The potting shed: sheltering from the rain and musing about the garden

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

Years ago, there was a potting shed in which we could recline on slightly faded deckchairs while browsing bulb catalogues, so might it be time to re-open it? I’ve hung some bunting at a jaunty angle and put the kettle on, so come in and tell us about your summer gardening joys (or woes) or plans for the future.

All welcome.

I am fed up with rain…

Me too! There’s so much I want to do in the garden, but it’s sodden.

Yes, such a quagmire!

I’ve been stoically working my way round pruning the remaining roses and inspecting for fungus. I think the Summer Songs, Lady Emma Hamiltons, Julia’s Roses and one of the Warm Welcomes will be the next to go. I should just give up and hoik them out. Likewise the Boscobels and Darcey Bussells - no sign of fungus on those but they’ve always been rubbish as they’re too shaded. Might as well just start again.

Something exciting though - I’m getting a fountain! My neighbour is selling his house. He has a beautiful garden that he’s filled with fabulous garden architectural pieces he’s collected from salvage places and overseas trips over a long lifetime. I’ve always admired his fountain - beautiful antique cast iron (I think) thing he bought from Lassco donkeys years ago. He has offered to sell me it as there’s a drainage problem in that part of his garden that has to be resolved before the house sale, so the fountain has to go sharpish. I have the perfect spot for it!

A fountain? How fabulous! I hope in some way it’ll compensate for the horrible honey fungus.

I pruned the roses in about November, but suspect I was too timid - I usually am with pruning - and ought to do it again.

My best (well, only) gardening moment of the last few days was noticing that the nicotiana langsdorfii, which I grew from seed last year as part of my mission to be more Carol Klein, was still going strong. Now I check, I realise it’s a half hardy perennial and not an annual. Hurrah.

I’m in the east of England. It’s stopped raining so I’ve planted my peonies, some lilies and red hot pokers today!

I have done nothing since October. Bought plants for the new gravel garden area but it all got delayed a bit so we ended up just putting them in the greenhouse over the winter. DH has been watering them but I haven’t checked them for a bit. Mmight wander up and see how they are doing. Can’t even remember what I bought.

I am going away next week for a month so wasn’t really planning on doing anything until I get back mid March.

I might start thinking about where they should go at least. A bit worried DH will decide to plant them while I’m away.

I have a few shrubs I want to move - I suppose now would be a good time.

Is it too early to start doing things? We could still get frost and snow although am in south east?

Peridot - Now is a good time for planting, as long as the ground isn’t frozen or waterlogged. Unless you’re talking about tender bedding plants, obvs.

Hurrah for Maud’s Nicotianas! And Jane’s peonies, lilies and red hot pokers!

I had such a lovely day in a new-to-me garden; I pruned 80 shrub roses and it was so satisfying. Why is it so much easier to do someone else's garden work than my own?!

In my garden I am being very lazy and just standing around drinking in the smell from the daphne, but I did also manage to cut back a load of hellebore leaves yesterday.

Garden is so soggy, I really want to make a start but the weather won't behave. Resorted to planting onions and leeks in seed trays indoors just so I can feel I've achieved something

I’m guessing, SarahAndQuack, that it’s easier to prune someone else’s roses precisely because they’re not yours (or us just me who treats their roses like their slightly wayward offspring?)

That's definitely part of it! But for me it's also laziness ... I just do not want to be out in my own garden in this weather.

I’m the same Sarah. I go and do someone else’s pruning because they’re expecting me and paying me. And I enjoy it, even when the weather’s grim! But it’s so hard to get myself out that door into my own garden. I can make a million excuses to myself and procrastinate for hours. When I do manage to kick myself up the arse enough to go and do something, though, I feel so much better for it.

80 roses?! How fabulous 😀 A new fountain is very exciting @VenusClapTrap . Maybe it is time to start from scratch with the roses and start a new chapter? I have Lady Emma Hamilton. It is a bare root and just not really growing.

I’ve been on the allotment as much as possible but no go at the moment with the rain. I bought a cheap rose arch today that no doubt will collapse after a year or so and a Parade climbing rose from the shop round the corner, the guy at the cash desk says all his customers come back and say how good the roses are, fingers crossed and worth a punt for £3.

A friend is moving and kindly given me some aquatic soil this morning plus a tub of bulbs which are sprouting so they are going around allotment pond. I had some new potatoes in the fridge that were there for a bit and sprouting and they are now out of the fridge chitting and will be grown on cardboard, compost and manure and earthed up with grass clippings, seaweed, leaves and anything else I can find at the time.

