Inspiration and advice required

Great area to fill Simon can see you'll have lots of fun doing it, look forward to seeing your progress, I grew most of the perennials for our garden from seeds and many shrubs from cuttings, like you we had a practicalyl blank canvas, very satisfying looking at it now.
Lol know just what you mean with the polycarbonate Kristen we've just sealed all ours in with silicon the top of a hill is not a good place for the flippin things, one windy day I watched four panels fly past into the building plot next door grrrr.

 

Yeah, they do have that reputation ... sadly the greenhouse companies don't seem to mention it in their literature ...

 

What a great plot!

Personally, I reckon that the compost bins are too big. Divide each side in half again and concentrate on filling one up at a time - heat will build up quicker (especially with a waterproof cover) and break the organic matter up faster. A cover will help stop rain cooling it down (and turning too slimey too).

Anyway, a few ideas plant wise. There is a thread on here called Super Salvias - take a look and see if anything grabs your fancy. Not all Salvia are hardy, so feel free to ask.

Asphodeline lutea - I have lots of seeds, takes a couple of years to bloom. Bulks up well over a few years..................


Aconitum - bear in mind that it is poisonous (but so are an awful lot of common garden plants including Daffodils, Potatoes and Rhubarb)....................




Mecanopsis should do well up there. Buy carefully as some are sterile.....................


Camassia for the spring......................


Campanula comes in all shapes and sizes. Here are some of my hardy ones....................










Likewise with Digitalis. One to three are perennial, four is biennial....................








I could go on, but this post is getting rather long already.

I could send you a starter pack of seeds. PM me if you want a full list.

 

I think 3' x 3' is a good size, provided enough material to fill it in reasonably short time. Bigger than that is on the large side (unless you have a LOT of material).

3' square is the same size as a pallet - so strapping three of them together to make the sides would do the job

 

You could use one or both walls for espallier fruit trees.
If you invest in a shredder it could save some trips to the recycle centre and help produce more compost.

 

Not been on for a while as am a bit of a fair weather gardener. Thanks for all the support and ideas. Looking forward to the spring now and lots of work ahead. The bulbs I planted earlier and starting to slow some signs of life already

 

Great plot with lots of potential. Have you thought of a wild flower area. Easy enough to sort out and quite cheap for seed online.

Rusty

 

I am in Newtongrange

 

Sure is.

First bit of gardening of the year this week. Weeded the veg plot not covered by weed surpresent and also the flower bed we made last year. Nearly hoed out some bulbs that have started to break the surface. Then turned the compost which was starting to become a bit sludgey with too much chicken waste on the top. I almost forgot what a good workout gardening can be. I finished off with getting wood sorted for the burner and making up some kinding.

Looking forward to lots of projects to come and still trying to get a plan in my head about what goes where. Chickens will be first job as where they are now will become a patio. They get the small bit where there are a few tree stumps so it will give them something to grub about in and save me the problem of dealing with the stumps

 

First plants of the year ordered. A host of berry and currants bushes from Blackmoors. I better shine up the spade and fork as they will be being put to use this weekend

 

I've spent a lovely day in the garden with my wife preparing a bed for the berries and currants I have ordered. We were digging up an old overgrown Rose patch and it was pretty heavy work. We are lucky though as the soil in our garden is really nice so when you have worked it you are left with a really good medium. Finished it off with some compost from the heap which should be really rich with all the chicken droppings.

When the back was too sore to dig anymore I decided to tackle a tree which we have wanted rid of for a wee while. The tree was around 20 foot high and quite spindly. We attacked it with a line to pull it away from telephone cables and a big bow saw. Really pleased we got it down with no issues and will have the bonus of 3 or 4 days firewood in a year or so.

We also got a good few bulbs out of the rose garden and these have now been transplanted. Hope they do ok. All that is left is to wait for the berries and currants to arrive an get to the really good part of planting them. I will probably do 2 rows around 3 foot apart for the raspberries and train them along a wire fence structure.

As usual any advice is more than welcome. The area we have cultivated is around 5 foot wide by 20 foot long. The rest of the bed will be worked on as soon as we can and will feature more fruit based planting.

 

Normally grown in rows that you can walk between. If you are planting them as a double-row I would plant them staggered.

I reckon you need about 10 x Raspberry plants to get a good crop (as in: enough for a family to have a meal a couple of times a week). If you have more space than I would plant 10 each of different varieties that fruit at different times - or perhaps, say, 5 of each variety if the fruiting times overlap.