Blank Canvass Garden - Design Inspiration Needed

Working_Mum

Farway said:

Love to see the change you've made. And another thumbs up for the digger on the roof, I had to look twice before I realised.

Red spots on almond leaves, sounds like Peach leaf curl, same family, same disease, same no cure for amateurs except pick off & pick up the affected leaves

Unfortunately it's airborne, comes down with the winter rains, so unless you can cover the tree you have to live with it

FWIW it killed my peach & apricot, so I would start thinking about a replacement before it happens

https://www.rhs.org.uk/disease/peach-leaf-curl

Thank you everyone for your lovely feedback - I am really using my garden this year  - probably for the first time since we moved in - but "evolving" is the right word to use. 

I had a bit of a revelation yesterday when sitting in my bedroom looking down on the garden - I have always shied away from doing much in the rear gravelly area as it has 6" of gravel, then the weed membrane and then the "soil" underneath is builders rubble - but I've decided to start digging in a border one herbaceous plant and evergreen tree at a time! Not sure why I didn't think of it before!!

We have a local "Open Gardens" day in my village and it was on Sunday and I loved the deep herbaceous borders filled with foxgloves, lupins, ferns, hostas etc so it must have sparked something in my brain!! I visited a garden centre yesterday (they had a free coffee and cake voucher!) and bought a honey suckle for £3 and a variegated Weigel for £6 from the "poorly plants" section - I will get these dug in this week to start my new border against the fence.

I also picked up some old and mottled stone slabs from Freecycle at the weekend and I intend to use these in my borders to either pop a pot of loveliness or use them to stand on to weed the soil.

Hopefully I won't leave it another year to update with pics!

Have a wonderful day everyone.

-taff

Bear with me here...2p said she'd like an area with medditerranean steps to display some pots n stuff. Could you use boards or railway sleepers or similar to make an area where you can move the gravel, thus reusing it, removing it from where it is now and creating something where you can display stuff? Or my favourite ...gabions

YoungBlueEyes

Blimey that's some difference! You really have created a little slice of heaven out of practically nothing at all.  

(And if you get sick of your dog I'll happily take him/her off your hands, what a beauty.)

Working_Mum

-taff said:

Bear with me here...2p said she'd like an area with medditerranean steps to display some pots n stuff. Could you use boards or railway sleepers or similar to make an area where you can move the gravel, thus reusing it, removing it from where it is now and creating something where you can display stuff? Or my favourite ...gabions

I also LOVE gabions  - I was thinking I may use them under my pergola when I get it sorted but I think realistically that'll be a project for next year!

Working_Mum

YoungBlueEyes said:

Blimey that's some difference! You really have created a little slice of heaven out of practically nothing at all.  

(And if you get sick of your dog I'll happily take him/her off your hands, what a beauty.)

Thank you YBE - he is a lovely natured dog - he's a cockerpoo (believe it or not) but more more Spaniel like in his attitude to life. I adore him   

Working_Mum

Another update within a week!

I knew the gravel at the end of the garden was a horrid place but had naïvely forgotten! It took me 45 minutes to dig the small pot of a honeysuckle which I bought from the "poorly plants" section of a garden centre earlier this week - I had to remove a bucket of gravel, half a bucket of mud and a trug or roof tiles (now have more crocks for the bottom of my pots than I can use in a year!!).

I am collecting some more stone slabs from a Freecycler   over the weekend and I've decided to use them to mark the start of the border so I know where to clear to and plant from.

Wishing everyone a smashing BH weekend.

WM

Working_Mum

I thought I'd share my latest update - I need a bit of advice too.

So this was the area at the bottom of my garden before I started this little project



I thought I could live with the gravel but I can't. I lugged an old York Stone wall from a Freecycler and created this little area - it's a sun trap from late morning until about 7pm during the summer:-



I've started to clear the area of gravel and roof tiles behind the little wall . So far it has taken me 20 rubble bags of gravel and 30 rubble bags of broken roof tiles to get to this:-



To the right of this patch it is quite shady but to the left it gets sun pretty much all day during late Spring into early Autumn. The far right gets the sun all year round. My question does anyone have any suggestions for plants for this whole area. I'm basically clearing it a metre wide strip at a time and taking the rubbish to the tip as I go along. 

My garden is quite wild and free and I love forest plants but would really love this area to be buzzing with wildlife and easy to maintain colour. I've got quite a few York Stone pieces left over and there are a few big rocks already in the gravel which I can move around. 

I'm going to put a little composting area to the right hand side of the chairs in the shade.

Any help and advice will be gratefully received.

WM

-taff

If you'd kept some of the gravel you could do Beth Chatto type garden which neds no watering. Have a look at the website, it gives you suggestions for different types of conditions

https://www.bethchatto.co.uk/

twopenny

I love the stone! That was a good find.

You could also try looking in builders yards ie TravisPerkins, Jewsons and such in their dump corner where it waits to be got rid of. You find all sorts of goodies if you go in every month or so.

It made me think of some photos on the net that I collected for ideas

The creeping stuff covers the gravel and surpresses weeds :-)

I enjoyed the happy hours browsing, trawelling the local roads, open gardens etc getting ideas.

Much more satisfying than TV.

wort

I’d suggest hardy geraniums , lots of different colours and it looks after itself and flowers all summer, maybe some hebes, again usually a small flower ,evergreen and lots of variety leaf colours etc. Mexican fleabane is a lovely spreading daisy does die back and self seed but very pretty. Choisya is a larger shrub evergreen with sweet smelling flowers which you would be able to smell whilst sat out there.