Busy-Lizzie

potatoes

There is still plenty of time. I don't usually plant potatoes before April. You don't want their green leafy tops, when they appear, to get frosted.

Fork Handles

It's not so funny

Without our Bunny!

Fork Handles

Pam, you haven't pressed something, there have been lots of posts all over the forum about tiny text. There is a technical fault. Blackest told us how to get bigger text, I think it was press Ctrl + to make it bigger Ctrl - to make it smaller and Ctrl 0 to go back to how it started. 

Winter wonders

Lyn, could they be Rip van Winkle? It's a double dwarf variety.

MORNING FORKERS

Back from visiting my daughter & 3 small grandsons near Poitiers. Thurs, Fri and Sat lovely, mild and springlike. Today grey, misty and a lot cooler. Still haven't finished clearing up beds after winter, want to make a new one with all I bought in Spring plant sales when I had a flash of March hare madness! Need somewhere to put them.

Fork Handles

Morning all. Best day of the week weatherwise looks like Tuesday and, bother, out to lunch followed by committee meeting. When  am I going to make new bed for the plants I bought in Spring (?) sales? Spring on hold again today, though it did start last week, it's grey and gloomy.

Sue H, I still have tiny text, you're lucky!

Californian Lilac

Hello, I'm back now. I live in Dordogne. I'm afraid I haven't had a lot of luck with Ceonothus. The winters can be very cold here and the ceonothus goes black and dies. The one I have had a long time is a deciduous one called "Gloire de Versailles". When it was -17° in February and we had snow for about 10 days it looked dead and my OH cut it back and it regrew. It's been fine this winter.

Ceonothus likes warmth, sunshine, a well drained soil and a sheltered spot. I think it would keep warmer in the ground rather than in a pot - if you have a sunny sheltered spot. But you will have to do something to improve the clay. Dig in compost and grit to lighten it up and improve the drainage. It doesn't like wet conditions either. Sometimes it can pour for days where I am.

The plants Pat Morris mentioned all grow well here.

Is it worth having a garden professionally designed?

We drew our garden design over 20 years ago and I have developed it since and made more beds. We had professionals to pave the terrace as the house is on a slope lengthways and the garden in on 3 levels. So I drew the design, the stone masons did the heavy stuff and a garden firm did the lawn, as it had been a farmyard and needed 2 lorryloads of earth added. We did all the digging of beds and planting. The garden is quite big, over an acre in all.

I'm afraid I'm not that keen on the contemporary, rather hard and stark style of the designer who started this thread.

weedy neglected patch of a town garden

Does the pear tree cast much shade? A lot of annuals prefer to grow in sun. Busy-Lizzies (Impatiens) and bedding begonias are OK with shade. They are quite slow to grow from seed so probably best to buy small plants and plant out after frosts are over.

Hardy annuals, like love-in-a mist, calendulas etc you can just sow the seeds in your prepared soil. Certain half-hardy annuals, like cosmos, nasturtiums you can sow when it's warmer.

Otherwise, if budget allows, just buy trays of what you like the look of in local garden centre to plant when weather is warmer.

Red Robin shrub

I have 3, Choisya ternata which is big and bushy, Choisya ternata Sundance which has golden leaves and is smaller and should grow to about 2.5 metres but it hasn't yet after 8 years, and Choisya Aztec Pearl which has narrower leaves and seems less vigourous than the other two. It's about 4 years old and under 3 foot tall. Last winter it went down to -17° in Feb. and they were all OK apart from a few brown leaves.

Gardens we have visited 2013

no emails as well as small text

Cleaning greenhouses

Rose pruning and frost

reviews

Why did you all start gardening?

uploading photos