How much will you miss outdoor gardening in the next few months?

Oh my goodness what a beautiful job you've done! Just a personal selection of water plants I wouldn't want to be without...Zantedeschia aethiopica (arum lily) , Iris ensata ( on en a déjà parlé), Lobelia cardinalis, Carex testacea, Carex Evergold , Houttynia 'Chameleon'. There are many more good foliage plants like Acorus variegata, Cyperus, Darmeria and Oenanthe javanica but they can be horribly invasive as are most native water plants. If mossies are a problem get a few little guppies from an aquarium shop. Lovely, tiny carnivorous fish . You won't lack for frogspawn!

 

That is very sweet of you! Thank you. Vraiment, tu nous combles!

In fact, your speedy reply has beaten me to it, I was going to add a correction: when I wrote “awaiting your excellent suggestions of aquatic plants”, I meant to write “awaiting the implementation of your excellent suggestions of aquatic plants”, since we had certainly NOT forgotten them … but here you are now making even further suggestions!

Our next purchase is going to be at least three of the plants you have named.

We’ll keep you posted, of course!

 

@noisette47 - decidely sloppy today! Please note further correction to the above: should have read: "since we had certainly NOT forgotten them" ...

 

We'll have to change this thread title to 'How much will you enjoy outdoor gardening in the next few months'! Is there anyone who doesn't get excited once February is past and all the glories of spring and summer are ahead of us? It's especially true here, where despite the best efforts to grow cheerful winter plants, nothing beats the Magnolias, Wisterias, perennials bursting back to life, peach and cherry blossom.......and all regularly and generously watered.

 

How right you are in your optimism! Also, at this time of year, I love the change of LIGHT! ... which I will attempt to capture for you in the next few hours/days (?) whenever it presents itself the way I remember it from other tides of March ...

By the way, can some of the marginals you mention thrive under some 20 or 30 centimetres of water?

 

Hmmm...30cm would be pushing them to the limit. Certainly I've found the Iris and Lobelia prefer their roots in the water but the stems above. If there's no shelf, I wonder whether some of the trendy, tall, square pots half-filled with gravel or stones, then topped up with soil and the plant (with largish round pebbles on top to prevent the froggies from unplanting them) placed on the bottom of the pond would work? Would the structure stand the weight? All this business about growing water plants in mesh baskets is a bit outdated.

 

Talking of Spring light, here it is (something positive for the Ides of March)!:

 

Not yet, we are still 'enjoying' it!
Mrs Lao is very exited (every little bit counts!) as your suggested plants have arrived and are ready to be immersed (the large Roman fish is staying indoors, though):

 

Have you decided what you're going to plant them in and how to get the right depth? If you do use those little mesh baskets, line them with horticultural fleece or very fine plastic mesh. That will stop the soil trickling out of the sides. Don't forget to place some smooth, rounded pebbles on the soil over the roots. Otherwise, after amphibian mating season, there won't be any soil!
Here endeth the lesson...

 

Poetry much appreciated ... clearly derived from the best!

Message passed on to Mrs Lao who had already 'planted' them (well I did, under her supervision, becausse she didn't want to get her arms wet in the freezing cold, and who would blame her?).

 

These were found in the lawn this afternoon.
You may find it amusing to see these grubs practising their synchronised swimming, but so much for nematodes, then?

 

Oh how very dare they!! Do they not realise in whose greensward they're frolicking? Mind you, they might be in the early stages of being consumed from within. Do you know what an infected daddy long legs grub looks like? Are there no gruesome pictures on the nematode packaging?

 

You’ve hit the nail on the head, there! There’s just NO respect anymore!

Mind you, you have unwittingly saved the day for Mrs Lao; jut like you, she’d made some kind of disparaging remark about the grubs (you are all the same, you just can't help it!), so I thought I'll give you some grub! I was going to put the grubs in her portion of the wonderful butternut squash, spinach and cottage cheese lasagne she has just made … but seeing your post, she said: You know, I think Noisette has got a point, those grubs do not look well, I think they have been poisoned … So, (benefit of the doubt and all that) I decided not to.

Well, perhaps the nematodes have done “something”, but on the other hand if these grubs have got that fat, I would have thought that, by now, they will have done the damage.

 

Yum! Added protein . As mentioned elsewhere, I've never had success with nematodes of any kind. Their effectiveness is very temperature and humidity reliant so if you're unable to control those (and outside in UK in March....?) it's a non starter. Not wishing to be all 'woo-woo', but you'd be better off with a good selection of lawn-fossicking birds Hoopoes are excellent but sadly perhaps haven't crossed the Channel yet? Starlings and magpies are what you need!