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.

Oh that sounds lovely with your roses too! your church will look and smell gorgeous nightshade Yes lots of luck too

Thanks for the link Bear They look pretty I may well plant some but in varying places including under the pines as an experiment!

I was tidying up around the outside this morning and noticed cornflowers are growing in the edges of the field opposite our wall. It's lovely because since the French have banned a lot of spraying of the field edges, especially the ones that are suspected of killing the bees, a lot of the birds are returning and more wild flowers I'm happy!!

Wild flowers are lovely. There's a biggish garden we walk past everyday and they have lovely lovely wild flowers at the moment. Puts a smile on your face.

But where is the rain that was promised? It's still not raining yet! I want my rain!!!

best of luck nightshade xxx

We've had quite a bit of rain, yesterday dh thought it was snowing!! it was bits from the pines flying horizontally in the rain across our terrace!

Fingers crossed for the rain for all of you.

I'm sitting here with a howling gale going on. Living in what is, effectively a very nice big shed with a tin roof puts you (ahem) in tune with elements. Like Lear on the blasted heath.:o

Good luck from me too nightshade.

Mous if you leave your box ball pots soaking overnight in a bucket or deep tray of water, the compost will get wet again - but then if I were you I would pot in into a mix of 3/4 John Innes No. 3, and 1/4 ordinary potting compost, JI is fairly easy to water if it gets dry whereas others, especially peat-based shrink and refuse to let the wwater in unless they stand in it. JI does set though, hence I lighten it a little with ordinary compost.

Have a great day nightshade

In readiness for our garden party tomorrow I've managed to make the kitchen window look much nicer, potted up baby ferns with, petunia (temporary) into a window box and the ladder has more ferns, baby foxgloves and primulas on it.

Not the best timing but my hayloft plants just arrived and all need potted on!

Have a great weekend everyone :)

Good luck Nightshade, will be thinking of you. Have a lovely day.

DS is off to Cub Camp this evening so I'm now hoping it stays dry in the little area where he will be.

I got some Alstroemeria with my Sarah Raven order and am now twitchy. Having said that it doesn't look brilliant right now and isn't currently a cause for concern.

Yesterday I went to my friend's parent's house where I haven't been for the best part of 30 years. What a fabulous garden, I just hadn't appreciated it as a teenager.

Don't worry Wynken, I think it's like Crocosmia; the original stuff goes berserk but the more modern varieties have been tamed, so anything from SR is likely to be well behaved.

I am fuming at the met office. I cancelled a trip to Chartwell with a friend today because extreme rain, thunder and lightning were forecast. Not a drop of rain and the sun shone all day. So I missed my garden visit and my plants still need watering.

I did however get my Garrya planted, and I cut back and glyphosated snowberries along the lane, deadheaded the Savoy Hotels and pruned and tied in the Ceanothus.

I gave the contractors permission to cut down the Virginia Creeper for pointing purposes, but they were supposed to carefully untie and fold down the Wisteria and Mme Alfred Carriere. They have chopped off a major bough of Mme Alfred, and scorched a patch of lawn.

All the best for tomorrow, Nightshade!

Ooh! Some weebling from the bats in the chimney next to where I'm sitting. I love hearing them.

thanks for the tip bear
they have been soaking all afternoon and are now really heavy. will have to ask dh to help lift them back onto the decking.
should I give them a feed now as well?

good luck nightshade have a lovely day and a great marriage!

Have a fabulous day nightshade

Just come back from an evening soirée at Gilbert White's House where we had free run of the garden. Very nice; nearly missed the BBQ as was quite distracted by roaming.

Have a wonderful day, nightshade!

I liked Monty's new braces on Gardeners World yesterday!
I haven't really got my head round the balance between an arts and craft border and a grass/prairie planting. Yesterday's programme really highlighted the difference.

Mous I wouldn't bother about a feed if you pot on (gently taking off as much as you can of the old compost) but if you are going to keep as it is, a little is a good idea.

I agree about the met office rhubarb. The promised rain had better turn up in my garden today to save me watering... (But obviously not where nightshade's wedding is taking place)

Exactly, we need decent rainfall on our gardens but nowhere near the wedding! Is anyone here near Glastonbury? Apparently they've had plenty!

I didn't watch GW last night as I was kind to dd and let her watch Celebrity Masterchef (in which she is inexplicably keen). But I am looking forward to watching it on iPlayer. I have always aimed vaguely for the arts and craft look and feel inspired again after going to a talk on William Morris during the week, so if there's a discussion of arts and crafts gardens I shall be riveted to it!

I was lucky enough to be commissioned to design an arts and craft garden for a painstakingly renovated arts and crafts house in West Norwood a couple of years ago. It was such a pleasure researching Peto and Lutyens and looking at old photos of gardens from that era. The budget was generous so I got to do a huge pergola the full length of the garden and change the steps to something more appropriate, so it was an absolute delight to work on.

Unfortunately for me, the owners got really into the process and decided to do the planting themselves, so I didn't get to do the planting plan, but the result was great and I'm hoping to go back there in a few weeks to see how it's matured. They've told me that the kids love running up and down and riding their scooters through the pergola, which is brilliant.

I thought it was interesting that the woman on GW last night talked about arts and crafts gardens planning the layout and views in line with the house windows. This is something most garden designers would do in any garden, not just arts and crafts.

It rained! No need to water the garden now. And my lovely new raincoat finally has an outing.

Your arts & crafts garden sounds glorious rhubarb. Do let us know about your visit. I did love that GW garden, and its views. For once, I didn't fast forward over Joe Swift's section, as that town garden was so gorgeous.

Yes lovely rain!
Yes I agree, most gardens would be designed with thought as to what one might see from the window! The talk about proportions was interesting though: 10 m long etc, I wondered if it was a bit like windows on Georgian house fronts, i e the proportions are classic and specific to the period. It made me think about mum's garden as their house is arts and crafts style (if not period!)
I thought the most interesting thing about the garden Joe Swift took us round was the way the trees and bushes at the back gave the impression the garden went on behind. And of course the hostas!

The main reason I find Monty more believable than Jo Swift is Monty has his own garden and has done lots of planting and weeding and sowing etc in his time and has gardeners hands. Jo Swift's formal training may be ever so establishment, but at the end of the day he ain't a gardener.

Planning with reference to the windows and the garden may have started with the Arts and Craft movement do you think? Certainly the really old houses I know of never have any view of the garden, mine included unfortunately! The prevailing theme seems to be that of avoiding the nasty weather, which makes sense.

I know that High Glanau Manor garden as it is near and I have visited under the NGS scheme. A lovely garden to walk around with such interesting history.

I can never get over the fact that Joe Swift is Margaret Drabble's son. They don't seem to fit somehow.

Unless you were REALLY posh and you had Capability Brown planning one's garden

Yes, lovely rain! I have just had a splurge at the sales and bought myself a lovely new raincoat, too.

I used to read a lot of Margaret Drabble's novels and remember many years ago reading an interview with her, in which she said that her (then teenage, I guess) son wasn't terribly academic, so they thought he might become a gardener. Little did she know!

Maybe that's why he became a gardener. Doesn't explain the very North London accent though.