I am so excited. I have a potting shed for the first time in 23 years of marriage...............I can escape at last
Basil put the work surface up and shelves. Then he hung up all my tools
Wish I had power down there for a kettle. Ah well. Might even take my flute down there Need a radio too.
More digging and planting.
Bev.

Got the brush cutter out today and now you can find the house!!!
But I feel awful about all the snails I mowed down.
A poplar tree has seeded itself in a wheelbarrow full of earth.
Do I brush cut the flowering brambles or put if off for another year so as to have some blackberries?
I have trouble making that decision every year.

Brush cut after the blackberries?? Then it has time to recover for next year.

Congratulations on your shed I used to have an allotment and my plot was the only one that didn't come with a shed I always felt that I was missing out.

Anybody else get excited by the little things in gardening? Today we bought a dozen new bamboo canes to make up the frame for the runner beans - there's something about new canes which lifts the spirits, makes the garden look fresh and inspires one to do even more

Mind you, it's a bit too hot to do much outside at the moment, which is why I am logged on!

I don't think it would be worth doing if the little things weren't exciting. I keep climbing out onto my balcony (accessible through a large window, functioning also as the laundry drying area!) just to marvel over the frilly purple of the aubergine flowers against the shiny black stems.

And the other thing that amazes me is how big, lumpy tomatoes don't get that way in their grumpy old age - nope, smooth tomatoes are smooth from when they are pea-sized, and lumpy tomatoes when tiny have tinier lumps upon them and so on ad infinitum.

Hydrangea "Grace" is entrancing me right now...I chortle when I think that I found it in the dollar bin, too!

Just been out to the tomato plants to take off the pesky side shoots and give them a feed, and noticed the first one is changing colour! I'll be eating fresh toms ere long

I hate those pesky side shoots - however many good intentions I have I always forget a load and end up with an odd shaped bush - still get loads of lovely tomatoes though.

First sunflower is opening! It's a small red one, and its companions by all appearances will be multi headed. I've never seen anything like this before - one stem has as many as 6 flower heads waiting to open!

I am late, but planted the beans in their pots a couple of days ago, and they are already going up the sticks.
The tomatoes are doing well considering they are outdoor ones, and the strawberries are enough in one pot for a pud.
Potatoes look healthy and the herb garden is growing.
My ferns that looked very sick are recovering and have new leaves on.
Don't forget to make time to just sit in the garden and admire it.

In a quiet moment at work today ,I started listing the things I am growing in my garden which are edible - and stopped when I reached 50 different items! Any advance???

Well, where's the list, then? And do you mean 50 over the year, or at this moment?

Can we count different parts of a plant separately?

Harvested our first two aubergines (Japanese size, which are smallish and ripen fairly fast) and greedily counted several others.

Bitter gourd is just starting to set flowers...they are such pretty plants.

yum! nasu dengaku.

At least you don't have to decide whether or not to share them with your daughter in law!

I must admit, I worry about whether I'll be a good Japanese mother in law! Japanese friends living overseas tell me they never think about it...when Rome, obviously!

While you may feel nostalgic for Japanese aubergines, expats living here go to great lengths to grow parsnips and beetroot

[quote name='all ears' date='Jun 14 2009, 04:58 AM' post='837133']
Well, where's the list, then? And do you mean 50 over the year, or at this moment?

Well, you asked - here goes (and they are all growing at this moment)

apples, broad beans, runner beans, blackberry, blackcurrant, redcurrant, gooseberry, potato, plum, pear, damson, carrot, parsnip, parsley, basil, coriander, dill, sage, thyme, leek, onion, red onion, garlic, radish, ginger mint, spear mint, chocolate mint, tomato, pepper, chilli, salad leaves, lettuce, bay, rosemary, rhubarb, mulberry, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, red cabbage, spinach, chard, rhubarb chard, marrow, pumpkin, cucumber, courgette, chives, peas.

Is rhubarb chard a red-stemmed chard, or something even more exotic?

And by the way, have you tried that climbing Italian courgette? Tromboncino, was it?

