Gardens throughout the year

The snakes head fritalaries have made it out!  sorry about the spelling!

Stoat

The snakes head fritalaries have made it out!  sorry about the spelling!

Well done Stoat this is my absolute favourite flower but I just can't get it to grow at all. I've tried planting from the little bulb/corm and flowering plants but they never seem to survive or get going. As said before our garden is low lying so we are fairly wet which they should like but I'm wondering if our soil (clay) is too heavy or dense for them?

Any advice on growing these little beauties would be appreciated???

What a beauty Stoat, and if you don't mind me saying, they obviously don't mind competing with the odd weed either.

Budgie

What a beauty Stoat, and if you don't mind me saying, they obviously don't mind competing with the odd weed either.

 

 

Don't mind at all.  Thats meant to be a bit of wild lawn but the nettles etc from the hedge keep intruding. 

Not sure about tips on growing them I am afraid Higgy.  I bought a cheap bag of around 30 bulbs that i just plugged into the lawn and a few have grown each year.  Our soil is very heavy too.  I do like them though so hopefully they will keep coming.

Hello All,

What a great time of year this is for all us gardeners isn't it?

I have sown so many seeds that I'm struggling to find space for all the pots that I have now that I've started potting on! Should have a great supply of cheap plants this summer though, can't wait to get planting out now!

Mrs Higgy's raised beds are now finished and have been painted, lined with polythene and filled with my 'massive' compost delivery and some topsoil which I got from someone at work (more recycling!)......she has also now planted out her peas and sown some other veg seed in it  also....

Another friend gave me some old planks so as I was already sorting the veg raised beds out I got a bit carried away and built this planter which has now been planted with honeysuckle and clematis which in time will cover the trellis and be the start of my walk way/pagoda up the side of our house.....Thanks Granpaddy for the idea.....said I would fit it in somewhere didn't I.....

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How's everyone else's gardens coming along now? 

We have made a modest stumpery, thanks for the idea Higgy:-) Although we got masses of enormous stumps, we didn't have room for an enormous stumpery in the best spot for it. I'm allergic to moulds, so we couldn't have it in our 'glade' as we first thought, because I tend to like to sit there and I'd be wheezing like an old traction engine. So the only other shady spot is beside something we call 'the bunker'. As it's sunny I'll get Himself to photograph it and post it if I can. The Hart's Tongue fern is only a baby at present, but it'll get more impressive with time:-)

Some of the other stumps have gone to block off the main route next door's cats use to get through the wire fence and it looks very well and seems to be working, touch wood (sorry, unintentional, v. poor pun). The other cat route is behind a bench on the wood side of the garden, masses of prunings have gone there to form a sort of dry thicket. Of course, there's no way to completely cat proof if they put their furry minds to it, but they seem to be lazy thinkers - used to these two routes. We still have plenty of wood left to add to the wildlife stack and a wood pile we plan. I think we've gathered enough 'bits' for the stack now and we plan to make it this afternoon after lunch.

Meanwhile I have masses of seedlings to go in. And I must make a barrier of twigs to stop Phil the pheasant digging up my rocket seedlings in the veg bed, the ungrateful wretch:-( The pond is beginning to look a bit more 'settled in'.

Higgy you have done a great job there! I like the green/blue colour you have used to paint with. They look lovely and I wish I had some in my garden but it is a bit small so I have to use growbags for any veg I grow.

I have put all my sweetpeas in [grown from seed successfully this year!] so I am proud of that. I have also spent ages planting tiny plug plants [bizzy lizzie and geraniums] into single pots. I really enjoy it though.

OH got a free packet of carrot seeds with his paper so will have to find something to plant them in.

Well just a few of mine - we have given up with the lawn and turned it to deep beds too

 

 

 

 

 

Re-cycled Polystyrene boxes - see the solitary asparagus !!!

 

\but we do have some flowers

 

 

Cheers all

Nick

Himself says sorry about the pictures, he'll try for better ones when the light is better (it's in the shade, obviously and it is an overcast day)and also that the stumpery is not yet finished - this is the start however. The glaring white at the back is the 'the bunker' - a nasty thing we can do little about at present on account it's holding the garden up at that point. The garden's on an awful slope:-(

Kezsmum

 

I've never heard of a stumpery before Kezsmum!  I am guessing you have had a large tree removed and are utilising the stump by planting various ferns? What a great idea.

Coral

I've never heard of a stumpery before Kezsmum!  I am guessing you have had a large tree removed and are utilising the stump by planting various ferns? What a great idea.

