A little later than planned but finally I’ve managed to catch up with my news from the garden. The sickening events in Manchester last week left me with little enthusiasm for writing garden trivia and it’s taken a while to get back into the mood.
A few weeks back Mrs. Monty and I visited the garden of Tilford House in Hognaston which was open as part of the National Gardens Scheme. The owners, appropriately named Mr. and Mrs. Gardner (I kid you not) have created a wonderful streamside garden of woodland, wildlife and pond areas. A good example of a garden style where weeds are tolerated and even enhance the overall environment. We’re already looking forward to our next garden visit to Culland Hall on the 18th June which has a great plant sale with many specialist nurseries in attendance (be warned, cash only)
One of Peter Gardner’s favourite plants is the Hosta of which he has some 300 varieties. His wife Jean refers to his collection as his “hostalry”. The Hosta is also one of my favourites and whilst I don’t have such numbers I have been creating my own hostalry for the local population of slugs and snails. This is how the menu is looking so far –
For Project, Plants and Jobs of the month
Projects
These last few weeks I have been busy hanging and fixing various structures around the garden under Mrs. M’s guidance. Here’s two very different ways of providing climbing support for Clematis
One of my earlier projects was to try out a number of Broad Beans. After a slow start things have been growing a pace and the beans are reaching the exciting stage of flowering. It’s still too early to give a verdict on the most successful bean but there do appear to be a couple of strong contenders. 
It’s at this point that things usually turn to disappointment for me. I get lots of flowers but very few beans, certainly never matching the bountiful harvest shown on the seed packets. Any bean experts out there with tips on how to maximise the crop?
Plant of the Month
Warm weather is transforming the garden daily with strong late contenders such as roses, alliums and aquillegia but this month’s plant has to be Clematis.
You may recognise the rope colonnade I erected a few months back now covered in Montana flowers.
Jobs around the garden
This month I’ve been mainly-
Buying plants
Planting plants
Chelsea Chopping
Weeding
Watering
Slug hunting
Time to get back to it…
Monty
PARWICH.ORG 
I hope Monty and Mrs Monty will be opening their garden on 25 June, a chance to sign autographs for all their fans.
The beauty of a pseudonym is we might be but no one will know 😀
As a P&DHS committee member I assume you will be opening yours Fiona?
As a P&DHS committee member I shall be spending the entire day at the Hall! Not yet mastered the art of being in two places at the same time. Shame, it would be a very useful skill.
NGS contenders perhaps? Cream teas on the lawn, advice from Mr & Mrs Monty, I can see the queues forming.
With Mrs M’s special tea (did you see what I did there) of cold baked beans from the tin washed down by a glass of warm Vinho Verde on offer I can only see the queues heading in one direction!
Oh dear, I thought rhubarb mojito’s at the very least, whilst observing the grazing guinea pigs!
According to GQT this week, poor bean set could be due to a lack of moisture, so this weeks forecast for rain could resolve that one for you.
Thanks for this. I must catch up with GQT. Yes looks like the weather today has solved any moisture shortage. Another possibility is birds, especially sparrows, I understand. We do have plenty of sparrow activity in the garden but I haven’t noticed any around the area where the beans are growing. However I’ve put some netting over the plants just in case.
It’s very frustrating as already there are a few bare stalks where last week there were multiple flowers.