h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm a very keen gardener and i've just spotted this page 'yippeeee' Finally some other gardeners to exchange hints and tips with.

Glad you like it Venus

GG hasn't been around all that long, so it'll probably develop a fair bit more than it has now.

I had a little nosey around your personal space ( do I have a dirty mind or does that sound a bit dodgy...) and took the liberty of adding a link to your Skimmia entry

How long have you been in the garden biz?

Hiya King-Bomba
Nice of you to reply.
Soooo did you enjoy the nosey round my space? I did'nt feel a thing either

I've been at the garden centre 4 years now, but my love of gardening and plants goes back to when i was a child (only a couple of years ago ) My dad and my nan were both gardeners, so i guess its kind of inherited.

What kind of garden do you have?

My garden's not really any particular style or anything - bit of this, bit of that. I'm mostly interested in perennials though, beds here and there with a hodge podge of different things.

I used to work in a garden centre too. I wouldn't mind doing it again, but I'd prefer to get into nursery growing rather than retail.

Plan is to get a van and do a bit of landscaping until I have the money to set up my own growing facility, but that's a kinda long termish thing.

You garden sounds much like mine No particular format, just plant where there is a space. I also like perennials, can't be bothered with annuals and bedding. Have you got any helebores? I have one just come into bloom. The flower is almost black with a cream centre, very pretty.

I'd rather be in the nursery side than retail. Even garden centres get stroppy customers!

I would love to have my garden landscaped, just the hard landscape and beds dug. Then i could REALLY go to town with plants and shrubs.

I've only 2 hellebores - both came unlabelled and are slightly different but both orientalis I think.

Only one is flowering - 1 flower, 2 more buds. The first one started a month or two ago - I'd no idea they lasted so long! It started off pure white, but it's getting pinker and pinker as time goes on. I think I'll put a few more in for next winter. You sound like a big fan of them!

You know what I hated about working in a garden centre? Some customers just don't seem to realise you actually have work to do, apart from dispensing advice!

I never mind giving advice, but at the same time there is a limit, there are jobs that need done, and you don't go into Tesco and start asking "Now, how would I best cook these beans? Should I add pepper? What meat do they go well with? I bought a tin of beans in Asda last week, and after I took them out of the saucepan they were all burned, will this happen to these ones?" LOL.

Meanwhile there is a massive lorry waiting to be unloaded and an increasingly irrate driver ready to start a riot. Ah, the joys of customer service

I did enjoy talking with people though, and giving them good advice. At least it gave more satisfaction that it would in Tesco!

I'm a big fan of helebores. I have one orientalis, but several seedlings have appeared which i will be taking extra care of as they may be the same black colour. I have loads of heleborous foetidus, which seeds everywhere.

I know what you mean about advice. What worries me is those you give advice to, then they say 'oh well i'll just plant it and see what happens' It infuriates me as i know the poor plant will be dead in weeks Then you get the ones that should never have a garden. No clue of what to do and worse still, no real interest. Amongst those is the 'killer' gardener. Anything that so much as lands on one of this gardeners plants will be zapped with any chemical available I had a man bring me in a box of bugs he had killed. He wanted to know what they were and how to keep them away from his plants. He even though they were a 'foreign' insect. They were shield bugs, harmless and not likely to do much damage just nibble the odd leaf. He was convinced i was wrong, so left with a flea in his ear
Ahh yes the joys of working in a garden centre.