Artaxerxes
Look out, he's got a gnu!
It definitely felt more like snow than sleet here and it was fucking weird considering its been struggling to be sunny since 10 and yesterday was so nice.
The gardening thread
- Thread starter ringo
- Start date
It has been lovely all day. Cold, with a freezy northerly, but sunny, so the greenhouse is warm, bright and frankly, a bit scary, looking at the hundreds of seedlings appearing Alonsoa, dierama, more nicotiana, calendula, larkspur and foxgloves today. Having a worrisome moment with this years tomato seedlings - so far, only seeds from last years saving are up.
Had a family day in the woods. Suprised to see how many leucojum are about. These summer snowflakes are prettier (to my mind) than snowdrops and evidently happy to colonise by seed..although the camassia have been depleted by deer and the alliums have vanished completely. Spotted new martagon seedlings, all the corfu honesty was up and primroses are everywhere. Forget-me-nots in the next few days too...and most surprisingly, the dog tooth violets (erythronium) have also more than doubled along with large colonies of hellebores and various fritillaries. The wood anemones, which had a tenuous hold, are fighting back and slowly spreading so the wood is probably at peak prettiness with thousands of narcissus in full bloom all over and flowering cherries, mahonia and budding lilacs, rising above the woodland perennials I have struggled to get Welsh poppies to colonise, but sweet rocket (hesperis)m geraniums . meadowsweet, foxgloves and campanulas are holding out some promise for summer )and my giant Madeiran buttercups are back.. Annoyed I had not bought my camera or phone.
Had a family day in the woods. Suprised to see how many leucojum are about. These summer snowflakes are prettier (to my mind) than snowdrops and evidently happy to colonise by seed..although the camassia have been depleted by deer and the alliums have vanished completely. Spotted new martagon seedlings, all the corfu honesty was up and primroses are everywhere. Forget-me-nots in the next few days too...and most surprisingly, the dog tooth violets (erythronium) have also more than doubled along with large colonies of hellebores and various fritillaries. The wood anemones, which had a tenuous hold, are fighting back and slowly spreading so the wood is probably at peak prettiness with thousands of narcissus in full bloom all over and flowering cherries, mahonia and budding lilacs, rising above the woodland perennials I have struggled to get Welsh poppies to colonise, but sweet rocket (hesperis)m geraniums . meadowsweet, foxgloves and campanulas are holding out some promise for summer )and my giant Madeiran buttercups are back.. Annoyed I had not bought my camera or phone.
Grief yes, the watering! I swear, this is the most stressful aspect of gardening (of my whole life, tbf). I either overdo it or fail to water some pots until total drooping finally alerts me, then there's judging how much and how often (although I tend to simply slosh water around willy-nilly and hope for the best), but mostly, it's the sheer relentlessness of it all. Every. Single. Day. No holidays or nights away without special pleading (offspring)...and the slow but sure rate of attrition: trying, but failing, to keep the hundreds of pots of seedlings, in their little 9cm pots, alive throughout a dry and hot east anglian summer.
Back when I first started to get a bit crazed about gardening, I built a pergola, which was, I thought, an absolute invitation to hang things off it. I put brackets on the surrounding brick walls, also, ending up with 17 hanging baskets! Since I had grown most of the plants from seed, there were quite a few which were completely inappropriate..including great dangling curtains of nasturtiums and sweet peas...but the watering! I was demented, all summer, attempting to water them all by hand, I swear, I have never planted a single hanging basket in the 20odd years since that summer of madness.
two sheds
Least noticed poster 2007
I've always wanted an automatic watering system and this year for the first time i connected a hose from the top of the water butt outside the greenhouse in through the greenhouse to water the compost trough I've got in there using the excess water from the butt when it's full. 
Unfortunately I think it keeps getting blocked because it doesn't seem to do much
Unfortunately I think it keeps getting blocked because it doesn't seem to do much
Callie
Pivoting
I am less concerned about the lack of action from the seeds I planted. Stay underground guys it's facking snowing!
campanula did you have a website that sells native seeds? I'm wondering if I might be able to get violets going in my new lawn. They're all over the place locally but not sure if I can just dig some up and try to transplant!
campanula did you have a website that sells native seeds? I'm wondering if I might be able to get violets going in my new lawn. They're all over the place locally but not sure if I can just dig some up and try to transplant!
Where did you get that date from? It sounds very early.
bimble
floofy
Oh. Some website.
Artaxerxes
Look out, he's got a gnu!
Last frost is usually May (and I'm in the south east)
It's unlikely to be big but it does happen, usually at least once, in May.
What does it say here?
andysays
Love and solidarity
According to that, I'm in Zone8 (north London), so last frost date late March, but there's definitely a grass frost this morning and I'm currently defrosting my windscreen.
Again, those dates are average last frost dates, not guaranteed last frost date ever, and this year is unusual
Yeah I wasn't claiming otherwise, just posted it as a rough indication of when would be more likely than Feb. My garden's the opposite, got its own little microclimate that barely ever gets frost at all.
Same here re the wonderfully fragrant damson blossom. I don’t think I’ve ever noticed it had a smell before but this year I’ve been walking into pockets of it. It’s so lovely.
There's a tree I go past that's sheltered from the prevailing wind by a building on two sides. It's in full blossom now below the roofline but all the branches above that are still bare, proper straight line like someone spliced together two photos taken weeks apart
Artaxerxes
Look out, he's got a gnu!
Looks like the frost has killed big swathes of the daffs at the allotment when I walked up this morning. All looking very limp.
two sheds
Least noticed poster 2007
Does that really say that frost is rare in northern Scotland? Frozen solid all year then?
Might perk up - some down the road from me were looking sad a couple of weeks ago but are still going well.
miss direct
misfungled
I can't wait to get going on my "garden" once I move in to my own place. Will June/July be too late for planting? It's a paved patio so it'll have to be hanging baskets and pots.
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