Garden Makeover diary, Glasgow

cyclonebri1

I think the 1st thing you need to decide is how much time you are prepared to devote to the garden. The original first 2 sets of pictures show the extremes, the fully landscaped and planted plot, which requires a good amount of effort to keep that way, even in Winter.

The the lawned, more urban style of garden, much less effort required and popular with busier folks.

Lastly the veggy garden, you need to be enthusiastic about that, but the rewards are very satisfying.

So, it's your choice and really depends on your time "investment"

My choice? a combination of all 3, raised beds for veg, shrub area with access through as kids adventure playground, then lawned and gravelled areas for low maintenance.

A few flower beds dotted about for summer colour and bingo.

That's for a back garden, my own front garden is totally a winter garden.
Winter flowering heathers and dwarf (:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: my backside) conifers. Spring bulbs in large clumps. It's as low maintenance as possible without resorting to concrete:D

I_have_spoken

So, 30th Sep and in Glasgow I reckon that means it's only going to be downhill for this season, so lets have a look...

Front garden - new border has filled out well, in fact I've already taken rooted plantlets from the ajugas. Candyduft is racing away, plus there's loads of seedling in the gravel I will pot up. The two iris have grown away well, but the three panicum virgatum 'Heavy Metal are making slow progress. I changed the ground cover plant at far end for a sarcococca (sweet box) to give better 'full stop'.

The white pansies in the two zinc planters have flowered like mad, although it's taken the box (from Ikea) all season to start showing fresh growth.

Shrubs, fern and hosta under the window have filled out. The plants in the far bed include a dark-leaved hebe which has grown very quickly - almost too fast!



Back garden, getting there. Now the two large bays in terracotta pots are on the steps, it's getting like the design I was aiming for. Small improvements, like broken concrete at base of wall been replaced by slate chips. I've continued to use slate chips to create small areas of alpine planting either side of the steps; hopefully will allow plants to get through winter wet and you can get to see them up close in the raised bed while standing on patio.



'Lawn' is still a marsh, that'll be done next spring. However, the deep edging and channels under the steps allows the water to drain from the beds which are fine even after heavy rain. Unfortunately, shoes muddy from the grass leave prints on the slate steps!

I realised rather late on I needed to get plant cover on the bare wood fences regardless of what shrubs were in the beds. So have planted some vigorous clematis, climbing hydrangea, honeysuckles and, yes, that's a Russian Vine growing in 'tiers' on the vine wires!



Inside for the winter, the agaves and their offsets planted up plus the cannas. Still thinking about how to overwinter everything, assuming the conservatory stays above 3deg C. with a thermostatic heater.

joanne109

I can't add my ha'pennorth to your musings but it looks lovely from where I'm sitting.
Would you consider painting the fence?

Joanne

Rummer

It is just getting better and better! I think it would be good to paint the fence, would you consider it?

mansars

Very nice,

Having grown up o`er the Campsies from you I know that the weather is your biggest drawback.

On the lawn, it may be worth scaryfing, hollow tining and over seeding the lawn now (october) and see how it looks agin in the spring.

I did this due to the prohibitive cost of turf here in Norn Iron at the time and its worked a treat.

I borrowed a manual hollow tiner/aerator (that you can get from amazon for £20 ish) and used a cuple of bags of lawn sand/mosskiller a week or so before scaryfing and tining, then lawn and turf dressing mixed with plenty of grass seed.

I think it was about £30 all in all.

Good luck with the rest of it.

I_have_spoken

Thanks for comments!

I think it would be good to paint the fence, would you consider it?

Last place I had, the fences were wood stained and TBH I felt it became more of hindrance than a help trying to redo it when the climbers had covered the wood. I guess it would help stop the wood rotting; I've tried to limit that by ensuring none of the cut ends are in contact with the soil.

it may be worth scaryfing, hollow tining and over seeding

I fear it's beyond that I was out this evening after steady but hardly torrential rain and there was stranding water all over the grass and it 'squished' wherever you walked...

xyz123

I_have_spoken wrote: »

So, 30th Sep and in Glasgow I reckon that means it's only going to be downhill for this season, so lets have a look...

Front garden - new border has filled out well, in fact I've already taken rooted plantlets from the ajugas. Candyduft is racing away, plus there's loads of seedling in the gravel I will pot up. The two iris have grown away well, but the three panicum virgatum 'Heavy Metal are making slow progress. I changed the ground cover plant at far end for a sarcococca (sweet box) to give better 'full stop'.

The white pansies in the two zinc planters have flowered like mad, although it's taken the box (from Ikea) all season to start showing fresh growth.

Shrubs, fern and hosta under the window have filled out. The plants in the far bed include a dark-leaved hebe which has grown very quickly - almost too fast!



Back garden, getting there. Now the two large bays in terracotta pots are on the steps, it's getting like the design I was aiming for. Small improvements, like broken concrete at base of wall been replaced by slate chips. I've continued to use slate chips to create small areas of alpine planting either side of the steps; hopefully will allow plants to get through winter wet and you can get to see them up close in the raised bed while standing on patio.



'Lawn' is still a marsh, that'll be done next spring. However, the deep edging and channels under the steps allows the water to drain from the beds which are fine even after heavy rain. Unfortunately, shoes muddy from the grass leave prints on the slate steps!

I realised rather late on I needed to get plant cover on the bare wood fences regardless of what shrubs were in the beds. So have planted some vigorous clematis, climbing hydrangea, honeysuckles and, yes, that's a Russian Vine growing in 'tiers' on the vine wires!



Inside for the winter, the agaves and their offsets planted up plus the cannas. Still thinking about how to overwinter everything, assuming the conservatory stays above 3deg C. with a thermostatic heater.

Excellent. Only if i could have the courage to start massive work on our garden!

What are the two plants - One in yellow pots and the other with red flowers! ta

I_have_spoken

What are the two plants - One in yellow pots and the other with red flowers!

Plants in pots are cannas, bought cheaply from B&Q as they didn't flower this year. The red flowers are from two fibrous rooted begonias; TBH I was amazed so much flowering was possible from bagel-sized roots I'd overwintered from last year.

I did have three, but one didn't make it through the winter cold in the garage

Gers

Have been watching this with interest and the work being done looks great.

I think that I recognise the town cos I lived there many many moons ago and we too had a house at the end of three with us being the lowest - the front garden was always boggy. For some reason the back garden was not so bad but neither of my parents were gardeners.

Well done on the work you are doing.

I_have_spoken

So, year two in the garden! After the non-stop rain, first job has been to check what has survived the permanent wet.

The 'lawn' has been wrecked, it's just moss, but that was always a candidate to be replaced. Other obvious losses seem to be daffs at the back fence where only a few have appeared and the sempervivums which are not at all happy and the evergreen clematis isn't showing any signs of life.

Anyhow, first spring bulbs are through -





Including the crocus in the layered planting drum with daffs and tulips



The 'big picture' shows the lawn is more a bog. The lesson from 2013 is that by far the best place to grow is the south facing beds either side of the steps and the east facing (right hand) and west facing (left hand) beds. So job #1 is to widen them, the 1m width is too small and looks 'bitty'.



This will allow plants to be moved about a spaced. By Aug last year, I was kind of desperate to get stuff out of pots and into the ground and some poor choices were made

The back fence casts such a shadow that widening the bed is pointless, so that will be kept for semi-shade loving plants. The two Acorus gramineus 'Ogon' at the top-left have been especially good, although they are apparently more for sun.

Much needs to be done on getting variation in height. The widening of the two front beds will allow obelisks to go in. I'm also thinking about an pergola over the steps.

Finally, some bedding annuals under glass for a few more weeks -