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Want to share your gardening exploits with the rest of us, got a question about a plant or looking for some ideas on gardening for wildlife or do you just want to show off your garden? Well then the greenfingers forum is for you.
It is part of the Homes for Wildlife group so if you want to post you will have to join, look for the icon on the right hand side of the page! This post will remain sticky on the homepage for a while to help you find it, otherwise you can get here by looking in wildlife and the Homes for Wildlife.
What better way to introduce your garden than posting a picture or tour of your own little patch of nature. So whatever garden space you have be it balcony, patio or postage stamp garden to acres of lovingly tended garden space, it would be great to see what you are getting up to! Here is a quick glimpse into my garden to get the ball rolling...
Plants are a dwarf gorse and a berberris and these are common frogs!
Warden Intern at Otmoor.
Or did you mean the lily?
It'll be interesting to see the prickly lettuce open flower and what insects it attracts. I'm going to have to get more knowledgeable about insects now.
Thanks for the help with posting photos, Alan. Is there a way of inserting them open?
I've been without a camera for about a year so I'm so happy to be able to start sharing again although it's brilliant to be able to see everyone's. I'm glad I can get more detail in now, thanks.
Ok. Many thanks, Alan! It worked - I can see there's a lot I failed to take in during the problems with the changeover.
That's right, Alan. Thank you for the link and I'll try again when I've had a chance to get some photos.
A quick tour round some of the (generally unkempt, overgrown and disorganised!) wildlifey bits of my garden. I took the pics with my phone, so the white balance is a bit off in some.
In the front, against the fence, fuchsias, cherry and mountain ash
In the flower bed in front of the house, sedum, crocosmia, aquilegia, sea holly, heuchera etc. If you look carefully you'll also see a magpie (either Rascal or Freya) watching me from the bay window.
Shrubbery to the side of the house. Mix of roses, holly, rhododendron, hydrangea etc
Alongside the house is my first rockery build, with a herb garden on the other side of the path, that replaced a patch of grass that was there when we moved in.
At the back of the house, a wall full of Virginia Creeper which is stuffed with quarreling sparrows every evening. The magpie is Chips the unreleasable (too tame, doesn't play nicely) postman-attacking psychopath.
Next to the low concrete planter is my "official" wildlife bed, which has had various plants put in over the years but is generally overgrown and messy!
View from the house:
Out of shot to the right in the corner of the lawn are some buddleias which mix with those from next door and the honeysuckle over the fence
To the left is my soft fruit bed and (very, very neglected this year!) veg patch. Every time I go that way I disturb blackbirds scrumping for raspberries!
Further round, and behind the hedge at the bottom of the lawn, is the extra part of garden that we took over. It was flooded, overgrown and filled with other people's fly-tipped rubbish and is very much a work in progress. It contains a corner that's partly rhododendron to fill in the gap under overhanging hawthown/goat willow/elder, but also planted teasels and anything else that's chosen to self-seed. I surprised a fox hiding in a lilac bush against the wall the other day!
In the middle of this bit is the pond
Against the shorter section of wall I've put lilac, buddleia, wild roses, alder, mountain ash, oak, silver birch, crab apple and cherry and a couple of other small shrubs, and against the rest of the wall it's alternating holly and pyracantha for security, evergreenness and berries. On the other side of the pond is a sloped area of grass that will EVENTUALLY be wildflowers and a few trees.
Along that green-painted section of wall are nut trees (hazel, almond, walnut) interspersed with bird-friendly hedging plants. Finally, at the furthest point of the grass is the overgrown back of the hedge at the back of the lawn. A load of raspberries seem to have self-seeded. The dark area under the overhanging branches will gain some willow branch offcuts for critter habitat when I get a chance to tidy in there and move the branches.
That concludes the whistle-stop tour of my garden. Anyone wishing to stay behind to do a bit of weeding is more than welcome!
A closed mouth gathers no foot.
Karen F said: Anyone wishing to stay behind to do a bit of weeding is more than welcome!
Anyone wishing to stay behind to do a bit of weeding is more than welcome!
No way, Maisie, I've got enough of my own to do lol. Seriously though, you have a fantastic garden. It reminds me of my Nanan's which had front, back and side gardens, and was a haven for children to play in and always well kept as she was a keen gardener. You must get loads of wildlife in there.
Annie
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
Einstein
It's a beautiful garden, Maisie, but like Apple, I've a myriad of unwanted perennial wildflowers to dig up myself! Last summer's weather meant the thugs got the upper hand.
I love how you've given so much thought to the environment you've created. Well done for giving so many creatures a lovely home.
Hi Alan I have just posted Prickly situation for the Teasel which was really mean't for this section but it is somehow doing it's own thing.
Pat Adams - Flickr - BLOG
I don't know what we would do without you!! Thanks Alan