My Garden

Idle chat

Last post 20-11-2009 9:56 PM by richardpeeej. 4408 replies.

• 21/12/2005 03:06 PM

  In reply to

  miranda Location: Oxfordshire Joined on: 17 Nov 2004 Posts: 2,971

  Reply | Contact "maybe we should all "spill" some details of our age etc.. " I'm mid-40s, going on 6. You? Perhaps Kew is a bit too far away for a lot of people; I live a lot further north than I did when I went to Kew and it would be a drag of a journey. I think digger is in the north, too. Maybe somewhere more central? There are some nice gardens in the Midlands. Fushia, the other board I use is the on Guardian site - we talk a lot about the wildlife we see in our gardens and a bit about plants; a lot of it is purely social and can be quite waffly - not like here, which is a lot more specific. Also pop into British Garden Birds from time to time, where there are some very knowledgeable bird people, who answer all my questions. Here's what the garden looked like just before we moved here in early 2002: [img]http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y295/miranda_uk/front_mid_june_05_sm.jpg[/img] I'm going to take more turf up this winter so we can get a few more plants in. Anyone got some photos to post? I'd love to see what you're in to!

• 21/12/2005 04:39 PM

  In reply to

  Digger Location: Northern UK Joined on: 18 Jul 2005 Posts: 4,743

  Reply | Contact Hi Miranda, what a beautiful garden you are very lucky! well i may as well "spill" I am 39 forty next July (oh god) does life really begin? I have a lot of grey hair too much, but at least i have still got some hair! I have some pics of the garden but not stored in the camera i am not sure how to put pics from the camera onto this website not my forte computing. I had a lawn at the front of the house when we moved in but we also have a large sycamore which robbed all the nutrients so the lawn was done away with on the left side border we had a concrete car park that went as well.Meeting up sounds good I am in NE Lancs i think Fushia is up on the east coast and are you in Lincs?.Your garden looks beautiful Miranda it really is something to be proud of, my neighbours garden is a real mess all overgrown in fact greenpeace may be interested in preserving it for a rainforest! he never does a tap but we are all different and i must accept that!on the second picture of your garden on the left hand side near the house is that a lupin? lets all try to come up with a venue for a horticultural meet it will be excellent. digger

• 21/12/2005 05:27 PM

  In reply to

  miranda Location: Oxfordshire Joined on: 17 Nov 2004 Posts: 2,971

  Reply | Contact Thank you for the kind words, digger! It's the best playground I could have and I do love it very much. Do you mean the pink flowering plant? That's a Penstemon; I got the seeds free with a magazine a couple of years ago. Penstemons are great, they just keep flowering for months on end, and the bees like them. And yes, we're in Lincolnshire, just south of the Humber. I have an account with photobucket (http://photobucket.com) which is very useful for putting pics up on forums. It's free, easy to use and there are full instructions on the site. There are also quite clear instructions on the 'help' page here for how to get the photos on the page. As for where to meet, [url=http://www.birminghambotanicalgardens.org.uk/home] Birmingham Botanical Gardens[/url] might be okay - it's easy to get to by public transport or car and has plenty of facilities. They have some excellent glasshouses as well as all the outside gardens. I'm not really familiar with any other Midlands gardens except for the HDRA place near Coventry so if anyone knows of somewhere else...

• 21/12/2005 06:18 PM

  In reply to

  sue1002 Location: Ipswich, Suffolk Joined on: 06 Sep 2005 Posts: 5,199

  Reply | Contact Miranda your garden is beautiful, puts mine to shame and needs a lot more work to get it up to the same standard as yours. Digger it looks like you are the 'baby', I hit 40 in February this year and life for me doesn't seem any different to 20 years ago, only thing I noticed is that a few grey hairs have started appearing! I put a couple of photos on my computer using the scanner, then looked on the help page here how to attach them but the way I understood the instructions is available in a new post. Will have to look again to see if I have mis-read it. sue1002

• 21/12/2005 06:34 PM

  In reply to

  Digger Location: Northern UK Joined on: 18 Jul 2005 Posts: 4,743

  Reply | Contact hi everyone,Sue1002 what do you think about a meet Birmingham botanical sounds fine to me although not quite 40 yet i do feel different to when i was 20 and my grey sadly numbers more than a few but i am a very happy chap, does Miranda's garden look good or what? well impressive mine is still very much in the embryonic stages of development yet! although the veg plot on the lottie is good but to arrange all ornamentals to look super(like Mirandas) and to keep them all maintained must take serious dedication maybe Miranda will share some of her secrets and maybe a border plan? I know Fushia is good with the ornamentals roses esp i have got good advice from Fushia. I like to grow for exhibition as well as the garden but I haven't quite managed to acheive my goal maybe we are never satisfied and a garden is never "finished" it just keeps evolving some of the borders at Harlow Carr are fantastic and can be viewed on this web site. I do hope that we can all meet it will be an excellent day i am sure, good bye for now from the baby of the group, although not everyone has spilled the beans yet, so my time as the baby could be short lived . digger

