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.

GuyFawkes Why's pruning the rose scary? Apart from the obvious that it fights back.

I've been weeding my son's garden today (I enjoy weeding and I know what I'm doing; he doesn't) - it's a mark of the weather we've been having that all the Herb Robert had been frosted back to the ground, and was lying in sad flat circles of black foliage. Can't recall seeing that before.

I am always a bit scared I'll do it "wrong" but just remember to thin out centre, prune to outward facing bud, remove any crossing stems. Think that's about it?!!

@GuyFawkesDay I just hack at my roses without a clue what I’m doing and so far it’s been fine. We cleared our horribly overgrown front garden (ivy, a climbing rose and all sorts of weeds) last spring and by summer there were roses growing in the tree at first floor height. The secret might have been that we didn’t want them to come back though!

I am also of the savage hacking school of pruning. I rather enjoy it.

I savage pruned the leylandii that overhangs my fence this winter. Next door planted it so close to the boundary we had to move our fence in. This means I now hang over the fence and obliterate it back to my property line. It's vile.

Oh yes. Savage pruning of leylandii fan here too. When we moved into this house nearly 2 years ago there was leylandii and conifer everywhere. Took great pleasure in cutting them back, and watching the tree surgeons decapitate the leylandii that had got to 5m in the back of the garden. Our garden is littered with tree stumps from overzealous planting for 'quick screening'. I'm now very wary of planting anything that could become invasive like that.

We are stuck as next door is an older lady. She won't take them out as it'll cost a fortune so just got to keep on top of them. And one day we can claim back the foot of garden we've lost!

I’m weeding around the raspberries today, and hacking brambles back again from next door (both sides!) I did it late Autumn but it already needs doing again. Our sweet peas have germinated on kitchen windowsill so I frequently stand with a cuppa watching them. 😁 (I don’t think they’ll be a success here in Highlands but a neighbour has the them so we’ll see...his house is more sheltered though. I miss sweet peas)

I was waiting to sow sweet peas for a week or two yet, will I be too late? I started some in autumn in the conservatory but I have only one that germinated and is very leggy . I haven't sown sweet peas before!
I've used the garden focused website and it suggests I should sow at the end of Feb in order to align with the last frost date

OMG we are going to Chelsea! Never been before. So exciting!

I sowed sweet peas at this time a couple of yes ago and had a lovely display that summer

@MrsBertBibby how fab! Never been either, looked at website and its now moved to September which could be doable. I fancy the Hampton Court Palace show too.

@TiddleTaddleTat everyone has last frost approximations that are different to each other, our geography does make a difference, I’m sure you’ll be absolutely fine. I have to get mine as strong as possible before going out as we are very North.

@MrsBertBibby Oh my how exciting!!

@MrsBertBibby

OMG we are going to Chelsea! Never been before. So exciting!

Hope you enjoy it! Wear your most comfortable shoes!

I have so many fond memories of going, mostly with my late aunt, we always used to go on the last day, in the days when they sold stuff off for pennies. I think one trip we managed to stagger up to the tube with 13 bags of plants between us. To this day I don’t know how we managed it.

I hope they cut down on the numbers a bit because of COVID, we stopped going when they let in so many people it was almost impossible to move (and when they started charging so much for the end of show plants.!)

It will be interesting to see how they do it in a different season too, I don’t think the bulb people will be there for a start which is a shame because their displays were always so spectacular and mouthwatering.

I started some in autumn in the conservatory but I have only one that germinated and is very leggy You can pinch out the tips and that encourages side branches to grow.

I now routinely sow in the autumn, but when I used to sow in the spring I'd probably sow in March, about 2 weeks after broad beans.

email from David Austin popped up today - 2 roses I'd forgotten I'd ordered. They are old English style, Isfahan and Felicia. New front garden and I must have planted about 8 rose bushes now. Never had the space for them before.

It's still claggy and wet out there...but I need to transplant things from the back garden where the builders are about to move in for the summer.

@MrsOmelette @MereDintofPandiculation thanks I will give the sweet peas a go once my vermiculite delivery arrives and have already hopefully pinched out the tip of the one successful seedling I sowed in autumn. I've hopelessly watered the rest in the hope that they will germinate soon too.

I've managed to get out into the garden for an hour or two for the last few days and it's done me the world of good. DH has been enjoying it too. I've had long covid for the past year and still have to be careful with gardening as it can leave me feeling fatigued for days. It can be very hard physical work at times.
Today I cleared our new bed and planted in some Heathers that were in a pot I wanted to use for something else.
Cut back the leaves on my hellebores - they have the dreaded black spot, it appears. Didn't realise I should have cut the leaves back in autumn, they look lovely now.
I've potted up a couple of new virburnums to brighten a dull concrete area of the garden.
It's looking so much better already.
This will be the first year that I've thought properly about views, aspect, and structure in the garden. Usually I do nothing until March when I panic sow far too many seeds (usually too early) then have a really high failure rate by putting them out too soon.
Hopefully this year summer can be a chance to enjoy the garden rather than sit looking at unpainted broken fences and ugly views etc. Although I know there'll always be more to do!

@TiddleTaddleTat it sounds like the garden will help rejuvenate you this summer, you have my commiserations having to learn to cope with Long Covid! I find gardens so therapeutic. Tomorrow I’m planting star jasmine, Virginia Creeper and honeysuckle - aiming to give the garden some long term structure. I also have a lovely new buddleja to plant called Berries & Cream which I can’t wait to see in flower.

I had a rather large spending accident at the garden centre involving new pots.

Oh @TiddleTaddleTat I understand, I have long covid too. GP has warned not to push through the bouts of fatigue. I’m overcoming one right now and excited about getting out in the garden this weekend to at least plant my azaleas. Huge hugs and best wishes.

I had a rather large spending accident at the garden centre involving new pots I think I know the feeling You go in for a single bag of compost but somehow when you get to the till it's £84.53

@Procrastatron it's so hard isn't it. I found the sun quite triggering for some of my symptoms last summer but have been feeling better over the past couple of months. Really hoping I can enjoy some gardening and sitting out in the garden this year.

Hope you are all feeling better soon. Long Covid sounds dreadful.

@TiddleTaddleTat I didn’t notice the sun being a trigger for me but then I am so pale I tend to hide in the shade as much as possible. I have already preordered by parasol for this summer as I couldn’t get hold of one anywhere last year.

On a separate note my group three clematis remains unpruned. Apparently I need to look for a pair of strong buds but all the strong buds I can see are single sided. I’ll have another look at the weekend but any advice? First time clematis owner!