The potting shed

WestonDave

Seems to be a wealth of advice here and I've no idea where else to ask other than getting a professional contractor out (which may have to happen anyway) so I wonder if anyone can help!

We've just moved into a new house, on a corner plot with hedges on the road boundaries. Firstly can anyone tell me what the actual hedges plants are. The leaves are very small - about 10mm long and about 5mm wide, bright green and shiny. At present spread through the bushes are a number of deep purple berries - one part that catches the sun has masses of them, other areas just have odd ones. Initially I thought privet but the leaves are much too small, box was another consideration but I didn't think they grew 6ft tall nor can I find any mention of berries on box.

Secondly the hedges are pretty tall 6ft plus and in places very thick - at one point I pushed a rake handle in underneath and the nearly the whole length disappeared before I hit the boundary wall. At one point a stretch of about 1.5 metres appears to have collapsed into the garden - there is a tree outside on the roadside at that point so maybe its weakened by the tree taking water and light.

We've lived nearby and originally the hedges were immaculate but the male owner died three years ago and although they have been trimmed they haven't had the same loving care. We don't want to lose them (although we may open up the front a little) so any advice on how to proceed - or should we just get a specialist in to tidy them up before maintaining them in future! Ideally we would like them reduced in height a bit and also thinned a bit as we really don't need a 4ft thick hedge!

Thanks in advance for any help.

mikeywills

Westondave

Post a picture and maybe we can help?

WestonDave

Thanks Mikey - sensible idea - will do but will probably be a week or so - still need to find the digital camera in the unpacking, and we won't go into the trials of my broadband connection on a family site!

mikeywills

Will wait with anticipated breath then!!!

Eff

This year I grew some Sunburst F1 Squash from Mr Fothergills Mini veg seeds for the first time. Took some while to come through and when they did I was a bit scared to pick them as I wasn't sure what to do with them! However ended up with about 8 fruits off 3 plants, I think I should have picked them younger and that might have encouraged more to come through. They look great like yellow flying saucers and have managed to roast larger ones cut in 8 with seeds removed and use smaller ones in stir-fry.
Can anyone else recommend any squashes to grow and how to use them?

topgranny

kiwichick wrote:

BTW, if any of you have advice on setting out your first veg plot please feel free to contribute to my thread asking for advice. I am a complete newbie but VERY keen and I want to get the bones of it sorted properly.

At our last house we had very poor soil and a steep slope on the patch we used for veg gardening, so we built some raised beds. We started by putting all the composting stuff in the base instead of the compost bins, along with torn up newspapers and anything else that will rot down, and covering with some top soil. We left all this over the winter and by the time we came to plant up our seedlings it had all rotted down and we grew great crops. We then only had to top them up with more compost from the regular bin to keep it all going.

I think raised beds are a great way to grow veg. We have moved to a much smaller house now but have an allotment which we really enjoy. We have broken it down to four plots and are thinking of putting moveable boxes, so that we can still rotate the beds, on one of the plots to grow small crops, rather than stringing them out in rows.

Lord_Gardener

WestonDave wrote:

Seems to be a wealth of advice here and I've no idea where else to ask other than getting a professional contractor out (which may have to happen anyway) so I wonder if anyone can help!

We've just moved into a new house, on a corner plot with hedges on the road boundaries. Firstly can anyone tell me what the actual hedges plants are. The leaves are very small - about 10mm long and about 5mm wide, bright green and shiny. At present spread through the bushes are a number of deep purple berries - one part that catches the sun has masses of them, other areas just have odd ones. Initially I thought privet but the leaves are much too small, box was another consideration but I didn't think they grew 6ft tall nor can I find any mention of berries on box.

Secondly the hedges are pretty tall 6ft plus and in places very thick - at one point I pushed a rake handle in underneath and the nearly the whole length disappeared before I hit the boundary wall. At one point a stretch of about 1.5 metres appears to have collapsed into the garden - there is a tree outside on the roadside at that point so maybe its weakened by the tree taking water and light.

We've lived nearby and originally the hedges were immaculate but the male owner died three years ago and although they have been trimmed they haven't had the same loving care. We don't want to lose them (although we may open up the front a little) so any advice on how to proceed - or should we just get a specialist in to tidy them up before maintaining them in future! Ideally we would like them reduced in height a bit and also thinned a bit as we really don't need a 4ft thick hedge!

Thanks in advance for any help.

I'd recommend that you get a specialist in to get your hedge back into good order - it'll save you alot of time and angst! Your specialist should be able to identify what your hedge is made up from - often a mix was used to give a more interesting backdrop to a garden. NB There's lots of dogwood berries (purple) around at the moment!

angelavdavis

WestonDave wrote:

Seems to be a wealth of advice here and I've no idea where else to ask other than getting a professional contractor out (which may have to happen anyway) so I wonder if anyone can help!

We've just moved into a new house, on a corner plot with hedges on the road boundaries. Firstly can anyone tell me what the actual hedges plants are. The leaves are very small - about 10mm long and about 5mm wide, bright green and shiny. At present spread through the bushes are a number of deep purple berries - one part that catches the sun has masses of them, other areas just have odd ones. Initially I thought privet but the leaves are much too small, box was another consideration but I didn't think they grew 6ft tall nor can I find any mention of berries on box.

Secondly the hedges are pretty tall 6ft plus and in places very thick - at one point I pushed a rake handle in underneath and the nearly the whole length disappeared before I hit the boundary wall. At one point a stretch of about 1.5 metres appears to have collapsed into the garden - there is a tree outside on the roadside at that point so maybe its weakened by the tree taking water and light.

We've lived nearby and originally the hedges were immaculate but the male owner died three years ago and although they have been trimmed they haven't had the same loving care. We don't want to lose them (although we may open up the front a little) so any advice on how to proceed - or should we just get a specialist in to tidy them up before maintaining them in future! Ideally we would like them reduced in height a bit and also thinned a bit as we really don't need a 4ft thick hedge!

Thanks in advance for any help.

At a guess without a pic, I would guess the hedge was privet.

As Lord_gardener says, I would recommend getting someone in to reshape the hedges if you are in doubt.

angelavdavis

Just a reminder to the Southerners on the Board to collect up your frost-intolerant herbs now before they all go black and either dry them to last over winter, or chop up and put in ice-trays.

I have just harvested the last of the basil and parsley and put into ice-trays to add to soups and sauces over winter.

pickledtink

Well until the pleading for a gardening board pays off maybe it's time to bump up our gardening thread.

My Chard and early Summer Broccolli are fading out to nothing but my winter planted Brassicas are doing fine and I noticed the Autumn planted garlic I shoved in between them has good healthy shoots a foot high.

The trouble is the mild weather has fooled my garden into thinking it's spring. The bulbs are well on their way and all shrubs budding with gay abandon.
I want to go out and scream " Get back! Get back! The nasty big white cold thing is coming and you will all die!!'