelsea chop it slightly to encourage branching.

Very useful plant

Sign of spring, but a bit sad. Saw my first bee of the year on a windowsill. Unfortunately it had died but there must have been enough warmth in the sun to lure it out. Plea to everyone to plant early flowering nectar plants. Hellebore are the best I think, then snowdrops and crocus.

Make sure you want red valerian forever if you put it in - youll never get rid of it, it's very deep rooted, and it self seeds everywhere. It is very pretty but can be a pita...