April in Your Garden - Page 7

Wintersong can I ask a few questions? Size/style of garden, NSEW?

kate1123 wrote (see)

Pam it is a lovely thought but I have just sown another 12, thank you. I will consider cherries though.

No probs

Pam x

My garden is 100ft long, average three bedroom house width, divided into three garden rooms and an end bit.

I am unsure how to classify my style but I do know that happiness is seeing sunlight on leaves. I must have neatness all year round and evergreen structure is essential. Artistically, shapes, forms, foliage, textures and leaf colours are my design considerations and I aspire to achieve drift/block planting that looks as good as CK and Sissinghurst.

My soil is sandy builder's rubble over clay subsoil and its south-west facing. 

My gardening fault is taking up to two years to place a plant (or stop moving it) because I'm terrible crap at that bit

Can I ask others to share their garden credentials?

I'd love to understand your gardens more.

I am relatively new at gardening, I have a 'new build' garden, started with 100% lawn, I started with one border 1 foot wide and now have 3 borders and a square flower bed in the centre(new this year). West facing, clay soil in the back, builders rubble in the front. I am in the SE just north of London.

I am nuts about dahlias and sowing seeds. Design of my garden is lacking, it needs a theme or sculpture

Hello, all-looks like another sunny day here--yesterday I went to plant some lettuce seeds in an empty trough next to my berberis, {which is in a large pot at the mo.] I was delighted to spot several volunteer seedlings from  the berberis, which I dug up and placed in pots. Free plants!!!!

I love free plants

I allow self-seeding in mine- sometimes it gets a bit out of hand. A couple of yrs back I mulched a new lawn bed with homemade compost & over the next couple of yrs had a wonderful display of self-seeders, especially the forget-me-nots! This yr have loads of Aquilegias, not yet fully out, but I did remove a lot last Autumn.

I've taken the fleeces off both greenhouse & coldframe plants as there is sufficient cloud cover, I hope, to prevent too low temps overnight.

Oh & have watered all those tomatoes on daughter's sill. Some will need potting on this next week, so hopefully my energy levels will allow it. J.

Wintersong-seeing as you asked

I have been gardening for around 40 years but still pick up new ideas-this is out third home, I have a small front garden that gets covered in containers on the hard standing bit in the middle in summer surrounded by small borders mostly perennials and roses.

On the front of the house will be wall baskets, hanging baskets down the side-more containers

The back sounds about the same size of yours has the chicken pen, more beds and small borders,more baskets, a greenhouse for tomatoes etc and raising plants a bed for the dahlias and places for beans, apple tree, fruit bushes, trellis for climbers and a grass area for sitting in the sun (?)

I watch too much tv-love XF and BGT and am unashamedly very shallow

-you might not be interested in the last bit

I have just measured my garden 40ft long, no wonder I have no room for veg.

Jo I am impressed that you have made it into the garden.

It is really sunny here, just cannot trust that it will be nice tomorrow.

Thanks for the info guys. Its nice to know your gardens as well as yourselves.

I made a mistake about my aspect, its North-West, not South-west a bit like when my driving instructor asks me to make a left turn and I go right

Ah well. A picture of my front patch which I planted up for ease and because its really crappy soil, lots of rubble and I wanted easy shrubs with lots contrast.

 The Cherry tree is desperate for a pruning, that's my backside up a ladder in early summer!  Its as tall as the house! As is the Ceanothus which is famous in my neighbourhood when it flowers in May. I brought a 5litre pot 15yrs ago and the nurseryman told me they can die at planting, so I took a baby and the mummy plant promptly died, and this was the baby *coughs* once! It goes round the corner now!

The front has wallflowers that self sow every year, a massive Hebe and the other side you cant see has Crocosmia, Sedum, Tulips and geranium Johnson's Blue as well as a Buddleia, and a climbing rose! All plants propgated or relocated to the front garden for ease.

Here on Canada's wet coast aquilegias grow wild--the orange/yellow kind. I pull some, and let the others be-I also have a few cultivated kinds that sometimes self-seed. I garden surrounded by forest, and with a view of the ocean. I am on a steep slope, with little soil, just gravelly sandy stuff, so most of my gardening is done in containers. I have extensive decks and many pots. Much of my acre is wild-ish, and it is often surprising to see what comes up. In the summer, available water is limited.

