The 2026 Gardening Programme Thread

[NebulousSadTimes]

Welcome 🤗. Pull up a chair, or an upturned bucket, grab a handle-less mug of whatever takes your fancy, ignore the cobwebs in the corner, there are some seed catalogues on the potting bench for you to entertain yourself until someone else pops in to chat about whatever has taken their interest on the telly or radio in all matters gardening 🌻🐞🌿🐝🍄🐌

I've got mine in a pot @helplessbanana , quite a shallow one, about 5" deep. That might be a way for you to give it the conditions it prefers. I can't remember what I used, probably a mixture of garden soil, compost and grit, which is my usual go-to.

Following with interest!

It's lovely to hear about people's plans. I've got bulbs planted in pots that are coming up now: snowdrops, crocuses, tulips, iris reticulata and Nectaroscordum Siculum. Plus I need to plant out my indoor Christmas hyacinths and hellebore.

As I probably have the smallest garden on the thread (9 foot by 12) all pot advice is welcome. Plus, what should I do with my amaryllis when it's finished flowering. (I'm in the South West.) Can it live outdoors?

Pretty winter shrubs I'd choose (albeit more for for flowers and scent than bright colour) are winter flowering honeysuckle (smells of lemon sherbert) and daphne odora (just beautifully perfumed). You'd need to trim the lonicera occasionally...

https://hayloft.co.uk/lonicera-fragrantissima-g-k08883

My garden is this size and also in the SW! I'm going to be stalking you!!

I put my amaryllis outside in the summer (beware slugs and snails) and feed it up. Then in September, stop watering and hide it in a dark cupboard for a couple of months. I bring it out in November, water again and it grows!

Hi!

Do you have pots on pebbles/gravel/paving stones. Or actual soil?

I have levels..so decking, paving, paved side return and ( sorry) some good fake grass. (In my defence I wanted real, but the hardstanding of an old garage wouldn't allow it. )
I've got some raised beds round the edges and lots of pots, including fruit trees in big ones.

Pics of it last May.

Love it! Especially the white clematis. Plus owning the fake grass. But that is NOT 9' by 12'. This is....

@CrystalSingerFan, small is beautiful! I also have a small garden (London), and lots of pots. My advice would be to grow cannas in large pots (40cm diameter plastic pots work well). They have amazing foliage, and lovely flowers that keep growing until the first frosts. Some varieties grow over 3m tall in a summer, so they will give you privacy and a lush feeling, provided you keep feeding and watering them. If you can start rhizomes indoors in Feb/March, they will reward you with amazing growth all summer and autumn.

There are lots of things you can grow from seeds that are suitable for pot gardens. Zinnias, nicotianas, Californian poppies, morning glories are all easy to grow and happy in pots. Morning glory (climber) is very fast growing and gives a new flush of blooms every morning from spring onward, a single seedling will cover your whole fence. Nicotiana smells divine, maybe go for dwarf varieties as the standard ones can grow quite tall and flop.

I would also recommend getting a pot irrigation system rigged up - it’s not that complicated and makes it much easier to deal with watering, especially if we have a repeat of last summer’s drought.

Alternatively Mediterranean planting (lavender, geraniums, sempervivums, echeveria, yuccas) of drought tolerant plants would also work.

@Koulibiak

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions.

I'll try a couple of cannas, especially as I'm now in the SW. (We had a go in a cool corner of Oxon and they weren't happy.) Plus I love the idea of growing from seed, especially nicotianas as I appreciate scented flowers.

The Mediterranean idea works too - it's what I first thought of as I hope to travel while I still can. Lock up and leave.

Clever photography makes it look a lot bigger...but ok, it's actually 15'x 10'! 😀 (Not including the side return)

I've managed to get a lot of trees in pots- 2 apple, 2 crab apple, 2 fruiting cherries, 2 flowering cherries, 3 olives and they go a long way to providing height and structure, as well as blossom, fruit and leaf colour.

I think in small gardens there's a temptation to grow small plants, whereas some good big ones add a great deal. And are less bother.

Greetings all,

The internet tells me Gardeners World is back at 8pm on Fri 13 March, BBC 2.

Beechgrove will be a few weeks after that.

Thank you.
I was just this minute wondering about that.

The camellias are coming out!

I can't wait 🤗 but it won't be long until I'm a few weeks behind in the programmes I've recorded and the weeds are Usain Bolting while I'm still thinking about my plans.

After Ann Swithenbank told me she doesn't prune her apple trees anymore on GQT and I thought that sounded fair enough, I went into the garden to do something with the corner bit today and suddenly found myself pruning the arse out of the apple tree. In my defence it needed doing about six years ago, was very much getting in the way and the prunings will come in useful for bits and bobs. The corner remains unchanged.

I went outside today too. Tried to lift my rhubarb because it is in the way and I want to move it. Could not get it out so have left it with a trench all the way round. Hoping DH will use his manly strength and get it out for me tomorrow - failing that, I will interpret it as it telling me it wants to be divided.
spring is definitely on its way!

I took photos of the cat sunbathing. His first proper rolling around of the year. He is an extra rotund spring roll.

Oh and I beheaded some primroses that seem to have attracted a something that makes small holes at the base of the petal (and further up). Any ideas? Small caterpillar?

@Celiathebanshee I moved some rhubarb a couple of weeks ago, I had no idea they had such massive roots! I chopped it off with a sharp spade and left some smaller bits behind, if it decides to survive that just means more rhubarb. I did briefly consider whether this was my excuse to buy an axe.

@Agapornis lovely cat enjoying being and doing his spring roll 😍. Sorry, I can't help with your primroses. I was pleased to see the leaves of mine poking through when I was butchering the apple tree. I was given them by someone when I asked if they could source some P. vulgaris but the flowers are pink. They're still pretty though.

@Celiathebanshee I dug out my rhubarb a couple of years back, those roots! They're easy enough to see though and it hasn't grown back so I'm hoping I got enough.

One thing that does keep growing after I dug it out and put it elsewhere is an ornamental poppy. There are too many tree roots to be able to get in about things properly.

Not exactly gardening, but watching The Secret Genius of Plants and thought someone on here might like it. It's on iplayer. Lots of science!

I am desperately missing the space to grow rhubarb. 😢

Just spent all day gardening - lots of serious digging, which is my favourite. I’ve dug up, split and moved all my perennials (nepeta, alchemilla mollis, potentilla, veronica, verbena b and scabious). It’s either going to look loads better or everything will die on me and I’ll have to start again…fingers crossed! I’m proud of doing all day and not getting distracted and nipping off to the garden centre most of all - gardening days can get expensive!

That sounds like a good day @ElizabethVonArnim , I hope they all survive for you. I had a bit of raking (still!), digging and moving about planned in time for the forecast rain tomorrow but only managed a bit more pruning before outside forces brought me inside.

Yes, we were really lucky with the weather down here. Def going to rain tomorrow so glad to get sorted today.

We have a huge rhubarb at the allotment- it’s going great guns at the moment!