Is the tree killing my plants

Wizwoo

That's fine HKP. To be honest I don't really want to waste any more money. We had though of putting some kind of water feature in (again to help with the noise of the road) but that would probably get clogged up by the leaves etc.

Just a shame that we hadn't realised when we put some decking in. There used to be 3 large conifers in our garden that had been cut down but the stumps were still very prominent - we covered it with our deck. We could have extended it right over the bed and put the pots on that!

I think we'll look into the raised bed idea first though and give that a go.

pennineman

Wizwoo wrote:

Can you suggest any plants that do OK with you pennineman?

I'm just checking names again 'cos my memory for plant names is a disaster area.

Here's a small part of the small front garden - not too brill and only very small. (Taken last August after reduced width of hedge and chopped very large bush down) Back garden is bigger and better.

Tend to have hardy perennials like hydranga, small conifers, (not so small now!!), one that begins with "p" - peony, daffys of course, bluebells, foxgloves. Large grasses

And buy summer annuals (& some perennials) from garden centre at end of this month and through June.

And we do use containers also. (In true money-saving fashion we use all sorts of old stuff like large wooden drawers . . . from old chest etc.)

MrsMW

I've had another think about your problem and looked at my garden. I've discovered it's no good growing things that like a dry position because the clay soil lets them get too wet when it rains. Plants that do well in mine in the shade are grasses, you can get different coloured ones and they are very easy care and don't seem to mind the clay soil. You could brighten it up in summer with Bizzy Lizzies or Begonias.