Useless gardner needs ideas!! (8 pics)

Hi everyone!

This is my first post and I've been scratching my head for ages now with what plants to put in my garden. So I'm here for help and advice (and will take it by the barrow load).

I have lived in this house for seven years and have not had any plants in it yet. Why, one because I needed to terrace it as it was an awful sloping garden (I have good ideas about the hard landscaping (well I think so!))and two, I�m bewildered by all the plants, trees, shrubs bushes, etc.

The estate was built on a disused reservoir and was treated heavily with lime and clay capped. I have since raised and leveled the garden and put around 6-8" of top soil on.

I�ve attached a plan below of my back garden and a few photos (see below). The beds aren�t very big the largest ones being either side of the wooden table and benches they are around 10� x 3� each and the two near the steps are about 8� x 3�.

The area on the plan with a question mark in it will be a bed in the near future (could I grow potatoes here?) and should I put in a tree I was thinking about putting it where the ? is.

What would you advise for these small areas?

I'm looking for:
Colour
To attract birds
A small open tree that won�t shade the garden too much (or is that asking too much)
Some structural plants for the winter time
Container plants for the flagged patio

Any other suggestion gratefully received!!

Simon
Bolton, England

 

First of all welcome to the forum Simon.

Well you have done a brilliant job even without plants your garden is very eye catching.

I always try to aim for a theme garden not something that everyone likes but it seems to work well for me.

You might have to watch those sleepers if they are the real railroad ones due to them being pickled with some nasty stuff that's not so good for your plants!.

Your wonderful garden gives me a very modern feel with your layout. I would go for bold spiky palms, yuccas, hostas etc. and add some wonderful colourful summer plants like Canna's and the humble old nasturtium.

Or you could go the other way and have a scented garden with roses, lavenders etc.

Might be an idea to grow some climbers up along your fence you can attach some wires so it looks like your plants are holding on by theirself.
Clematis come a huge range of colours so I'm sure you can find a couple that catches your eye.

You haven't mentioned how much time you have spare to attend your garden so if time is a problem and to keep maintainace down think about some ground cover etc.

I'm a fan of the humble old Bungle (Ajuga) again just like the clematis it comes in an arrange of colours the best part being its the leaves that have the colours which should hold it's colour all through the year and of course it spreads with ease.Below is just one of my beauties.



Just a few ideas I'm sure others will pop on and give you many more ideas as we are a very fiendly bunch on here. Hel.xxx.

 

Hi Simon,

Can't off any advice,sorry. am a complete novice, but sure you will get plenty of help on here.

I just wanted to say - wow. i love your garden. i am into container planting, just because of ease etc., & i have just shown my husband your photo's & said 'look at that! how many pots could i get in there?'

He said it looked great too & then he said a really funny thing (don't think he meant to set me off laughing) but, it was "you could do something like that", "what do we do about the crazy paving", "dig it up". Dig it up :D :D I told him we would be dead before we achieved that!

Anyway simon, you've done a great job.

Cheers

 

Thanks Hel and Borrowers

It took us a full summer to level the garden. We estimate we took 25 tons of clay out, and put back 25 tons of drainage/top soil!

As for the sleepers bit, my son and I did that over a 3 week period (this also included digging a front bed out and replacing clay with surplus top soil).

How much time do I want to spend in the garden??

Minimal really as we both work full time (Jill isn't at all interested (yet!)) apart from drinking wine and bbqing.

Unfortunately (or should it be fortunately - I don't know) I like quite different styles of gardens: formal, contemporary, architectural, herbaceous, zen and more!

I think it is unfortunately - thus this is why I'm finding it hard to make a decision which way to go.

I suppose making a decision - contemporary / architectural, but I do like the soft herbaceous lines!

Is it possible to mix these styles in what are relatively small areas?

Simon

PS The sleepers - as they have been used on railway lines and therefore treated accordingly are they going to cause me lots of problems? In most areas but not all I have run a sheet of polythene around the outside edge.

