The Potting Shed - come on in, the kettle's on!

loucroft

Hiya

this is a thread I hadn't seen before, I've been hovering over the 'allotments 2010 / 2011 etc threads' but they've been getting a bit quiet!

Now I have to focus on that, and my garden which has changed slightly recently with hard work!

I had an issue trying to cut down some trees in my border a bit early and disturbed nesting birds so have been a bit put off by hard pruning, is it the right time now to do it?

As for leaves, I collected thousands of those and chestnuts on saturday, it looked nicely manicured. Until now.... it is covered again but I can't leave them there - dogs and kids are treading on the spiked and the leaves have ruined the grass in past years so lots of tough work coming up!

Good to read your posts, just thinking of getting a plastic shed for our wellies!!

boultdj

*cough cough it's dusty in here!* OK it's getting to get a little bit lighter at night, we're all starting to get itchy finger's and want to start planting stuff,so seed mag's are on the planting bench [2 upside down plant pot's and a old cupboard door] and I'm sticking the kettle on, then off to look for my chilli and pepper seed's, ready to plant next week.

Thriftkitten

What a lovely thread and just what I need to kickstart myself into loving my garden... well if you can call it that.
I have a basic new build 2 yrs old with a 6 foot square garden surrounded with horrid chain link fence Yukkk! on the lower level I have the same amount of land completely filled up by a huge shed.... No windows though.
My garden gets No sunshine Boooo!!! and we are on our 3rd round of turf thanks to the horrid neighbour who has a 6 ft fence made of bamboo, I love gardening but am so depressed over this garden, I have planted one climbing rose, hoping it will cover some chain link and in the other corner some honey suckle, so am hoping this year they will flourish,
I simply cannot think what I can do to beautify this garden, its a constant damp bog with no sunshine, I was thinking of building a double wall about 3 foot high all the way around with pillar pots in each corner and filling with compost planting in ivy and trailing lobelia ect and covering the middle with slabs forget grass anymore, This will be a huge job for me as Im not very good at this kind of stuff and only just getting the hang of plants etc although I do get a lot of joy from this, I'm hoping to pick up some tips along the way.... Thanks for reading and happy potting xx
Not even the Birdies want to come in the garden, I purchased a feeding station with lots of goodies hanging for them and haven't even had a mangey seagul let along any birdies!!

oldtractor

Ferns? bog garden water feature? spring/woodland bulbs eg bluebells and snowdrops. i think the raised beds are a good idea

boultdj

How about flag Iris, hosta's and fern's Thriftkitten? And sweetpea's would make good use of the chain link and the bamboo for climing up.

Thriftkitten

Yes i think the sweat peas would be lovely to hide the chain link, but I must get rid of the grass as its depressing, I think I will plant ferns and hardy ones that will last longer after the lobelia and summer stuff have faded, blue bells, forget me nots and snow drops sound great for the winter/spring blooms, I guess I just need to be able to fall in love with the space and dullness of it all, at the moment its an eye sore, will see if I can upload a pic and hopefully pics to show progress, will wait until the weather improves to start digging out the trenches for the mini wall/troughs, thanks for all advice x

Dustykitten

Happy 2012 everybody, anybody else still got flowers on their roses!

Job for this weekend is to sort and ditch some seeds and see what I need to buy. Got some lettuce seeds in Morrisons already, hoping not to need much more.

Still some winter prunning to do here but plants are all a bit confused and budding too early without really going very dormant.

I did take some leaves out of the new this year pond yesterday too.

adelight

thriftkitten i know this might sound bonkers, but could you make some sort of "feature" on the back wall of your house or the shed to help reflect light on to the garden? You could put mirrors behind trellis to make climbing plants look fuller, do some sort of mosaic pattern with mirrored pieces or make an arch of mirrors around your back door. If all the mirrors are tilted ever so slightly down it will get more light to the grass (or pots on slabs). You could also hang some light reflecting decorations (think mirrored baubles or those twisty things) from the fence or bird feeder.


Today I'll be microwaving some potting soil then planting totem toms, elf chillis and basil which will all be grown in pots indoors. I tried germinating squash a few weeks ago, it went well until all these little white bugs started wriggling around and the plants died! T'was old soil so guess there were eggs
My sister works in a florist and is looking out for potted marigolds for me to ward off white fly, I had 100s last year errrggh!

I still have two banana-something sweet red pepper plants hanging on in my utility room, they've given me three peppers over dec/jan. Should I keep them going for this year? Hmmm.

Thriftkitten

Hi I wish I had a photo to show you my garden a few months ago, I had every vintage wrought iron mirror known to man hanging from the green chain link fence, to the point I was worried there may be a fire or grass scortching occurrance, didnt work i'm afraid, I have tried everything I know, so have resorted to making a decision about the slabbing and stone wall troughs, can't wait to get going on it really, although I'm hoping that with the help of u tube video's I'll be able to pull it off being an learner in building and flowers etc. I do appreciate everyone's advice, very exciting reading all the ideas and what everyone is doing with their seeds etc.

Thriftkitten

Just to update, Yesterday clad in snow trousers and wellies,gloves I got out in the garden and snipped down the chain link fence on the detatched side of the house..... wow it makes the garden look soooo much better, the word "snipped" makes the job sound soooo easy, but my hands and fingers are sooooo aching this morning yeouuch! still no birds to the feeding station, feeling very disappointed to be honest, however i'm hoping that once I have a nice welcoming pretty garden, butterflies, bee's might come and pass on the message that there are some scrummy treats and nice plants to buzz about in!
On my day off yesterday I nipped to the garden centre, purchased a 40 cell seedling tub with lid, some good seedling compost and some seeds,
My youngest and I sat on the kitchen floor last night and planted some sweet peas, aubretia and trailing lobelia blue and purple, they are happily germinating away in the kitchen...... This is soooo exciting and a first for us, the excitment is growing in the kitten household and already feeling better that this summer, although shady I will have a nice garden.