We're opening our garden - 8 weeks to go!

bownyboy

Hello everyone!

My girlfriend decided 3 weeks ago to enter our garden in our village open garden trail on Sunday 16th June. It's for charity as her father suffered a stroke last year so we're raising money for the stroke association.

We have 8 weeks to go to get it all sorted. So I thought I'd start a diary and share my progress as well as learning from some of the more experienced members here.

A bit about us: we bought our cottage 4 years ago in a lovely village in Surrey. It's our forever home and one of main reasons was for its fantastic wraparound mature garden. The previous owner was a gardener and lived there for 60 years.

We're total gardening novices and for the last 4 years I've simply weeded and tried to maintain as best I can. All the money has gone inside the house (full rewire, replaster, new bathroom, kitchen etc).

This year I'm determined to learn the names of all the plants and trees in the garden and make our own mark.

I'll update this weekly with progress, photos and no doubt lots of questions. I've already spent 3 weekends working on it, so will follow up ths post with some photos.

Thanks for reading!

lostinrates

Wow, good luck!

Our village has an open garden trail too and I long to get our garden good enough to be part of it.

christineperseus

Well done.
Will you be selling plants and cuttings too - a great way to make money for charity.
Get all your friends to pot things up for you.

bownyboy

christineperseus wrote: »

Well done.
Will you be selling plants and cuttings too - a great way to make money for charity.
Get all your friends to pot things up for you.

Hi christineperseus,

Shamefully I don't know how to make cuttings (told you I was a novice) I should find out though, do you just cut things off at the stem and they re-grow? /goes off to google and find out...

bownyboy

lostinrates wrote: »

Wow, good luck!

Our village has an open garden trail too and I long to get our garden good enough to be part of it.

Thanks! Its a tad nerve wracking, I just hope the weather improves and everything comes together every quickly. Some of the plants / trees are budding now, so hopefully they will be out by June 16th.

I heard on the news that everything is delayed due to the cold weather and we can expect a late spring / early summer explosion of colour.

suisidevw

Can you do before and after pics Bowny boy?!

bownyboy

suisidevw wrote: »

Can you do before and after pics Bowny boy?!

Definitely - about to post up some 'now' pics.

bownyboy

So in the southwest corner of the garden we had a huge lavender tree which died last year. It was also covered in lots of brambles and rotting pile of old garden waste (I think the previous owners garden used to dump stuff there).

So I spent the day clearing it all out and levelling off the ground. Didn't realise what a huge space it was.

I ordered some tree's online and planted the following:

• Prunus 'Victoria' (Victoria Plum Tree in memory of my girlfriends Grandad who loved them)
• Betula 'Jacquemontii' (White Steam Birch Tree)
• Prunus 'Kiku-Shidare Zakura' (Cheals Weeping Cheery)

The weeping cherry is to provide some height and colour above the two bushes and the plumb tree and birch are to provide some screening against neighbours fences.

I then weeded and edged the lawn in front, here's an view from the otherside.



I've created lots of space for bedding plants which we will pick up this weekend.

The grass is looking pretty patchy so I've applied 4-1 treatment and its already looking more healthy.

More to come...

bownyboy

Eagle eyed viewers will have spotted some trellis in the background of the second photo. I ordered two honeysuckle plants online with the aim for them to grow up the trellis and over the shed.

However in my rush to order I didn't realise how tiddly they would be:



Sooo, might have to order a couple of big brothers as I don't think these guys will have much to show for by June 16th!

Spent an age cleaning out Ivy which had taken over between the trees and shrubs on the edge of the west facing lawn. Ripped a load out and edged the lawn ready for some plants:



Again, lawn patchy and have applied 4-1 and will be looking to get it looking better over the next 2 months.

bownyboy

Here's a wide shot to get a sense of scale:



In this one I planted a small Magnolia tree just to the right of the footpath by the old greenhouse:



Unfortunately the old greenhouse is beyond repair. Its 60 years old and a local neighbour of about 75 told me he remembered carrying it into our garden as a young boy with the previous owner. I tried treating the wood and replacing the glass but its rotting through now, which is a shame.

antw23uk

Looking good, I love these types of threads.

As for the climbers why dont you have a look for some annual climbers like Cobaea. You still have time to start from seed and they are annual so grow madly all summer (about 10ft i think!) and then die back in the winter. They might not give the two small climbers you have much chance but no reason you cant pop them back in pots and grow them on somehwere else!

Most annual climbers need lots of sun though so position is key. good luck.