A blank cavass- help required

Hi, after moving in 5 years ago the house is finally in shape, now time for the garden (in April onwards anyway) it has nothing, i stripped out everything.

Considerations

1. 12 month old baby
2. Yampy cocker spaniel
3. sun is on front of house only a bit on back garden
4. soil needs nutrition etc.

Attachments-

Pic 1- never gets the sun at all, its under the kitchen window, always in shade.

Pic 2- side of garden, gets sun from 3pm onwards can be hot

Pic 3- the part of garden that gets full sun once sun pokes head over top of house, if its hot day then this section gets the full blast furnace sun

Pic 4- Gets sun from time to time through the day,sits sideways to pic 3.

Requirements:

Colour in summer, greenery in winter, i dont want it to look like everything has died come the winter still would like it to look abundant.

I dont want to have to replace everything year after year i want it to be an established garden in years to come, i dont mind putting a few bedding in plants for colour every year.

Plant budget around £400

can anyone help because i havnt got a clue!

 

hard to believe i know but the lawn is perfect once it dries out! just looks like a quagmire in the winter.

 

Hard to guess sizes based on photos, but here are a few ideas

Under the Kitchen window (shade)

make a bed the full length of the area, and make it 500mm wide ....

add 3 large evergreen ferns evenly spaced (one on each corner and one in the middle) .... look at planting ferns such as Dryopteris affinis 'Cristata' (The King) ... these will cost you approx £8 each ... evergreen and grow to a decent height



inbetween the 3 ferns, add some huechera .... go for 2 contrasting colours (red and yellowish) .... they are evergreen and will supply colour throughout the year ... you may need 8 of each ... and they cost approx £5 each off ebay ....

Huechera georgia peach:


huechera electra:


so, for the area as depicted on pic 1 (under the kitchen window), will cost you approx £104

Pic 2 ... side of garden ... sun/semishade (assuming the length is 6 meters)

make a bed the full length, and approx 1 meter wide ....

for the front edging, buy Hakonechloa macra 'Aureola' .... you will need about 10 evenly spaced .... they cost approx £7 each off ebay


on the 2 edges of the bed, plant 2 Fatsia Japonica ... (evergreen and hardy) ... these will cost you approx £10 each



in the centre of the bed, plant a Chamaerops humilis palm .... a smallish one will cost you £40


inbetween the palm and the Fatsia Japonica, plant some large leaved hostas combined with evergreen ferns (you may need 4 ferns and 4 hostas) .... this will cost you approx £50 ....


so, total for this section will be approx £180

Section 3 (full sun)

make a bed approx 1 meter wide ....

plant a star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides) against the fence .... evergreen and will cost you approx £16 for a smallish one ... after a couple of years, this will cover the full area of the wall


in the centre of the bed, plant a Trachycarpus fortunei palm .... a smallish one will cost you approx £40


on the 2 edges of the bed, plant 2 musa basjoo ... not evergreen, but they grow fast in summer .... needs a bit of protection in winter (easy to do, and lots of info on google) ... will cost you £10 each


inbetween the musa and the palm, plant several Huecherella Solar power (evergreen and leaves change colour in the seasons) .... you will need approx 8 of these and they cost approx £5 each



so, this section will cost you approx £116

Section 4 (semi shade)

make a bed approx 1 meter wide ....

and duplicate what was done in section 2 (with the hostas and fatsia japonica) .... this will cost similar (approx £180)

so, based on those estimates, you are looking at a budget of approx £580 .... but if you shop around, you will get the plants cheaper .... and may well come in at the £400 mark, espicially if bought off ebay ....

add a few pounds for a few bags of good compost ....

 

That is an amazing answer, thank you for spending the time on that!

 

For rough lengths, the fence panels in the pictures are 6ft wide and the bit under the kitchen window is 3 metre long

 

Is it worth me buying a load of soil conditioner nutrients and digging it in now in readiness for planting in spring? Or digging it in and planting over the weekend in spring?

 

Very good ideas there Dim. I like it.

 

Depends on the condition and type of soil you have. It is is heavy clay and has never been looked after, then maybe, but I don't think it can be that worn out because the lawn looks quite lush, so the soil must be breathing and draining ok.

