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I recently demolished my garage in order to extend the garden and within the last few days I have broken out the garage floor slab. The idea is to create flowerbeds around the perimeter and to lay turf adjacent to that. The broken out flooring was only a couple of inches thick and once I have broken it down even more I was intending to put a topsoil/compost mix on top to create the flowerbeds. I am assuming that the broken up flooring will assist with drainage and stop the soil from simply washing away when it rains? I have several bags of Homebase topsoil and was intending to mix them in with compost of some sort. Can anyone offer advice and tell me if this is a good idea? I intend to plant climbing roses and honeysuckle at the far end of the garden because I have installed trellis at high level. Going forward I will be planting runner beans and tomatoes on the more exposed wall and pyracantha and other Sparrow friendly plants elsewhere. I will post some photos when I get home, in order to give a better idea of the layout. Hope someone can offer some advice. Thanks.
Unicum arbustum haud alit duos erithacos
(One bush does not shelter two Robins)
Zenodotus (3rd Century B.C.)
Another fantastic update, MC. You really have worked wonders in just a year. I'm slightly envious of your honeysuckle as I planted 2 last year and yours are much better than mine!!!
Kind regards
Jenny
Your garden looks really nice now Paul. It is amazing what good soil and growing material, sun and rain can produce. A lovely little primrose that popped up for you. The berries look lovely. Hope you can find the daffodil bulbs before next year!!
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Thanks for the encouraging comments. I have been making the most of the good weather this week and doing an hour or so of tidying up each morning before work. It doesn't take long to make a difference. I'll take some pics later. Once the runner beans come down I'll have to mark out the plots for next year. I've still got beans coming through and I've also got about half a dozen more tomatoes that should make it. Beetroot is still growing too, so the harvest isn't quite over yet. Almost forgot, raspberries too!
It is about 7 months since the last upate, so here's what the garden looks like today. The topsoil was first laid in October 2014 and over the ensuing 20 or so months, the garden has changed dramatically. The birds seem to like it too!
I have also been making use of the patio as the back of the house is South facing, so let's start there...
The patio peach tree has plenty of fruit
Blossom on the tomatoes...
...and on the peas
Last year I found several very old packets of Pansy seeds. By very old I mean 1990's! I planted them all in this pot and they grew beautifully. This year I purchased four or five different packets of Pansy seeds and repeated the process. The guardian cage is there to protect them from the Cyrils!
The raspberries are coming along nicely
Victoria Plums
Marjories Seedling Plums
The Lavender is thriving now that I've cut back the excess
The box hedging is also spreading nicely
The Ivy continues to spread across the trellis that makes up the entrance to the SBS and Chalet enclosure
I have been threading the rose through the plastic mesh over the past 10 or so months and I think it's going to have the desired effect. Two blooms are out but there are dozens more pink and white flowers waiting to burst forth
The hanging basket only has dry earth in it. There is a second one at the rear of the trellis. The Spadgers love to use the dry soil for dust baths and this stops them from using the pots that contain plants
This is the 'I don't know what it is so I'll put it here for now' section. Any idea what the tall plants with the large leaves are? I thought Apple tree for one of them? There's a Cotoneaster and some box hedging in there. I know what they are lol
The rose that is growing across the frame isn't actually a climbing rose, but I have been pruning and tying it in such a way that it acts like one. Wait until it starts to bloom!
The 'new' garden
The wonderful Pyracantha. The Spadgers are going to adore this in a few years
The Asiatic Lily collection has resurfaced over the past few weeks. To be honest, I forgot that they were there!
The other Asiatic Lily plants along with potatoes and to the left (in the foreground) another plant that I'm going to see if any of you can ID?
The small plants at the front are peas. The mystery plant is the tall one with the white and purple flowers...
This years Runner Beans. I have planted them in a different spot from last year. The netting is to collect the little gifts that the birds keep leaving!
Two types of Gooseberry and the Rhubarb
The white Gooseberry has fruit
The Loganberries have continued to spread across the trellis and the overhead frame
More fruit than I can count!
I bought these two hedging plants last Autumn. There is a Robin nesting box tucked behind the one on the right, with a protective screen around it to protect it from cats
More Loganberries!
This is the little Oak that Wendy purchased for me in 2014
More potatoes
Raspberries
The Albertine rambling rose and the Belgica Honeysuckle are totally out of control. Not bad for less than two years growth!
The rockery continues to develop
The Strawberries are doing reasonably well. Hopefully the slugs will leave some fruit for me this year. The Alpine Strawberries at the front are taking over!
The 'soft fruit enclosure'. Again, the netting was installed to counter the little gifts from above!
Finally, the Chalet area, complete with the new security feature on the near side, another section of pvc coated galvanised mesh to cover the exposed side. Can't have my Robins being attacked can I?
Hope you enjoyed the walk around the garden. I'll post a shorter version once the fruit is ready to harvest.
MC, You are doing amazing things in your garden! I expect that is why you have so many birds. I also imagine that you are probably against harming any wild or domestic critter (even though critters like cats hunt birds), but do you know that Lily pollen is poisonous for cats?
Kind regards, Ann
I didn't know that. It isn't lethal is it?
MC, It can be fatal, but sometimes only just makes them very ill. I imagine it depends on how much pollen they are exposed to. The problem arises when a cat brushes past a blooming Lily plant, some pollen falls on its fur, and later it licks the pollen when cleaning itself. While several neighbourhood cats spend a lot of time bird-watching in our small garden and are a threat to our bird visitors, if we have Lilies we fence them off so the cats cannot brush up against the plants, though we have not had any Lilies for several years now.
One set is behind a mesh net. I can do the same for the exposed ones. The cat that visits tends to wait for the mice that live under the woodpile, but I don't want it to get poisoned.
Your garden is just amazing MC, so much greenery and fruit and veg, puts me to shame, very well done.
I have also heard that the pollen from the lillies is dangerous for cats, don't know exactly how lethal though.
Lot to learn
We used to deadhead the Lilies as soon as the flower was just past its prime rather than letting the flowers go through their full cycle and fall off naturally when they had completely finished. The pollen seemed to be more likely to fall at the slightest breeze after the flower had begun to go over, if that makes any sense.