Mr Grinch's Garden

I'd plant now, while there is warmth in the soil and it's not sodden with rain water. Piccie soon please?
Jenny

 

Hard to believe but: for some reason I've never noticed this thread before :(

Just had a quick scan through, so most of my comments are too late - might be of some help to anyone else reading this thread though, and apologies if I am commenting on anything which was already discussed, I'm sure I've missed a lot in just scanning through.

I liked the original curved borders, and I equally like the new "square" contemporary look (which is saying a lot as I don't have much time for that style, personally).

I think they both look(ed) smashing.

The Wet:

Possibly there is a "pan" under your topsoil. Dunno how old your house is? but it would be worth digging a hole, say, 2' - 3' deep. If you can easily dig that deep then you don't have a "pan", if you get to a level that is rock hard (but still soil) then you do. If you have a "pan" that would account for why your soakaways aren't working well.

Having said that, its been immensely wet here this summer (I read that you had problems even in previous dry summers, but even taking that into account this years wet would have tested any drainage system - my garden has been flooded in areas where I've never seen standing water before ... and I had to hire a pump to shift the water; trees have died from being so wet during the summer - so wait until next year before passing judgement on the improvements that you have made)

If you do have a "pan" then digging through it (hard work!) and creating a soakaway that is 4' or 5' deep, and filled with stone, and then taking the water to that soakaway will work. You will still get standing water after heavy rain, but it should be gone in 10-30 minutes.

You need perforated drainage pipes to "move" the water to the soakaway (or too a storm drain, if you have an access-point). A trench with stone ("French Drain") will help, but putting a perforated drainage pipe in the bottom of the trench creates a, relatively, "huge cavity" for water to run along the trench, so it drains much faster than a trench just filled with stone. Backfill around the pipe with stone of some type (e.g. gravel).

Too late to suggest now, but under your paving between lawn and borders would have been a good spot, and would not have needed digging & repairing the lawn to make a trench.

If you don't have a "pan" then its just a high water table. Unusual to have a water table that high, but only remedy is to have a "sump drain" (similar to soakaway, a sump that the perforated drainage pipes run into) and then a pump that will pump that out to somewhere else - usually a storm drain. Making use of that water, also, for irrigation would make sense. Saves water, and uses rain water instead of chlorinated (and possibly "hard") mains water.

I have a sump here (next to a water feature that needs the water-table lowered if it is ever drained, otherwise it will be pushed out of the ground!!). Its just some 12" diameter concrete pipes (butt joined) installed vertically with gravel around the outside. I can put a pump into the pipe and as it pumps out the water from the surrounding area gushes in between the joints in the pipe (there is gravel all around the outside of the water feature, so the water can flow fairly freely to the sump)

There was some earlier comment on gaining some height in the planting. I agree that some extra height would be good. You could plant a few small trees (birch, mountain ash, crab apple, that type of thing), or perhaps an alternative would be to "stool" some plants - pollarding them at about 6" from the ground each February, and then retaining only one of the resultant new suckers. This will give you huge growth in a single season (and usually significant large leaves, which is an attractive architectural feature). This avoids actually having to have something with a head that is "small tree sized", so perhaps that would suit your garden better than actual trees?. Examples would be Paulownia and Catalpa (there's a nice "golden" version of that). You could also "stool" things with purple leaves like Continus and Sambucus Black lace, although you might leave more than one stem as you won't get big leaves so much as significant growth with those. Usually it will be the 3rd year when they have enough size that you can start pollarding them annually.

You could also plant some "exclamation mark" shaped trees. For example there is a nice, narrow, Flowering Cherry (Prunus amanogawa). Plants with "fastigate" in their name will have an exclamation-point / cigar shape.

I love the paving around the lawn, and the way the Box separates the sitting & lane. I think your balls could be grown out into cube-shaped "turrets" to mark the end of the hedge - i.e. a bit wider, and taller, than the hedge itself. The fact they are bigger to start with means the whole thing would "mature" to final size at about the same time.

Way too late now, but did you consider using the turf you lifted (to make room for the lawn-edge paving) to fill in where you lifted the stepping stones? Would have saved carting it to the dump, and would have blended in better, colour-wise, then freshly seeded grass - new sown grass always takes a year or two until you can no longer see the outline of where it was sown!

I'd like to see some arches with climbers growing over them separating the far end (like Freddy has shown).

Maybe worth putting up a wishlist of the sort of plants you want to fill the triangle at the far end? Folk here may well have spares that are suitable (although, as always, the cost of carriage is the issue - unless it coincides with a meeting like Shiney's annual open-garden day)

 

