I'm a Master Gardener here in SC. I took the class in 83 or 84 . Cost $35 at the time for our books.I took it at the time to meet other people whos eyes didnt glaze over when I was talking about plants !!! and to learn more about how to plant, soil ammend, etc. I was very much a newbie and scared I wouldnt fit in w/ all the knowlegable gardeners. At the time there was not enough people in our county to start one, so the next county extension office teamed up w/ our and we alternated weeks in each office. You are expected to volenteers x amount of hours, which we did planted shrubs, flowers etc at some new Habitat for Humanity houses,I gave a talk to my sisters sons boy scout troop and even manned the phones for a SC PBS show Making It Grow & manned the booths at plant clinics at area craft shows.Greenwoods a big gardening town.. we have the Festival of Flowers here every year late june, and home of Park Seed, Wayside Gardens & Marlboro Bulb Co. I've met alot of great people this way,gotten scads of gardening tips,& divisions of plants...alot.If your just a casual gardener like I was when I first joined, you'll be amazed at how much, how quick You learn...and Im still learning all the time. I'm not active w/ them the last 6-7 years. The War (nasty divorce) took its toll on me esp when the Evil B .. Buzzard ? .. took his tractor & tilled over ALL my beds of 70 different lilys,my rose garden w/ 14 tea & 20 minatures and all the other perrenial beds with 1000s of different daffodils ,Allium Gigantiums .. oh so much, such carnage !!!!( I had a friend who worked at Park seed. Every year they would let employyess go through w/ GROCERYBAGS and get whatever they wanted.Every year for 5 years, she & some of her friends who worked there would bring me their bags & bags full of goodies, and I would host Girls day/night. Make big pans of lasagne, make shrimp dip & pitchers of White Russians & Frozen Strawberry Margaritas.and they would get to choose from some of my crafty stuff a gift to take home. I got 1000's of dollars worth of bulbs for some bartering and having a fine time w/ the girls.Oh yeah, also had some of the local senior boys (My step daughters were in High school at the time)to be designated drivers to drive them back in their cars from the country where I lived into town and the girls would follow to pick the boys up. Fine time had by everyone !!!!The next weekend I'd have a party for the girls & their friends that helped out in our shop that was next to the house. Set up a sound system , let them get as loud as they liked and have plenty of food for them and leave them alone...I had boys vollentering for the next year right after !!!...Win Win.. just a few reasons to become MG....I strayed a little , hope I didnt offend anyone !! LOL

uh oh....are you really willing to make a trip to the USA to see our gardens? i'll bet you would have more responses if you posted at the UK forum. Good luck to you,it sound like a great project. Here is a link that might be useful: gardening in the UK

It is really a good idea to get someone else to look after food, so you can focus on the garden part. Also, since I usually end up cooking for all our extensive family parties, my few advices would be: * Serve food which your guests can put easily in their plates. It is usually not a good idea to serve something that needs precise cutting, can dribble and so on. I usually go for small sandwiches (few layers pricked with cocktail stick), small salad bites in shells (shells I buy ready-made, to save trouble), olives and so on. * Make sure that the food can stay out of fridge for a couple of hours. For example, some salads are really lovely when freshly made, but become yukky mess if kept out of fridge for 3 hours. * serve cookies, brownies, pre-cut pies and so on. Chocolates can also go nice with the coffee. * if it is really hot, you may want to serve some ice-cream. It is a bit of trouble, but simple ice-cream with chocolate or berry sauce can be very lovely on a hot day. You can keep it in the cooling box even on the table, just make sure there is some sticker that says it is ice-cream in there. * coffee and tea you can put in thermos thingies, so you do not have to make hot drinks for everyone. Or put out senseo thingie outside, so people can make coffee themselves. * Don't forget cold drinks. Also wine and beer is a good idea, just better serve both, since not all people like wine and not all like beer. *Buy as much things as you can ready-made and prepare everything beforehand. Home made food is nice, but it is garden show and you do not want to be dead from the kitchen work. *For the give-away you might want to make some pot-poury. Just dry some rose petals + lavender, put them in tiny bags (which you can buy premade), add nice ribbon to it and you have a rosy gift. :)

I don't know either. Haven't planted any in ages. I dust the cut pieces with wettable sulfur to prevent rot. I did some ornamental sweet potatoes not long ago and they are growing well so you never know. Go ahead and try you just may have to water more in the heat.