Hi Coral, Stumperies were a Victorian and Edwardian fashion in woodland gardens, a bit the way Grottos and fake ruins were a Georgian thing and I suppose decking and tree ferns will be a 20th century legacy. Our garden sort of lends itself to a stumpery because ferns grow like weeds around here and we have two shady spots, one we rather grandly call the Glade, an area the size of a small living room in a modern house, where we have a couple of statues, a large potted pieris, two potted Japanese acers, a stone bench, a Britannia table and our picnic table - a stumpery would look good there because there are Devon banks and a dry stone wall and hedging platns there, but I'm dodgy with moulds so we decided to put it away from the sitting area - it's stood against this wall that stops the garden sliding down the steep slope outside the back door. The stumps were supplied by the local tree surgeon as they're not suitable for log fires. The tree obviously had tree ivy growing over it because the stumps have the rather fetching remains.Dunnocks are already investigating the nooks and crannies:-)

I can't claim the idea for the stumpery, Higgy came up with it. My, can that man garden! Very creative he is and as soon as he mentioned it I thought YES! So did Himself, who has a soft spot for ferns, as do I. It'll look better when the ferns mature:-)

There's a wildlife bonus as always in my gardens, all sorts of beetles LOVE rotting wood:-) And I love beetles:-)

Kezsmum

 

Kezsmum, your garden sounds like heaven!  A dream of a garden. My garden is quite pretty [we did it from scratch] but I would love a more "natural" garden. I have a hedgie box, a frog house, lots of nest boxes, a small pond and try to attract nature into the garden.

Will get some pics on soon. Higgy is the garden man then!

 

 

Coral

Higgy is the garden man then!

 

Hi Coral, Indeed he is! Not only a really good gardener, but he has a creative streak about a mile wide:-) I must ask him if he's left handed, lefties are really good at spatial stuff quite often, Himself is a leftie and a lot of tennis players are. Himself can look at a space and see exactly what should go in it and where. Me, I have to shift things about until it 'looks right'. Higgy has a gardening blog which you can access via the link at the bottom of any of his posts:-) Well worth a look.

We came to this garden last August, so we're starting from scratch as well, but we have some natural advantages:- To the back is an old bit of scrubby woodland that belongs to our neighbour, neglected and great for wildlife:-) To the left as you face the garden is a bit of stately home parkland that rises to a ridge with a rookery and some great old oaks dotted about. Deer and hare wander about here (and cattle and sometimes sheep). Blocking off part of the parkland view is a huge barn, wood clad and covered in feeders, this belongs to another neighbour, no gardener, just keeps the acres of grass 'tidy' but a big bird lover:-) She also loves her ride on mower. To the right is next door's mature, overgrown mixed hedge that the birds love, it includes honeysuckle, beech, an apple tree, something I don't recognize with pink blossom and a large salix, the local willow that grows everywhere, not a weeper, more the sort you'd use for basket weaving etc. there's also an ornamental quince - all jumbled together with no breaks, forms a really good wildlife hedge. Then in the short stroke of the L (it's L shaped) outside the back door is The Glade, with the lovely Devon banks, drystone wall (ancient I should think) another hedge which includes dogwood and other stuff I'm not too sure about, this hedge has cow parsley, bluebells, the inevitable dandelions (we don't have grass, we have dandelions, moss and white clover in the Glade) and mushrooms in the autumn and winter. There are a couple of rather seedy looking buddleia (sp?) here that we've cut back, some shrubs that really suffered in the frosts, two we've had to cut to the ground because they looked, dead, they may come back. Another salix, the bees and birds love this. And some boring looking things, one a kind of laurel that have been pruned year after year but probably not at the right time - they've simply been kept 'tidy' There are a couple of conifers on the slope going up to the brick built and very old outhouse that is a bit rickety but has a wonderful, mature tree ivy growing over part of the roof that a robin and a blackbird are nesting in. The shrubs, the conifers, another shrubby thing I don't recognize, the cow parsley, dandelions, an ornamental cherry, the mushrooms, moss, bluebells and clover were the only things here when we arrived. We've put in a pond near the outhouse at the top of the hill and about 11 beds, some with wildflowers, some with herbs, others with perennials in. I also have a small strawberry bed and a raised bed made of ghastly painted wood which was once a bookcase. We need to paint that something other than the ghastly white it is now:-) I bet that's more than you ever wanted to know about our garden Coral. But I do so love a gardening 'chat'. I'll get Himself to take pics and post them and I look forward to seeing yours:-) Happy gardening, Kezsmum.

 

Thank you for that delightful view into your garden.  It really would be a dream come true for me.  We are now retired (one more year until my pension and bus pass lol and I have thought about selling up and moving to an older place with a rural garden, the only considerations are - two sets of elderly parents we are on hand for, two sons who have just bought their own property a couple of miles away and I would find it difficult to move further from all my family [ I don't drive]

This garden is typically suburban, houses around but when we bought it it was ideal for our young family [schools, GP etc]  I am feeling more that it should be our time now though.

 

I think my absolute dream would be to retire to Wales, Devon or Cornwall.

Coral

I think my absolute dream would be to retire to Wales, Devon or Cornwall.

I can recommend Devon:-) We moved here last year and haven't regretted it for a second, the locals are friendly and kind - and stepson and grandchildren just 8 miles away. I have no family at all in this country, parents gone, siblings gone and my brother's children and grandchildren all in Canada and thus an unknown quantity to me. So I didn't have to make the tough decisions. Got the buss pass 4 years ago:-) But I still have to work - should be at it now but heading into garden to make a wildlife stack:-)))