Thanks Kristan, an amazing comprehensive little write up there
I think the problem is more than a pan. Ive dug several test pits in and around the garden and it always fills up. I also think that its not a high water table. Rumour has it that there was a ditch that ran the whole length of road. From what ive heard, most gardens have the problem. The ditch has been filled in over the years and houses built. Wet in winter up until around May time when it starts to dry. I do agree though that this summer has been exceptional so im not worrying until ive had at least two years more to see what happens. The underlying soil is yellow clay, nothing can get through.
I like your idea of squaring off the Box balls. I was also going to put Box hedge around the square on the inside with four entrances on each of the four sides. I thought it might break up the hard paths to basically when matured, you cant really see them. The winter structure would also be there.
Im picking up two tree's next week, A Betula "Moonbeam" again for winter interest and a Sorbus "Copper Kettle". These two will go on the right hand side, one near the end of the border and one in the middle. I have a Sambucas "Black Lace" already planted in the right hand side. This is its 2nd summer. I pruned it this spring and its grown a lot but a bit leggy, not sure how to make it more bushy.
Next year, im thinking off extending the play area to incorporate the shingle area. That would even the "squares" out. Thinking of putting a arch across or maybe a tunnel pergola along that last bit of path.
Ive planted some hornbeam along the trellis and will need to plant more this winter to make a green screen for the back of the garden. It will take 3/4 years before they are 6 feet ish but again, this will add greenery and height at the back.
I liked the curves aswell. This is my third garden now, the other two were curvy but i just got bored with it. It wasnt practical either. Plants spilling over and killing the grass edges, the constant edge clipping, the lawn that wasnt even and a pain to mow, the wet grass and soil that you couldnt really walk on for 7 months of the year for fear of adding to the compaction and making it a muddy mess. The stepping stones were rubbish, in the dark you cant see them so you may aswell not have any. And the weeds i had to keep on top of in that large lawn. Impossible and costs a fortune to feed/weed. A more formal thing was for me now. It doesn’t look full now, but im confident, give it 5 years and it will have plants and structure galore, softening the lines somewhat.
Im itching to get the Box hedge in though around the lawn but the kids are too young and would destroy it.
G

 

I suspected that with all the excavation you had done you would have found a pan, if there was one. Scratch that then!

Well if there was a ditch, and it wasn't piped (or pipe is now U/S), then the water coming down the ditch, upstream, will have nowhere to go and will be doing its best to find a way "over land" :(

I think your best bet is a sump; surface water will find a way to it if there are some shallow "ditches" (an inch will do, of course ...), but shallow ditches/gullies will silt up and need clearing, and thus some land-drains would perform better. Hassle to put in initially of course though ...

Sounds good to me I like the way you've used Box. You might like to consider "Japanese Box" (Ilex crenata or something like that) which looks like Box, but is actually a Holly, and as such not prone to Box Blight. Cut your Box around about Derby Day, and leave it alone after that if you can bear too ... and only cut it when there is good dry weather for a week or so. That will reduce the risk. I think Box is expesnive - both because the plants cost a few quid each, and you need more of them to the Metre than other, bigger hedge plants. Mind you ... I've got 1,000 box cuttings I've taken & am growing on (for an as-yet undesigned feature!), so some Fingers-Crossed on the Box Blight front is also called for!

Don't prune it right back if you want bushy. Cut the tips off during the Winter dormant season (and inch or two, on every stem, will do, but you can go shorter to keep it to a size / shape if you need to). That will make the secondary buds break in the Spring and it should bush up. I think they look nice stooled, but you do need several plants so that you just have 1 or 2 stems on each plant, and they then "stand out" amongst the Herbaceous plants.

I can't quite picture that area, but have you considered a Pleached Hornbeam? That is a hedge on stilts - so the hedge starts at, say, 5' and goes up to whatever height you want (and can maintain with clippers!!)

You could still grow an ordinary hedge under it (and thus have a vertical gap between the two, to break thinks up a bit)

Plant something really thorny instead? Only kidding

 

Thanks Kristan. Great reply
On the whole, i cant complain as the kids are really good. Ive taught them from an early age not to destroy. Its when you have visitors that bring their kids that have no concept of plants, that's when the problems arise. Still, i think i'd be asking for trouble to do it now. Give it 3 years i think.
The Japanese Box i will look into. Will it match the existing Box though ? If not, it may look a little odd. I am concerned about the blight, so will keep an eye out.

I do like the pleached look. It might plant these 3 feet ones and grow them on, pleaching them later. I want to see what the hedge looks like first.

G

 

If you have space ??? you could plant them, or even keep them in pots, "growing on" to then plant in 3 years time. They'll be fairly fully-formed by then. Otherwise it will, then, take a while to establish them. (And if you change your mind you shoudl get a good price on eBay for plants that are 3 additional years older )

You'll have to be the judge of that In a separate section of the garden I think you would get away with it, whereas right next to the existing, or "in and amogst it ", you probably would not.

 

Cheers mate, will look into it

 

Nice to see your Ilex crenata suggestion on GW last night Kristan

From what ive heard, possible the last late summer day of the year:




Damp Area



Couple of things ive noticed about this year. The Roses have been hit big by blackspot and rust BUT the Aster which usually get mildew are hardly touched.

G

 

Love that clump of Michaelmas daisies Mr Grinch.

 

As predicted, Saturday's lovely weather has ended with a bang. Monsoon rain yesterday, and the gravelled area flooded. More rain today but not as heavy. The water has gone down overnight though.
Mr Slug and Mrs Snail came out overnight enjoying the wet. Ive never seen so many huge slugs. The ones i can see have been disposed of. I planted some winter pansies in an area just outside of my kitchen window on Saturday. I like to get them in early to give them a chance of establishment before winter. Seeing these just brightens up a cold winters day. Good job i put slug pellets down.
I also saw two frogs leaping over the lawn last night. Where their off to, i know not.

G

 

I have no choice. As i have areas of damp, i suffer with slugs and snails. I don't like using them but i find that if i put some down in spring, in a normal summer, its keeps them right down and i don't have to use them again. This year its been slug and snail heaven and nothing can be done, so i will have to persist with a few pellets until it gets too cold for them. Its only an area size of a postage stamp so not many.

G

 

Get a couple of chickens? Ours are hilarious company as they waddle around the garden, and no slugs to be seen in the area that is their hunting ground - loads elsewhere in the garden though.

 

I did have three Pekin Bantams a few years ago and yes, they ate of the little sluglets before they could mature BUT they sheisted everywhere and evetually Mr Fox had them, in broad daylight aswell. When the kids are older, i will look into getting some more though. Another thing i have earmarked for the play area.

G