Gardening Magazines

[Jasmine]

I've nearly done the ironing - the board and iron are out!

[Jilly]

 Same here Jasmine, MIL phoned to say she was calling about 3ish, so I've been rushing around trying to get things done, just come upstairs to get the ironing basket, well I might get a couple of things done before she arrives.

[Jasmine]

With old phones it was easy to tuck the phone between your ear and shoulder and talk and iron at the same time. The shape of modern phones doesn't make them good for that!

[Jilly]

Thanks for EG Auricula, it arrived whilst I was at work 

[Auricula]

Good oh.... and it's not even half way through August yet Jilly

[Jilly]

I've just sent off GI & EG Auricula & Ladygardener

[Ladygardener]

Oh great Jilly, I'll let you know when they arrive. I'm reading GA at the moment but will send it and your seeds when I'm finished it.

[Auricula]

Thanks Jilly, I have the next EG to send you........soon, I promise

[Jasmine]

Is it nearly posted Auricula

Is anyone going to get the patio Gala apple tree in this month's EG - it's a just pay P+P offer?  I think I will!

[Auricula]

Yes it's nearly posted Jasmine   I've got the envelope out I'm thinking about the tree

[Ladygardener]

Jilly, many thanks for The English Garden, it came this morning.
Jasmine I can't see that offer. Edit unless you mean it's in Septembers issue, I've just gotten August.

[Jasmine]

Sorry Ladygardener - it must be September's EG magazine - the offer is close to the back of the mag!

[Ladygardener]

Ah no worries Jasmine, I'll see it in due course. I'm not sure I'd have room for an apple tree anyhow, even at the lottie.

[Jasmine]

It's one of those patio stick trees Ladygardener. I reckon the shiny red apples are stuck on for the pic but it looks productive!

[Auricula]

It is September's issue.

[Jasmine]

There's an article in yesterday's Telegraph Gardening Section about garden seating over the years and how landscapers are trained to place seating correctly and how the best place for a seat is the place you gravitate to to just look at your garden - which is often not how it is done technically and it goes on to say...

'...or indeed the gardener, who tends to spend little time sitting anyway. As Kipling observed:

'Our England is a garden, and such gardens are not made
By singing:- " Oh, how beautiful," and sitting in the shade''


I didn't realise this was part of the poem:


The Glory of the Garden

OUR England is a garden that is full of stately views,
Of borders, beds and shrubberies and lawns and avenues,
With statues on the terraces and peacocks strutting by;
But the Glory of the Garden lies in more than meets the eye.
For where the old thick laurels grow, along the thin red wall,
You'll find the tool- and potting-sheds which are the heart of all
The cold-frames and the hot-houses, the dung-pits and the tanks,
The rollers, carts, and drain-pipes, with the barrows and the planks.

And there you'll see the gardeners, the men and 'prentice boys
Told off to do as they are bid and do it without noise ;
For, except when seeds are planted and we shout to scare the birds,
The Glory of the Garden it abideth not in words.
And some can pot begonias and some can bud a rose,
And some are hardly fit to trust with anything that grows ;
But they can roll and trim the lawns and sift the sand and loam,
For the Glory of the Garden occupieth all who come.

Our England is a garden, and such gardens are not made
By singing:-" Oh, how beautiful," and sitting in the shade
While better men than we go out and start their working lives
At grubbing weeds from gravel-paths with broken dinner-knives.
There's not a pair of legs so thin, there's not a head so thick,
There's not a hand so weak and white, nor yet a heart so sick
But it can find some needful job that's crying to be done,
For the Glory of the Garden glorifieth every one.

Then seek your job with thankfulness and work till further orders,
If it's only netting strawberries or killing slugs on borders;
And when your back stops aching and your hands begin to harden,
You will find yourself a partner In the Glory of the Garden.
Oh, Adam was a gardener, and God who made him sees
That half a proper gardener's work is done upon his knees,
So when your work is finished, you can wash your hands and pray
For the Glory of the Garden that it may not pass away!


