Hi from Southport

Hi everyone, saying hello from sunny Southport. Turning 40 this Summer, I must be getting old and boring signing up to a gardening forum! Moved house last Oct so just getting to grips with our new garden.

It has quite a few well established shrubs, a nice Yucca, a lovely Acer, and some cool curved stone borders. Also a nice little courtyard and small pond with 2 goldfish in it. From the courtyard, you walk under a nice arch and onto a path which runs through the middle, to the end, which is just a stoned area with a bench on it and a huge tree in the corner which I will probably ask to be ID'd as I haven't got a clue about trees! In some ways I like the path, but the kids don't as it splits the 'football pitch' which is our lawn, in two!

We have an outhouse building with some appliances in, which at some point we will knock through to extend our small kitchen, as it is part of the house after all. If we do that, all the tools etc that are also in there will need a home, so over time we'll probably need some kind of shed at the far end.

It seems to be a relatively low maintenance garden, in that some areas have black sheeting down to prevent weed growth, then bark over the top. Just need to keep on top of cutting shrubs back, etc. Towards the back there is a small soil area with brick surround which no doubt has had plants in in the past but now just has weeds and nothing else. Its an area ripe to be made into something nice. I have no experience of rockeries whatsoever, but I can envision a nice one with alpines, etc in that space.

Looking forward to learning some stuff on here. I'll probably be looking for potting tips, for the courtyard, perhaps some ID's, rockery tips, etc. I can upload photos later. Cheers!

 

Welcome to the forum @Dave_79 !

I know you will enjoy this forum. Yes, there are a lot of old people here but I don't think we're boring. Stick around and have some fun with this helpful and witty crowd

 

Hello and welcome Dave-79

 

Thanks for the welcomes. How do I upload a camera photo please? JPGs are 6 MB, I used a compressor but it got the 2 pics down to 1.36MB & 0.99MB which I think is still too big, and also even compressed they are like 5000 x 4000 pixels when they need to be no more than 800 x 600 right? What compression software do you use? Thanks

 

I wish I could help you here - I just use the Upload a File button and the software here magically makes up for my incompetence.

Anyone else help here?

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner Dave_79. Just for the record there are a number of younger gardeners here which you'll meet along the way. My photo's/images are uploaded at a 1000 pixels, but I think the best person to give you advice on this is our member of admin @Fat Controller. He's brilliant with technology!

 

Greetings.

I upload my photos as they are. I have no idea about specifications .

G.

 

The flattery is well earned @Fat Controller.

 

They won't upload. Not from a phone, taken with a camera on SD card. Wonder why the compressed 1 MB pics won't upload then. Can I manually make the size fit 800 x 600 somehow? Tried standard file upload and also dragging and dropping the files into the reply box. Both said 'too big'

 

Big welcome Dave 79. You at 40 , getting old. Rubbish.....compost. I'm twice your age and still learning, so ask your questions and keep us on our toes.

 

Are you using a laptop/PC Running Windows?

If so, the simplest way is to open the image with Paint then Home>Resize>Pixels>Horizontal and change to 800

 

Yes I am. Thanks, will try later