A catalogue of trial, error and advice

YoungBlueEyes

That's brilliant, thank you. I tried the garden design ones but they were beyond me  

ArbitraryRandom

Next insomnia induced random schema from me... any obvious problems (other than perhaps over ambition )? 

For reference, the top left corner is North, so from left to right, the first bed has sun all day, the middle from about 10am currently, the far from about 11/11.30. I've tried to arrange the plants so the taller are in the back/right, against the fence. Very roughly, each unmerged cell would be about 3 square feet. 

I'm only intending to grow a few of a lot of things this year (i.e one each of two varieties of courgette, and same for squash - any extra that germinate will be planted 'wild' somewhere else in the garden, fully expecting them to be eaten by slugs, etc), so I'm optimistic things will fit, if be a little snug. Next year I can decide what to keep/remove/prune to size re the perennials based on how this year goes. 

moneysaver1978

YoungBlueEyes said:

That's brilliant, thank you. I tried the garden design ones but they were beyond me  

Same. I prefer to use PowerPoint for sketching

ArbitraryRandom

And fanfare please! The builder's have just finished for the day for the last time! (well, for 6 months maybe...)

 The long promised before and after pictures below. 

I can't walk on the path and need to be careful with the render for 48 hours, but hopefully this means I can get started actually planting on Sunday (forecast depending). 





My next jobs (after planting the plants that are currently in pots and propagators) is to paint the concrete the same colour as the house (the same cream as the one opposite). Then I've got 6 months to make a dent clearing the shed.

But first thing is grabbing the two single chairs from my garden set (giving them a fresh coat of sealant) and setting up my own little sitooterie on the new patio... that top of the raised bed is just the right size and height for a mug as well...  

-taff

Well that  looks like stinking hard work, well done you and the builders!  why did the hedges go again? The difference in size is amazing though and we all know that more space = more plants, and that's the way it should be. Very many happy returns on your newly birthed garden

YoungBlueEyes

Holy moly, that's some difference eh

Did you discover a diddy roman villa btw? By the raised bed that's at the top in your second pic...

ArbitraryRandom

YoungBlueEyes said:

Holy moly, that's some difference eh

Did you discover a diddy roman villa btw? By the raised bed that's at the top in your second pic...

   

That's the base for an old greenhouse I think (judging from the amount of broken glass I keep finding in the area). There's also a 4'x8' concrete block on the other side that you can't see in the picture that looks like an old (small) shed base. Both are going to have to come out... but that's a job for the builder another day  

-taff said:

 why did the hedges go again? 

The neighbour on one side wanted to get rid, and realistically I couldn't maintain it (I'm too short and I haven't been able to find a reliable gardener), so it was taking over. It was also a haven for bind weed and brambles.

The garden was seriously neglected for at least 10 years before I bought the place from what I can tell and the above picture was already after I'd paid to have it sprayed and hacked back twice. I needed to get the mini digger in to get the bramble roots out, so it was the logical decision to clear it properly and make a fresh start. 

As you may tell, I do feel a bit conflicted about it and the impact on the local wildlife... but you may notice two dumpy bags of logs at the end of the garden. Last autumn I intentionally bought them extra to the logs I needed to fill my log store and this week they're being dumped out behind the compost heap to rot down - to provide a habitat for bugs and reptiles in part replacement for the hedge. I'm also going to be gathering and dumping leaves etc in that corner come autumn, and trying to build one of those bug hotels with the offcuts of slab and sticks etc  

greenbee

@ArbitraryRandom - I’ve also taken out a lot of shrubs that effectively formed a hedge round 3 sides of the garden as they were too much for me to manage as a hedge and too neglected (and boring!) to prune properly. While like you I feel bad about the wildlife impact, I know that what I’m creating will be better for them. Much more planting of native species, more flowers for pollinators, and possibly even a managed nettle patch. 

I have a small wood next to be that is community owned - sadly it’s a bit too ‘managed’. Brambles and nettles have been removed and while there are bluebells there are also lots of boring King Alfred-type daffs, and the odd incongruous flowering currant! It is a bone of contention in the village as some want it tidy, others want it natural. But the real issue is that almost all the saplings have been removed as part of the tidying, and the mature trees are going to need more work so there may be a time soon when it starts to be more open than planned. 

I’m compensating by leaving my front hedge full of brambles 😂. I have plans to slowly take out the leylandii and laurel and let the hazel, hawthorn, blackthorn, brambles, honeysuckle etc take over. 

For now though, the focus is on getting the veg plot up and running and planting up the area close to the house so I have something nice to look at, and the cats have cover, while I plan the rest. I hope my pollinators will appreciate the cosmos, nicotiana, and sweet peas I have germinating. And whatever I’m going to sow this weekend, 

-taff

ArbitraryRandom said:

The neighbour on one side wanted to get rid, and realistically I couldn't maintain it (I'm too short and I haven't been able to find a reliable gardener), so it was taking over. It was also a haven for bind weed and brambles.

The garden was seriously neglected for at least 10 years before I bought the place from what I can tell and the above picture was already after I'd paid to have it sprayed and hacked back twice. I needed to get the mini digger in to get the bramble roots out, so it was the logical decision to clear it properly and make a fresh start. 

As you may tell, I do feel a bit conflicted about it and the impact on the local wildlife... but you may notice two dumpy bags of logs at the end of the garden. Last autumn I intentionally bought them extra to the logs I needed to fill my log store and this week they're being dumped out behind the compost heap to rot down - to provide a habitat for bugs and reptiles in part replacement for the hedge. I'm also going to be gathering and dumping leaves etc in that corner come autumn, and trying to build one of those bug hotels with the offcuts of slab and sticks etc  

I was trying hard not to make it sound like an accusation, they did look monstrous for a back garden and the thing about hedges is they don't get smaller. I doubt I would have been able to maintain them either. Does that mean you have slow worms? Jealous if you have. I had them in my last garden but not a sniff in this one. You;ll be bringing more diversity to your garden anyway with all the new stuff growing and trees so they may have lost thehedges, but they gain elsewhere.

Farway

A job well done there AR + builders, let's hope summer brings plenty of use to the planned sitooterie.

Any plans to cover the shed / garage bottom left in pic?, Mad clematis covering providing spider homes?