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.

Beautiful Delphiniums, Nothing! I long ago gave up trying to grow them as I don't use slug pellets. How do you keep them off?

Nothing - I'm also in awe of your beautiful delphiniums. All mine became slug food.

I have been reclaiming my garden today (mainly weeding, cutting back & tidying)... It was in such a mess after we had to dismantle the shed and move everything off the patio for the builders to take it up and put in the ground works for the extension. We haven't arranged the next phase of the build yet,and it breaks my heart to see my lovely garden looking like a building site.

It was Hard work as DH and we're both a little hung over. We went to a friend's party last night. She has just had her garden professionally designed & landscaped. It's stunning, as original and striking as anything I saw at Chelsea. The planting was all purple & blue (viburnum, agapanthus, heather), with some topiary (box spirals). Apparently it cost over 45k :-0!!! And I thought I spent a lot on the garden!

It did help clear up the decking vs slate debate that DH and I had been having, she had slate it completely won DH over (so I win, hurrah).

3 out of my 4 roses have blackspot. This is why I try not to buy roses. I've cut them back and sprayed them with rose clear. What do you do about black spot?

I'm afraid my approach to black spot is generally to ignore it. This is not the best approach, I know.

I have a slate patio. It is, I think, far nicer than decking but it does have one drawback compared to the unlovely concrete which it replaced, which is that it always looks slightly grubby - because I do the potting/repotting on the patio and tend to spill stuff - and constantly needs sweeping.

::Needs to lie down at the thought of 45k landscaping::

I only buy roses that are resistant to it, NANN. Otherwise it annoys me too much. All you can do is keep removing and burning the affected leaves, which is tedious. Your friend's garden sounds wonderful.

Oh yes, I didn't mean to suggest it wasn't wonderful. There was lots of purple (and yellow) planting at Hampton Court today. It's just an eye-opener to realise how much a decent professional job would cost.

I have just been looking at the J Parkers website, where they have the rose that I didn't buy in the sell-off tonight. I am tempted ...

It was nice seeing maud and having company to look at the Australian garden and think of echt today. We got wonderful bargains from the 'lust' garden (gloriosa superba, a golden deschampsia for 2 pounds, alliums from warmenhoven, and other places and as the place wasnt as crowded as usual and we had dd to trail around carrying plants,a plant trolley, car parking, and very useful 'plant creches' the whole day was very pleasant indeed, unlike Chelsea.
The Peterborough garden 'a space to connect and grow' which was Monty's favourite was our favourite too, and the lust and anger gardens were even better in real life. However the most romantic garden was the 'one show' garden which had the prettiest and most pleasant to watch garden with grasses, small dark purple alliums, white agapanthus, and little else and it was stunning.

Here is the plant list and a picture
Hampton Court Palace Flower Show, The One Show Garden full Plant List
Tue, 8 Jul 2014 09:04

Here is the plant list for The One Show Garden at The Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2014

 Stipa gigantea
 Stipa arundinacea
 Deschampsia cespitosa
 Pennisetum setaceum 'Rubrum'
 Lavendula angustifolia 'Hidcote'
 Rosemarinus officinalis
 Santolina 'Edward Bowles'
Agapanthus albidus
 Euphorbia seguieriana nicociana
 Allium sphaerocephalon 'Drumstick'
 Echinacea 'Fatal Attraction'
 Echinacea 'White Swan'
 Phlox paniculata 'Dusterlohe'
 Sedum 'Jose Aubergine'
 Aconitum 'Stainless Steel'
 Actaea 'James Compton

Aha! I was right about the allium sphaerocephalon. But why are we both awake, funnyperson?

Well I have to put the bins out, and have a busy schedule today and wanted to plan it so that `i cn plant my plants later! Also I wanted to look at the plants we bought, and look at my garden and check out the planting list for the one show garden! I slept very well after our lovely day: did you?

Sadly not. I have intermittent insomnia. Today is not going to be a fabulous day for me, so some sleep would have been nice. Hey ho.

Gorgeous picture and I am very jealous of your lovely day. Hope you are feeling better FP and sorry to hear about your insomnia Maud.

I ignore black spot but am thinking Rhubarb has the right idea - would you mind posting a few of the varieties you have Rhubarb, just in case I find room for more ?!

My veg patch is starting to produce. There's lettuce and courgettes and the beans have started flowering. First chillis are on the chilli plants too. Cucumbers on the plant but too small as yet. I'm appreciating it being close to the kitchen and not a drive away as it was with the allotment.

Now the Hayfever season is starting to go, I've started cutting sweet peas and calendula for inside. The one calendula plant is huge and has bern flowering for months now.

That reminds me. I have just read in GW magazine that I should now be pruning my plum tree that has one plum on it.

Off to see the new garden house again tonight. Looking forward to hearing from the sellers all about the plants there. The couple who are selling it have done a really nice job if it.

It is a bit heavy on the azalea/rhodedendron varieties though, neither of which are really my favourites...

