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.

Wynken, I took the last few batches of French bean seedlings from my local garden centre. Think most are sold out. I was planning to buy more seeds if no seedlings though and pre-germinate them inside before planting out. I don't think it's too late to start again.

The storm was incredible. I've not seen thunder & lightening like that for a great many years. And it went on for over an hour. I sent DH downstairs to stay with the dog as she was petrified and I stayed upstairs to do child duty. However the DDs didn't wake up. Seriously, children can sleep through anything! Their windows were open and the house was shaking...they just snored on. The DNs are over for the weekend though and they woke up, but they're older so quick chat with them & I retired back to bed. Poor DH was on the sofa with shaking dog for nearly two hours

Off to plant out chocolate cosmos into nice damp soil now.

Hhhmmph. Sarah Raven have just written to tell me that they can't supply half the seedling plants I ordered. No substitute offered (not that I would really want one).

best of luck and congratulations nightshade.

Welcome to all the newcomers! Enjoying hearing about the French garden, caves and all!
Humph you are on the countdown now to the open day. Your garden sounds divine! I'm still waiting for my first rose!!!

Nightshade enjoy the wine tasting !

Squeaky I'm turning a blind eye to the bank, and hoping something will appear on it soon. The hardy geraniums are starting to bloom, so at least something is happening!

I had two strawberries yesterday! They were delicious. I think I will need to plant much more strawberries in my proper garden as it would be nice to have enough to fill a bowl .... how many strawberry plants would it take to have a good supply? I have 6 plants of an 'early' variety () and 6 later plants...

Boo to Sarah Raven!

Today's Guardian featured something called Lord Anson's Blue Pea, Lathyrus nervosus, a blue perennial pea, which is beautiful but it's hard to get the seed. I found one supplier but there was a minimum spend of £5.00. So I also got a red perennial pea L. Rotundifolius and an orange and yellow one L. Belinensis Goldmine, from a different supplier. I had no idea there were so many different sorts!

Just to be clear - those are sweet peas, not peas. Not edible.

And I haven't even sown most of my french climbers or my runner beans yet. Plenty of time. I've sown them at the end of June before and had bumper results. They germinate much quicker the later you sow them.

Oh cool, thanks Ribena. I know I've sown late before but I couldn't remember how late. I've not heard from Sarah Raven, wonder if they have all my order, I would like my cucumbers.

we have about 20 strawberry plants and a nice bowl full each day. no idea about the variety thery were there when we moved in.

do you know what this is? intertwined with russian wine.
it's not happy where it is, so I'm thinking of taking it out to enlarge the veg patch.

this one

I only sowed my French climbers and runner beans this last week - they are already coming through (apart from the tray that the cat decided to sleep on!)

ive only just sown my sweetcorn - I usually do it a bit earlier but have been rather busy so I hope they will be ok.

my cucamelons are climbing up the front window I need to get them outside. ive never grown them before so im not sure what they will be like.

ive finally got a rose (port sunlight) out on the plant my DD chose for my birthday, its still in its pot but I will try and find it home in the garden soon

Is it Fatsia Japonica?

is it a fatsia mous ?

yep seems to be one.
I find it difficult to identify plants, esp exotic ones.

I only know because we used to have one!

Didnt make it to garden squares today even though I had a tickt due to airport shennanigans with American cousins arriving 2 hrs late.
Made up for it by visiting Queen Mary's rose garden in Regents Park, and walking round the herbaceous border.

We went to an amazing garden today, The Water Gardens at Westonbury Mill. It was stunning. Quite my favourite garden of those I have seen this year. The planting was just so beautiful. We bought a gunnera! Only just fitted in the car. Also bought quite a few other things for the pond, water forget-me-nots and trollius and some stuff I have forgotten. The woman who ran the nursery was amazingly helpful. The children adored the garden, it had a bottle grotto, a water wheel that made water pour out of a gargoyle's mouth, lots of bridges, a spiral path up a little hill. We stayed for hours. Even the tea rooms were excellent.

Oh, and I had my first garden anxiety dream. My next door neighbours decided to open their garden on the same day, and ferried in truck loads of flowering plants to make their garden look good. In the dream I went around being outraged

Call me & ppeat - I leave the herb Robert and ivy too..

