Last week turned out to be a very sociable one, considering that a gardener’s life can be quite solitary. On Monday evening I was the guest speaker at the Chorlton Garden Club, which meets once a month in a room next to Chorlton Library. My topic was ‘Rejuvenating a Border’. I spoke about problem trees, leggy shrubs, invasive perennials and knowing when to give up and start again. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed with an unruly border, so standing back and assessing which plants you really love and which you could live without is a good way to make a start – a ‘life laundry’ exercise.

I also had a couple of Side by Side Gardening sessions booked in – a chance to have a good chat while cutting back at this time of year. Many of my clients admit that pruning and cutting things down is their favourite job in the garden, but they’re uncertain about what to cut and when to do it. Knowing your plants is all important: never cut spring or early summer flowering shrubs in the autumn as you’ll be cutting off all the flower buds for next season. As to how much you tidy up your herbaceous perennials? Well, I leave some stalks to overwinter – mostly those with interesting seed heads that have died gracefully. I also find that some seed heads provide snug winter homes for insects like ladybirds and food for birds, such as goldfinches. So I do a certain amount of cutting back now and then leave the rest until spring.

A border in St James churchyard, Didsbury.

Thursday brought the news that Didsbury had won a silver gilt in the urban category of the National Britain in Bloom competition. Well done to all concerned! Back in July I had waited to show the judges round St James churchyard, having been told that I had six minutes in which to talk to them. That’s right, not five or ten, but six! It was like a military operation and, though I can’t remember what I said, they seemed impressed and were then whisked away to end their tour of the area in The Parsonage gardens over the road.

If you’d like to join in with some sociable gardening, then The Parsonage garden volunteers meet on a Tuesday morning. Also gardening locally, the Friends of Didsbury Park meet on a Monday morning. At St James, we meet on Saturday mornings every few weeks and if anyone would like to join us, then please contact me and I’ll give you the dates.

Baskets of bulbs.

Saturday saw me setting up a plant stall in the rain. Thankfully, a gazebo gave me some protection, but it didn’t look like it was going to be a good day for selling plants. Home Community Café at Emmanuel Church was celebrating its first six months with a harvest event called ‘All Good Things’. People brought along their apples to crush in a cider press, children had made mini scarecrows for a competition, there were conker fights, numerous musicians, great coffee, tea and cakes. And then there was me, outside in the rain, watching everyone inside chatting, enjoying themselves, looking all warm and snug. But the sun did eventually come out! Shoppers stopped hurrying past and the sunshine made people slow down and pause. Soon I had sold quite a few plants and handed out free bunches of rosemary – prunings too good for the compost. And, for those of you who read my last post, Collecting seeds, I also gave away seed that I have collected over the past few weeks. People looked so surprised when I said ‘help yourself’, but it was a great way to start a conversation and to encourage people to have a go at growing something from scratch for themselves.

We have plans to start some sociable gardening at Home Community Café next year too, so watch this space!

A trug of rosemary.