Lyndz garden notebook

After reading over a few peoples diarys, blogs, garden threads, I've decided to do my own as I'm really not sure how this year is gonna pan out!
Over the last few years, my interest in the garden/flowers/fruit has grown massively, I used to think having a nice lawn, hanging baskets out the front and a pot of strawbs was everything until I found dahlias and boxes/packs of wildflowers seed and from there I became hooked!
However there's bit of a problem, we're not sure if we'll be here by the end of the year and it's putting me off doing anything major to the garden like putting up more walls/fences, putting borders in/veg patch or even putting my raspberries and apple tree in as I just don't want to spend the money if I'm not here (and if I put bean poles up will next doors kids deliberately boot balls at it?!)
So, I have decided not to do the block wall at the back and just chuck one of those bamboo screens up, pants I know, but its better than looking at the weedy banking at the back! I really need somewhere to put things I have bought, buying in compo every year for my pots is getting quite expensive as the number of pots (and size on them) is growing year on year.. so think it would suit me better to sticking a lot of what I have in the ground which brings me back to, am I going to be here in a years time?! The best place to put a border, I think, is at the back but I have put a magnolia (twiglet), a camellia, few spanish bluebells and another tree (no idea what it is) just stuck in the edge of lawn so obviously these would need to come up if I was to do the bed.. don't want to put it down either side, as one side is too long with a pants chain link fence (again do I put bamboo between me and my lovely neighbour or not bother as I like her and it'll just be a waste of money, last year I grew sweet peas up the fence) and the other side has a shoddy pallet fence which could blow over at any given time and annoying kids (and parents).
The front garden is a sloped lawn either side of some steps leading up to the house, and not really ideal for borders. Did have a wildflower patch on one side 2 years ago but didn't like the maintenance with weeding and how it looked in winter, so lawned it over and dotted a lupin, fuschia, spanish bluebells, alliums and perennial cornflower in.
Ahh decisions ( I don't like them!!)

Sorry didn't realise I couldn't add to the blog more than 600 words..

 

Hiya @Lynd great blog start very informative Well if you are going to be in your present home for a little longer you could try and do what i often do to save me having to keep purchasing MORE AND MORE Terracotta pots what i do now is i plunge things in the ground in cheap black plastic pots the ones you can buy for tomatoes and the like then when you need to move them you can dig um up pot n all LOL so much easier then having to look after them in pots too

 

so here's whats been potted up/sown so far.. don't sow too many of each as I haven't got the room :(

sweetpeas - no id on the pack, look fine in the porch
cherry tomato - gardeners delight, in porch stop them getting to big
Petunia - double bush, plug plants, repotted into plastic, fibre pots had mould, now in kitchen
fushcia - winston churchill and cant remember the other, plugs, in porch fine
livingstone daisy - got 4 out of 12..cats! look fine, in kitchen
marigold - french, 4/6.. cats again but look fine, in kitchen
Lobelia - cascade mix, redone a batch as I done it in cells and should of used a flat, cats have knocked it over since! few have sprouted, in kitchen
snapdragons circus clowns= few popped up so far, in kitchen
coreopsis early sunrise 1/4 germed so far in kitchen
giant poppies, king kong I think = never had luck with them sown outside so got 3 tiny little seedlings on the go, in kitchen
cosmos - sensation mixed, only just popped up will move on in the week, in kitchen
echinacae - mixed pack from wilko, all greened up lovely in porch
peony - karl rosenburg?? (don't quote me lol this is all from memory) got 3 shoots on it already, in porch
red hot pokers - greened up nicely too
did have parsnip, carrot and leek in loorolls but had to chuck them.. I avent bothered sowing more root veg as I dunno where to put them!

I have a tupperware box full of seed packs I've collected over the last year and its quite overwhemling to even look at it.. but I'm gonna sort through it later and post up some I'm not sure of or haven't grown before so you lovely lot can advise me if you will Thanks for looking in!

 

Thanks @BeeHappy! I hadn't thought about that before, that may very well be an option! I have some log roll edging stuff that I could maybe put in front of the pots to stop me mowing over them and making it a bit more neater looking?