• 21/12/2005 08:54 PM

  In reply to

  Digger Location: Northern UK Joined on: 18 Jul 2005 Posts: 4,743

  Reply | Contact Hi yes it will be better to meet once the climate has warmed a little, your garden looks fine is it quite sheltered? did you say that you were near the coast? whats the blue flower next to the hydrangea? lawns do take a lot of time up we have a lawn in the back garden and its size has been reduced every year, I shall try to dig up a couple of pics of the garden and post them here asap..don't hold your breath though. Did you say that you were in E Sussex? i imagine that you will have it quite warm there in the summer. where i am is about 900ft above sea level or thereabouts, and very very windy i do loathe the bitter north winds it cuts to the bone up here in winter, i try to go out as little as possible. what are you going to do with the apple tree? I am going to purchase some apple trees for growing espalier or cordon style at the allotment, i had two trees at home and my dog chewed them both down(he was very young then)so i will try my luck at the allotment.bye for now digger

• 21/12/2005 08:54 PM

  In reply to

  sue1002 Location: Ipswich, Suffolk Joined on: 06 Sep 2005 Posts: 5,199

  Reply | Contact Meeting up at Birmingham sounds fine with me, best to wait until the weather warms up a bit though, would have to be on a weekend as about 2 hours from here in Suffolk. I'm ok at around town driving but when it comes to distance I'm not used to it, the OH will have to drive, he's an HGV driver and is used to it! Have opened an account with Photobucket, lets see if it works - both pictures are taken in the back garden my pride and joy hydrangea which started off blue and now flowers pink or pale purple [img]http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d134/Sue1002/a05d9ae4.jpg[/img] As you can see not as spectacular as Miranda's garden but will get there one day. sue1002

• 21/12/2005 09:20 PM

  In reply to

  Becky Location: Joined on: 19 Feb 2005 Posts: 56

  Reply | Contact hello everyone, Right now I envy all of you who live in England. Meeting up with all of you would be great!!! But I suppose that's one disadvantage of the wide web... We chat as if we live just next door, but really we're miles apart! Well, Miranda and sue1002, your gardens looks great! Will try and post some photos of our garden when time allows! Well, digger, your time as `baby` of this forum is indeed shortlived! Half your age next year minus two years and you've got my age!!!!!! So I guess I really AM the baby! At least I'm used to that anyway, since I am the youngest of four! =) Right now our garden is snow-covered and looks very wintery! The Sedum `Herbstfreude` all have a layer of snow on their "heads" which looks every so funny when there is a slight wind which causes them to sway, knocking their `heads` against each other! Becky, Switzerland

• 21/12/2005 09:40 PM

  In reply to

  sue1002 Location: Ipswich, Suffolk Joined on: 06 Sep 2005 Posts: 5,199

  Reply | Contact Hi Digger, it took me a while to work out what the blue flower is - its not a flower its my sons old sandpit, one of those shell shaped ones. That photo was taken a couple of years ago and when the dog was a pup and the wind blew the top off it she used it as a toilet! Not in east Sussex, thats on the south coast, am near the east coast in Suffolk, just below Norfolk. We've still been lucky with the weather, not had any snow at all this winter yet. sue1002

• 22/12/2005 07:44 AM	In reply to
  filippo lippi Location: Nottingham Joined on: 25 Feb 2005 Posts: 297	Reply | Contact Hats off to Miranda, fair puts my efforts to shame ------------------- Ow! My most of me!

• 22/12/2005 10:24 AM

  In reply to

  Digger Location: Northern UK Joined on: 18 Jul 2005 Posts: 4,743

  Reply | Contact Hi all, yes Becky now you are the baby of the group it would be good for us all to meet like you say though the global village can be hundreds of miles between neighbours!. Sue that sand pit was too true of a blue colour to be real you could of said it was a dahlia you had bred,there would have been some serious traffic for that! How near the sea are you? does your garden get affected by salt laden winds? I have read that people who's gardens are coastal enjoy "warm air" warmed by the lovely sea breeze! I find this hard to beleive every time i have visited the coast i see gardens piled with unwanted sand and very little growing although a salty soil is excellent for growing beetroot if nothing else. digger