If you do go for the soil conditioner plan though, try to do it on the cheap. I bought a load of spent mushroom compost at the beginning of this year, based on the recommendation of the wise Ziggy. I spent £156 for 60x50L sacks of the stuff delivered to my door. As far as my current garden is concerned, that was without doubt the best investment I've made. It has turned my completely finished, heavily compacted clay (which didn't even have earth worms in it when I dug it, and even weeds struggled), into perfectly good soil.

Yours doesn't look anywhere near as bad as mine was, so it may not be necessary for you, and indeed may consume a significant chunk of your budget for negligible return.

 

I'd wait till spring before doing anything ... if you do go for the palms, now would be a good time to buy them if you can store them somewhere in a greenhouse ....

the palms are hardy (the fortunei is hardy to -19 degrees C and the humulis is hardy to -10 degrees C but wait till spring to plant)

the palms will be a lot cheaper now than in spring

many people buy their palms from ebay Germany .... (you need to log into ebay.de)

you get much larger palms for the same price .... herewith some examples from the same seller:


Trachycarpus fortunei, 110-120cm, winterharte Palme ! | eBay

Chamaerops humilis, 80-90cm, frostharte Palme ! | eBay

it is worth your while finding a seller that has more of one plant that you require, so that you combine shipping costs ....

but always contact the seller before bidding and check if he ships to the UK

the seller of the 2 palms I gave the link to has loads of larger palms in auction format with a starting price of 1 euro .... not many people bidding at this time of year, so may be worth while trying to bag some of the large ones? .... The 2 examples I gave are buy it nows

 

check this:

rockdust: SEER Rockdust 20kg - SEER Rockdust - angus-horticulture.co.uk

and Vermicompost : VermiCompost, 40 litres - Angus Horticulture Ltd - angus-horticulture.co.uk

here is an articke on rockdust: SEER Rockdust

and here is an article on the work compost: (but the 1st link I gave is cheaper)
http://www.earth-essentials.co.uk/prod_details_blackgold.htm


I'd prepare the beds now if the soil is not too hard, but I would only add the compost etc in spring, and I would only use the rockdust and worm compost in the planting holes ....

 

Are all these plants and palms able to be kept in check with regular pruning? My concern is that my garden will resemble a jungle after a few years!

 

only ones on my list that can be pruned are the Fatsia (pruned for shape) ...

the palms bottom leaves are removed when they go yellow... the Humilis palms make side shoots which can be removed if it is growing in a small space ... but they grow very slowly (a foot a year) .... thats why it's best to buy the tallest ones you can afford, and hence my suggestion to search ebay germany (shipping is not expensive )....

some guys state that shipping from germany can be under 30 Ueros ... thats why I said to try find a german supplier who has all the palms, then you can get a cheaper shipping cost as it is combined in 1 large parcel/box)

Musa can have a few leaves removed if it grows too wild and big (they grow fast and have large leaves) ... they loose all their leaves in winter, then start regrowing in spring, but can grow 6 foot or taller in 1 season ... they don't enjoy exposed windy conditions though as the leaves take a hammering and shred ... an alternative to these will be the evergreen mahonia which also cost approx £10 each or Canna which are a bit more finicky and also need winter care

the photo I added of the hosta was a very large one .... you obviously would not buy such a huge species for a small bed, but was just an example of a large leaved hosta

I tend to prefer the 'jungly' look ... It is perhaps difficult for you to visualize what the whole combination will look like, but I can say that I have done several small gardens in a new build estate (gardens are 15 meters long and 10 meters wide), and after doing the 1st garden, I have loads of new jobs requesting the exact same style in the same village ... (flavour of the year?... this style has been also promoted on several gardening shows on tv, but they also include more expensive plants such as tree ferns etc) .... looks good though

am sure that you will get many other suggestions .as there are very experienced gardeners on this forum, all with different tastes ...

so don't rush

 

I dont suppose you have any actual photos of finished gardens? My wife is umming and ahing

 

not offhand ... but wait a week and I will post some pics of one I done recently

 

Excellent, very kind, and if its the avenue we pursue i promise to post pictures on here