Mr Grinch's Garden

A canal boat !!
The path footings have worked in that the beds and lawn is water free but will wait to see how quick it drains.

 

To cheer everyone up, here are some pictures of a house that i went to last week, where it didnt rain.

Lovely







G

 

Rose within a Buxus hedge......nice !!


Little Buxus parterre





French Roses. Amazing scent





G

 

Weather Watch
Very wet and windy night. Stopped at 6am. Thats 36 hours virtually solid rain. Cloudy and windy today with the odd shower. Chilly.
Mr G's Garden Watch
Staked the Aquilegia today, sprayed the bind weed and Jap Anemone leaves. Little bit of weeding but not much. The lawn is well drained now and dry despite the rain but in its place i have a canal around it. Will test to see how fast is dry's up. The Ribus looks like it may have been saved, leaves are perking up.

G

 

Weather Watch
Cloudy and windy today, a little chilly but when the sun comes out its nice.
Mr G's Garden Watch
Half the water has drained away. Its taken 24 hours. Im hoping the other half will be gone by tomorrow. The lawns great through. Nothing much done today.

G

 

Your not making me feel better !!
What problems arise with a sandy soil and how do you deal with them ?

G

 

Both Armandii and I garden on sand and it can be just as difficult as any other soil.

To start with it drains so well that many plants have to be kept watered, although there are options of plants that suit the soil. Sandy soil also doesn't retain the nutrients like other soils, I have gardened on clay before and prefer it. I'm now starting to dig in compost to help the situation.

I planted a young Malus tree four years ago that I still have to keep watered when the weather is dry as they take longer to get their roots established.

By the way Mr. Grinch, I've played copy-cat! My husband bought me Sorbus Vilmorinii for my birthday. It's hardy and thrives in all soils except chalk. So hopefully this will establish itself quite quickly.

 

Your soil sounds perfect to me. I wish it were mine.
I have no problems with clay, infact its very nutrient rich and most plants thrive. Its just the water issue thats blooming annoying. Even soak aways here really dont work that well as even when dug deep you still hit solid yellow clay. Only other way is to drain into a ditch but there are no ditches near my garden. The only other is pipe direct into a drain/sewer and to do that i'd need to dig the patio up.

Ground work eh, dont you just love it.

 

30 years! I've got a long way to go then Armandii, I've only had my place 8 years and haven't really touched the front garden yet.

 

Taxus baccata 'Fastigiata' - Im thinking about it even though i dislike conifers.

Thoughts ???

 

It's a Yew Mr. Grinch not a conifer although it looks similar. If you've got young children it's not a good idea as the leaves and berries are very poisonous. Have you any particular reason for choosing this please?

 

Im looking for structure, especially winter structure. I liked the look of them. Very neat and tidy. My "formal" thing again.
And Yews are conifer's i think Sheal. Just a different type. Didnt really think about the poisonous thing though. Something to think about.

 

You say you're looking for structure, how about this, it's a Yew and grows to a maximum of six feet approximately.