Ask Strawman

1. How did you come to join Gardeners Corner?

I began by searching the pages of Google for forums connected to my gardening and natural history interests. Gardenerâ??s Corner was the first one to catch my eye. I especially liked the fact that the forum was open for all to see, which in turn I felt gave the curious the opportunity to browse before the possibility of joining. From the posts I saw, I knew straightaway that GC would be the idea medium for making friends, looking for advice, hints and tips, and hopefully pass on some of my own gardening knowledge that Iâ??ve gathered over the years.

2. Name the countries or counties you have lived in â?¦

Iâ??ve lived in the UK all my life, originally starting out in Hampshire, then moving to Derbyshireâ??s Peak District where Iâ??ve been for forty-four years.

3. Describe the type of work you do.

Iâ??m pleased to say that Iâ??m now happily retired. However, Iâ??ve done a lot of different jobs, including, Cook, Vehicle body repairer, In house advertising, Factory work, Parks department gardener, Archaeology, Builderâ??s labourer, Charity work and Self-employed.

4. Describe how you first got into gardening â?¦

When I lived at home in Hampshire, I always liked to tend the family garden as a youngster, but sadly, when I became a teenager my thoughts and interests turned to other things, as happens to most young boys at that age. Then, in my early twenties, I managed to get a temporary job in a parks department, where I found a renewed interest in gardening. Circumstances, low pay, forced me to change my vocation and I went into the car repair trade, work that I did for about ten years or so. I wasnâ??t to get back into gardening again until I moved into my present home where Iâ??ve now lived for thirty-four years. My gardening began again, but mainly at the weekends where I joined the lawn mowers brigade, or at least it seemed like it at the time. It has only been during the past eighteen years that my garden has seen more of me than before. Even so, Iâ??ve changed the layout many times before I reached its current situation today. I change my mind so many times in its design that Iâ??m not sure that itâ??s finished even now.

5. What would be your dream type of garden and do you think you will ever be able to achieve it?

I donâ??t really have a dream garden. I suppose that with my other interest in nature and my peakland surroundings, I tend to look upon this as my ideal garden of a sorts.

6. Have you any particular favourites in celebrity gardeners, flowers, shrubs and/or vegetables?

My gardening hero is Geoff Hamilton. I think that of all the gardeners that have been, or are on television at the present time, he best associated himself with the people he gave advice to on Gardenerâ??s World. My second hero has to be Bob Flowerdew. He inspires me to growing organically, and I particularly like his approach to gardening in general, waste not, want not, that takes some following. Iâ??ve had a very long interest in wild flowers, where for around twenty-five years Iâ??ve been preparing my local flora, and no, I still havenâ??t finished it.

7. Have you ever entered any of your plants into shows?

Goodness, no! I donâ??t think that Iâ??ve ever grown anything worth someoneâ??s praise, certainly not in the competitive sense. Unfortunately, they donâ??t seem to like, nor have horticultural shows near me. Shame, but there it is.

8. If you had a garden created in your memory, what plants do you think would most adequately sum up you and your life?

To be frank, I wouldnâ??t want a garden built in my memory. You see, where plants are concerned, wild flowers are part of my life too, and so Iâ??d like to think that these sum up me and my life perfectly. They will grow and settle almost anywhere. The give pleasure to many and I hope that I do the very same thing.:thmb:

 

Hi Strawman
You have an obvious love for nature so is your garden a "natural" garden in that you encourage plants to grow in a relaxed manner ie where the seeds etc fall or is it all laid out and planned and planted up in an organized way?
So what plants do you favour in your garden?
Do you feel you are still learning? Sorry I like to know these things :D

 

I have a garden that runs around from one side of the house to the other, as it's an end of terrace property. The back garden is divided into two parts, not equal. I have fruit, apples, cherries, black currants, loganberries, blackberries, wild strawberries and goosgogs growing in one third, while the remaining part, excepting the enclosed patio, is where my wild garden is. The front garden is fenced off from the other.

Most of the plants in the wild section have been planted with a purpose, ferns, carex, pieris, creeping jenny, crane's bills, flowering currant, columbine, welsh poppy, daffodils, some ivy, woodruff, forget-me-not and so on, surround the pond. Others, woundwort, red campion, herb robert, herb bennet, and water avens have seemingly arrived on their own. The whole garden is surrounded by a hedge consisting of, Ash, willow, holly, red stemmed cornus, hop, mile a minute plant, pyracantha, rugosa rose, elder, cotoneaster horizontalis, bramble, honeysuckle several varieties, fuchsia magellanica, dog rose, potentilla and a good few more.

Everything within this garden was laid out on a plan that I drew some years ago, and I've tried where I've been able to, to stick to that plan. Like everyone else, I let plants develop as they will, then I'll step in and coax them into some sort of order. It's a battle at times, but I enjoy it, and I'm gradually winning. I was going to post this plan in order to let everyone see the layout, but like other things, I canâ??t remember where I put it. (Honest.):hehe:

Yes, I feel that Iâ??m learning all the time, but itâ??s with the progress I make around the garden. The work is never finished and Iâ??m always planning what Iâ??m going to do next season.:thmb:

Youâ??ve no need to apologise, Jazmine. If I didnâ??t like being questioned, I wouldnâ??t have joined this forum.:hehe:

 

Sounds like your garden will be an ongoing project for years - you mention that you don't know if it's 'finished yet'. I don't think that a true gardeners garden is ever finished - it's an ever evolving project, making changes as you discover new things.

I would love to see pics of your wildlife garden - it sounds interesting! Do you have any pics you can post?

Thanks for sharing your comments - interesting to know how people got into gardening, and how they have progressed through the years.

 

Hi, natalieB. You are right, a garden can never be said to be finished, and the reason for this is that plants die as well as grow in size and stature. I guess that in my garden, I never seem wholly satisfied with what has been done. Itâ??s so easy to come up with new ideas, either from GC or just those that lead on from what is already in the general design of the garden.

There are some images of the pond area of my garden on the forum, Water Gardening. Do a search for My wildlife contribution. Iâ??ll try and take a few more images during the coming week.

In the meantime, thanks for askingâ?¦ :thmb:

 

Just looked at your thread in the watergardens thread.......would you mind if I borrowed your bench to relax on for a day? I think I could handle a day just sitting there soaking it all in - it looks so peaceful Nice to find things popping up on their own too - a garden is always growing and expanding!

 

Hi Kathy,

Thak you once again for your kind remarks. I have to admit that I'm perhaps a bit too finicky when it comes to achieving my goals. The odd thing is that although I did plan the main garden on a sheet of paper, I did most of the layout from how I saw things in my mind's eye. Some time ago, I was impressed by a Ha-Ha I saw on television and I thought, why not create an illusion... so I did.

My main garden is an odd shape, not only at the boundary, but because of the shape of the house. But being the way it is, it has allowed me to form little areas that differ from each other, and each one is about three by three metres, except my growing area which is about four by eight metres. It's this latter area that I'm always changing according to what I want to introduce that we can eat.

The whole of the main garden runs from my neighbour, along the length of the house and around the end of it, about 18 metres by up to 6 metres because it tapers slightly. The end is my woodland/pond/wildlife area, where it stops at half the depth of the house, where a high fence separates it from the front garden, which again is slightly longer than the house. This is another story altogether...:hehe:

 

Thanks Natalie, I think that everyone should have somewhere quiet where they can relax and escape from whatever one does during the day. The first time I sat on that seat, I not only heard and watched the birds doing their thing, but I also heard my first frog, and that did it for me. Outside my fence, I'm in a street that could be anywhere. Inside, I'm in a world of my creation and I adore it.