General Chat

My back garden.

Fred's mate has been busy out there today. He has dug up a patch that was not doing much and we have planted all the stuff we brought on in the wet room window, plants I have picked up round about, the lavender I bought for the coffin topper ( he drove the lavender wagon).

Last year I bought one of those arches they had in Lidl and it is fixed across the path and bolted to the shed. There are hanging baskets on all the rungs with strawberries and tumbling tomatoes in them.

Where the sweet corn plants and asparagus pea plants have been planted I have chucked some flower seeds taken off the fronts of gardening magazines OH had to uplift and destroy as part of a merchandising job.

not a straight line anywhere. Fred would be so ashamed of me!

no he wouldn't - and it all sounds absolutely gorgeous :-D :-D :-D

Oh, he would.

Gardens have to be strictly segregated, flowers in the front garden, straight lines of veg in the back.

Unnatural act to put a beautiful broad bean plant in the front garden.

Peas in hanging baskets? Whatever next?

Sounds wonderful Sharron, straight lines aren't allowed in my garden.

Aren't Lidl (and Aldi) great for garden stuff?

My sister lives in an Edwardian terrace - and her veggies are in the tiny front garden, flowers in the larger back garden.

Your house now - do what you want :-D

I've never thought of putting peas in a hanging basket - brilliant idea :-D

These are dwarf ones that came in the end of season surprise package you can get from Suttons.

You pay £15 and get about £100 worth of stuff that you might not always use but you can usually find somebody with a use for it.

Last year I read that you didn't have to grow runner beans up sticks if they have somewhere to hang down so we put four weighted containers on the flat roof of the wet room. Sadly, the borlotti beans we planted in them were also dwarfs!

The night scented stocks that were intended for the flat roof this year were eaten in the greenhouse by that bloody snail that lives in there somewhere.

Sharron your garden sounds lovely, enjoy it. x

the garden sounds wonderful!

Pssst, Sharron, between you and I - would you like a sloworm for your greenhouse, to catch Mr Snail?
Apparently, it's illegal to sell them, or advertise to sell them, so it would have to be a present :-D

How lovely that Fred's pal (and yours) has been helping with the garden, it must be nice for him to share things with you still and be part of the family as he was when he helped Fred out so much. Hope everything grows beautifully in your garden.

I had some yellowing cabbage leaves I had forgotten about in the fridge and put them out on the lawn, the other night they were covered with slugs and snails so hopefully that filled them up so they left the plants alone lol Maybe the birds got there quick enough at dawn to polish some off as well.

I think little toms do well in hanging baskets don't they?

Lizx

It sounds wonderful Sharron :-D

I agree with you, gardens shouldn't have straight lines......... Mother Nature does not draw with a ruler!

:-)

as a botanist, it has always amazed me that plants apparently occur in the US right up to the Canada-US border .................. but seemingly never cross into Canada


or vice versa


or from one European country to its neighbour, one Australian state to its neighbour, etc etc





At least ............... that is according to some botanists :-)

Sounds great Sharron, well done you and Fred's mate. I look forward to hearing how all the plants produce.

Sharron, have you ever been here:

http://www.gilbertwhiteshouse.org.uk/eventsold/unusual-plants-fair/

It's a bit pricey now - used to be £2!
I used to buy an old variety of cherry-type tomato from an author, that defied all insects, slugs and snails, and tasted delicious. :-D

I go past there to the lavender farm Maggie but I am hoping my consumption of lavender products will drop now.

Have never even considered going in to Gilbert White's house, just like I would never think to go to Goodwood races when I pass the course several times each year, or, indeed, Fontwell, which I pass even more times.

We are still learning because the garden was where your dad went for hours and came in moaning about it but never encouraged you to go there with him.

Fred was a tremendous gardener but would not tell us anything when we started trying to get it up together. I have a lot of huge pots, big enough to tend from the wheelchair, which I bought so he could still garden.

You don't need me to tell you whether the old bugger would or not do you?

I did get him weeding one in which I was growing blueberries but he pulled up a blueberry and was terrified I was going to behave as he would. I had seen what an utter wally he looked throwing a tantrum over some petty little accident too many times to want to look like that myself!