I have no lawn-just a flat area by the drive that I strim in the spring.

I'm new to this site and new to gardening. 

My garden is south facing and about 6 x 18m in SW Wales.  There is a small patio area at the top, then two more levels as the ground falls away.  I have a small greenhouse and a small shed (hubby's), and most of the garden is taken up with lawn and a swing and trampoline.

This year I have decided to try some veg.  I have started tomatoes, various lettuce, cucumber in the greenhouse and my cauliflower broad beens and carrots come in everynight for the time being.  The peas look strong enough to stay out all night and my potatoes are in bags.  My caulis and cabbages all failed after I transplanted them into bigger pots, so I planted more... fingers crossed!

I seem to have forgotten about the pretty stuff, so it is off to the garden centre for flowers for hanging baskets tomorrow

I am trying to grow as much as possible in pots or containers because I have no room for a veg patch.  I will gratefully accept any tips or advice!

Hi Steff nice to hear about your garden, I am struggling with veg, keep having to ask for advice which is how I found these guys

Wintersong, your garden is much more mature than mine.

Hello Wintersong,

My garden is aprox 80 meters long (about 260ft) & a sort of wedge shape, it gets narrower away from the house.

This is my second year of having a garden & I love it. It's undergoing some major revamp this year. Goodbye lawn, hello different levels of beds.

The idea is to create a true cottage garden type feel which you can walk through.

I don't have the space for a greenhouse but I do have 2 homemade cold frames which are brilliant. I love growing stuff from seed particularly perinnals. Will be trying to take more cuttings this year.

You obviously planted the Ceanothus in the right place, they are one of my favourites. Unfortunately mine despite surviving in a pot for many years is not looking so good in the ground.

Inkadog wrote (see)

Here on Canada's wet coast aquilegias grow wild--the orange/yellow kind. I pull some, and let the others be-I also have a few cultivated kinds that sometimes self-seed. I garden surrounded by forest, and with a view of the ocean. I am on a steep slope, with little soil, just gravelly sandy stuff, so most of my gardening is done in containers. I have extensive decks and many pots. Much of my acre is wild-ish, and it is often surprising to see what comes up. In the summer, available water is limited.

I have no lawn-just a flat area by the drive that I strim in the spring.

Wow!! Wow! This place sounds like heaven, please tell me Inkadog that your avatar is not your view from your house? . I might be just a tad bit jealous!. It sounds very tranquil, free and a happy place!  Im gardening in the outer hebrides, we are pretty wild up here, wind being our biggest challenge ( pardon me)!!!.

@Hollie-Hock, oh to have 260ft of garden! I am jealous of the adventure but not the budget  My two tips are: I beg, borrow or steal if I have to and I always buy ferns in multiple because they are too devilish for me to propagate. Every thing else is a single that gets hacked to near-death to make babies

Keep us posted with your revamp! I love cottage garden style but am too much of a control freak to let things happen spontaneously. I do allow self seeding of some plants such as Sedum, Alchemilla Mollis, Aquilegias (mostly of the time) Alliums always! and some surprises over the years...including one I potted up and neglected for two years before identifying as a Wisteria which I am now training into a standard with the curly stem! I've read it won't flower for 20yrs but hey ho, the standard and foliage will be a treat! Recently, I discovered a rose seedling in with my poppies which I shall pot up with anticipation although I don't know how long they take to flower.

Look forward to updates from all gardens mentioned! Please keep me entertained with plant life! It's always a delight.

Hi Wintersong,

I'm with you on the tips. The fence that you see was made last Autumn out of free pallets. Broken down, painted & nailed into place, bit by bit. It took ages as it goes all the way down the garden. 

I am always on the lookout for free stuff,skips are great places. The bricks were off a neighbour, they were going to build a BBQ but didn't get around to it. I

Even the wheel barrow is borrowed (for a few months) off a work collegue.

I'm going to try taking more cuttings off plants this year, so more freebies

fuchsia mag. porphyrio coming up behind hakonecloa aurea with iris tectorum alba alyssum alpinum has self sown but phygelius capensis is infiltrating-the weather is bringing everything along fast, it would be good if everything would pause for a moment and let zephyrine drouhin catch up.