Dreaming of a beautiful garden

ANY_CHANCE

Yesterday was the village garden open day - there were 17 gardens mine was one of them the other gardens were beautiful full of pergolas, fruits and veg lots of beautiful flowers and water features.....then there was mine a few old plants pots and hanging baskets .. oh the shame

Any way i loved looking at everyone elses and now i am dreaming of all the things i would like to do to my garden

So any tips of how to get cheap plants and things like arches for climbers etc

i better get reading through the threads for ideas;)

Is it best to have a plan of what you want to do to the garden? I often get plants that survive for say one year then i never see them again - like lupins!

kazwookie

I'm going to watch this with interest, and get loads of ideas as well.

newlywed

We have a small patch of grass with some weed borders :rotfl:

I'd love to plant stuff and as soon as OH has done the fence, decking, shed etc will be after ideas

greenfingeredsteve

hi try seeing if there are any reduction sales of trellis frames etc in garden centres /wilkos/supermarket or make your own easy enough if you have the materials.
if you liked some of the flowers/shrubs that you show competitors have ask them if the will have any cutting and advisce about the plant if they do, ask people on hear if they may have a certain plant you want or neighbours take cuttings {all free} and gett your garden going to how you want it to be

Davesnave

Depends on the size of the garden, but I'd say a plan is pretty important. It was the first thing we did when we came to our blank slate garden 21 years ago. Some people 'make it up as they go along,' but you need to know where your trees and big bushes will be before you can start fitting all those other features in, or working out where it is going to be shady etc. It is also a whole heap easier to move trees & features around on a bit of squared paper than it is in reality!

So I'd say do a basic survey first - I'm talking junior school maths here - get it on paper and then work out what you want the main bits to be, including big things that are already there, too hard to change etc. Then play with it for a while. I know when we did that, it was easier and it really helped to know what we were aiming at. Still took 10 years though!

ANY_CHANCE

greenfingeredsteve wrote: »

hi try seeing if there are any reduction sales of trellis frames etc in garden centres /wilkos/supermarket or make your own easy enough if you have the materials.
if you liked some of the flowers/shrubs that you show competitors have ask them if the will have any cutting and advisce about the plant if they do, ask people on hear if they may have a certain plant you want or neighbours take cuttings {all free} and gett your garden going to how you want it to be

Hi GFS (is it ok if i call you that?!)

Its funny you should mention it but whilst looking round one of the other gardens in the competition a lovely couple said that if i saw anything i liked then i could just ask and they would try and help me out.
I thought they were just being polite but perhaps i should pop over and ask.

Their garden was beautiful not huge, perhaps slightly bigger than mine but packed full of lovely plants and fruits.
They let us try the red, black and white currents they had and the raspberries.

I was surprised that even if the garden is not huge you can still put fruit trees in, they grew sweet peas up them

Keith

I've quite a small garden, but we've got a plum tree and two apples, they aren't huge by any means as they are only 2.5 years old, but they always produce fruit.

ANY_CHANCE

Thanks Keith,

Thats good to know i planted a plum tree last year when we moved in. It had a few flowers on it htis spring it now has ONE plum only growing:rotfl:

It is about 1.5 metres in height

SKIPPY54

Hi,I have today collected a trellis still in the box from someone on freecycle,it's a great place for garden things,I give and take lots of plants and other things,I have had pots,a compost bin, canes, plants of every type you can imagine.
If you are not a freecycler just put in freecycle uk and your area put on a post requesting the plants you would like, within days you will have some plants,carefull though it's addictive.
The only thing you will not get is a garden makeover team

greenfingeredsteve

you may call me that anychance
get round there to those people and taken them up on their offer take their cuttings and do the same with the other competitors most will love to chap about the best way to look after the plants and you make friends too ,cant be bad eh!

greenfingeredsteve

chat not chap