Neglected Lincolnshire garden

Sapindus

I'm going to start a "progress" thread on my garden as well.  I've been here three weeks and planted a few of the things I brought with me because they desperately needed to be in the ground, but it's a bit of a drop in the ocean of grass!  It's about 20m from the house to the back fence, and about 35m along the back fence, but goes to a point at the North end because it's a corner plot.  Photo taken looking roughly north west.

Working_Mum

Oooh that looks like an interesting starting point Sapindus - looks like you've got some solid plants in there already!

What is your initial plan of action? Do you have lots of gardening experience?? I have really built my confidence and experience since I moved to my current home 5 years ago.

This is a lovely kind area of the forum so please ask away and keep posting pics - I love a good picture update!!

((WM))

Sapindus

My plan of action is: large pond, wildflower meadow, fruit, veg, herbs, polytunnel.  The photinia is going - it's in my Ugly Plants Top Ten.  So is the huge conifer, but I'll have to get someone in for that because it's tangled in the electricity lines. The photo does not show that the whole place is also loused out with horsetail.  Going to be interesting!

-taff

I'm not a photinia fan either, or  the fir [unless it's a pencil type]  so a double thumbs up from me. I had rampant horsetail too, the only thing I've found that gets rid of it is to cover it and never let it see daylight again, other than that, it's cut and pull whenever you see it or try to shade it out.

Looking forward to seeing what you do...

Sapindus

I have bought a chipper.  If it won't compost, chip it.  If it's too big to go in the chipper, chop it up for a log pile habitat.  This is the sort of garden where a pile of woodchip or logs isn't something to shove behind the shed and forget, it's a destination in its own right on a wandering path through nose-high (at the moment) grass. I intend to never use my garden waste bin again.

I have been transplanting interesting "weeds" from bits of lawn that will become something else, into appropriate other areas. Such as yarrow, sorrel, hawkbits and campanula into the wildflower meadow.  Geraniums, foxgloves and ground elder (yes, ground elder) into the shady margin under the big ash trees.

I rescued a couple of water irises from my mother's pond, which are sitting in a washing up bowl until I can get the pond dug, with a short piece of log for visiting insects to perch on. I also bought a ton of reclaimed walling stone  to edge said pond, which is sitting in a pale-gold heap amongst the horsetail and being explored by little black hunting spiders and solitary wasps in the meantime.

OK, it's not so much a garden as a nature trail...

-taff

oooo....well, chpped stuff is a path sorted, chucked on top of cardboard, it's quick and easy. Large stuff that can't be chipped could also be put in raised beds to fill the bottom up a bit, when they rot they hold onto water really well, lessening the amount of watering to do. 

Well done on hard work so far!

twopenny

Looks like fun 🙂
Don't forget Ox Eye Daisies https://www.plantwild.co.uk/product/ox-eye-daisy/
And Poppies
They used to grow wild here but have been stopped.

Until a couple of years ago a local farmer did this and it was full of butterflies and bees 

https://meanderingwild.com/stogumber-wildflower-meadow/

Sapindus

twopenny said:

Looks like fun 🙂
Don't forget Ox Eye Daisies https://www.plantwild.co.uk/product/ox-eye-daisy/
And Poppies
They used to grow wild here but have been stopped.

Until a couple of years ago a local farmer did this and it was full of butterflies and bees 

https://meanderingwild.com/stogumber-wildflower-meadow/

That's pretty!  If you want weeds which have evolved to grow well in corn fields, like poppies, cornflower, corn cockle, you have to keep cultivating the ground every so often.  I haven't really got ox eye daisies on the wish list as they can be a bit rampant.  There are some nice roadside verges round here which I may go and gather a bit of seed from.  Geranium, scabious, wild carrot, birds foot trefoil, ladies' bedstraw should all do well.