Trunky's New Garden

Thanks for the tip @Freddy, I've never tried raised beds before so that's useful to know.

The lengths of timber aren't all that long, I think the photo is deceptive. I've worked out that I've got enough to make a small square bed about 2½ft on each side and a larger rectangular bed about 6ft x 3ft, so I should be ok with those.

Mrs Trunky completed another job yesterday, over the past two days she has set about reducing and levelling the top of the beech hedge which divides the garden in two. The top was quite uneven and just a little too high for ease of cutting, so she's taken about a foot off the top and reduced it all to the same height. Looks much better now.

 

Trunky i think it's got a nice clean look about it

 

We've started creating our first new bed!

With the weather being cold, overcast and slightly drizzly yesterday, we decided it was a good day to warm ourselves up by digging over the turf and shaping out our first new bed.

This area was previously occupied by the two large juniper bushes which I dug out a couple of weeks ago. I've shaped the bed to incorporate the large holly and a rather sickly looking Arbutus, as well as the sundial, which conveniently covers a concrete manhole cover.



The holly and the Arbutus may not stay in the long term, the holly is a matter of 'debate' between us and its fate currently hangs in the balance. We'll give the Arbutus a chance, feed and water it and see how it goes this year.

We've chopped up and dug in as much of the old turf as possible, the soil here is quite dry and sandy, so the more organic matter that can be added, the better. I'm going to add plenty of compost before any plants go in and then give it a good mulch afterwards too.

One 'interesting' discovery while digging over the area near the Arbutus was an old oil can full of holes, buried in the ground and attached to a piece of pipe. Some kind of watering device invented by my predecessor perhaps?





I've already got some plants lined up for the new bed, mostly herbaceous plants I propagated by division and cuttings before we moved last year. Some of them need to be planted out soon in any case, as they're starting to outgrow their pots. We're not working to any particular plan when it comes to the planting, we'll just take the plants we have available, set them out and fiddle around until we're happy with the positioning.

Meanwhile, the hedge plants I planted at the end of March are mostly doing fine (looks like only one didn't make it). The soil in that area was very dry, so I've been watering them well and mulched them with the chippings from a sycamore stump I had ground out a couple of weeks ago.

 

Trunky it's funny you adding to your post today as i was looking for it yesterday to see how things was going ...now i'll Bookmark your post

You've got the design in a nice shape...just mix a fair bit of multi compost in your soil to make it more moist and with your watering in my opinion it should help your plants enough to grow with nourishment and you could possibly had a food into the dirt as a bonus

 

Beautiful shape to your bed, looking forward to seeing it planted up.

 

Just a quick update.

I finished putting together my first two raised beds today, made from some scrap timber given to me by our former neighbour, a builder by trade. One bed is 6ft x 3ft and the other is a smaller bed about 2½ft square.





It was untreated wood and as I'm intending to grow vegetables in them I didn't want to treat the wood with anything which could leach into the soil and possibly contaminate it, so I've tried using this: Eco Wood Preservative.

It claims to be a non-toxic treatment which is safe to use for beds growing edible plants, it will be interesting to see how long the timbers last.

The unidentified clematis which I mentioned back in February here, has I think turned out to be Montana, as several of you suggested. It was just about to burst into flower, when it succumbed to a bad case of wilt, with only a handful of new, healthy looking shoots growing from the base being unaffected. So I've cut off and disposed of all the top growth, leaving just the healthy new shoots.

 

Hi Trunky...thanks for the quick update and you took the words out my mouth...as I was about to say treat them but the Echo seems to be ok.

Count your lucky 's you still have your clematis...lost my two through this weather

 

Hi @Trunky haven't seen you on here mate and just wondered how the gardens going

 

Hi @Gail_68 Been so busy both at home and at work for the past few weeks I just haven't had the time to post any updates, thanks for asking though.

We're making steady progress with the garden - we've planted our first new bed and I've got some vegetables going in the greenhouse and in the new raised beds.

I've taken a few photos, hopefully I can find time to put a few on here in the next few days so you can see how we're getting on.

 

Hello mate, smashing to hear from you and know your doing ok

No your home and work comes before anything else but if I don't see anyone on here for a time I always ask after them and for taking the time to reply.

Well with the amount of rain we're getting your beds should flourish mate as I know my plants are loving it and add the pic's when you have time

 

Hello all, I've finally found time for an update on the new garden. I've got a few days off work to look after Mrs Trunky after a recent foot operation, so I'm on 'nursing' duties for a while.

There's still much to do in the new garden, however things are gradually taking shape. The first new bed, which we created and planted up back at the end of April is coming along nicely. A couple of shots taken last week:






All the plants are thriving so far, just as long as I give the bed a good soaking every evening - we're on very free draining sandy soil here. As you can see the surrounding grass has gone completely brown in the current heatwave. Personally, I blame @Gail_68 -

Since Gail posted that on here, at the end of May, I don't think we've had a drop of rain!

The little herb patch I started by the back door is coming along - I've got flat-leaf parsley, chives, sage and rosemary growing in there now. The pots along the edge have mint, moss parsley and basil in them. All the herbs (except the basil) are either from seeds or plants which we bought with us from our last garden.



The two raised beds which I created from scrap wood are now planted up with vegetables and doing fine. This small square bed has a courgette and four Manx Marvel tomatoes in it, possibly a little ambitious, but they seem to be co-existing happily enough at the moment and are all doing well. I even squeezed four spare parsley plants in there too, they seem to be quite enjoying the shade from the other plants in this hot weather.



The other, larger raised bed I made is my 'salad' bed. I'm using it to grow radish, lettuce and spring onions.



We also have a new garden 'feature' -



We're having a whole new heating system installed, so we now have this in the garden, a few yards from the house. I'm going to have to get creative with screening this - trellis with evergreen climbers perhaps?

As for which plants to use, I'm thinking a combination of Tracheospermum, Japanese Honeysuckle and winter Jasmine might work well. We've inherited some Japanese honeysuckle in this garden and it seems to thrive here, so it should be easy to propagate more from a few rooted offshoots. Also, I do like plants which help to brighten up the dark winter months, so the Winter Jasmine should help with that.

Any other suggestions?

 

Trunky I'm in future my mouth will be kept regarding the weather
I think you won't mind me commenting on your garden ….I can't believe how your plants have grown from the small shrubs you put in...they look great

You've really done well with your raised beds

Sorry to hear about your wife and I hope she recovers well

 

Just another quick update.

The newly planted flower bed is thriving in all this sunshine and has thrown up a few unexpected delights. Back in the depths of last winter, while removing a large ugly conifer near the house I discovered a small clump of Gypsophylla hidden underneath the conifer, so I decided to save it, potted it up and then planted it in the new bed a few months later.

It has now spread itself out and burst into flower. I'd planted it behind a small patch of Osteospermums and the two have combined to produce a lovely effect.



The middle of the bed is looking good too, with Rudbeckia, Agapanthus and Delphiniums all flowering together to produce a colourful display.



The Rudbeckia 'Rustic Dwarf' in particular have been a great success this year, even thriving in the semi-shade of an Arbutus, which I'm pleased to say has revived a bit after looking quite sad when we moved in.



This sunflower popped up all by itself near the patch of new hedge which I planted in early spring. I left it there and it's doing just fine.

 

display Trunky