Xela's Outbox

Wasn't it a hurricane, Wagger ? We were browsing at the book stall when it went over. The pilot ended with a Victory Roll and everyone gave a cheer in appreciation as it set off in the direction of Oxfordshire.
Did you see the spitfire and hurricane that flew over Strike Command on Thursday evening, shortly after half past eight, to mark the D-Day celebrations? Suddenly the streets were full of people aiming cameras skywards.
The RAF had also brought along their mobile climbing wall to the fete, it has been very popular with the youngsters but sadly due to the weather it was packed away earlier than usual on Saturday.
Despite the weather we enjoyed the fete, we look forward to it every year. I was delighted to find 'Christians in the Community' had plants for sale on their stall, of course that was my first port of call. I bought a lovely young spider plant and a pot of golden rod, and was given a complimentary pot of poppy seedlings.Last year I was very disappointed to find there wasn't a single plant to be had anywhere at the fete!
Those primulas are looking great, Wagger, a good baker's dozen.

Ah yes, I had forgotten about the sycamore. When I moved here I swopped sycamore for ash; I think of the two I would prefer to live with sycamore, their seedlings are not quite as tenacious!

Keep us posted on progress, Hyacinth.

Have as great day, Barbara, and enjoy it. After all your hard work you deserve it.

My partner still has his son's paddling pool in his garden, although his son is now twenty!
When Imoved up here about nine years ago I split the plants in my old pond to pot up and plant in my new pond, which at the time was just an idea in my head. So the pots stood in the paddling pool until my new pond was dug about four years later. By that time the plants needed splitting again. Half went into the new pond and the other half to friends and neighbours. However, some had rooted through the bottom of the pots and bits of root remained there. Now Paul has a wildlife pond in paddling pool, and the flowers on the iris root are looking better than the one in my pond!
My dog happily drinks from the pool while the birds bathe in it too and we often see frogs sitting on the edge waiting for unsuspecting insects to visit it.

Oh yes, well done.

Yes, as we drove back from Risborough on Friday, clutching our fish and chip supper, we chatted about how lush the countryside looks at this time of year. The foliage on the trees looks so fresh and the fields full of promise, the hedgerows and verges sporting the first of the wild flowers, beautiful.

Ooo, Helen, I am turning green as I type. Lol

I have just shown your piccie of the volkeswagen to my partner who said, 'I thought it was only ALPINES that grow in a garden.' Guess he didn't see it as a Beatle. ;-)

Aw, Hyacinth, don't give up on roses ... they give so much back in return for our efforts. Have you tried growing patio roses in pots? You would be able to give them the right conditions and move them to the sunnier spots in your garden. there are some gorgeous patio roses that I'm sure would behave themselves for you.

About thirty years ago, shortly after he moved into his house, my partner found a seedling ash tree in the garden. Although the woods hereabouts are beech our village's named features an Ash so he repositioned it in the front garden and gave it pride of place. It grew ... and grew ... and must now be fully grown. Every year it seems to thank Paul by producing thousands of seeds. It is imperative to weed the seedlings out as soon as they sprout because they root very securely ..... if left they are as devilish as bindweed and ground ivy to remove.
Like you, I delight in seeing the promise in most seedlings, but I have reservations about one or two :-)

It seems peonies number among the garden plant divas, they are quite fussy about their growing conditions .... too deep/shallow/sunny/shady/etc/etc. They also take their time to settle in and do not like being disturbed. My peony produced wonderful foliage for the first few years, then it began to flower, initially small and thinly but each successive year was better until I disturbed it two years ago to remove a perennial weed which threatened to oust it. Last year it produced one small flower, this year it has produced a few more small flower buds. Hey ho, I live in hope!

Nor me :-(
but wouldn't it be great to be able to spot fellow GoY members on occasions like these! A discreet pin badge featuring the logo could be the way to go. I don't know how much it would cost to produce. but would be happy to find out if the founders and forum users like the idea.

I filled in the on-line form before the end of the programme too, but so far nothing! I was concerned because it was not clear on the site if they were actually available to order on-line, there was a suggestion that they had to be ordered by post. I haven't received anything by post or email. Ah well, here's hoping.

Lucky Ted!
I have a green-man in my garden, but it is still me who does all the tidying up.
Jeremy Fisher and Eeyore are amusing but otherwise not very effective either.
My gnome is waiting to have his trousers and belt finished, maybe when he finds somewhere to live in my garden things will look up.

Neither do I, SK,If they have no chance of surviving our winters they go in pots; the pots can be moved where necessary.
I used to pride myself on having a good memory and being able to remember things for the whole family but now I have difficulty in remembering something from one minute to the next. It is no wonder plants surprise me by suddenly making their presence known, and elbowing each other for space. GoY has been a boon for my garden planning! Lol.

Have you received your seeds yet, Pepperpot? I completed the online form during the programme, but was puzzled because the webpage seemed to say they would only be forwarded if ordered by post ?!?

Conifers are great, it is the way PEOPLE have used them that has given them a lousy reputation. All too often plants are bought on impulse, they look so good when they are displayed for sale. Purchasers may think twice if they knew how big the plant could grow, or what it looks like at other times of the year.
I love monkey puzzle trees, and my eye is often caught by specimens growing in other people's gardens. We drove past one the other day which had been planted in a small front garden tight up against the fence. I doubt that the owners or their neighbours are going to be enamoured with the tree in years to come, when it overhangs both gardens completely. Such a beautiful tree deserves being planted in an open space where it can spread its branches and be part of a much larger picture..

