How much will you miss outdoor gardening in the next few months?

You leave my bottom out of this, hmmm? My Zantedeschia never blow over . There's a pink one and 'Green Goddess' too, now.....such beautiful, classy plants!

 

Can you grow the pink one in water?
Reason I ask is because the coloured ones used to considered more for normal conditions.

 

Fantastic 'ensemble'! But, ppppfffff, what a lot of work!

And Mrs Lao — always with one eye on the positive — said You’ve got a rival there with the lawn!

 

I don't know. I've got it going in boggy soil on a bank, so don't see why not.

 

I just knew the grass would get a mention It's better than that now, promise . The pond isn't too bad, maintenance-wise and would be a doddle if it wasn't on a slope. I dead-head the arums because they do self-sow a bit enthusiastically otherwise. The Iris and Lobelia are cut down in autumn, but that's all. Any other dead foliage is cleared out when I thin the Nymphaea in summer.

 

Is all that land yours, right up to the horizon? ... If not, I hope they charge you for the view!!! How fantastic is that, now?!

 

Not mine, fortunately! We're surrounded by the farmland and little woods still belonging to the vendors of our barn and bit of field. I never expected to fall so deeply in love with fields It is wonderful to see them cultivated, productive, so well-managed. Then there's the wildlife....deer, hares, pheasant and partridges, buzzards, herons and owls. Blessed indeed...

 

No, it's 1m - 1.5m deep, with a variable height shelf all round, lined with geotextile and butyl. At least it started out like that. An ambitious ragondin tried to burrow his way in about halfway down a few years ago, so goodness knows what's happening under the liner now I strongly suspect that a couple of frogs got trapped under the liner during installation as well

 

How deep is your pond - mine is, respectively, 24 and 48 inches deep. Is the 24 inch part a good depth for the plants you suggest (3:28 today) and is that why ...

... Pete suggests bricks ... because my pond would be too deep?

 

It all depends what you plant them in but yes, you'll probably need to raise them up in 24" of water. They're marginal plants so like their roots but not their crowns in water. If you use classic (and expensive) mesh planting containers, they're only about 8-10" deep so they would need to be raised up to ensure that the crowns/rhizomes are almost level with the top of the water. I tend to use bigger, deeper rectangular baskets or crates (black becomes invisible) lined with shade mesh or horticultural fleece to stop the soil disappearing through the bigger gaps. They then sit on the shelf. The bigger the container, the less often you'll need to repot them. If you've got amphibians, it's a good idea to arrange a layer of large, rounded pebbles on top of the soil to prevent erosion and disturbance.

 

Thank you for that comprehensive advice; a veritable superchip of information, as usual!

I’ll have a good look tomorrow at the plants you suggested, to see what their flowering sequence is; I’ll make the containers with square metal grids bordered with a concrete frame to weigh them down to the adequate depth!

 

COSMOS
Our cosmos (photographed today, 29/12/2024) must be sounding some kind of alarm: it has suddenly decided to burst into buds! There’s been no frost here but, no doubt, it’s on the way; if it really is going to start flowering fully in mid-winter, it would be really sad to see it completely killed when the cruel cold comes; the plant, in a large pot, is too heavy to move and, I suspect, too delicate to protect with bubble wrap. Any ideas, anyone?

 

Are you sure it's Cosmos? It looks suspiciously like what used to be called Osteospermum (Goodness knows what it's called currently). The yellow ones are less hardy than O. junceum or O. ecklonis species, but as long as they're not growing in sodden soil or compost, they'll survive. As far as protecting the flowers goes, 2 or 3 layers of horticultural fleece give a surprising amount of protection. Avoid bubble-wrap...it attracts and traps moisture. Better an old, dry, cotton sheet or lightweight curtain (covered with a sheet of clear plastic if rain or snow is forecast) if there's nothing else to hand.
Stick some canes into that regrettably scrubby-looking lawn (), drape the protection over them and tie around the rim or the base of the pot. Voilà voilà...

 

Mrs Lao is really embarassed now! I had said to her Are you sure it's 'cosmos' ... which got my head bitten off with a cool I know my flowers, thank you! That's now been followed by a humbled Of course, it's Osteospermum!!! I gave you the wrong name ...

But, 'thank YOU', Noisette, for the advice; horticultural fleece it will be.

As for the sorry-looking lawn (I couldn't agree more), I think that is the result of a dose of Ferrous Sulphate a couple of weeks ago which has killed the moss ... and some of the grass! You could say it's under some kind of momentary anaesthesia, hopefully not for too long … give it a few weeks and il will bounce back! But who cares, I am not looking at it, I haven't got the time, I have to do a lot of writing at the moment ...

 

@noisette47 be grateful that you are in France. The way things are going in the UK there won't be any fields left soon.