 

@Lynd I started doing the plunge pots in the ground as a result of going away to visit my friend when she was unwell and it was easier and less for my poor friend in the village here for her to have to do, what with all the rest of the watering of the seedlings in the coldframe,log store and the numerous pots and hanging baskets i have bless her just as well i'm not an indoor pot(s) owner too They stay cooler and can root thru the holes if needed to gain moisture.
Also some times when i left them there they looked right so i was able to see how they would bloom in that spot, also if not the right look be able to rearrange them where i needed them....my gardening friends tease me and say that my plants have wheels attached to them as they move about soooo much But its a great way for you to have your fav plants ready to take with you when you need to I got the idea from plunging my spring bulbs and then being able to remove them and replace them with summer planting while they went behind the log store for the foliage to die off naturally

 

@BeeHappy Thanks its a great idea! Sorry about your friend, its great you have someone else to look after your pots though I think it would make sense for me to do it too as we go out quite a lot over the summer and I move my pots round so much on the patio because I don't think it looks right! I've already been on wilkos website looking for more pots.. I'm thinking about some plastic troughs and just using my ugly biggish pots for the corners. Have you plunged any of them? I'm guessing it would be the same just thinking it would be easier with the log edging

 

Forgot I sowed spinach and peas a while ago too.. look fine just need soil to warm for peas!

Done a few bits outdoors and indoors today.

Re-potted 2 clematis - one is a darius something and don't know the other, reduced in Tesco last year, nothing happened with them so left in a corner, looked today and one is sending up 2 shoots and is quite bushy and the other is alive (got to get a trellis each for them!)
Pulled up some crocus and bluebells as they were in the wrong place, so potted them up with the primroses I bought aaaages ago that desperately needed a home.
Redone 2 small hanging buckets which had pansies in, threw 2 out, salvaged some and put a primrose in each, will hang up tomorrow.
Put the echinacae, pokers and lupins outside, still in small pots atm.
Potted up 4 begonia corms, 2 more picotee and 2 rose d bouton
Moved the petunias, fuchsias, sweet peas about in the porch.
Finally set up the blowaway! (stuck in the kitchen for now.. much to the kids amusement)

Sowed: echinops ritro blue, delphinium consolida, hollyhock double mixed, cactus dahlia, bedding dahlia, rudbeckia indian summer and golden sunrise tomato.

Run out of soil and decent pots for anything else to be done!

Few seeds I wanted to sow but not sure of are; gypsophilia, achillea, field scabious (guessing I direct sow that one), anise hyssop and ascelepia tuberosa (love the colour but I am really not keen on butterflies, sorry big phobia )

Given some thought on the sunken pots and I might opt for those plastic tower drawers instead, nice and deep and I've got some to hand or..big OR, ask Mr Lynd nicely for new pots so I can chuck my 'minging' ones in instead.

 

Go for it Lynd - the worst he can say is no ... so you then go to a boot fair and smuggle some in

 

Moved the blowaway outside and put the echinacae, pokers and peony in there. Weighed it down with half a bag of gone off cement, should keep it down.
Put the raspberry canes in, finally! Don't think 6 is enough but tough tits, nasty neighbours out shouting at me again so I'm back in.. looking to move :(

 

You posted as I did M! He'll have to say yes, I've just sent him about 3 millions texts on why we have to move hahaha

 

You'd *think* it would ... but, in my experience, keep an eye on the weather forecast for any windy weather and if there is ... bring it back indoors again! That half bag of cement will not save you

 

Oh dear.. I've got another 3 full bags in the shed? knowing my luck the blowaway will be cemented to the patio come end of spring lol so will keep an eye on weather, thanks for that!

 

I had concrete blocks weighing my one down (yeah, see? I thought I was being clever ) but an ill wind still picked the whole thing up and tossed it and the contents around my garden: broke my heart! I'll never use one again.

 

Oh bloody hell I bet :( I'd be devastated too, sorry to hear that! I was worrying when I bought it mind.. I think its in an ok place, its got 2 brick walls covering on the back and the right hand side and the big lump of concrete
edit -if we have wind tonight I'll soon find out, try to take pic tomoz.

 

Just in case Lynd ...