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Thank you very much. I think I've got the idea now!
Thank you, too, Higgy, for showing me how you developed your rock garden. (My thanks in the post above this was for you explaining about the reply.)
No worries,
I notice that you were up posting early this morning, which I presume was getting ready for your day out at Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh?
How did the day go?
Did you enjoy it?
Have you managed to buy the plants and seeds that you wanted?
What ideas have you brought home with you?
I'm quite excited to hear how it all went....
Best
Higgy
I wrote a reply then touched the wrong thing on my tablet and lost the whole reply. It may turn up somewhere. Anyway it took two buses and quite a long walk to find the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh and after enjoying lunch in its restaurant my friend and I made for the gift shop where there was a fair number of plants in pots. I looked round carefully but didn't feel confident of knowing what to choose or what to do with them. I decided to choose a packet of Sunflower seeds Giant Single and one of Nasturtiums Tip Top Mixed which had the bee symbol on it which I remembered I was to look out for. We then had to leave as we had a long journey back. I plan to go again soon to actually see the garden and buy more seeds.
Hi Elizabeth
I'm strapped for cash so I've looked for seeds the cheap way. by getting them from our local park, which I now can tell from my researches was built for wildlife. If you've a lot of work to do in the garden first, such as building a rock garden, you'll have time to collect seeds. And cuttings and divisions from friends.
Best, Karin
I hadn't thought at all about the placement, and probably size, of rocks- I've been concerned about where to get them cheaply! Even for a sort of walkway by the bog we're planning. My Dad was a stone mason, building things from them, and I know there is also an artistry to their placement. Yours is lovely, Higgy, and I bet that as it grows it will be a haven for wildlife---which, if I'm right, you'll be able to watch from your hot tub! Now that's my idea of heaven in the backgarden!
By the way, I'm very excited that Kew Gardens has offered to come and view our community wildlife garden spot and help us plan it! Yahoo!
Best,
Karin
Great to hear about your day Elizabeth. A word of warning with Nasturtiumss, one of the reasons that they are so good for wildlife is that they are one of the preferred food plants for the white butterflies (Large & Small & Green Veined whites) Cabbage white s a lot of people call them. These butterflies will lay eggs on the leaves which will turn into caterpillars and demolish the leaves...
1. Large White Eggs on Nasturtiums...
2. Large and Small White Caterpillars still on Nasturtium, just!...
This always seems a bit shocking especially if you aren't expecting it but is a good thing as you are helping the next generation of these butterfly species! I also look at it as, if they are demolishing the Nasturtiums they aren't ruining my runner beans!!!...
And anyway you still get to enjoy the flowers with the bees....
Stunning aren't they??
They are climbers and quite vigorous so you will need a good bit of trellis or similar fencing for them to grow up. I plant mine in rows of about a dozen and about a foot apart and this give an impressive display of foliage and flowers all summer. Oh and butterflies!!
Hope this helps a little?
Karin,
I haven't paid for a single rock and there are a few hundred in my garden!!
All of mine come from either 'free to collector' adverts in the local paper or from a for sale board at work where I have posted 'wanted' notes! You could try an email to everyone at work maybe?
It's really surprising how many people have a pile of old rocks lying about that they don't know what to with or how to get rid of! From my experience they will bite your hand off to have you dispose of them!
I have also just joined my local 'freecycle' group, which I've been told is a good place to find rocks and everything on there is free! On my local group there are about 15,000 members I think so lots of 'recycled' things to find!! :-)
This pile of rocks came from an advert posted at work and were free! Imagine how much it would cost to buy these!!!
Hope that helps?
Very interested to hear about rocks and Kew and nasturtiums. Lovely photos, too. I've just been watching The Great British Garden Revival about lawns and I quite like the idea of planting bulbs in lawns. I
Oh no!! I've just done this very thing myself!!! LOL :-)
If you go to my garden blog (here) I did a feature about planting spring bulbs under the lawn and showed some pictures of how I did it. There is also a list of the bulbs that I planted and from research that I did they were all chosen for the benefits that they will offer early Spring pollinating insects if of interest to you?...
If the above link doesn't take you there use the garden blog link below and go to my post on 7th November 2013.
Let me know if this is of any help?