My Garden's Working Progress

Love the way that curved path goes around the rectangular fence

 

Looks fabulous!

 

Things are filling out quite nicely now.







Nigellas are about to flower along the picket fence

 

I should post a few things I made for the garden over the past few years that I've never got round to posting in the past.

I made a little nest box a week ago to go in the apex of my shed. Inspired by armandii and seeing a blue tit poking around there recently.



Also an arch I made ages ago for the vegetable garden. Made it out of a pair of wooden ladders I got from a bootsale last year for £4. Dave made me the top part out of some offcuts and dowel and then painted it white.I'm hoping runner beans will grow up it this year to save space in my other beds.




Also made this bee house before we moved to the house. All I had was a coping saw, a small box to cut the wood on and tons of PVA. I built it after seeing one for sale at an RHS garden for sale for £100. I made this one for £20.

It's nice to see that some of the canes have been filled over the years we have been here, but have yet to see any bees emerge from it yet.

 

Excellent!

Loving that one too

Sounds just like my DIY !!!!

 

Your garden's come on really well JJ, I bet you're really pleased with it.

 

All fabulous JJ....

 

I am! But there's still lots of work to be done. For example I'm after some small trees/ large shrubs to give the garden some height. The garden is in constant sunlight and want to introduce a bit of shade. Have my eye on a Lilac alba and also some kind of apple tree but haven't worked out which one yet, there's just so many! Contemplating planting a Blacktorn for the birds to eat but don't know if it's a good idea.

I still need to contact my favourite landscapers and get them in to make the final seating area and then get Dave to build the pergola to go over it. But haven't got round to it yet as we are putting our efforts into fixing the house up, which still looks like a building site in some places.

I couldn't have done it without all of the lovely people on here who donated so many plants and seeds to me in the past. Not only is my garden being filled up with plants but the bees are coming in their masses too. It's nice to see so many of the plants I planted before deciding to dedicate the garden to bees are bee friendly.

Although all I've seen have been bumble bees rather than honey bees for some reason this year

 

I've got some "small trees" in the back of some of my borders ...

Several Moutain Ash - some with unconventional berries - Yellow and Pink even
Laburnum - if you go for that get the "vossii" as it has longer racemes
Crab apple - some good'uns there too, and if you have any Apples the Crabs are better pollinators than the apples themselves
Eucalyptus - planted them for speed as well as being quite attractive. I like them for their more open canopy - thus casting only dappled shade
Similarly Silver Birch for their light canopy
Acer platanoides - the purple leaf one ("Crimson King" or something like that), not exactly small, but will be OK for quite a while
Judas - grew those from seed, they were up to me-height in the first year from seed!

 

Thanks for those Kristen

I currently have a Laburnum which at about chest height now, but am not sure what variety it is as it was donated to me. I could probably find out though. I'm looking for a tree that will roughly reach the same height as the Laburnum, so roughly 20ft high. I have a Hazel next to that, which I'm hoping to regularly coppice to keep it at a manageable height and spread, roughly the same height as the Laburnum. Then I have an Ornamental Cherry Tree at the other end of the garden, which I think will grow a bit taller than the other two. I have a Conference Pear as well in the vegetable garden next to the compost bin.I have two big gaps in between all these trees, that I want to fill with more trees, or large shrubs, which I'm not sure yet.

A crab apple does sound like the most likely tree that I will go for. I understand they attract wildlife and am keen to attract Waxwings to my garden this winter so am looking to plant something for them to gorge on. I would like to have another stab at an Apple Tree as well but am running out of space to fit any more trees in. My only other option is to grow an Espalier along my neighbours garage wall, which is quite a large space to fill. Although are they really that productive?

Picture of the wall I want to fill with something (Portuguese Laural is being dug up tomorrow as I sold it off)

 

I hope so! as I planted 50 M of Espalier last Winter Make sure you get the right root stock, and a spur-producing variety, otherwise it won't work properly on an Espalier. Good luck trying to get concrete information on which varieties are / are not suitable ... I couldn't (well, some of them are 100% sure, but for some that I wanted to grow various sites said "yes" and others "no" :( )

My RHS "Growing Fruit" book says about yield:

Dwarf Bush Tree = 40-60lb
Bush Tree (M26, MM106, MM111) = 60-120lb

Spindlebush (M9 or in poor soils M26) = 30-160lb

Espalier will let you grow several varieties in less space ... cordons would be another route, you can even more varieties in a relatively short row-run. My book says: Cordon will normally be on M9, but if soil is poor could consider something more vigorous, or MM106 for varieties that do not spur easily. Plant Cordons 2.5 feet apart (3 feet on poor soil and very sandy rubbish soil at 6 feet apart). Generally planted at an oblique angle (to accommodate more plant height, but still be able to reach the top for picking). If you don't want to spend too much on plants you can train them as a double or triple cordon, but you may struggle to find suitable plants - I suppose you could start with an unfeathered maiden and chop it off to force two/three buds to break, but that will cost you a year's growth at least.

Espalier needs M9 for a low fence, but generally (6' fence say) M26 at 10-12 foot spacing, MM106 at 12-15 feet. If you have a large wall you might go for M2 or M111 at 15-18 foot spacing.

Or you could do a step-over apple? (Espalier with just one tier). Not sure what rootstock suits that, my book is too old fashioned for such a new fangled idea

I got my Apple trees, bare root, from Ashridge Trees - about 15 quid each, from memory.

 

On second thoughts perhaps I won't go for an espalier. Perhaps I will go for a bog standard apple tree instead.

The Portuguese Laural I dug out last Friday is now gone, leaving a very large hole in the ground.I think I will leave this open until I decide on an apple tree, saves me digging another hole I guess.



Am hoping to catch a few burglars in this hole too.