Gosh, if we're counting herbs as well...I might even hit 50 edible varieties in my carport-sized garden plus containers! And then there are things which I know to be edible as medicines, such as hydrangea, but which I do not contemplate using.

Nearly time to make another sowing of spring onions, if it would stop thundering and pouring with rain for a moment.

Rhubarb chard is the multi coloured stem chard - looks quite exotic. Would you believe I missed raspberries off my list, when I recently planted 40 canes kindly donated by mother in law.

Never tried a climbing courgette - might have a go next year, either at home or at work.

And it's definitely fair game to include herbs

I'm worried about my hollyhocks. I propagated them from seed last Autumn and they've been planted out since early spring. They are all alive and healthy but only about 6-8 inches tall. I can't remember when they're due to flower, but shouldn't they be taller by now??

I think the only edible plants in my garden are the dandilions and nettles! There might also be a few marigolds, and I suppose roses can be used for somethings...

Don't forget all your edible flowers!

Lizzie, I have a faint memory of seeing dwarf hollyhocks for sale somewhere!

They have them in Japan too, calling them "tachi-aoi" or vertical aoi plants. The "aoi" part is used as a pun on the words for "day of meeting" and so the leaves were used in classical times as messaages between lovers!

Thanks for your comment. I will check the packet. I hope they aren't dwarf because they are all at the back of the border! However if they are I'll just have to arrange some romantic meetings...

I grew hollyhocks a couple of years ago from some seeds that someone saved for me - and I have a feeling that it was well into summer by the time they started to put on anything like height. They ended up quite tall so definitely not dwarf ones.

Well I've just checked the packet and it says 'Giant' so bang go the romantic meetings. I shall wait and hope...

Put your mind at ease, Lizzie, the word "aoi" doesn't refer specifically to dwarf hollyhocks, it's pretty much any kind of mallow...and quite a few other plants.

People are obviously too busy playing music and/or gardening to post in here!

At the moment I've got a superb harvest of peppers at work in my greenhouses, yet last year all the plants failed to produce a fruit at all. Was it a "bad year" for peppers, or just me?

I haven't managed to grow any peppers at all this year, so I don't know!

I've neglected my garden shamefully for too long. I got out there today and did loads. I ache all over, but I've just had a shower and am having a cup of tea and I feel very virtuous for filling two green bins stuffed to the brim. There were ladybirds everywhere (good 7-spot ones) and I had to keep rescuing them before I pulled up the weeds they were climbing. I got a couple of hours of good work out of my son as well. It's brilliant working hard in one place and knowing that another job is being done at the same time

Here we have a sneaky "false ladybird" that has a larger number of unevenly sized spots...it's a chore to keep the "good ladybirds" on the plants, and the "fallen ladybirds" off the plants!

No pepper-growing done here either, sorry. However, my Black from Tula tomatoes (both of them...) have been a great success - plenty of fruit, early-cropping, and they taste good too. Are they black, though? Not noticeably!

Eggplants are starting to set their "round two" of fruit.

Tropical Okinawan squash seems to be resolute in its decision not to flower, but hope springs eternal.

The heat has killed off summer flowers like gladioli and fuchsia, while the lack of sunshine is making the geraniums and pelargoniums so I am already looking forward to autumn, with chrysanthemums and fragrant olive.

Can't believe that no musical gardener has posted on here for such a while! Or are we all too busy in the garden, starting to put it to bed for the winter?

I was just about to ressurect this thread
So, how has everyone's summer been?
My runner beans were impressive, so many. Tomatoes eventually came on a treat. Potatoes were good. Herb garden prolific. Marigolds still enormous. Geraniums finally came on a treat. The garden looked lovely.
I have just planted a box hedge in the front garden. Small plants at the moment.
I have a hosta that has just thrown up a flower, rather late don't you think?
Tell all folks.
Bev

Glad to see the thread again - particularly as our gardener is coming this morning. No - we are not posh people who have a regular gardener - we are just a bit too far on the wrong side of fiffty to manage some of the heavy work. So our thrice yearly gardener will be here to lag the plane trees and reinforce the fencing and to do some of the brush cutting I haven't has time to do.

