What Do You Want?

If i could have whatever i wanted with cost not being a problem i would like one of those spherical glass and wood garden houses that turns round ~ it would be like having your own bubble in the garden ~ then i would have somewhere to sit and just 'be' in the garden, watch the birds, the squirrels, try to plan better for next year and just enjoy my garden.

I have it on good authority that Santa's going to bring my OH some kneeling pads for his poor old knees! I sent him (OH, not Santa) back to the UK with my entire Plant wishlist, but of course all the GCs are geared up for Christmas, and he's only found one of them. Never mind, I was going to ring him to say "Don't bother" because I found a gorgeous pair of lemon-scented, golden columnar cypresses yesterday in a tiny little local market, and "Santa" says he'll deliver....... So that'll be one very happy Gattina on Christmas morning. Wrapping them could be a bit of a problem, though......

I havent asked for anything this year. Odd I think the mild weather has upset my inner clock! But now I come to think of it some new heavy duty gloves, a pair of loppers, good Secateurs, and a large watering can?

An allotment please.

I'm not one for asking the human race for anything but as you asked, I'd like to ask for some, or lots, of good health and good sleep, although in many ways good health follows good sleep, dosn't it? I've had little of either since the end of April so I think a present, either or both would be the best Christmas present I would get. ( At the moment anyway. ) It's all up hill after that.
Happy holidays to all.

What would you like Andy?

Heucheras! A couple of Heucheras, two or three Heucheras and ..... Oh, Yes .... a Heuchera!

About 15 heucheras were on my original wishlist, too, Nariz. They'll have to wait until spring, now!

Gold leaf soft touch gloves. I reveived a pair last year, and they lasted until about a week ago. I love them, best gloves I've ever had.

Two nice tubs for the two David Austin roses i ordered, viola odorato and some new secateurs and garden tools. Wont get any of it though so might go to b and q buy my own pressie this afternoon, depending on weather, only got my son and he cant buy all of that hes only 15. He might learn to drive and get a car though then take me to GC, oh happy hols. when hes older of course.

Now that you ask .... another fern tree would be lovely, then I could put one in the front garden & it would match the one we recently planted in the back garden. A rose or three wouldn't go amiss. Probably what I would love most of all for the garden would be the arch my OH has been promising me for the back gate, so that my poor wisteria would stop flopping about in the breeze. What I am actually going to get is a new wooden planked floor in our sunroom, courtesy of my OH bless him. That will do me nicely, but just in case Santa is reading this ..... the fern tree & the roses & the arch please (I'm not usually this greedy, I promise).

world peace ; )

People have been wishing that for millenia, Stevie. Someone must be listening by now???????

One of those posh garden shed's that has half of it as a window, then like Stickitoffee I could allway's be in the garden, but until I win the lottery a bar stool for my kichen so Ican sit and watch the bird's from my kitchen window will do nicely thank you and lot's of hardy geranium's please :-))) Nariz they might be listening but they are not taking any notice

Angie - thank you for asking, I think I need a new hedge trimmer. And one of those leaf blowers would be useful as well. Failing that, a Garden Centre voucher (which is what all my relatives are trained to send)

I saw a nice driftwood bench seat for two at the GC, it was quite quirky and I loved it til I noticed the price(£250) !!!! So its dream on for me. I dont usually ask for anything and thats the truth, but I usually get lovely things.

I'd like a few more cacti, to go with the 39 new ones I've bought this year ;o))
If I get money, that's what I'll do with it lol ... I want Hamatocactus setispinus to replace the one that died

Good health for everyone, which would give a time of less worry as well, also garden vouchers would be very nice, trouble is my family always say thats not really a pressie, I love to go shopping without spending, its a great feeling...

If we're dreaming, I'd love a Japanese tea-house, surrounded by a gravel garden with boulders, bonsai and Acers. But if we're being realistic, a couple of black bamboo would be lovely!

an allotment would be good but little chance of that in our local parish. failing that granuar plant food instead of the blue crystals you have to dissolve first. are you listening 'beloved'

if i am not dreaming, the thing i really like is a real christmas tree, nothing else would matter, just the smell of the pine and those twinkly little lights, i love it.

