Today I did something in my Garden

New Home

^^^
Where's the duck now?

RonanC

Zak Flaps

RonanC wrote: »

I've knew literally nothing about gardening or lawn care when moving into a new build in 2018. Here is a photo of what our garden looked like in April 2018 (duck included):



I've since learned a huge amount from reading this forum and other lawn care forums with these months in lockdown particularly productive. This is what it looks like now:



I planted all trees and hedging (laurel and transplanted beech) myself apart from the mature Portuguese laurel on the left hand side of the photo, along with levelling the lawn and putting down 80 metres of larch edging. I only did the edging this April; in hindsight I should have done this initially as the lawn was completely taken over last summer by couchgrass and crabgrass invading from the borders. I killed most of it off in April and reseeded - there's some small bare patches but hopefully these will fill in over the coming weeks. Close up:



This forum has been an invaluable resource to me so thanks to everyone who has contributed.

A superb job. Well done.

New Home

New Home wrote: »

^^^
Where's the duck now?

:rolleyes:;)

Shaunoc

Sunday roast

New Home

:eek:

jellybear

I literally gasped at that transformation. It looks fantastic!! Well done

whodafunk

Put down stepping stones, created border with decorative brick, new plants down and bark in behind. Getting there! Need to finish off painting the walls.

SnowyMuckish

This weather would break your heart. Today I spent the morning picking up the broken pieces. :mad: :mad: :mad:

fryup

picked some cherries from my cherry tree before the birds get them..do they ripen off the tree??

Harry Palmr

Small 10 minute job which is better done now than later - honeysuckle support frame from some handy poles. That's Crocosmia in behind.

SnowyMuckish

After a busy day pottering around the garden I’m after sitting down wearily on my back doorstep underneath my honeysuckle and in the stillness of the evening I’m watching a murder of noisy crows coming in to roost for the night, as ominous clouds roll in heavily overhead. No need for watering tonight

macraignil

Dead headed some of the self seeded driveway flower garden and cleared out a lot of the forget me not that has gone to seed. Also planted out some borage which I have not grown before so looking forward to seeing how that turns out over the next few weeks.

looksee

I'd love if Valerian would self seed into the ruined bit of building in front of the house! I suppose if I mixed seed with a bit of soil and rubbed the mix into crevices in the mortar I might get a result? There are a couple of small harts tongue ferns stubbornly growing in more modern concrete patching in one place. Its a potentially charming ruin that needs a bit of attention to improve the look of it.

I am slightly hors de combat at the moment so all my gardening is going on in my head, you wouldn't believe the amazing results! I think an hour with the Chiltern catalogue and a cup of tea is in my immediate future.

Harry Palmr

SnowyMuckish wrote: »

After a busy day pottering around the garden I’m after sitting down wearily on my back doorstep underneath my honeysuckle and in the stillness of the evening I’m watching a murder of noisy crows coming in to roost for the night, as ominous clouds roll in heavily overhead. No need for watering tonight

No rain in the Deise again. thunderstorms pass us completely. Watering by hand is a pain even on a small scale.

looksee

It rained solidly all day in several bits of Waterford on Tuesday, including Waterford city. My garden has perked up and looking very enthusiastic (the weeds, that is) in north Waterford. You must be in a rain shadow somewhere?

Harry Palmr

Tuesday? I can't remember that far back! Yes it did but my garden is made up of the most amazingly light soil - no clay at all. It's great to work but it sure won't hold moisture.

looksee

Mine is the same, the drainage is amazing. There is a nice layer of fertile, light, good quality, I think neutral to acid, soil on top, then some subsoil that is not fertile but is very improvable, and under that is pretty much shale. I am only getting used to it but it seems very good to grow stuff. Judging by the quantities of nettles it grows it is really good! And bindweed. OMG the bindweed. War has been declared.

Harry Palmr

That's war you'll never win! Surrender now

macraignil

looksee wrote: »

I'd love if Valerian would self seed into the ruined bit of building in front of the house! I suppose if I mixed seed with a bit of soil and rubbed the mix into crevices in the mortar I might get a result? There are a couple of small harts tongue ferns stubbornly growing in more modern concrete patching in one place. Its a potentially charming ruin that needs a bit of attention to improve the look of it.

I am slightly hors de combat at the moment so all my gardening is going on in my head, you wouldn't believe the amazing results! I think an hour with the Chiltern catalogue and a cup of tea is in my immediate future.

Although now most of my red valerian flowers are from self sown plants I started off with seeds I got online. I saw them growing on walls and all sorts of awkward spots in the local area so thought they would be ideal for the north facing steep bank at the front of the house. I started the seed in window boxes with compost and planted them out when the were already started growing and found this worked well. They were small when I planted them out so I did not have to do much digging to find places to put them and there was not much soil to dig in where I was putting them anyway. Might work better than just putting the seed where you want them to grow.

scarepanda

Can anyone recommend any good books or websites that help with the design of a wildlife friendly garden?

We are trying to get a plan of action in place for this autumn so that we can start with getting a good foundation in place to develop over the next few years.

magicbastarder

https://waterfordwhispersnews.com/2019/07/08/lazy-bastard-insists-back-garden-is-biodiversity-friendly/

Lumen

First front-and-back prune of Eleagnus and Viburnum hedging in third season since planting in winter 2017.

I've put this off for ages as they have been growing quite densely, but I recently read an opinion that you shouldn't let them get too wide before getting them used to being pruned. I hope I've done the right thing!

I plan to leave the tops alone until they get to at least 2m.

I'm really glad I planted 1m from the fence as it means I can get in behind to prune.

click for big versions

Elaeagnus x ebbingei



Viburnum tinus

looksee

My daughter-in-law has a long hedge of that on an exposed seaside hillside garden, its been in about 5 years I think and is now over 5 ft high and is beautiful, it makes a most impressive hedge. Its absolutely consistent and healthy, most attractive.

fryup

? i'm currently trying to revive grass that was accidentally damaged by weedkiller overspray - any correct way of doing this?

ShiverinEskimo

Let it die, give it a month or two, reseed. You won't save the existing grass now.

Harry Palmr

Weedkiller? :mad: Maybe you should remove the strip and replace it with

fryup

fake grass?? never!

looksee

Ah no, you couldn't have an odd strip of fake grass - a roll of turf maybe. But the suggested solution is ggod, leave the grass die off, apply a thin layer of bagged soil or compost and scatter seed will do the job. If it is very messy looking you could dig out the dead turf and top up with bagged topsoil, but it depends on what it looks like when you are ready to go.

SouthWesterly

Harvested the first if my veg.
Garlic didn't do well this year. Didn't get big or split