My Garden

Hi we moved to this house about 2 years ago and I have decided to make a start on the garden however the lawn is quite a steep slope and money being quite an issue this year I have decided to just start small and add some colour here and there.

I must add this is all very new to me but would like to prove to myself that I can do it.

This is what I have done so far. I have also added questions after each pic

The grass is now becoming greener and will be mowed again this weekend it was a couple of feet tall a few weeks back.

Everything is in pots until I get round to digging a bed right the way round as my OH gets quite happy with the strimmer.

This is what I to work with:


These are passion flowers planted either side of the gate.

Can these be trained to climb and go across the fence?

My clematis' started out very small about 3 weeks ago and now look like this:





Am I doing alright by them?

I sat in the garden and noticed a pretty plant weaving its way through my lilac tree. Thanks to google I now know its a honeysuckle.

This was before:


And after a few hours of untwisted, chopping and cutting it is now like this:

Have I done the correct thing for it?

With some of the branches from the lilac tree i have made this:

Will Morning Glory grow up it or should I invest in some Jasmine?

If so should I put my Morning Glory in this corner?


Sun is on most of the garden all day long.

Sorry that was a bit long winded but thought it would be easier to do it all at once rather than lots of threads.
Any tips or advice will be most apprieciated.

Stacy xx

 

I Think your Garden is lovely keep at it for showing us

No Dout Some one with Knoliage on your Questions will be Along Soon with the Ansers well Done Stacy & too G C Folly Mon Nick

 

You're making a good start Stacy,as Armandii says i too think your best bet is to get your borders dug out to how you would like them and once those clematis are in the ground they'll romp away and look lovely...it's going to look great...keep us posted

 

So if the rain holds off tomorrow I shall start the digging

 

Are you doing curvy borders or straight ones....just being nosey

 

Depends how carried away i get lol ideally straight otherwise the OH will make me start cutting the grass

 

Am also thinking a rockery garden up in the bottom left of the garden next to the shed where I am training the honeysuckle as its shady most of the time.

 

If your passion flower is anything like the one I had then you can train it to go anywhere - they are very vigorous once they get going. I would advice attaching a wire, plastic or wooden trellis to the fence and then you can wind each new shoot through as they grow longer. They do tend to look as though they have died in the Winter so brush off any dead leaves. It will soon revive in the Spring.
Pippa Greenwood gave some advice on clematis in GQT this week. She advised planting a vigorous evergreen climber against a fence up which the clematis can scramble in the spring/Summer - I am definitely going to try this.
Be careful to find shade loving rockery plants - when you get your rockery going - so many rockery plants love the sun. Try chocolate Ajuga, dwarf periwinkles,Lily of Valley,
dwarf Berginias (at the back) dwarf campanula, Aubretias. Dot with violas in the Spring.

 

Thankyou Letty. I shall bear this all in mind

 

As your climbers grow, they will put on a lot of weight. In a few years they will weigh a lot more than they look like they do. I'd be ready to add much more sturdy support for them. The mesh may not be secured well enough, and indeed you need to make sure the fence is going to take the weight.

A honeysuckle with, I guess maybe 4 or 5 years growth on it, pulled my mate's fence right down.

 

Do curvy ones:WINK1:

 

I'd go with curvy borders as well. Make several rough sketches on paper before choosing. You can also lay out a hose pipe on the ground to help plan where the bed edges should go. Also, you can put sand or flour to mark the edge before digging as it's easy to lose track of a curved edge otherwise.

Is that a gate at the back? Are you planning to use it? If so, you'll need to take account of the gate when you plan your borders and make sure you leave clear access to it. If you have kids (i'm guessing so unless you and your hubby like trampolining) then you might want to plan a clear grassy space near the house with no border next to it as then you won't have to worry about protecting that bit from the kids all the time.

 

Ah yes, the gate. You could add interest by making the border reasonably wide on both sides, and plant something that has height. This (imo) will create the effect of drawing the eye, and inviting you in. Fair enough, there might be nothing beyond, but as I said, it will add interest.

Cheers...Freddy