Also on the list of burglary-preventing plants

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2107511/The-home-guard-Police-suggest-30-thorny-bushes-homeowners-plant-discourage-lazy-garden-thieves.html 

It's certainly thickening up now - around 4 feet tall but some pruning needed now to cause thickening from the base up. Any berries are snuffled by the birds - as they are from the rosa rubrifolia hedge I planted four years ago.

There are still plenty of people up here who never lock their doors - ever. It's that kind of an island. So blackthorn planted primarily for horticultural reasons!😉

Is it too early for Begonias? We had some in the shaded area of our garden from last April right through till October, they did excellent and I'm on the look out for some more but wondering if it's still a little early?

Here's a guide Jonesy.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=815

It's the frosts that are the risk. Not sure if you had frosts where you are last April, but generally it's protected planting in spring as they're classed as a tender perennial. So for existing plants, they're just not up yet I suspect.

Thank you..very handy link  Think I will leave the Begonias for a little longer till threat of Frost passes

That dog poo problem - It's historical now, as our last labrador died just over a year ago. But we used to put garden dog poo in a plastic composter well away from the garden compost bins intended for the veggies. One of these dogpost-bins had over 10 years of quiet decomposition. I recently took off the plastic bin and admired the healthy-looking product inside. It looked perfect - dark, friable, full of happy invertebrates. However, both knowledge and superstition tell us that dog poo on your radishes is a bad idea, however well-rotted. So the question was - what on earth to do with it?

Here's what I came up with. To one side of our vegetable patch we have a stand of 'Bocking 14' comfrey which is used as a green manure/mulch or for making liquid fertiliser. We have grown it here since the mid 80s. Rather than use the 'dogpost' directly on food plants, I thought I would feed it to the comfrey, which has had little fertilisation over the years. I reason that once taken up by the roots and turned into plant tissue, with the leaves used as previously, we should keep any risk of food contamination to a minimum.

I'll be interested if anyone else has found a promising/safe way to deal with this problem.

Roger

How are your gardens doing?

It's really starting to liven up here now, after quite a bit of sunshine, despite chilly winds at times.

A signature event is the flowering of our dessert plum. The little white stars are just fully open this morning. The early birds have had their time- last few out of hundreds of crocuses enjoying the sun and the snowdrops are reduced to blue-green stalks. Soon I'll give the lawn its first spring trim.

Herbs are all doing well. Rosemary, sage and thyme replenished.  One lemon tree survived the winter in the growing room. Accompanied with an ivy. Need some more sowings in there now. Garlic doing well .Chives and mints are shooting up. All the new fruit trees from last year are budding well . With leaves at least. Some strawberries in flower. Raspberry  canes   are  breaking buds... Daffs have finished. Tulip out in flower with bluebells coming on. Heuchera sending forth their buds on long stems. Grass is getting plucked by the handful ending up in with the chooks.   Nice time of year... Must start on the baskets  soon. 

Art, I don't know how you keep up with it all! The garden is enough on its own, but then you've 'chooks' too. Nice to hear your rasp canes are breaking; ours are still in winter bud.

A hanging basket has now been planted today with 6 Fuchsia Angela to brighten up May.. Some buds already ..... 

As curry powder's getting expensive, I'm trying a new cat repellent made from peppermint and orange oils. Touch wood, it's poo-free for a third day.

A reasonably cheap way that has worked for me is to eat about 7/8ths of an orange or clementine, retain the peel and place where the cats like to go, and then drizzle the peel with the remainder of the fruit. Downside initially was my neighbours and friends kept pointing out with incredulous expressions that there was orange peel in the garden!

Have been putting more marginal plants in the pond this afternoon (in between showers).

Now have the following water plants - 

Pontaderia Cordata / 2 Irises / Caltha Palustris / Lobelia / Houttuynia Cordata / Hypericum Elodes .

Also have a Water Lily (in a bucket of water) as it`s too early to put it in the pond yet.

Newly planted hanging basket of Fuchsia has  gone into the shed for the night in case of frost. Some of my new fruit trees have blossom flowering.....

Sowed beetroot, carrot, spring onion and chard in a raised bed but nothing germinated yet (too cold...) Romanesque cauliflower germinated really well in the greenhouse and growing like the clappers. Some nice tomato plants from a car boot looking good too. Best surprise is a couple of the fuschias from last year have survived the winter in the unheated greenhouse and are sprouting (one from the base, one all over). Broad beans not up yet.

Cats are a pain - I have had to cover all three raised beds with netting frames to keep them off, and the big growing patch just seems to advertise 'cat toilet'... I feel I may end up covering or caging all the growing space...

Wild hedge (planted bare-root in Nov 2014) looking good - hoping it will really fill out this year.

Lots of good looking fruit bushes going well now (nicely established).

Good time of year  

Cats?

Old chicken wire can be turned into cloches or tunnels.

Roger

Anemones are flowing well. Some daffodils are in bud. Smaller yellow Daffodils are flowering.  Strawberries in planter flowering well.  Newly bought wild strawberries have been trans planted. 6 recently purchase herbs have now been planted into a trough.  Chooks have been having a go at the herbs......

 I consider the following as worthy of some note: there exists a patch of daffodils- regular early bloomers- that in the autumn bloomed at their earliest ever by my reckoning, in mid November. Today, some five and a half months later, the same patch (given that they are different bulbs) is blooming well. I wonder if this is a contender for the longest daffodil season! If they manage a few weeks more, it will be half a year!

Anemone coming to an end now. Daffodils are doing well. Onward patio peas are coming out of growing room tomorrow and gong into a trough. Heuchera  is opening out now to show their salmon colours. Strawberries are still flowering with the fruit setting. Raspberry canes are in leaf. Herbs are now being used ' If not for cooking then the chooks are enjoying them...  The new fruit trees are in leaf but doubt if any fruit will appear until next year...... All this in pots, tubs, and troughs.  Patio is doing well.. Especially as chooks and new shed takes up room . Still got a bench there to   enjoy the weather...

Morning all.

We ate a couple of local crabs yesterday - plus some of the pickled rock samphire we bought in Scilly. We used to pickle it when we lived in Pembrokeshire and in my view it is one of the great flavours - up there with capers and asparagus. The lady who made it included peppercorns which I think took away from the natural taste a bit - but never mind. It was GREAT!

Speaking of asparagus - the season has started here and I am looking forward to my first feed. Cousins in Italy introduced us to wild asparagus - and we went on several expeditions with them, carrying our special long-handles pickers. It is a popular foraging activity there.

I think our first pick of rhubarb is about to take place.......


Roger

Need some sun for my early strawberries.  Raspberry canes doing well. Plenty of leaves. Herbs are loved by the chooks. Especially the fennel leaves. New fruit trees are not going to do much this year even though some blossom flowering.

We have just three spears on our (one!) asparagus plant up and looking phallically healthy.

Garden Peas Onward in the trough had to be staked and wired up as got a bit weather beaten by the rain.  Strawberries' in the planter have now been netted as blackbird get on the front lawn.

Garden starting to look very green now. Happy that may early spuds are going well and brad beans starting to go ok. Big hopes for some romanesque cauliflower with suitable netting.

Sowed some seed at easter (carrot, beetroot, spring onion, chard) but really only the spring onion have gone well, so I am thinking of starting again now its much warmer.