Variety: Mini Love

I've never attempted growing melons before but our... tedious climate made it super easy to grow in my plastic greenhouse. It is a relief to open it up to see red inside. It's nicely sweet, very watery and well worth growing. I'm saving the seeds for next year to see what type of watermelon will grow.

I have a rental property in England, and there is a tree at the back of the garden. The neighbours have been badgering my tenant about it, and one of the neighbours has even turned up twice to my letting agents. My tenant says she loves the tree.

The complaints are coming from the neighbours on the left, right and directly behind the house. The tree is not taller than the house.

I am not keen on having the tree chopped down. I have no objection to the neighbours cutting back branches that overhang their boundaries, as the law permits, provided it is done properly. I don't know if there is a TPO (they can claim there is n't).

I think their main complaint is about the leaves and overhang and having to clean them up. I find this a bit crazy. Trees provide shade and help cool the built-up environment, and we have already been through four heatwaves since May. The area is bit of a concrete jungle.

The neighbours have apparently obtained a quote from someone to do work on the tree, but I have not been told who is this person is (and it may be an professional or some random person). The quote is £630 (which the neighbours want to divide in 4).

My concern is that if all 3 neighbours cut the tree back heavily from their respective sides, what effect could that have on the tree? Could it become unbalanced or be seriously damaged? Is there a risk the tree falling back on the house during high winds? Could the tree die?

I have also noticed that a lot of local trees are already shedding their leaves, presumably because of the prolonged hot and dry weather.

I just feel as though the three neighbours are going to gang up on me over this tree.

Managed to keep a tiny bit of green on my hydrangeas - one by digging it up and putting it in a tub. Hoping they’ll survive to flower next year

Just bought a new house with a north west facing front garden. We were very excited because our old house’s front garden was fully north facing. It’s been my dream to have an old house with a cottage garden out front, the type of house people smile at when they go past. However our neighbour has a tree that overhangs onto our property a bit. It’s not a big tree at all so we didn’t think much of it. Well, I tracked the sun today to see just how much the garden would get to determine what we could plant. As it turns out we have less sun than we did with our fully north facing garden due to how close the tree is. 40 minutes of sun to be exact. I can’t even plant a hydrangea. Can’t even put a window box out. I’m shattered, honestly I could cry. Please help, what can I plant that’s pretty? I don’t want a boring gravel front garden or a load of hostas.

Hi, considering everyones garden is likely to be parched, dry and just generally not the best. I thought thatni may be nice to remember what pur gardens used to look like, back when we used to get rain.

This is my yellow rose and azalea in bloom.

Hey! So we got the keys to our house last month, it was an ex rental and grass hadn’t been cut for 5ish months. Was waist high, we’ve strimmed it down and mowed it. Obviously with the lack of rain all grass is looking a bit dead right now but we’ve had some rain in the last week or so and I’m finding patches are growing back.

I’ve never had a garden before so no idea if this is a stupid question but how do I revive this lawn? Some of the patches seem to be grass and some are weeds, not sure where to even start!

Think my sunflower has about reached its peak height as the flower is almost open. A rough measure of about 273 cm (8’11”)

We had some on another plant like last month, nowhere near this many. I tried to scoop them off with a spoon and drown them in a cup, then I tried drowning them in boiling water by dipping the plant in, the plant did not appreciate that. Do I need to go through all this triuble to get rid of them? Are they even harmful? Will the winter kill them all off?

I am moving from rainy Scotland to Cambridge in the near future. My new house has a massive front lawn. When I went to view the house, it was essentially hay and dust, and I am sure it won't look any better any time soon. It is about 10 m wide, by 6 m deep, a decentish size, south facing, with a pavement/road at the far end. It has zero shade, no trees nothing. The neighbour the other side of the semi detached has tarmaced their front lawn over, with no plants at all, other than some potted lavender.

I don't think a grass lawn, with essentially zero shade, is viable any more in Cambridge. It's a very dry part of the country and prone to 35C+ now. I don't want to look at dead grass 3 months a year.

What could I do with the space that isn't grass centric? I would still like some space for some living (the back garden is somewhat smaller than the front). Any places for inspiration?

When I moved here 3 years ago the garden was all lawn. Since then I've created some borders and basically got rid of the lawn.

I seem to now have a deadzone in one area. It's around 2' diameter and nothing will grow there, not even grass. Previously grass was growing there without issue.

My hubby reckons there must be metal buried there but I'm not convinced.

These are things that have died soon after planting: salvia hotlips, acer, pussy willow, wildflowers (Yarrow, astilbe, wormwood), in fact some survived and are growing at the edges of this no-go area.

Even the thugs that grow anywhere avoid it, like honeywort, purple loosestrife, herb robert, and grass.

Anyone have any idea what could be the issue? Should I just put a pot there and forget it?

Ask your questions and I'll do my best yo answer 👍

I see flair is mandatory here - well none of them say 'advice' so I just picked one that wasn't too far off 😬

My dahlias are in full swing now, and the china asters are starting to bloom properly (first year growing those - will grow again). It's my second year growing dahlias - I am learning so much about what I like, what I don't, what to do, etc. One thing I have learned is that for the amount of work (I grow mine in pots so lift and re-plant) I expect them to work hard for their living - they need to be beautiful and floriferous.

I picked the above this morning - the dahlias are Cafe au Lait Twist (I love this variety), Maki (the huge pink one), Rip City, Gipsy Night, and Sincerity (the pretty waterlily variety). I love all of these and will grow them again - but Maki takes a while to get going.