White flowers for funerals, is this traditional in The States? Here we seem to choose the deceased favourite flowers. My Father's favourite flower was the rose, he spent many hours visiting rose growers, choosing the right plant for the right position in his garden. In June his garden was beautiful, full of healthy roses bursting into colour and filling the garden with their perfume. He was always delighted to see a rose still in flower on Christmas Day. His favourites were the deep red roses so that's what we chose for his funeral, with a few sprigs of heather from his homeland.

Samantha was Paul's first Pyrenean Mountain Dog. When she died he laid her to rest in her favourite spot in his back garden, and planted a double white cherry tree there. The tree looks magnificent at this time of the year but the rest of the year it is rather plain, so last spring I dug over a flower bed around the tree and am gradually planting it up with white plants. It needs a bit of height, a white Bleeding Heart would be just right.

Feeding tomato plants once they begin to flower gives them a boost to produce more flowers and better fruits. To avoid the fruits splitting maintain a steady watering regime. If you take a look at the photos I have posted of my indoor tomatoes you will see that I am using inverted plastic drinks bottles. I find I can make a better judgement of how much water I am giving them, it is directed straight to the roots, watering / feeding becomes a less hit or miss affair.
Just tapping the plant supports will help them to pollinate, although in my experience I doubt that it is necessary.
My greenhouse already has that lovely tomato smell about it, can't wait to see the first fruit. Lol.

I wouldn't rotivate a lawn that has had weeds in; each weed will not have arrived alone, there will be more seeds/roots around that will be pleased as punch if you rotivate the soil and make it easier for them to grow in it.
If the good bits of lawn outnumber the poor bits I would level the pot holes by filling them with top soil. Keeping a lawn weed free is an ongoing activity,applying seasonal dressings, digging out any weeds with tap roots or spooning table salt onto the centre of offending weeds (this kills the plants effectively but nothing will regrow that season, not even the grass).
However, if the poor bits outnumber the good bits it may be better to lift it all, level it and reseed or lay turf.

We've been watching the Bahrain Grand Prix, put Paul in a good mood. He's just made a pot of tea, once downed I am hoping to get him out into the garden to do some hard pruning of a wayward holly in his hedge. With a bit of luck my front lawn will be mown too, not before time!

My poor old mut is blamed for wandering neighbours' gardens. It tickled us pink when one neighbour complained that he had performed on her front lawn to my son while we were away on holiday, Jasper was well into the second week of a fortnight break with friends who lived some distance away.
Recently someone left an offering in a carrier bag in my porch. There is no way Jasper was responsible, his vision and hearing is so poor we never let him out of our sight. I think he gets the blame because he is the neighbourhood scruffy mut. After spending time at Paul's I am often miffed to find someone else's dog has left a message in our garden in our absence! Grrrrr!
As for cats, they know that poor. old Jasper cannot see or smell them these days. They curl up on the top of the rabbit hutch or bins and watch him, I am sure I can see a smerk on their faces.

oh how you have my sympathies; last weekend my back was in the same state .... all I did was to get up from a sofa and turn quickly at the same time. It is so frustrating when there is so much to be done in the garden. Keep moving gently and get better soon.

There are several plants that are perfectly happy in shady, dry, poor soil.
Ivy will grow there, I know because I am struggling to remove an ivy from my leylandii hedge.
Lamium comes in both silver and gold variegation.
Gaultheria procumbens. The Checkerberry is a prostrate evergreen shrub 10 - 15cm tall, it spreads by perhaps 10 - 20cm per year and so, if allowed, will eventually take up quite a bit of space. It may take its time to become established but it succeeds in dry soils and is quite drought-tolerant. A very cold-hardy plant.

Ivy would do the job I am sure, and they come in many shapes, colours and forms. Alternatively there are some tough forms of the cranesbill geranium which don't die back completely in winter and will flower in summer. I have 'Wargrave Pink' which is a real toughy.

When I moved to my present house the northern boundary of the garden consisted of well established leylandii. It certainly gave us privacy from the end of the cul-de-sac on the other side but I soon felt hemmed in by them. They formed an inpenetratable hedge as tall as the apex on the garage roof. So I got out the ladder and hand-saw and cut it down to just below the level of the five foot fences on either side. It looked hideous from the bedroom windows at first, solid green walls with a very woody centre, But the new growth gradually filled it in. In fact it did so well that I decided to hack back the garden side so that I could try to eradicate the ivy growing through it and to regain about two feet of garden. These measures horrified the neighbours but it is working, the new growth is filling in.
Leylandii are monsters but they can be tamed, in time,

My Mother's lawn is like yours. A couple of weeks ago I treated it with lawn sand. In the next few days I shall go to see her and rake out the moss which should be dead by now. the grass may need a spring feed.
The biggest problem is probably the heavy soil which doesn't drain well.

I would move them to a cooler place. As soon as they produce true leaves they can be potted on.

Rhubarb is usually grown to harvest the leaf stalks. The flowers are removed as soon as they appear so that all the plants energy goes into producing quality leaf stalks.