Evil Len's Random Garden Blog

So this will be my little corner of GC where I'm going to post random rubbish about my garden as it progresses through the year

For those that may recall, we moved into this house 1 year and 2 days ago. Been making some tweaks to the garden (mainly involving adding colour and plants) but the biggest change so far was the 'conifer hedge' border, which is now the purple border (see other thread).

General shot across the left corner of the garden taken about a month ago. The plot is actually slightly triangular, opening up to the left. The alliums have turned to seed now, which is a shame.



This left hand bit is nicknamed 'woodland corner', it's under a couple of really nice big but shady trees, so it's all sedum, lady's mantle etc. Also planted LOTS of aquilegia under the alliums



Nice galvanised "proper" watering can from my parents for my birthday

I split the hosta last year ... that's half of it, both new halves have gone bonkers and look great, so I'm going to do it again this autumn. Might end up with 100's of hostas, lol. Copper tape round the pot keeps the slugs off.

Using the remains of the conifer hedge a maded a log pile for 'sects



It also fills a boring area where nothing will grow. Wish I could keep the ends of the logs white, but I bet they will go mouldy.

 

The purple border for those that haven't seen the other thread. Been supplemented since by plants (incl a geranium) from Gardeners World Live



A shot of the "hot" border. It's a bit boring now, and not very hot. I want to change it quite a lot over time, but I dont know what I want to do to it yet, time will tell. Desperately needs some colour in it though. Fancying a rhody (red/orange ?) on the left instead of the laurel.



Slightly sunnier shot of same



The rhubarb on the right has been great

 

Talking of rhubarb, here's the worlds tiniest veg plot !!

This is my first foray into growing veg, and I want to do more throughout the garden but victorian style, i.e. in amongst the other plants. From right to left ... peas, beetroot, carrot (in a "trench" of compost as the ground is very stony) and two rows of spring onion. Round the edge, poached egg plant.



The beetroot got mullared by (I think) slugs ... hope they come back. Resorted to putting slug pellets down. As a backup I've got some new beetroot growing in pots in the spare bedroom.

 

And lastly for now, rose (which benefited from our horses finest export last autumn, and it's showing) ...



And my sweet pea / petunia pot, all grown from seed (I'm so proud of myself, lol !)

 

All looking top notch Len.
Has your pretty yellow rose got a name?

 

Couldn't tell you, it's obviously been here many years, but there's no tag sorry

 

Looking good Evil L

 

It's all looking great Len. What's the young red leafed tree to the right in the 'hot' border please?

 

It's not a tree, it's a standard rose with lovely coral coloured flowers Actually I need to do something about that next year, as (like many things in this garden) it's been mis managed previously and it's a horrible, curved/sloping shape ... when it's not tiddling down I'll take a photo and show you what I mean ...

 

Very nice, everything seems nicely planted and complemented. I had great sweet peas last year after growing seed in my greenhouse in autumn/winter to be planted out the following year. They were much stronger and more vigoruous than ones planted in spring. I shall do that again.
Lovely rose, which reminds me to get some muck onto mine.
Good idea for insect housing, gonna do that myself now.
Where do you upload you pics to ? I posted a pic ages ago but I can't even remember which site I uploaded it to !
gazania

 

Thanks !
I just upload to GC ... click on "upload a file" on the button next to "post reply", then you can embed into the post.

 

It pretty much was about 50% of why we bought this house

Yes it is north facing (slightly to the west). The rear garden is a bit on the shady side, which is a shame, but most of it gets sun at some point (especially the soon-to-be-'hot' border, which is one reason why I want to change it from mainly green bushes to something more interesting, as it's in the best position)

Only been through one winter, but to be honest the winds weren't too bad. I guess a combination of the 6' fences either side, the fact we're in a slight hollow, and the trees you can see around the side of the field which curve round ... they must all give it some protection. Though last winter was mild of course ...

 

Really looking good EL....and your open views top it all off

 

oh i dream of a garden like this