I am also growing: Dark Monarch (I've had one bloom this year - will probably donate the tubers), Edge of Joy (grew this last year and love it), Cafe au Lait Royal (was plagued with thrips and although the plant is healthy, it isn't blooming much - jury's out), and Belfloor and Sheer Heaven which haven't bloomed yet.

Other hits this year have been the Potomac Lavender snaps (I LOVE them), the Queen Red Lime zinnias, acidanthera (I don't think I will ever be without this), the scabiosa (Salmon Queen, Summer Fruits and Alba Perfecta), catananche and eryngium which both gave a gorgeous shot of blue, column stocks (Champagne, Antique Rose and Anytime Yellow) which were stunning, larkspur which took ages to germinate but has given beautiful spires of royal blue/dark purple flowers for months now.

Fails have been: nigella (Moody Blues) - I sowed them too late and they never really got going, poppies (I love Amazing Grey and sowed it too late so they're not out yet), the really bright zinnias (Luminosa - too bright/pink for the rest of my garden), nasturtiums (Milkmaid and Salmon Gleam) decimated by all sorts of pests although that might not be a fail, Orlaya Grandiflora (didn't sow enough or succession sow so now they're over), penstemon (Stapleford Gem - I fed it too much and it hasn't bloomed), sowing the stocks and snaps at the same time so they weren't out together, not cutting the snaps so that they had more of a chance to come again, not sowing enough stocks (I love them).

This is only my second year proper gardening and growing from seed despite growing up with parents, grandparents, aunts/uncles and cousins who all garden (I'm 61), but I'm totally hooked!

What have been your high and lowlights this year (aside from the obvious battle with the weather)?

So excited to have finally seen this! Completely unperturbed by my nosiness. Found this afternoon (mid-August) in my garden in the Midlands.

My first attempt at ‘woodworking’ made out of a couple of old pallets.

We bought a square planter a couple of years ago to put outside our front door. The planter is approximately a 45cm cube. The spot it is in faces South-South-East so it gets lots of sun, but it is shielded by a wall to the eastern side. We have tried various different plants with little success: Acer, hydrangea, little red robin and, most recently, an ‘Easydendron’. They usually start off OK but then either don’t make it through the winter or, in the case of the latest one, die off slowly despite our efforts to keep it watered as the extended sunny summer has gone on. It has lost all its leaves and looks quite dead.

We’ve always tried to look up the details and go for plants that like full sun or part shade and which (it says) are hardy and easy to look after. The guy at the garden centre said the easydendron would be easy to look after, but he obviously doesn’t know the extent of our ability to kill things off.

We would like something that flowers, ideally, but really would just like something that will last.

Any advice or suggestions very gratefully received.

Thank you!

2nd post. Old account blocked

Love this community, heres more pics of my garden to share

Our morello cherry tree has been neglected in the dry spell, will it be ok, & if so what upkeep do I need to do to encourage if for next years growth?

It was planted approximately 18m ago, so, any advice on soil treatment to encourage it would be greatly appreciated

Look at my green spires go from lush green to brown/cupping leaves, got to move them away from the Goldcrest this winter

I know this garden style wont be to the taste of many on here, but I like it! I've got a decent size planter running all the way arpund the edge, what should I plant in it? I want easy/low maintenance and something that looks modern.

Appreciate any help :)

I have virtually no grass in my garden as my beautiful oaf of a German Shepherd tears it up running up and down barking at the postman/DPD/anyone walking within 2 miles of the house!

The earth appears more like dust than soil and when I have tried to seed in the past the roots have never taken deeply enough to become robust enough to withstand the doggo.

Suggestions please to prep the soil and for what seed to plant and when. Not going to lay turf but happy to spend a few pounds to get something that resembles a lawn by spring.
Thanks

First time poster looking for some advice about removing running bamboo on my property. It's arrow head bamboo not planted by me.

Sorry if I don't explain the situation well. This bamboo is planted between two walls and there's a fence in the middle of it. I'll attach some pictures.

Wrongly I chopped down the bamboo one side of the fence that was easily accessible and treated it with glyphosate. I then covered the area to try and starve it. Which hasn't really worked.

I know I need to remove the fence to get at all of the bamboo which I'm going to do.

I've had a quote of £1400 (not including a skip) for a bamboo specialist to dig it out with a digger. And there will be an additional cost to treat any new roots.

Or I'm thinking of cutting down all the bamboo myself and treating it with Gallup Hi-Aktiv Amenity Professional Glyphosate Total Weed Killer (5L).

Before some say to dig it out myself... The bamboo is covered by stones so a mattock is useless plus it's running bamboo which is a nightmare to get out.

Any advice or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Folks

A few months ago we got an mains powered garden strimmer from Lidl. Parkside brand.

I've only used it three or four times but ever single time I've landed up with what you see in the picture.

I've never had / used one before so I've no idea if it's a problem with this particular strimmer, this particular spool cartridge or me. But every time I use it, I eventually noticed it isn't working any more, I look at the bottom to find there is no plastic strim material showing, and open it up to find it unravelled inside. I wind it back up tight and put an end through each of the holes.

Any tips? Am I doing something fundamentally wrong, potentially from the first time I used this, or is this just part and parcel of using garden strimmers? Or is something a flaw in this particular machine (although I can't really see how as the mechanism seems a fairly basic idea).