We had nothing much in the garden this summer as it was too hot and very dry. Even the grass is threadbare. Despite that the trees and bushes are still greenish and there is no real sign of autumn colours yet.

A bit off topic as it wasn't my garden but they took the youngest primary school children to a pick'em yourself orchard yesterday. It was part of their autumn theme. The apples were scrumptious.

Got to go - the dogs are telling me in no uncertain terms that the gardener and his lorry are arriving!!

My two hardy fuschias in the front garden are still flowering madly. Ice-plants have flowered well and are still showing colour, and we have a few late blooms on the weigela. Abelia still in bloom too.

One success I must share with you relates to something I've never grown before - rainbow chard. It is still looking stunning in the veg plot in all its finery, and it is very versatile in a number of recipes!

As far as flowers are concerned, the Michaelmas daisies are really earning their place in the border at the moment.

Biggest gardening task at present is keeping on top of leaf clearing - the front garden has a couple of massive horse chestnut trees.

Highly delighted at managing to be self-sufficient in lettuce, carrots and beetroot this year. Tomatoes were a wash-out and the French beans went over because of not being picked when we went away for a week.
Biggest success however, has been parsley; masses of the stuff - never so much as got it to germinate before.
Question is, is there a way to keep it going over the winter? like digging up some of it and transferring to the greenhouse? Perhaps I should just chop a load and freeze it instead. It seems a pity to let all this bounty go to waste.

September & October seem more and more to be the top months for colour in my garden. Cosmos are at their best, African marigolds running riot, and colour still from geraniums, fuscias, penstemons & nemesia. And loads of berries on the Pyracanthas. I love Autumn!

I've never kept parsley in the way you describe - so why don't you have a go, and let us know the success rate! Definitely worth freezing produce - our chest freezer is full to the brim just now.

Sorry to hear about your toms - ours were magnificent. We sowed early, in a heated greenhouse, then planted out some weeks before everybody else, and had the benefit of all the good weather in June.

My last year's parsley sat outside in a pot during last winter, at one point under 10 inches of snow for several days. I was amazed when it emerged lush and green in the spring as I hadn't realised parsley was even frost-hardy. It's kept going all summer and is still alive and well.

Parsley lasts 2 years and then goes to seed.

That explains why mine has suddenly gone all wrong.

Sounds just like me!

Thanks for the warning - luckily I started a new lot this year.

Some facts well worth knowing!
Maybe I won't have to shift it if it is hardy - I'll freeze some just in case and be prepared to sow a fresh lot the following year.

OK folks - back to gardening news! The first tomato seedling has poked its head out of the compost in our heated greenhouse at work.

We've also sowed peppers, aubergines, strawberries and marigolds today.

How one yearns for Spring.............

But spring is coming. It was light until 5pm today. My snowdrops are 2 inches tall. The daffs are coming through.

What make of seeds did you use? I've just been into Allworths and they've got Suttons seeds, but I seem to remember sowing them a couple of years ago and being very disappointed. (Marigolds are my speciality - nice big seeds - I can see where I'm putting them.)

They were Suttons. Mind you, we used decent quality compost, and we do have very green fingers!

Wasn't there a report in Which recently, stating that some seeds were pretty naff? Even in date ones?
I'm going to Sharon's this morning...........the gardening guru whose garden is like an allotment.
We shall discuss which seed we shall sow this year, and swap half of each to have variety.
Bev

Went into the heated greenhouse this morning, and had to stand back from the seed trays for fear of the seedlings poking me in the eye! Only fear is that an errant customer will leave the door open overnight.....

OK so I suppose that leads me on to the next question. Is your compost "home-grown" or a proprietory brand? I can assume my fingers are fairly green.

'Twas bought from the garden centre where our show site is based. Home grown stuff is normally too coarse for seedlings unless you're prepared to sieve it etc.

Can you grow Nasturtiums in pots? They are meant to be in dry scratchy soil, so can they be grown in compost in pots? Anyone?