If money and space were no object I would love a greenhouse (particularly like the wooden greenhouses). But that would be dreaming. Without dreaming quite so much I would like a nice Acer - just got to work out where to put it and how to keep it alive through winter.

Granular Plant food...! That is easy if you know it..But if you had to guess? A boned corset otherwise.

rather have a roast boned turkey myself!!!

im happy with vouchers Andrew so i can choose myself, i need new gloves, new secateurs would be good :o))

Aah, Sticki, a girl after my own heart. My Dad used to insist on a real tree every year, and my Mum would be driven mad by the piles of pine needles everywhere. When we moved out here, real Christmas Trees were almost impossible to find, so we bought a nice big "fake" - something I never thought to own. It doesn't look too bad once it's decorated, there are no needles, and you don't have to shell out every increasing fortunes every year: but oh, the lack of perfume. Daughter was incensed, and told us so in no uncertain terms. This year I've caved in, and while OH was away, nipped off to the market and bought a real, rooted one. I've put it up in the porch where it will stay cool, and it's covered in tiny lights. Heaven and childhood Christmases all rolled into one with that gorgeous scent. I brought OH back from the airport today, and he came into the house, walked straight past the tree and didn't even notice it. It's 6' tall, for heaven's sake! The man has no soul.

how do they do it??? oh well at least you didnt get in trouble.

A load of farmyard manure, more bags of bark and a lovely big tree fern for our jungle please Santa.......a greenhouse for OH (but then we would have to move house) lol

Lol Gattina! He was probably so pleased to be home with you that nothing else mattered. Now .... I'm going to 'fess up here. When we used to come here on holiday we could see the entire Pena Sagra range from the village. Since then - and just before we bought the land - the people who own one of the houses in the village but are hardly ever here (!!!!! Don't get me started on that!) and who also own a piece of land at the end of the meadow sloping down to our garden, have planted a 'forest' of pine trees on that land which have now grown from 1' little saplings into 7/8' monsters and still growing! It has blocked out part of our treasured view and has been done purely because of a long-term feud between them and our neighbours. Anyhoo ..... each year just before Christmas and just as it gets dark we slink up there, uproot a tree, keep it on our patio giving it a good shake until any beasties have wandered out of it, cut it to size, plonk it in our tree holder that also takes water, then bring it in and decorate our real tree. After which it goes to our neighbour's 'tip' where it gets burnt along with other garden rubbish. We've worked out we'll have to be here for another 167 years to completely use up the unwanted forest, but we're at least trying to make a 'pathway' through the trees so we can see our beloved view again. Our neighbour is right behind us in this and will give several of the trees a hard push to loosen their roots when he's going about his foraging business. We've also tried the copper nails trick, but that seems to be useless. Several of the trees perished in very heavy snow falls that bent them and exposed their roots during the last two winters so we wander up there and give them a little further 'help.' There is much more behind this story than I know - the Council have been involved, a solicitor was mentioned ..... but at least we know where to get our 'Christmas Tree.'

Oh you wicked, wicked woman, Nariz! LOL. I'm the same, I am afraid. A "Summer neighbour" has a very overgrown hedge of something very pretty - some kind of blue/grey conifer which gets bashed about by all the passing cars on the back road down the mountain because it's so overgrown, and, as in past years, I intend to take an innocent saunter some evening soon, secateurs hidden in a big shopping bag and liberate a few branches for decorating the house. I waited just a bit too long one year, and he had had it chopped it back almost to the main stem, and all the bits were burning away merrily on a big bonfire in his back yard. What a waste!

Exactly, Gattina! You've gotta use it - otherwise what's it there for? (hee hee) ;o)

nariz i think thats a great plan!!!
someone told me if you cut a circle of bark around the trunk, it will eventually kill the tree??

Wonderful story Nariz . . . good for you!!

Trouble is, Sticki, a cut ring can be seen. We're all trying to pretend the elements are seeing off the trees! A further nuisance of them is that they are the trees a certain moth visits and lays eggs on, which turn into Processional Caterpillars which have extremely poisonous hairs! A friend of my daughter was rushed toi hospital after one fell down her neck! And we have heard - although don't know if it's true - that dogs have had parts of their tongues amputated due to contact with these beasties! Nasty! We'll keep choosing a Christmas tree, pushing the others hard and dispensing with a few when it's good and misty!