• 22/12/2005 10:29 AM

  In reply to

  miranda Location: Oxfordshire Joined on: 17 Nov 2004 Posts: 2,971

  Reply | Contact digger, this is how it happened: one of my main interests is in hardy perennials and I lay the blame entirely at the door of one Richard Bird, who wrote a book called 'Hardy Perennials, a complete guide to their care and cultivation'. Such an inspiring book, well written and full of conversational information and some beautiful photos. I must have read that book through about ten times and still revisit it often. Then I discovered Beth Chatto and her ideas about planting everything in the habitat where it's most comfortable. They both gave so much information that my ideas about what I liked, and how many options there are, started to change. After that, I dug up half the garden the moved it, after wracking my brains for weeks looking for new combinations. Some new shrubs went in, too. It's still very much a work in progress, and I'm also trying to leave certain plants to self seed and spread naturally. It's so flaming complicated, sometimes overwhelming, but I just can't leave it alone. Sue, I love your apple tree; the idea of a tree with edible fruit in your own garden is lovely. Just to go outside and pick one of your own, without having to buy it. Is that a Lavatera in the background? I also thought the blue from your son's sandpit was flowers ;-) I agree that waiting for a meet till the weather warms would be better. Spring, maybe, or early summer?

• 22/12/2005 10:46 AM

  In reply to

  Digger Location: Northern UK Joined on: 18 Jul 2005 Posts: 4,743

  Reply | Contact Hi Miranda, I have a couple of books by Richard Bird ,Annuals and Glorious climbers i shall look out for the one you have. What holds me back is the sheer volume of work my mind is willing but alas my body has other ideas, I do so much like the pictures of your garden. I keep changing my mind you know move this plant that etc..I have looked on the site for Birmingham Botanical garden and it looks like an A1 venue definately one for warmer weather. Did you design your garden borders before you planted or did you already have it mapped out in your head? my first attempts were just plonk and hope not a good formula for success i cannot recommend it as a good method. I had a lovely dicentra at the front of the border and it grew like a triffid and blocked out other plants so i had to move it,then i get side tracked lift dahlias and gladioli etc and forget what i was moving where until its spring and oh god forgot to move it quick plant something else, whilst this sometimes works inevitably it results in a bad plan. I have bought a mantis tiller which is good for down the lottie but i do like the Bob Flowerdew no dig method sounds easier than it is the mantis was bought from a friend for £25. yes twenty five quid my friend bought it in a job lot at a motorcycle car boot sale so it was too good to miss. all i need now is a machine that will design and plant the borders for me and i will just take care of deadheading and feeding etc.. bye for now my friend. digger

• 22/12/2005 11:34 AM

  In reply to

  sue1002 Location: Ipswich, Suffolk Joined on: 06 Sep 2005 Posts: 5,199

  Reply | Contact Hi all, yes Miranda it is a Lavatera, they are lovely arent they? Sadly with a strong wind it got ripped out of the soil and it had also gone rotten near the bottom. I picked off two shoots and potted them up and now have two to put back in. I will do that in the spring as they are a nice size now. Couldn't put them in before as the dog runs up and down the fence with the neighbours dog and I wanted to give them a good start before putting them in. I know the apple tree looks good but they tasted horrible, even though they were ripe they were still sour. We are still debating about what tree will be put in its place and it looks like it will probably be a dwarf plum. Digger - I'm 11 miles away from the coast. Our gardens here are not really affected by the sea but we do get some of the heavy winds. The River Orwell runs through our town and the wind dont half blow across the Orwell Bridge when you're driving over it! My OH quite often wonders what would happen if we put salt in the water for watering the garden. When I asked him why his reply was "you drive down country lanes which are gritted during the winter, and in the summer you have beautiful scenes along the roadside of the big rhododendron bushes with massive flowers on them, none of them get watered and are exposed to all the elements yet they seem to do better than the plants you grow yourselves and have put so much care into it." It does make you wonder doesn't it? sue1002

• 22/12/2005 01:35 PM

  In reply to

  miranda Location: Oxfordshire Joined on: 17 Nov 2004 Posts: 2,971

  Reply | Contact Shame about the Lavatera, Sue, but a blessing in disguise as you now have two of them! We also have a lot of wind here; we live on a straight Roman road and it's like a wind tunnel sometimes. It can be quite alarming watching the plants thrashing about and wondering if they'll stay in one piece. Sour apples - can you cook with them? That's interesting about the salt. From what I've read, road salt is dug out of the ground, from natural salt beds, so there's a fair bit of grit in with it. The mix contains other minerals apart from sodium chloride, like calcium, magnesium and potassium, which are all essential plant nutrients. I'd guess that this will give the plants a boost in the short term and should do them no harm, so long as there is enough rain for any excess to be washed away. Over doing it would lead to 'reverse osmosis' where the mineral concentration in the soil would attract the moisture out of the plant roots, leading to dessication and plant death. I have heard of gardeners applying light dressings of salt to the beds, but have no idea how much they use. It would be interesting to find out more.