Last time we moved (into yet another rental property), we straight away ordered and planted 300 spring bulbs from Holland (DH is Dutch - it's a cheap way to do spring planting if you buy in bulk). I'm hoping we don't have to do that again.

DH is very keen on a pond so I think that may be dug before we get anything else done in the garden!

Nothing, I'm very jealous of your delphiniums, we managed to get proper flowers on them this year but still nothing like as healthy looking...

I also want to plant a plum tree - we have one in our current place and both DCs adored it so they'll miss going out and picking them this year.

Only small (non-existent?) concern is the back of the garden backs on to a garden of remembrance/crematorium (advantage is no building likely there!). Slightly worried that mercury levels might be a bit higher in the soil from the old days when filtering of emissions wasn't so sophisticated. This makes me slightly hesitant about growing food crops.

Have any of you ever done/ordered/found out about a soil test for heavy metals?

Why would mercury levels be higher near a crematorium? Lead from coffins in an old burial ground very slightly perhaps, but I'm ignorant. Mineral testing sound like a good thing. However what would you do if you found high mercury?

maud I'm sorry about your insomnia. Being a high achiever you are bound to be prone to anxiety. I hope whatever it is that is worrying you resolves successfully. Is it time to prune plum trees then? Mine has no fruit but has grown this season and I am thinking to prune and bend the bendy new side branches to a fancy shape: espalier/stepover/pyramid/ that sort of thing: just to make the most of it being in a small garden and also to raise the canopy without loosing out on fruit. I have enough canes to provide a frame, am just thinking of a suitable shape.

Re Black Spot:
-One important tip apparently is to wash the secateurs/shears in bleach between plants otherwise if you are deadheading more than one rose you can transmit the black spot fungus.
-Another is to wash hands in between plants when deadheading
-Another is to cut off the branchlet with the black spot and put it in the council waste asap so that the fungus doest infect the whole plant.
-Another tip is to pick up infected leaves which have dropped off beneath
the plant so that they don't infect the soil.

Hmm, I am very slack and reading that it's not a surprise there's a lot of black spot round here. Thanks FP.

With the veg growing, what about just sticking in some raised beds, maybe on top of concrete slabs if you are worried ? I've no idea about heavy metals but raised beds seem to have definite advantages for veg growing.

Insomnia is a frequent topic of conversation amongst my friends. We've been putting it down to pediment pause - that and the needing to write everything down and forgetting what we were saying.

I have had a good hack at my apple trees recently but need to have a go at the plum (non fruiting, seems to be a bit of a theme ! I'm sitting here feeling hopeful it might rain soon...

Sugar, off the top of my head, some black spot resistant roses: Blue for You, Lady Emma Hamilton, Queen of Sweden, Wild Edric.

As a rule of thumb, the oldest roses (eg Wild Edric) and very modern ones tend the have the best resistance. Old ones because they come from a time before anyone used chemicals in the garden. New ones because in recent years, rose breeders have focussed on disease resistance. There was a period in the middle, in the last century (1960s to 80s, ish) when roses were bred for beauty at the expense of health (and scent) and spraying roses was standard. Many of the black spot riddled roses lurking in gardens today date from this period.

The David Austin catalogue (and website, I think) clearly states which roses have good disease resistance. I'm sure other suppliers will do too.

here is a picture of the anger garden

here is another picture of the garden based on Bath's hypocausts

and here for you echt is the Aussie garden

I bought rosa 'Deep Secret' from the lust garden sell off: It is a Peter Beales rose and is deep maroon and smells very rose like. Peter Beales are selling a bare root version for £10.95 and i bought my flowering one for £15.00 . The other rose they used in the lust garden was 'hot chocolate'.
The sellers at Hampton court are very canny and often the sell-off is not cheap.

Rosa Hot Chocolate is on my list for my orange and bronze border, funny. I love it.

Great photos.

lovely pictures FP , and thanks so much for posting the plant list for the Roman hypocaust garden - I have been aiming at a version of that for some time.

plants are sitting in my on line shopping baskets all over the place. If I wait until autumn, will there be any left??

Rhubarb - Hot Chocolate is the rose I mentioned last night. It was gorgeous but I couldn't bring myself to pay £15 for it in the sell-off and I then spotted it very cheap on the J Parker's website. I know just where I want to put it, which isn't always the case with new acquisitions!

Lovely photos, and thanks, funnyperson. I spotted a few I grow, and loved the greige foliage.

is anyone else having trouble with greenfly - I normally have a few around but this year my lupins were absolutely decimated by them

this weekend im off to visit my parents in the golden valley - they have a beautiful garden and ive got my eye on a few things so will nab some cuttings while im there.

my greenhouse plans are on hold after overspending on the wedding, but DH has said I can get one of the lacewing lean-tos to go on the back of the house until we can afford to have a decent one built, im looking at the 8ft one which should allow me enough room for now. Has anyone got something like this, is it ok?