Does anyone know anything about gardening?

Same. It's a nice feeling isn't it?

Everytime I stalk the allotment thread I feel very inferior.

I usually just sow in trays. Usually flower in year 2 but had some weird ones that flowered straight away last year.

Threw some seeds around last year but nothing happened.

I blame slugs. Frustrating when I see 7' specimens in cracks in the pavement. Rescued two from being mowed in my dad's lawn last year, one seems to have survived. I'd like a row against the sunny fence.

Yeah, I've never had any luck with them and then see 7 foot specimens coming out of the pavement. Grrrr.

Ooops, snap with hoefla!

In my experience, trays with lids from the local shop (BM bargains is good for those) and growing out seeds inside / in a greenhouse, shed etc. really increases success with seeds.

Seeds get eaten by birds and if slugs love hollyhocks and you have loads of slug it might not work at all.

You can surround plants with garlic to keep slugs away so that the plant gets a chance to grow out.

What's the soil like?
They grow like weeds in the gravel courtyard at my parent's house.
It seems they like it very dry and well drained.

last year but nothing happened.

They need quite a while to establish. Maybe 2-3yrs.

If you dig even a small one up you'll see like 4" of a massive thick root section. It takes time to grow that.

To sow, I was always told to cut them off at the end of the season, hold it like a whip and beat the wall where you want them.

Here's a few coming into their 2nd year... I think, could be 3rd. This is a sort of raised wall soakaway thing, so the ground is a mix of concrete, hardcore, stones and washed/blown soil.

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hello, actually geraniums seem to be out of stock online (at least in the places I have looked) if anyone has any leads, esp on established plants let us know. @hoefla please can we take them if it’s not too late?

Do you mean tender geraniums, which are properly called pelargoniums? They will I would have thought not be for sale until a bit later as they are killed by frosts.

Hardy geraniums can be found but again at this time of year will either be bare root or cut back with nothing showing above the soil, so garden centres unlikely to have them on display yet.

Can recommend planting bare roots - always had good results for me, and much cheaper
https://www.farmergracy.co.uk/products/geranium-samobor-bare-roots-uk

https://www.farmergracy.co.uk/products/geranium-anne-thomson-bare-roots-uk

https://www.farmergracy.co.uk/products/geranium-rozanne-bare-roots-uk

many thanks!

Thanks again, those are lovely

Bare root works fine for Geraniums, that's how I posted some to a colleague :)

Some aren't up and green/flowering for very long, some like the Oxaniums are nearly evergreen/flower for months.

Thanks for the hollyhock advice everyone!
If anyone finds themselves in Oxfordshire there’s a village called finstock. Hollyhocks are absolutely everywhere- front gardens, cracks in pavements, alleyways. Pretty much every dead space across the whole village is chock full of 8ft tall peachy blooms.
I presume someone kept a garden full of them and they just escaped and found their niche.

OK then, I’ll send you a msg

front garden bike sheds permitted development in scotland, thankfully, as I’m about to put in an asgard (though was just reading the cargo bike thread…)

I was in a tiny Dutch town last year and they were also everywhere!

I guess the soil is just right where you are, I brought some seeds over but I am not so sure the Belfast Clay is gonna work for them.

Cool, am going to go find a wee box/envelope.

These lovely Ice N Roses Hellebores down to a tenner at Coolings so ordered some up and delivered by their own driver the very next day.
Will get them into my Hellebore patch this weekend.

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Lidl have bucket loads of geraniums on sale.

Getting quite excited now.

Although going back over the volume of my order vs my diary for this and future weekends, I'm a bit nervous about getting things in the ground.

Kicking myself for coming into the office!

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Also looks like there are more frosts expected over night on Sat/Sun.

Just ordered a massive dump bag of compost, will see if top dressing the lawn makes a measurable difference to the quality of the weeds.

Edit: also hoping to top up raised beds and build a couple more, plan is to encourage pollinators and maybe try to grow some veg.

It's arrived.

Popped two of the hellebore the ground last night. Black one in the mini woodland under the fur. A pink one near my confused Japanese quince and strawberries.

Glad I did as it's a horrible day. With the cold over nights and all the rain I'm wondering about popping some of the stuff in a shed over night and maybe planting over the course of my lunch breaks next week.

Also thinking about potting some bits like the camillias and snowdrop to take the pressure off planting in the garden properly.

A lot of the shrubs are smaller than I expected. But I guess that's why they're good value!

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Hope they grow well for you!