That sounds like the stuff of horror stories.

Yes, we get these awful creatures - almost any pine trees in the area have big silvery webby cocoons hanging in them, and I feel like taking a flame thrower to them. I dread any of our cats finding one - they'll try eating anything, and these would definitely kill them. Fascinating to see the processions though, before the locals have stamped on as many as they can reach.
It was very strange to see, last night at about 6 p.m. as we drove home up the mountain, dozens and dozens of moths of some sort flying around in the light from our headlamps. No idea what sort they were, but it seemed mighty strange to see them at this time of year at all, much less in such numbers. I dread to think what we have in store for next year after such mild weather. Biblical plagues of some sort, I expect. We have been out in the garden in t-shirts, and on Thursday it was 20°c - very like a beautiful Brit summer's day. But dry. Even the nights aren't particularly cold. I am waiting for some decent frost to sweeten and crisp up my parsnips and sprouts.

First frost here last night,
Do moths emigrate like butterfies?

Just thought of something else I would like, it wouldn't cost anything but still impossible to have it seems, a better or at least better selective memory?!

Oh YES, Sticki, me too. Who are you again?

i forgot, where am i??

We could all do with one of those.....goes without saying l!! wait till you reach my age, you are all mere youngsters still.

you dont know that DD ~ i might be older than you.

I would like someone to design a completely Parakeet proof feeder and give it me for Christmas. That would spare my neighbours the sight of me, wearing a long black dressing gown with the hood up, old trainers and a scarf running round the garden waving my arms about.This vision greets them as they open their curtains every morning and it would be lovely if they just saw the birds.

Sticki nobody could be older than me lol Ginellie that would be a sight worth seeing.........

you sound young and chirpy to me DD.

Dont let her kid you Sticki..she is a gay young(ish) thing with loads of energy and an engaging smile!!
I would love a bigger kitchen to I could sit in it and also see more of the garden birds when busy cooking those lovely recipes of Sticki's, incorporating a garden shed cupboard so our tools are safe. Plus a bigger garden and new knees...impossible dreams, so I hoped for secateurs and lo and behold, some great B&Q vouchers to buy them with! lol!
Great idea Andrew, and glad you have trained your rellies so well!!

I bought OH some kneeling pads so he could get down to do the weeding without wrecking trousers and kneecaps. Do you think it was a bit of a heavy-handed hint?

Quite a well balanced attack I would say Gattina, match it with a trowel in his favourite football team colours and I think you will be "home and hosed" as the saying goes lol!

Ah, that's where the theory falls down, Tet., - football is of no interest whatsoever, and if you think I'm painting trowels in all of Harlequins' colours, you have another think coming. He probably wouldn't notice, anyway!

ah another OH rugby fan ~ mine supports Gloucester ~ the cherry and whites.

We don't have much choice - my nephew plays for Quins.

that is fabulous! well done him.

Well Christmas has come & gone & I have just taken down the decorations of the tree ... which for the first time in 17 years was a 'real' one ..... around 13 foot high which fitted nicely into the lounge in front of double sash windows. Wonderful smell everytime I entered the lounge, but lots of pine needles scattered on the floor. I dread to think how many more will be scattered along the hallway & through the kitchen & sunporch on its way out doors, but as I have work shortly, I am not going to dwell on that now. The smell of fresh pine was well worth it. I got the new pine floor down in the sunporch, in time to sit in there & admire the outdoor light display in our backyard over a glass of bubbly .... hours of sweaty toil in the blazing sun, twining lights through branches & around trunks & along fencelines & up house-walls .... & then my 23 year old stepson, visiting us for a few days over Christmas, said 'what a waste of electricity' in a rather toneless (souless) voice, after I had been babbling on about the magic of it all! That was my Christmas bubble burst, but he was breaking up with his girlfriend of two years, via skype, on Christmas Day, so I will have to forgive him & put his grumpy, miserable mood all over Christmas down to that. Roll on the New Year when we will visit my pretty hometown of Napier & dance & whoop it up at midnight on the beachfront, with hundreds of others intent on having a good old time!

Oh Dwyllis how could you bear to leave a city like Napier?? It is my favourite city in all of NZ, with Dunedin next!