Hi Mrs5k broom colours range from the bog standard yellow to white ,cream , primrose and red and they can be bicoloured ,yellow red is impressive. They recommend after flowering to avoid seed set and thus expending energy lightly trim with shears. They do get leggy after a few years and are not long lived but they always seem to self seed somewhere and thrive without any attention. A friend of mine has Japanese maples in pots and they can put up with being pot bound provided they are kept watered and treated to a liquid feed now and again and the autumn colours are brilliant Pds
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Good evening Al.
As promised photo of greenhouse. Thank you for the suggestion - It made me have a stocktake/ short out and move my potting area to the shed
In the process I found my wedding ring that I lost due to my weight loss about a month ago in an old gardening glove. Been married 24 years I was gutted I lost it although I recognise itâs just a piece of metal. Found a knife from our matching knife block set thatâs been lost since I was in hospital last year in the compost a week ago, sharpened it and itâs no worse for spending a winter composting. Anyway, Iâm quite happy with my progress this year, refuse to accept most jobs are beyond me, and so far proved right. Also gained a knife and a wedding ring along the wayđ Julia
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@JuliaH sounds Like youâve been very busy. So glad you found your wedding ringâŚ.Iâd be gutted if I lost mine. Iâve had to take my rings off for now as lost weight post stroke & I didnât want to lose them. Your greenhouse is looking good.
Morning everyone 
. Thank you for your replies. @Pontwander donât be fooled - the staging is a recycled mini plastic green house frame and the shelves from with in that I had before we constructed the proper greenhouse over 10 years ago. Itâs as rusty and rickety as anything and Iâm amazed every
year that I manage to cobble something together. Going to get the chillis that are currently clogging up my windowsills out there today now there is more room, and then be very brave and try and get the decrepit watering system out to see if I can cobble something workable out of that. Do you notice a cobbling theme? 
I wonât throw anything away when it might still have a purpose even if itâs not itâs original one. Loved the hemisected trampolines for polytunnels idea by the wayâ:+1:. Happy cobbling, Julia
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@JuliaH, bliss. Thereâs nothing more comfortable, I find, then pottering around in a potting shed. Delighted you uncovered some lost treasures too.
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Iâve no idea what they are @loshy but they are very pretty 
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Looks like youâre doing a grand job of looking after them for someone who doesnât know how to . You should do my school of gardeningâŚâŚleave them and see what happens 
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I do know that you shouldnât trim heather back too hard. I did and have been left with a nasty dead patch
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Good morning @Loshy. What a beautiful space. The white and purple shrubs are either rhodadendrons or azaleas, always get them muddled up, the heather is lovely. I have a similar one which is threatening to take over. After it has finished flowering I will give it a trim but not too hard as Fiona says as it can leave dead patches. Ope you are getting fully recovered from your pneumonia, Julia x
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Morning Al @Pontwander.This is brilliant. A whole little family of repurposed and practical garden tools. Thank you for making me smile this morning 
Julia
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Hello Lorraine @Loshy. Glad things are going in the right direction, and that the surgery for the carpel tunnel goes well. My feeling is not to dead head partly as it would take forever, and dead heading is for bulbs ( to encourage storage for next year and not seeds) or things that can be encouraged to reflower. These I believe are a spring one hit wonder and wonât reflower but theyâre as tough as old boots and get through your Cumbrian winters. 
. Enjoy them, Julia x
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Hi fellow gardener shrubs are dwarf rhododendrons pre-stroke I could have bored the socks off you talking about them as garden I worked in for over thirty Years was predominantly rhododendron,azalea, heather. Donât normally need to prune them unless they encroach into other plants territories. After flowering and when flowers have faded and seed pods just starting to develop is the best time to gently snap off spent flower heads, bit of care needed as next years flower buds will be developing just below spent flowers dodgy vision but think yellow one is âPrincess Anneâ or âcowslipâ. Hope this helps. Pds.
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Hi Loshy Rhodos as we call them are a diverse group ranging from dwarf ground huggers to small tree size , azaleas are now lumped in with rhododendronâs. The larger flowered ones like your red one are easier to deal with, once flower over a quick twist/snap with fingers should dispatch it, essential to stop seed pods forming that would limit a good display next year
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Hello @Pds. Thank you for the correction. Everyday is a school day. I have the âsuck it and seeâ approach often to plant maintenance- if it lives to see another year and looks good, great. Sadly my memory was very randomly affected, possibly by the stroke, possibly by other brain injury caused by trauma in the accident so literally every day is a school day. Writing stuff down helps me, and I can store new memories. I canât blame this bad advice on my memory being affected though it is from the school of âsuck it and seeâ. Apologies also to Lorraine @Loshy. At least I said to do nothing for now and not the opposite 
Julia
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Hi JuliaH chickens settled in well and laying have access to nice lush lawn for a period. Never had a patio before but the chucks poo on it 
Pds
@Pontwander from one impatient Taurean to another I think we are likely to have more frosts so would suggest waiting a bit.
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Hi Pontwander when I started my career in gardening the rule regarding frosts in the cushy south was all tender bedding plants and young veg planted that had been gently hardened off could be planted out in second week of May. That was in the swinging sixties but the weather has changed so much since then. But there must have been a date in your region of Wales. when you traditionally planted out your tender plants. Remember one year when on 1st June the veg garden looked as if it had been hit by a flame thrower. Horticultural fleece is great for keeping a few degrees of frost off and speeding up growth. If you have space growing a selection of edible squash of different shapes and colours could be a good earner and being able to store them in a frost free tunnel is a bonus. More value than halloweâen orange jobs and you could still be selling them up till Christmas. Hope you have good growing season Pds
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Morning Al. @Pontwander . They are properly champing at the bit arenât they? They look good though. Good luck with them. This weather business is in the lap of the Gods. Really chilly here in Northumberland, only planted out hardy stuff so far, broad beans, hardy lettuce, beetroot, radish, spinach and rocket sown, potatoes in but deep. If Iâm taking the plunge I keep some back as an insurance policy. Only takes 1 cold night but you know thatâ:cold_face:. I love this thread too. Thanks everyone 
Julia
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I have several old gardening books that tell me to spray everything and kill the poor worms. I tend to ignore such advice but the weather map in one of them is interesting55
I donât know how much the climate has changed since the book was written but I EXPECT that the variations in climate are much the same. My mother - who lives in the same area as Wisley, would never put anything tender out fully until after the hawthorn had flowered (mid May)1
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This is our little attempt at living the âgood lifeâ. It looks a bit boring at the moment but this year it will feature
Potatoes - earlies, 2nd earlies & main crop
Broad beans
Peas
Leeks
Onions
Beetroot
Parsnips
If you look close enough youâll see the beetroot just popping their heads up (pic 2). Everything else still hiding from the frosts.
And at the end we have our raspberries, rhubarb & gooseberries
Still to make an appearance are our runner beans, tomatoes & strawberries.
Also often seen lurking in the veg patch is the rare creature that is the lesser spotted husband. Usually found here when the misses (aka me) has driven him mad.
The potting shed is teeny compared to all your offerings.
We also have our own teeny orchard with cooking & eating apples. And in the far end of the garden where I canât get at mo we have a plum & pear tree.
I canât take any credit for the veg garden. Itâs all hubbyâs work. 
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