Not so distant future - walled garden

Gers

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This is part of the north wall with the spruce tree ^

Gers

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This is the other end of the north wall.

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And this is the other end with part of the east wall.

I_have_spoken

Certainly a multi-year project with many of shrubs which have got out of control. But the borders appear to have been cultivated, so hopefully by May you can see what's come up and can be divided and saved.

Gers

Been in three weeks. One of torrential rain, one of iffy weather and a glorious week.

I've found white and bluebells in bloom, primroses of assorted colours (unless the red'ish ones are not primroses), snowdrops, daffodils, straggling roses, out of control bushes, little yellow things, little blue things, hostas and a weak Japanese maple plant.

Have spent today clearing out rubbish - bits of tile, broken ceramics, tons of seashells and loads of bits of plastic etc.

It's very sunny in the morning on the east side and very sheltered.

Still going to wait a while to see how it all works but am excited about it.

whitesatin

The photos look lovely. Enoy!

Bluebell68

looks beautiful
have always wanted walled garden

Gers

I_have_spoken wrote: »

Certainly a multi-year project with many of shrubs which have got out of control. But the borders appear to have been cultivated, so hopefully by May you can see what's come up and can be divided and saved.

It certainly is beginning to reveal more of what is there which is interesting. Luckily I have managed to engage the services of a gardener to sort things out and see what's what. Already I can see a difference.

I have not gardening experience or knowledge though am really enjoying the 'learning'.

RAS

Gers

The walled garden obviously has potential and it larger than I expected.

One small suggestion - get some plant labels preferably something like yellow and label and mark the various bulb patches in particular.

Come autumn you will then have an idea what is buried where if you decide to add plants.

Gers

Got the labels and got them where the bluebells, snowdrops and crocus all appeared and then disappeared.

The garden has had a 'haircut' and bushes cut back. Since I last posted the garden has just blossomed - it's amazing to see the difference. Hostas are huge, ferns have unfurled and stretched, loads of litle flowers are showing and every day is giving me something new. Yesterday I found purple/blue 'welsh poppies' coming out next to the loads of yellow ones. I'll take more photos and post them up, the contrast is enormous.

Now I need some advice please.... it's been discovered that a lot of the grassed area (fairly extensive) has black plastic underneath, like a layer of bin liner. This accounts for the boggy nature of the grass. We have had an inordinate amount of rain here which doesn't help, but the plastic means the grass has very little chance of draining. I'm going to spend some time this afternoon forking it all over to create at least some breathing/drainage.

My question is - am I better off having it all dug up and a new lawn laid after removing the plastic? The current lawn is uneven and would need some remedial work in any case as there also seems to be more areas with paving which has also been taken over by grass.

Do I bite the bullet and bring in professionals?

Thanks

DaftyDuck

If you are intending to stay there for (say) five years plus, then I'd go gor removing it completely. Two good reasons. Firstly, it's early days in the garden, you haven't yet made it perfect and yours, so now is the time for making chaos. Second is, if it's troublesome now, what will it be like in an exceptionally wet autumn, or a very long, hot, drying summer.

There is a third... the satisfaction of a really good lawn. I know about that, 'cos mine is most definitely not top-notch. That's next year's challenge.