A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot!

[MaudantWit]

Join us for ongoing gardening chat in the MN potting shed. Blow the cobwebs off a deckchair, help yourself to a glass of elderberry champagne and tell us about your garden.

It's very pretty Wynken i reckon it could be allium too .It looks a bit like the valerian in my garden that has self seeded and i left it and it's come on beautifully this year 2 shades of pink and has bloomed for months .

Who was it who has a glut of strawberries? they make lovely sorbet you can have it at Christmas then!

You're right Ppeatfruit, it is Valerian! I see it everywhere round here and had never found out what it is, thnk you.

Castle, really sorry you are feeling rough. Hope it passes very soon.

I think the garden centre are nuts. They have space out back they could store them and then bring them out next year. But while they flog them for a fraction of the price it seems rude not to.

2 of the bare root DA roses I got for £2.50 a few months ago are starting to flower - Winchester Cathedral. The other two were both the Countryman and look rubbish, interesting to see the difference, I have treated both the same and they are all in the same border.

How did you work it out? Wnynken It has bigger blooms than mine and the leaves are hidden so I couldn't say for sure .

I suppose it would cost the garden centre more to repot and keep watered etc. It's quite useful living here because although I'm tempted to buy plants at Open Gardens in England; I know I CAN'T take them abroad !

I've been googling that has been bugging me for years!

Hayloft have just sent me an email announcing a bare root mature plant sale.

There are some alliums on offer that I was going to buy as bulbs this autumn, allium cernuum. What would be the advantage of buying mature bare root plants? Won't they just come up from the bulbs next spring like other bulb plants?

can you recomnend a spikey shadeloving plant?
my sister has a north/east corner that doesn't get sun at all. she wants something spikey as a climbing deterent for her dc and burglar deterent.

Mahonia? Partial shade and full shade.

DC are in the garden picking strawberries. Finally some peace and quiet.

Hello everyone. Isn't it glorious weather? I am loving it.

Sorry to hear about the sickness castle, I know how you feel.

All the clematis are coming into bloom, along with Rosa Mundi, Tuscany Superb, all the hyssop in the herb beds, the cornflowers in the playhouse beds. It is so nice to see. The philadelphus smells glorious. Even some of the dahlias have flowers, I have also kept the lillies in the greenhouse to try a hurry the flowering in time for the open garden and they are just starting to come out now. The rose walk is completely out.

The new strawberry bed is working much better than last year, a square bed with nothing but strawberries is much easier to pick and net than the higgledy piggledy mess we had last year. The children are loving it here too LordCopper.

Our garden has never, ever been so tidy The potting shed is clear and the tables and chairs are all set out ready for sunday as we have a family wedding to go to tomorrow. DS has arranged a fossil museum in the playhouse, along with the partial sheep jaw that he found in the orchard. He is convinced it is a dinosaur bone

Any photos would be welcome Humphrey

The police recommend berberis as the ultimate burglar deterrent. It tolerates shade and is like barbed wire in plant form.

Good luck for Sunday, Humph. It'll be fabulous.

have booked sat night nearby. there will be spaces in the car back to nrth london if anyone wants!

sooo looking forward to seeing you funnyperson. I will be the nervous one holding a baby.

`Ooh I hope it goes well Humphrey What a busy weekend, a wedding as well, blimey

Hawthorn is another nasty spiky plant, the birds love it too.

Good morning! I'm going in the garden to weed out weeds and pot up some plants now before it gets hot. I've decided that what we need is chives. I might even do a pot of garlic chives for my office. The poor plants in the office die of thirst. But even I have not managed to kill garlic chives. By the way does anyone know about maidenhair ferns? How do I keep it alive?

good luck with the open garden humph
no gardening today, am off to a birthday bbq with the dc all afternoon.

thanks for the spikey plant recs. have thought of rosa rugosa or similar or firethorn, but they need sun.

Uptoapoint Ferns have never behaved for me, they need to be cool, moistish and shadyish (think forest floor). Too much of anything will kill them IME! I had a few growing around the caves and I got excited but they've disappeared now .

I say this but there may be someone who has better luck than me!

Good luck for tomorrow Humph. Hope it all goes well and you get lots of lovely garden appreciating people through your gates. So wish I could come.

Good luck for tomorrow Humph, looking forward to hearing how it went. :)

No gardening here but the paddling pool is out and dc's are sliding into it, tempted to have ago myself once it's dark

Thanks for the good wishes everyone. We have just got back from the wedding. I wasn't driving, I may have been a trifle drunk in charge of a baby

DH is now mowing the path in the orchard. We need a sign for the outside loo, the signs for the garden need putting up, I need to clean the outside loo, there is a spent verbascum stalk in the middle of the front garden that is bugging me and needs pulling out and baby Cobbler is charging round the room refusing to go to sleep

Hello!

Went to friend's allotment today. Beautiful stuff everywhere.

DH is still out there. It is dark

I love allotments. there is just such a nice blend of private and public space. It must be great having people to ask how they did stuff.

Good luck humph. I am very impressed by all your hard work, and I hope the weather is good and that you all enjoy The day.

Can I join in? Have been lurking for a while and plucking up courage to contribute. Mention of allotments just reminded me that I read a very entertaining book recently, A Digger's Diary by Victor Osborne. It follows a year or so on his London allotment - it's really good on that whole aspect of collaboration/friendship.

I don't have an allotment but do have a pretty large garden and grow/have grown a fair range of fruit & veg. Tomatoes (greenhouse) doing very well at the moment, as well as Gariguette strawberries which taste divine, just like strawberries used to taste!