Humph - I love the musk in the cherry tree.

Upto - I keep checking my blueberries every 5 minutes as I can't wait to taste them! We have lovely raspberries, but they sometimes have little worms in them which is freaking me out.

Wynken - I have a topiary squirrel, also inspired by the garden revival programme!

This thread has been v helpful as I have been planting dahlias today. I find the sunny stretch I the middle of my border most difficult to fill but I have managed ti squeeze in 11 of Sarah Raven's hot dahlia collection. I shifted lots of stuff around (moved a hardy geranium and the scabiosa I planted at the back, thinking they were delphinium). I used to think moving plants was a complete no no, but have been reassured by the way people on here tinker with stuff.

I have 9 more dahlias to plant out. I am going to mix the con amore (red/magenta), in with the purple verbena and some clashing pink hardy geraniums. I don't want to put any in pots as I know I'll be too lazy to lift them over winter.... But it will be tight getting them in the ground.

I found an ants nest (boak). Google says to leave it be. What do you think?

I need to decide what to do about the sick peony tomorrow. I can't identify what's wrong with it but it really doesn't look happy. The leaves are dull, yellow/ brown and blotchy. Has anybody ever seen this before?

That sounds like an amazing bed NANN. I left some of my Sarah Raven Venetian collection dahlias in the bed last Autumn and they have overwintered and are coming up again!
I saw some Verbena Bonariensis up close at Regents Park yesterday planted with deep purple alliums and acanthus. Looked great: my verbena from seed just doesn't grow that tall. I think I need to feed the plants more. London parks in June are very pleasant, with families and students and strange musical gatherings doing strange tai chi type stuff and wisps of conversation about events all over the world.

Blimey, you go away for a week and the thread moves on seven pages!

Hello new people. Caves! Wow. That is immensely cool. We visited some cave houses in Cotignac recently, and I was amazed and delighted by the little gardens there.

Holiday on the Isle of Wight was wonderful, not least because I got to visit Geoff and her garden. Ignore all further comments from her about being a novice! Geoff you have naturally green fingers and your garden is bursting with happy and thriving plants. I had pergola envy. Thank you for my Echiums and the electric daisy. Got them all home ok (dh may have had a somewhat uncomfortable ride as the Echiums took priority over his unnecessarily long legs) but then when I went to water them after the dcs had gone to bed last night, the electric daisy had disappeared. The dcs are blaming each other and will not reveal where it has gone.

So much on the thread to comment on. I have to get up now and start the laundry marathon but will come back when I can.

I'm glad your holiday was such a success, Rhubarb, but how bizarre that the dc have made a plant vanish . Hope you can extract a confession from them soon!

My mind is boggling at an electric daisy.

NANN I tend to leave ants, as they never seem to do any damage but I know people who say they have worked in combination with aphids, so they destroy the nests.

MrBearleigh has pruned our Deutzia very vigorously. I am delighted he's taking an interest in part of the garden that is not the lawn, but I hope he's not done so much of a scalping that we don't get flowers next year.

Thanks Mous I will propogate some more and I'll look forward to having a bowl a day too! I wonder do they do better in a raised bed than in a pot?

Rhubarb how lovely that you and Geoff met up! Intrigued by the mystery of the missing plant!

at everybody's lovely borders and plant orders!

rhubarb awe thank you I have learnt a lot from this lovely group! I wonder where the daisy went (seeds were from Bertha )

My Borage is now in flower, mostly blue but the odd pink flower I'm wondering if I can get pink Borage to grow if I sow seeds from the pink flower? I'm going to try any way.

I've just put in a seed order for cosmos purity, ladybird poppy, verbena bonariensis and another white flower. I probably won't get round to them this year but my bed is a bit too purple, not helped by the rampant ground cover bell thingy. Stupidly my Dahlias will be purple!
nann yours sound lovely!

I'm quite pleased I managed to rescue some tiny foxglove seedlings from a paving crack, grew them on in cell trays and potted them on yesterday, about 12 in all.

My friend has been telling me that Aldi has lots of lavender in, plus wisteria, and Acer trees. I am twitching to go over there!