 

wow you have been busy and it looks fantastic very modern you must have worked very hard here are just a few ideas as you said you wanted colour and to attract birds...PYRACANTHA.evergreen full of colour and the birds love it and they like the berries



M.C.F.C. :D

 

Hi Simon, here's my twopenneths worth, round the seating area plant fragrant plants such as lavendar which will send their scent out every time you brush past. By the steps I'd go for shrubs which will poke there heads above the patio, my favourites are wigelia and spireas, or ceanothus, or hebes or anything really. :D

 

Hello again Simon I told you we were a friendly lot!
Only problem is we all have our own style that we like better than most so there's always going to be different points of view which i think makes life that little bit more fun! :D

As for those sleepers...if you have placed a sheet of polythene between the sleepers and the soil (where you are going to plant) then you shouldn't have too many problems.
The only reason I mentioned it in the first place is that I didn't want you going out and spending a small fortune on plants only for them to get sick with all the nasty chemicals leaking from the sleepers.

As for your other half you will have to watch her as I'm pretty sure she will claim all the praise when you have friends round in summer....us women can be so cheeky that way you know! :D Hel.xxx.

 

Such excellent landscaping needs the sort of architectural plants listed by Helen as well as some ornamental grasses. For softening the edges you could use Thyme and Lavenders with colour and flowers for the bees coming from herbaceous plants like Anthemis/Lobelia Cardinale/Heleniums and lots of others. Scented shrubs like Saracococca/Honeysuckle(climber for the fence) and possibly a Buddleia for the butterflies but you need to keep some of thes under strict control.

 

Ok I'm liking some of the ideas... keep them coming.

Can ornamental grasses be grown OK in pots?

What I'm worried about is plants getting to big for the site.

I quite like the 'Crocus' website as it gives sizes for deveolped plants.

I'm thinking about keeping both sides of the eating area symetrical however one side definately gets more sun than the other. How much of a problem would that be to me?

I quite like the idea of having a pear or apple tree on the fence behind the talbe and done in an espalier style.



I also like the idea of a Pyracantha for the birds however if I'm to go architectural in style I also think that I would like to something like this...



... perhaps directly opposite the pear/apple tree.

Are these difficult things to do? Or am I setting myself up for a lot of work?

 

Hi Simon

Yours is a very neat garden, well done.

On my patio area I have lots of pots of various designs and sizes growing mostly ornimental grasses including the black grass and red baron, I think they look lovely. I will maybe pot them on into bigger pots this year if they start to look unhealthy. I see you already have a cordyline in a pot. I also have a small japanese acer and a witch hazel in pots.

I personally think you can plant what you like it doesn't have to be uniform it is all about trial and error, many a time I've planted something in the wrong place so I just move it, and I try to grow something different every year.

Enjoy it and experiment

 

Yes Simon you can grow grasses in pots in fact sometimes thats the only way to keep the things under control!

A few grasses I have planted out in the garden are known to spread everywhere and anywhere so to keep them in check I have planted them in a large container and then buried that into the ground....... after all I can't be having thugs in the garden otherwise I would have to issue out ASBO's! :D Hel.xxx.

 

Hel... How deep do you bury the container? And what do you call a large container (roughly). Just my large and your large may be two different ideas!!

I suppose there are two benefits, 1) stops the spread of the plant and 2) don't have to water as much as if they were completely out of the ground.

 

Simon - have grown various grasses in pots for a number of years along wth Canna Lilies which add colour or maybe other softer edging plants. If you want to bury the pots then just use large plastic ones. As Simon says you can plant anything really and use the 'water retaining granules' to help keep them going although I have had few problems with grass. I presume you have looked at Phormiums/etc.. Doug.......

 

Simon any size container will do even an old bucket if you so choose just remember to drill a few draining holes in the bottom and away you go.

I just dig out a hole slightly bigger than the container, loosen the surrounding soil and pop the thing in.... it will of course stop a thug growing too big for it's boots and also will allow you to move it with ease if you should decide you don't like the plant where it is.

It's also a great idea to plant thugs like mint etc. in pots and then into the ground as boy can it spread like wildfire given half a chance!Hel.xxx.