I always think of Jenny when anyone mentions poetry

[Auricula]

Yes, I bet she loved that one. Very erudite of you for a Sunday morning Jasmine
I'm off to sit in the shade and moan about the proliferation of weeds..... eat your heart out Kipling

[Ladygardener]

That is one super poem Jasmine. JW would love it I'm sure.

[Jasmine]

Isn't it lovely and old fashioned Ladygardener!

It was a bit of light post-breakfast English Lit ... and Kipling need not fear your (non) rhyming couplets Auricula...

'I'm off to sit in the shade and moan about the proliferation of weeds'

[Auricula]

Now that my visitors have gone, I will get EG posted to you Jilly you played 2nd fiddle to a 7yr old's birthday presents I'm afraid

[Jilly]

I was here when I got in from work Auricula thank you 

Jasmine GA & Gardening Which have made their way as far as the office but I haven't managed to get them in the post yet, I'll do it Monday.

 I thought it was a particularly good issue of Which this month, articles on sowing perennials & what wild flowers work best in normal flower borders, they said something which I've found to be very true this year, grow wild flowers if you like them but not just to please the pollinators, because they're just as happy with any nectar rich flowers. Certainly true here, I've got my pollinator pots dotted all round the garden (& they look very pretty), but the bees tend to ignore them & are on the Penstamons, Salvias & Single Dahlias in the beds, even if they're right next door 

I love that poem btw Auricula, I was looking for a couple of lines of that to put in my signature, must get that sorted at the weekend.

[Jasmine]

I was reading in The Garden that salvias and single dahlias are excellent for pollinators Jilly but I agree that they love penstemons too. What I really want to know is if plants generate nectar constantly through the summer or if once a flower has been visited it's all gone

I posted GI to you today - there's a feature on salvias in this month's issue.

[owdboggy]

Sept 6, 2013 17:55:53 GMT Jasmine said:

 What I really want to know is if plants generate nectar constantly through the summer or if once a flower has been visited it's all gone

An individual flower will produce pollen and nectar until it is fertilised when it stops as it no longer needs the visit from an insect. However, a plant will continue to produce pollinator attractants as long as it produces new flowers.

[Ladygardener]

Thanks for that owdboggy . I agree with what you're saying Jilly, I grow several single Dahlia and the bees love them but they also love Fuschia and Cosmos and of course the Cerinthe. One thing I did find this year as I've been able to grow them (thanks again for the seeds Jilly) is that they do seem to like the Tithonia as well. Some of my rocket started to go to seed and I decided to leave it, it's been buzzing for weeks with hover flies.

[Jasmine]

Sept 6, 2013 20:18:06 GMT owdboggy said:

Sept 6, 2013 17:55:53 GMT Jasmine said:

 What I really want to know is if plants generate nectar constantly through the summer or if once a flower has been visited it's all gone

An individual flower will produce pollen and nectar until it is fertilised when it stops as it no longer needs the visit from an insect. However, a plant will continue to produce pollinator attractants as long as it produces new flowers.

Thanks for that owdboggy!  Where I sit to have a cup of tea in the afternoon is right by a penstemon and I've been watching the bees coming and going since it started to flower wondering!

[Jilly]

Thanks for the info owdboggy I noticed with the lavender that the bees were still visiting even when to my eyes the flowers had nearly gone over. Another one of the plants mentioned in the which article was Heuchera flowers & I've really noticed that this year too, although that may be because I've got quite a few more that seem to produce loads of flowers through the summer.

Thanks for GI Jasmine which arrived just now.... along with the new Hayloft catalogue  

And thanks so much for copying out that poem too Jas, I was looking for it for ages to put that bit in my signature.

[Jasmine]

You're welcome Jilly. I was only vaguely aware of the poem until I read the article in the paper!

I would just like to clarify that the Hayloft catalogue was a coincidence and nothing to do with me! ...the verbascum on the back page looks gorgeous!

[Jilly]

I haven't even opened it yet ... I must just pop downstairs & make a coffee  

[Jasmine]

...and look at the back page!

[Jilly]

Gorgeous isn't it, very much like Clementine (which I love) just a bit darker.... some beautiful Tulips too, not that I was looking you understand  not with that huge order I've still got coming from SR.