Allotment pond has gone well and has newts and snails in it, a dwarf water lily I bought and other plants I got for free as swapped things I had. I had the liner and there were a load of logs around for the edge. Last week I planted 2 patio apples and a pear tree I had in pots and a Logan berry and black currant someone gave me.

David Austin has some retired roses back. D’arcey Bussell, Tess of the Durbivilles and Lady Emma Hamilton. Heritage gives 15% off.

Good morning all. Oh Lordy, it’s actually afternoon already. Where are you all at with garden progress? Mine is exploding - this is turning out to be a very early spring. I fear all my daffs will have gone over before the Hort Soc spring show rolls around in a fortnight.

I have been focussing on my sweet peas. My autumn sown batches got off to a roaring start, so I’ve been busy preparing their new bed, erecting supports, planting them out, tying to canes, and mulching. I should be finishing off the mulching right now actually, but instead I’m having a nice cuppa at the outside table and listening to the birds.

My crown imperials are out already and bringing all the drama.

Well done, VenusClapTrap! My garden is still squelchy, so I’ve done very little beyond hanging out some washing in my misplaced hope that we were about to have a dry day.

Thanks to the tip-off here about David Austin bringing back Lady Emma Hamilton (who I’ve wanted since seeing her in an open garden) I’ve been browsing the catalogue, but have been put off by their description which says (in effect) “this is a terrible rose, so you’d better buy something else”, so I’m still dithering.

What a beautiful picture. I met up with a friend recently who kindly brought Hazel poles so I can construct a wigwam for my sweet peas which were sown a month ago.

@ComeIntoTheGardenMaud I have Lady Emma Hamilton. She has failed to thrive in 2 places so far and is smaller than she started out ! She is now in the allotment for attempt number 3 and actually looking a bit better than before.

Broad beans, chard and peas doing well at allotment. I have pruned the buddleia and leycesteria now uncovered from tangle of brambles and have pots of linaria, valerian and cerinthe to grow by them on bank of stream by my shed. Leaves coming in the raspberries and buds on fruit trees. Have seen a baby slow worm, lots of ladybirds, peacock butterfly, several pairs of ducks, moorhen and goldcrest.

At home my ribes, bergenia, arum lily are flowering along with some bulbs and I am running round hacking bits off any perennials I can and distributing around the place .

I got a root slayer type spade from JML as was half price and been able to get out a forsythia from front and move to back, move 2 viburnum tinus, dig out a holly that went on plant swap site to plug a hole in some guys hedge. Got out a hefty fuschia root and was finally able to get an acer in I got last year and 2 old roses that were a bit rubbish and blocked the path.

Gertrude Jekyll is now in front where forsythia was with a purple clematis. Have planted some bare root hostas to feed the slugs and several bare root peonies as Suttons had a good offer on and I still have bare root other stuff to go in such as echinacea, eryngium and echinops.

Have potted on some cuttings from last year and am very disappointed at gen slim pickings from scattering foxglove seeds. On the plus side poppy scattering was much more successful. The bed by the patio now has Queen of Sweden rose which was there, Mottisfont rose which had been sitting in a pot since buying it last year, a random white rose which has been in a pot looking sad for years and Darcey Bussell. I have echinacea to add to it, hopefully some Astrantia I chopped off last year, maybe more geranium rozanne and there is a peony someone gave me. Now very tired and gearing up to stripping wallpaper before plasterer comes next week.

Wow! You have achieved so much, Seaitoverthere!

<<proffers mug of tea and restorative Hobnob>>

My 30 year old. Acer has died so I have asked my son to dig it up. He is going to get me an Azelea to replace it for my Mother’s Day present.

Tea and hobnob gratefully received, thanks!

That’s sad @Rictasmorticia but a new azalea will be lovely, especially for Mother’s Day.

Blimey Seaitoverthere, you’ve been busy!

What colour Azalea are you going to go for, Rictasmorticia?

Maude I have three Lady Emmas, which remarkably have survived the honey fungus - so far. They have a moment of glory when they first flower every year, then the rest of the time look sad and underwhelming. There are better roses.

I checked my seed trays and my Cosmos, Ipomoea lobata and tomatoes are up already.

I've been digging up Crocosmia
I've been digging up Crocosmia
I've been digging up Crocosmia
It's never ending.
Oh and I lost my Paul's Scarlet rose that I planted when we moved in, in 1985. It's had some lovely years but I've been blighted with Blackspot for a few years now and it just toppled over when I touched it.

I unboxed the pelargoniums which arrived today.

I had spent the autumn digging up crocosmia, which is now in pots waiting to be rehomed at the plant swap.

Next week I will be digging up Crocosmia.