New to the forum and happy to have found it

Hi everyone,

We found the forum through google and are really happy to have found it.

We've never had a garden before but had container plants on our balcony in our last flat in London. We've since moved to Dorset and have, for the first time, a communal garden which we are all allowed to do our little bit in. One corner of the garden was really overgrown by a hedge that hadn't been cut back in years - it was over 10 ft tall. It's now been cut back to reveal loads of bramble, bindweed and ivy, in fact the whole ground is a carpet of ivy. Just under the earth are thick bramble roots and the ivy just goes on and on. Of course that is the corner of the garden that the others in the block have said we can have to plant a flowerbed!!! We have dug and dug but don't seem to really be getting anywhere but we refuse to give up.

The whole point is that we want to plant a flowerbed for wildlife that smells nice. We've bought some bulbs and have seeds and have some plugs coming in a few weeks time. We are really trying to turn a few feet into a cottage garden look if that's possible. Think we will be visiting the beginners section a lot!!

Quick question while on our introduction - if we plant bluebell bulbs in the same place as we plant say delphiniums and other cottage garden plants, would the bluebells strangle the others or would it be ok?

Looking forward to getting to know other members and hopefully one day maybe we will be able to help someone who is as lost as we are.

pipistrollers

 

Good evening and welcome to the site. Bluebells get on fine with other plants,but, may I say. Please do not use Spanish Bluebells, Endymion (Scilla) hispanicus, as they are doing to the native Bluebell, what the Grey squirrel has done to the Red squirrel.:thumb:

 

Hi and welcome.

You're going to have a fair old battle on your hands to get the bindweed under control. I know you're keen to get planting and have ordered many of your plants and bulbs, but to be honest I wouldn't put anything in there until the bindweed is under control, and that will take quite a while. Others may disagree, but personally I'd spray the whole patch with glyphosate based herbicide, like Round-Up. Digging out bindweed is an exercise in futility. I appreciate you want a wildlife friendly garden and so may be reluctant to use chemicals, but glyphosate is generally ok. It doesn't leave a residue, is harmless to animal life (except aquatic life - don't use it near a pond or watercourse), and rapidly breaks down into harmless starches on contact with soil.

If you don't get the bindweed under control, it will quickly smother and strangle all your new plants. However the good news is that once it is under control, it is fairly easy to keep under control. My garden was infested with the stuff until I blitzed it last year. This year I just need to do my 'bindweed patrol' every few days to spray the odd shoot that appears, but all my plants are happy enough now.

 

Thank you everyone and thanks for the welcome to the forum.

You will be hearing quite a bit from us.

We were actually thinking on taking some photographs of our patch as it is and how it progresses so we can look back on it and the hard work and what it achieves.

 

Welcome to GC Pipistrollers, there is something for everyone on this wonderful forum. Enjoy!

 

Welcome to GC, you have moved to a beautiful county.