They are lovely. Does anyone else have a peony that only flowers every other year?
Our peony had 2 flowers this year but we’ve had it for years. They are beautiful flowers but require a lot of patience. Years of waiting & 10 minutes of flowering and 
Never been so Google! Oooops that should read good. Put it down to the blood sweat and tears digging the trench and filling with home made compost. Lot of cursing at time and frequent lays down. Then after a few weeks put up supports then over to Wife to work her magic Her passion all the side shooting training, liquid feeding. Then when they reach top of canes she lowers them down to train up cans a few feet away so they can climb again. What a slog , I need that space for more valuable veg. I text this with room full of wonderful fragrance
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A little harvest of broad beans today from our veggie patch. Very nice they were too with plenty left for another time.
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We harvested ours early, our favourite bean. But now runners are coming thick and fast. If you are not a gardener but have a bit of space you can’t go wrong with courgettes and French or runner beans. Last year without a veg garden we grew veg in pots of various sizes on patio. At my support group we have a raised veg garden where folk can learn basics.
It’s better to grow than mow
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We harvested our first runner beans today. They went very well with our roasted gammon.
We’ve had a really good crop of 1st early potatoes this year too.
Home grown veg is much tastier than supermarket bought.
Does anyone recognise this plant? Three came up in a tray that was supposed to sprout Bergamot. I’ve ruled out geum and rubus.
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Hi Rups, go download yourself this free app onto your phone, it’s called Seek by iNaturalist. It’s an excellent little app for identifying plants and wildlife. I often use it in my garden when I’ve forgotten what I’ve planted or just can’t remember the name. Also good for identifying the bug that might be eating them 
Handy too when I’m out walking and see a plant that takes my fancy 
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My partner managed to ID with one such app, turns out it is Scots Lovage. 
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Wish I could have heard that!
For the second year bought grafted tomato plants. Yes expensive , but they do what it says on can! They have tremendous growth which you have to keep in check. I grow them against a south wall, climbing up canes and string. Yield has been enormous and still cropping
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Lots of soup made for freezer
Have to come clean I just grow and pick at moment but next year
will give soup a go
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@Pds wow that’s a great crop of tomatoes. I will have to look grafted tomatoes up too. Our tomatoes haven’t done that well although plenty enough for us.
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Loving the peach tree @Rups looks like you’ll have plenty of fruit to enjoy
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Last year managed to sow sweet peas at traditional time November.once germinated tough enough to cope with cold but need protection from elements and mice. A mouse proof garden frame with cover. This year just couldn’t motivate myself to get round to it, half hour at most. Kept dithering putting it off. Then when rain stopped, inspiration. Went outside got trays, pots compost and got stuck in. A month late but they’ll be ok. All because the lady loves sweet peas.
After Christmas get the sweet pea trench dug. As a naive young gardener was told dig your trench as deep as sweet peas grow high by a farmer. Head gardener not impressed when he saw a four foot deep trench and all the poor subsoil I’d brought to surface
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Those sweet peas look lovely. A beautiful cut flower.
Your 4ft trench made me giggle 
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Now that the weather is warming a little, I thought I’d share a pic of a friendly slow worm in my garden the other day, having a look around. Today, as I had my morning coffee, I saw a little red spider mite release her young onto the cracked landscaped of paving and I watched them organise themselves into a family gathering which was quite amusing, as the ants ignored them but had to move around them as they went about their own business. It was a very busy morning.
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Couple of weeks ago woke up and got motivated, collected my runner bean poles crow-bar and twine and two hours later they were up. Bean plants bought and put in, and now a climbing. Now the sweet pea challenge, supports up but now comes the dreaded fiddly threading four lengths of wire through through uprights . We have always grown Sweet peas exhibitioners way. A lot of work but superior flowers with long straight stems.
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Good evening!!
I hope one of you gardening enthusiasts can help me.
I have an apple tree which seems to be infected by some sort of fungus or something.
The tree is quite old and used to fruit every year but the last few years it hasn’t been so regular if that is the right phrase.
It is my Mum’s favourite plant in the garden and she looked after it before she had the stroke.
With the weather improving, I would like her to come out in the garden and enjoy what was once her passion, pride and joy.
I attach a few photos showing white fluffy fungus type things and some brown mesh type thing which might be to do with caterpillars?
If anyone has any ideas what it is and how I should deal with it, your help would be much appreciated.
This year the tree did flower and there are many apples growing, but some have already started to fall off unless it is the squirrels who are at it - last year, the squirrels ate the whole crop 
The rosemary is doing quite well.
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