My garden makes me so happy

[HumphreyCobbler]

I wanted a garden all my adult life, and for the last three years I have had one.

To begin with I was worried it wouldn't be as much fun as I thought it would be, but I soon discovered it was even better.

It was an overgrown, tangled mess when we moved in and slowly we have transformed it. I am still a beginner, but I already know so much more than I did.

Today I came home to find a massive pile of well rotted horseshit waiting for me. It was brilliant.

I don't really know what the point of this post is, I just wanted to share

Oh no!

This is what one gets for living in a high crime area. Gangs of marauding cane-snatchers, prowling the streets looking for their next fix.

That is deeply annoying Maud. What kind of street value to a stolen cane?

Just did a bit of weeding in the large veg patch, it was in a disgraceful state. Am bloody knackered now after getting up at five thirty so doubt I will be taking advantage of the now lovely evening by doing any more. I might sit in the garden with a drink.

Got my leeks into their final position today. Happily perfect damp soil for dibbing holes.

Humphrey - just re-read your post. Please tell me you didn't get up at 5.30 just to do the weeding? Now that would be dedication.

No, I just couldn't sleep

The weeding lasted about 30 minutes when I got back from my Mum's.

I've done some weeding, including prising mammoth dandelions out of what passes for a lawn. My dad has just given me some rather desirable plants for the school plant sale, but I think I might keep them and put the money in the float!

Spinach is loving this rain. Unfortunately so are the weeds and I'm not willing to weed in the downpours.

Maud - what plants are you keeping from the school?

The ones that I'm going to buy before they even hit the stall are dahlia Bishop of Llandaff (as this seems to be the first year that my dahlias have thrived so this will add to the red, purple and lime display) and helenium Moerheim Beauty, which will also go into the same bed.

Anyone got any tips for keeping the rabbits off my new flowers? Aside from a rabbit proof fence or an air rifle....they seem especially keen on the sanguisorba's.

I am going to get some Bishop of Llandaff, they are a lovely colour.

My wildflower patch is getting better but it needs to move from spots of colour to a mass of colour by Saturday as I am having a party for my Mum on her 70th birthday. It will look so amazing when the cornflowers finally come out, they are all colours from brilliant blue to pink and purple and they are just sitting there without opening. I need tomorrow to be hot.

Bloody rabbits have had my lettuces Pkam, I can sympathise.

I have no advice on rabbits, as they tend not to roam wild around here as they might be poached by the bamboo rustlers.

I agree about the Bishop of Llandaff, and it has lovely foliage too. I am also growing this one. meanwhile, rosa Gloriana is beginning to look glorious.

::contented sigh::

that is rather fabulous too. We both liked the Gloriana when we googled it.

There is the most amazing climbing rose on a house near ds's school, a stunning dark pink flower, spread right over the house. I have always admired it. DH stopped to ask the owner about it the other day, this seems to happen to them a lot. The lady said that they didn't know what it was as it had been there a very long time, but that they take cuttings from it every year and give them to people who ask about it! Isn't that a fab thing to do? She told us to come back in the autumn

It hasn't yet reached the top of the porch, but I do think Gloriana is going to be rather splendid. The colour is better and the flowers are bigger than I expected. The scent's nothing remarkable, but as we don't habitually sit in the front garden I don't much mind that.

How fab about the rose cutting. This is why everyone should join their local gardening society, where such things are rife.

I can't find a local gardening society, it is such a shame. I have asked and looked everywhere.

Can I come in?

please do. Nice to see you Tell us about your garden

Cornflowers showing NO sign of opening. How annoying of them.

Hello then!

We moved in to this house 2 years ago, to what looked immediately like a nice cottage garden. When I looked closer though, it was just overgrown, unkempt, full of things like elderberry bushes and weeds.

We spent a year hacking back and trying to rebuild, and now things are starting to look a bit more ordered and a bit less bare.

I'm quite lazy, in that I don't really do annuals (bar the occasional ones), I like shrubs. We're just finishing a play area, hard wood chipping that tomorrow and have planted 2 climbing hydrangeas on the back fence.

Am most chuffed as am about to inherit a beautiful weeping acer from my mother so need to find a place to put it. Mostly, I have a lot of space to fill and not enough money to do it with. I do take cuttings, but have had limited success and I am VERY impatient.

Meant to say, we have a front and back garden, the front is south facing, the back north. I have a load of fruit bushes in the front, and a cherry tree out the back that has produced one cherry every year for the last 4 years

Oh Humphrey, I LOVE dahlias. I think that they are one of my favourites, but I never remember to dig the tubers up.

I have never yet grown them, am really looking forward to it. I also LOVE climbing hydrangeas, I have one very small one of which I have great hopes.

What do you do with the cherry? Do you fight over it?

Ha! Nah, generally I let the birds have it, generous soul that I am I shall have to start freezing them and making jam every 150 years.

Humphrey - Then you must start your own. If you build it, they will come.

::Channels Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams::

Hello, Pfft.

Welcome to Pfft. Your cherry production sounds similar to my strawberry effort. Something's eaten most of the leaves of the apple trees and the mirabelle in the orchard this year. So doesn't look like I'm going to have an abundance of fruit there either. No mirabelle jam this year . The mulberry has set loads of fruit though and is looking particularly healthy.

We had some sunshine briefly yesterday. Took a stroll around the veg plot in the sun and made some happy and contented sighing noises. Started to wonder if I could squeeze a bench in one of the paths so I could just sit in there from time to time and appreciate everything growing.

Pkam - I have similar strawberry issues. Every year, I think I won't bother. But the children always win me over. So here I am, again with 12 strawberry plants, and 2 strawberries slowly growing.

And every year, I'm here, thinking "I won't bother next year"

Sound like you have a good selection of fruits in your garden, though.