Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Farway

Hooray, buddleias all pruned back over the weekend in the sunshine, and finally completed the fig potting on, looking much better out there now, quite inspired to “do something” with a space that has become vacant having binned self-sown buddleias, not quite binned, more in surreptitious transit to a hidden space near my garage that needs re wilding

The empty ex buddleia space is in shallow planters, I’ll see what plants are available from Home Bargains mid-week when I’m there, given the shallow root area in baking sun spot run it’ll have to be something like fibrous begonias or lobelia

What a shame about your master pond plan 2P, sounds like if money & labour was no object it could come good, I’m thinking of waterfalls, or tinkling stream cascading over pebble steps into raised pond behind a retaining terrace of something or other.

I suppose a TV garden designer would ship in crates of caged pebbles and level the slope with a mini digger quicker than you could say Charlie Dimmock

twopenny

"What a shame about your master pond plan 2P, sounds like if money & labour was no object it could come good, I’m thinking of waterfalls, or tinkling stream cascading over pebble steps into raised pond behind a retaining terrace of something or other. "

Now that's more like it! I'd love the sound of the river in the woods, thought about trying to create it and know how but the labour!

This was to be a frog pond but it really wasn't right and the amount of effort to make it so isn't possible at the moment. Yes, if I employed the local guy at a huge cost it could be done.

I now realise that they never create these 'water features' on anything other than flat ground. But frankly I didn't realise that the top of the garden fell 1ft in 1ft.

I had to dismiss my desire for long mirror ponds further down too. The slope requires some serious design structures.

It wasn't to be so I'll be looking at other soloutions.

I have a buddleia in a pot I'd like to get more fulsome but I know how they can become a thug. One seedling got between tiles and let water into a roof in my last place.

No gardening today. All about catching up on admin from the last 2yrs. And it's been raining.

However the extra idea or changing the front flower bed from a ¼ moon to a half moon has made the whole appearance of the area just lovely. I have self seedlings from a giant walflower that is scented and blooms all year to go in and a scented geranium that also blooms all year. I have to be careful because there's a lot of concreate in that spot covering electric cables from the street light to my electric. Stout enough but I don't want to mess with it and send the whole street into darkness.

Farway

Back to drizzle and no gardening for the day, just have to daydream about tinkling stream trickling into languid pools as frogs plop in and disturb the dragon flies

2P, my garden has a slope, not a mountain but a slope none the less, in my wildest moments I did plan making a winding stream which would fall, via a mini waterfall, into a pond in the lower part of the garden

I have the pond, silted up & a leak somewhere, never had any spawn in it despite frogs around, does see the occasional dragon fly, probably by mistake & lost its way. The local cats like drinking out of it anyway so my efforts were not entirely wasted, and in its pre silt days I grew water cress in it, real MSE gardening given price of water cress

I spotted some of my geraniums [cranesbill] coming up in the pots I planted them in, nice to see them again as they were grown from seed a make a pleasant, easy, bee friendly show

twopenny said:

This was to be a frog pond but it really wasn't right and the amount of effort to make it so isn't possible at the moment. Yes, if I employed the local guy at a huge cost it could be done.

I now realise that they never create these 'water features' on anything other than flat ground. But frankly I didn't realise that the top of the garden fell 1ft in 1ft.

I had to dismiss my desire for long mirror ponds further down too. The slope requires some serious design structures.

It wasn't to be so I'll be looking at other soloutions.

My bold, Sometimes working with what there is can turn out well, one has to think a bit harder but seeing some of the viewers gardens on Gardeners' World is an eye opener. I'd love a prarie style garden but this house is not suitable, my previous house with it's large dry chalky garden would've been ideal

twopenny

Indeed. In fact I hoping for a cheap wooden and willow pergola I'll make for wisteria to grow over.
It is to provide shade in the garden but I saw grapevines in the garden centre. Now not something I especially wanted but I did have a dream of a vine covered pergola in a little place in Spain near a beach years ago and this garden is so hot it would work.
So the Bristol chanel is not like the Med but it's only 10mins away. 

RAS

2p

You need a good strong pergola for a vine (or two), unless you can keep on top of the pruning in late summer. Rampant isn't the word. Even a little one will escape into a nearby tree at the first chance. Bob Flowerdew used to grow them very restricted in large pots; maybe check him out?

twopenny

Thanks Ras, that's the sort of information I need. I'm clueless.
I've seen one or two growing here and they aren't that bad. I do have pruning time mow I have a small garden and because they will be near the heating outlet and gutter.
But it would mean that I should put slabs down for a ladder. There's gravel at the mo. 

Farway

A very dank morning, I had intended to mooch around Home Bargains to see if any cheapo bedding plants but the weather has put me off that, plus message a parcel is due today and we all now how this game is played, go out & the parcel arrives, stay in and it arrives at 7PM. Maybe HB trip tomorrow?

2P, go for grape, but be a bit picky on variety. I have two outdoors, only young and TBH never really fruited well but as they are only a couple of years old and the last two summers have been dismal I’m not surprised. I’m in Hampshire with real vineyards in the area so it’s warm enough on good years

One, Lakemont, is in the ground, but grafted onto what I hope is dwarfing sort of stock, it’s not gone wild anyway, the other, Green Muscat, is in a large pot but could do with a bigger one

I used to have one trained on wires over the back of this house but it turned into a triffid and became a real struggle with going up ladders to prune it so it had to go

I have seen them in large pots at Wisley, grown sort of columnar shape up a central post; it is this I am trying to emulate with my pot grown one but very early days yet

Years, and two houses ago I had a monster one trained on south facing baking wall, loads of grapes but poor unknown variety. Had I been wiser then I would’ve replanted with a known variety but back then, 1970s, outdoor grape growing was weird and exotic with little choice

BTW, they grow easily from cuttings; even root in water, or from buds, very easy should one stick to your clothing sometime

twopenny

Thank you Farway. Again more I didn't know.
Few people grow even basic food now so a cutting is probably out.
As it's raining again and the soil is all mud I may look up what the garden centre has in stock or ring so I can research them. Dwarfing stock sounds like a good idea judging Ras' information.
There is so much to do goodness knows why I'm thinking of adding more!
I split the Agapanthus and they're still tucked into a veg bed ready for repotting. A hardy geranium sat on top of the new flower bed waiting to go in but it's a quagmire out there.

Slinky

We had a lovely grapevine in our old wooden greenhouse when I was a child. It was growing through the rafters. Dad came home one lunchtime to find the weight of the vine had pulled the greenhouse off the dwarf walls and smashed the whole thing to bits. Dad cleared up the glass and wood, but the old dwarf walls remain, and the vine is still growing across the remains of the base. Sadly we never got anymore grapes after it was exposed to outside temperatures which is a pity as they were delicious.

RebekahR

Lots of very noisy frogs bonking in our pond lately!!