My first garden!

It'll be the Lysimachia then, it's a split off a clump I've got. The Campanula is small and has round leaves.
The Ajuga needs quite a bit of shade right from the start.

Did you manage to get the Hydrangea out ok ?

 

Ajuga needs shade? Bahhhh! I'll have to move it again. Don't really want to until it grows a bit though. Having said that, it's one of the best growing plants of the bunch so it must be finding the light barable. I do need to research them all and decide where they are going soon. It's starting to fill up!

The Hydrangea came out in about 5 minutes. I snapped my B&Q Verve Spade though. £20 well spent. Not getting a plastic handled spade again! It's been through a lot though I suppose. The Hydrangea has some roots underneath and one long root going sideways. I get the feeling it will do ok but we'll just have to see.

I went to my Uncle's House because he's wanting to get rid of some of his plants. He's moved into a house where the garden has been left to it's own devices for about 50 years There's alsorts of plants in there and it goes on for ages. I'm jealous. He wanted to thin the plants out a bit. I've brought home some plants (update tomorrow). I've also reserved a few plants, which are being dug up in winter for me. One of those is a white hydrangea. Yippee!

 

Raining Might not be getting any photos today either

 

You're in luck! There's been a 10 minute window where it stopped raining!

So... as you come out from the patio doors, you walk between two planters on the patio. To the left of those is the L shaped raised bed, which I has left me with a small space in front. I've put in some small rock garden plants which have done well in a shady spot in my grans garden.



From left to right, we have "very small thing", "immensely soft blue/grey thing with yellow pom poms", "lots of short grass like things which flower in spring with yellow flowers", "house leeks" and the big clump of "stuff".
* citation needed

In the background, in the raised bed, is rosemary. That will be great when you brush past it when walking down the path.

Walking through the planters (down a path made of oddly shaped flagstone steeping stones)



This shade loving plant (full sized) is apparently a Helleborus. I've got a "love in the mist" plant in the raised bed too (just stumbled across that) and a Coreopsis Baby Gold which came from my granddad-in-law-to-be.

Continuing down the path



Carnations on the left? The white things that is. They're hardy perennials called "memories" and smell spicy. I assume that they're carnations but not sure. Got my lillies planted within some grass plants. The grass plants have some little red flower bud on the end which look great... really subtle.

The shrub at the bottom of the photo will grow about 2ft in diameter and the shrub to the right will grow to 6ft diameter in about 10 years. The one on the left, closest, will grow about 2ft diameter and the one further behind will grow 5ft diameter. I've checked this already: There will be a foot between the plants and the raised bed behind it. Enough space for me and my bum to fit in when tending to crops.


"Ants plants" in the top, my runner beans in the bottom and some cuttings of a huge yellow flowering bush in the middle-ish bit. Getting some garlic and onions soon to overwinter. Also going to plant carrots, spring onions, leeks, lettuce and rocket very soon.

And behind that...



The Hydrangea! 20 years old and I've spent a decade (and a half) looking after this plant. Really loving the fact that I now own it. It's a Macrophylla (mophead) and SHOULD be pink because the soil is slightly acidic. It's been pruned back from a 9ft diameter bush. It looks AWESOME and I hope to get it back up to that sort of size before long. A cutting from this plant has grown to about 2 ft in 2 years so fingers crossed!

Next to it are some bulbs. They send leaves up in spring which die off about now and then they send flowers up which are about 1ft tall and red or yellow. I can't remember which. There's about 50-100 plants in each patch, at opposite sides of the lawn.

Bored yet?



B E A UTIFUL lawn. It's a deep green colour at the moment. 0 weeds and only 1 dead patch. Not bad. The dead patch was there when they laid it. It's annoying me now and I might have to seed it.

3 buddlieas planted against the back fence. The left one is purple and the other two are unkown. Theres a small thuja shrub in the corner of the flower bed which will grow to about 2ft round so it's a small fella. There's a "broom" behind that. Apparently that's it's real name?



That's it for this update!

We made it through my mammoth update! Group hug!

 

Hi Rad, it's looking fantastic, can't wait till next year to see how it all pans out

Short grass like things look like Sisirinchium, a lively plant which will self seed.

Clump..... Looks like a Saxifrage, we really need to see the flower colour to ID more.

Grass like thing with Lilies looks like Crocosmia ( Montbretia ). Need a better pic please.

Broom is the common name fir a shrub called Cytisus, beautiful in spring.

 

It's all looking great!

 

Your clump is possibly this Rad.....Saxifraga 'Arendensii'


We'll all have to do some proper id-ing for you when the plants have developed more.

 

@Anthony Rogers , thank you I'm looking forward to it too. I've got some poppy seeds, honesty seeds and some other things. They will be planted soon... along with forget-me-nots

Sisrinchium looks plausible. I will take your word on that one
Saxifrage is correct! I recognise it from photos.
Crocosmia is also correct... although the buds haven't opened yet.

 

Have a look at Sisirynchium Brachypus. We had loads of it when we had our family home. It makes a fantastic little edging plant for a border or path.

 

I'm planning to get the flagstones broken up and a nice path made in the next couple of days. Then I'll be able to plant some low level plants around the path instead of having bare soil.

I'm loving this gardening mallarchy!

 

A nice path, how about stepping stones, they're easier on the eye. There's a whole load to look at here.....

https://www.google.com/search?q=ste...gQsARqFQoTCMOto8C_n8cCFcZeFAod2yIN-g&dpr=0.95

 

*cough cough*

I had the same thought I'm happy that you're thinking along the same lines though

 

Sorry, I must have missed that. It must be a great idea then if we both thought of it.

 

Last night I decided to order a bird bath. I don't really like the style of older bird baths though. They're usually concrete with some form of rose patterns around them or they're made of cheap plastic which I'll need to replace before I know it. So I took a step back and decided to make my own.... kind of.

I've bought one of these



It's weatherproof but I'm guessing that constant exposure to water will make it rust so I'm planning on coating it in black paint (or perhaps a dark grey) to make it waterproof. Then I'll place it on top of some stones, low down though, and have it on a tilt. I'll fill it with pebbles until it's just below the max water line and then the birds have something to stand on while bathing.

I'll than add some creeping jenny into the pebbles and let it grow out and spill over, in the same way that water would.

 

Sorry Rad, couldn't resist......





Hehehe