Hobbies and Crafts

Not sure about the seedlings von, I would have thought they needed a bit of heat bu hopefully somebody will know.

K Love Tete a tete, they are so dainty and look good mixed with dutch Iris too.

Vera, I have hostas in pots and they do well. How big is small? Do you have any actual borders? If so the above would look good in spring, Tete a Tete and dutch Iris.

Von - Don't coddle the plants overwinter too much. They should be fine in a cold greenhouse . This is the advice of the National Sweet Pea Society http://www.sweetpeas.org.uk/how.htm

Vera - Have you thought of growing climbing plants up the fences - Sweet peas, clematis - especially the later flowering vitacella varieties that you cut down in Feb

K
Thank you so much for the link. I do check on them everyday.
Would just hate to lose them after they all germinated.
They were seeds I bought in a sale so I was really pleased.
Take care
Von

Thanks for the advice Ann and K.

At the moment the garden is a rectangle of grass with fairly wide paving down one short side and narrow paving on the other three sides. There is a little shed in one corner with a small bed alongside it, containing a few sorry looking roses. In the opposite corner to the shed is a slightly larger bed which now just contains a few very dead plants - the previous owners were not keen gardeners! There is a 2 metre high fence round the lot.

At our old house I had two witch hazels in half barrels as they didn't like our very heavy clay soil. The soil looks a bit better here so I might try planting them in the slightly larger bed as I think they will give a bit of shape there and some colour in February time when it can be quite gloomy. I think I'll cut back the roses in the other bed and see what they look like next summer.

K - I quite like the idea of clematis viticella against some of the fence. Sweet peas look nice too but I always forget to dead head them quickly enough and end up with lots of seed pods and hardly any flowers.

I was feeling a bit down about the horrible garden here but now you've got me looking forward to trying to make something of it, so thanks for that.

Could you put up rustic trellis across in front of the shed and grow climbing or rambling rises?

Today I noticed some of my hellebore leaves have been attacked I think by slugs or snails:-( I've never had this problem with helleborus before but earlier this year I did have terrible trouble with my hostas being attacked, I think I will have to take some drastic measures ............... slug pellets:-(

Von don't worry your sweet peas they should be fine, I grow mine in an unheated greenhouse and I plant 1 per cardboard inner of a toilet roll.

Good luck with your garden planning Vera.

Lesley x

Well the garden is tidy and mostly cut back and looking decidedly soggy this morning after a heavy shower earlier on. But we have primulas in flower thinking it is spring!!! :-) And I am still picking baby carrots out of the trough.

Glad your garden is tidy Ann. Our little bit is still a mess but not quite so bad as it was a couple of weeks ago.

OH pulled out a few dead little shrubs from the bed in the corner and dug it over and the soil looks quite good so we have planted one of our witch hazels there and I'm trying to think of what would look good planted round it. The roses in the other little bed have had quite a drastic cut back and are looking a lot healthier already.

The long strip of weeds down the side of the house has been dug out and the area paved and I have nine large pots of hostas there and there is still room for a few other pots.

The front of the house looked a bit dreary (it's all paved) so I put a couple of pots of grasses by the front door and also potted up half a dozen big primrose plants that came as a freebie from Homebase. So that's added a bit of colour to the front.

All in all, I'm now a fairly happy bunny.

Wow you have made progress Vera, you will soon have it as you want it. Can you create a small area for sitting out? In the warmer weather of course.

How do you think the gardens are going to stand up to this wet and windy weather? The ground is very soggy already so any more rain will just lay on the top.

Although our garden is not very big we are responsible for all the fencing round it and the panels are rattling alarmingly already. I'm fully expecting to find half the panels down in the morning. I'm just hoping OH made a good job of firming in the witch hazel he planted out recently.

I hope everyone's garden remains in one piece and no-one has any trees or fences down.

Vera

Extremely gusty here but fences ok so far. conservatory is leaking though so that is a job for after Christmas.

We have a 6 ft large post and wire fence, which must be 30 ft long separting the hens from the veg garden and I planted two montana clematis on it years ago. I looks wonderful in the spring but the weight of the climbers and the winds has started the fence to lean in places.

I have propped it up, but I think some cutting back and stronger replacement posts as called for or the hens will run riot. :-D

Egg hunt then K? :-D

Could be more like a chicken hunt. When we first had two of them they crossed two fields and visited a neighbour regularly before I had to clip one wing.

They take Free Range rather too literally and there is a power struggle with the cat whi is never sure who is top of the pecking order :-D

Just bought our seeds for this year as our local garden centre had half price seeds for club members. saved £9 and bought with OH's Christmas present voucher so feeling happy with that. :-) :-) :-)

~~~~~~ everyone
Just been out in the garden to see that I have crocus ,daffodils and snowdrops in bloom in my front garden. In the back garden I have hellebore and bright magenta cyclamen,
I noticed too that my twisted hazel has catkins on it.
:-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D
Spring is definitely on its way.
Take care
Von

Just back from the very wet North to the also very wet South. Shall have to paddle out tomorrow and inspect the garden. Doing well there Von.

Just had a walk round the garden, it is dry and sunny, although quite chilly, here today, could have done with at least one day like this last week. We have one daffodil flowering, it looks very lonely, there are also some primulas out, a few helebores and the Mahonia which is in full flower and smell beautifully of lily of the valley. The snowdrops are up but not flowering yet but maybe spring is on the way. We also have Nemesia which have not yet stopped flowering, they are in pots under the window so sheltered. :-) :-)

Lovely sunny day here on the Surrey / Hampshire border, had a horrible, very rainy, night and it is so windy. Garden is under a good few inches of water, I dare not go up the on the lawn, the poor grass.

From what I can see from the patio steps though is that the plants seem to be getting on with things regardless. I have Winter Jasmine and Kerrias, that have been out since before Christmas as have the Bergenias and Helebores.

There is a big clump of Snowdrops in the front lawn which I took photos of on New Years Day and now a group of a smaller variety is almost out, I also have a few a the small yellow crocus in flower and a couple if Daffs that could be out if we get a few more days sun. Nothing happening as far as the Forsythias are concerned though.

Out the back, the Daffs are well up, a couple of wallflowers and primroses are flowering and some of the basket plants such as Bacopa, Felicia, Lysimachia and Bidens are still in full flower and continue to grow.

At the house on the Devon Somerset border where it has been even wetter if anything but probably milder as on the coast, all my summer pots are still blooming, the climbing Rose round the door has at least a dozen flowers on it the Fuschias haven't stopped, even the frilly ones and my Daffs and Wallflowers are well out. Next door has the most beautiful Hydrangea in full flower and several Pelargoniums in her front wall. I brought all mine in, just in case.

I suppose although it had been so wet and windy it had been mild. The last thing we need now are some heavy frosts or even snow, that will just finish everything off or delay things that are starting to flower. Fingers crossed. No cold and even more, NO MORE RAIN. !!!!!!
.
M.

Maryanna so spring is well on the way albeit a bit damp. Our Bacopa has flowered all through too, although we have had to tip the hanging basket onto its side as it was getting waterlogged. And we too have winter flowering jasmine out, plus two daffs in full flower, a couple of large clumps of crocus, some Helebores, Mahonia, one small rose bud on a pot grown rose (the only way we can grow roses in this garden). There are still primulas out, mostly flowered all through the winter so far, and an alpine that I don't know the name of. Dutch Irises are starting to flower.

Fancy Hydrangia still flowering, I guess that location is in a micro climat from the flowers that are still flowering.