Kristen's Project

Bizarre. Wish I understood why these things sometimes work, sometimes not, I could make customers a lot happier (instead of them just saying "rubbish site" and clicking off ...)

 

Thanks John. I'm quite chuffed about the engine crane - its been sat in the garage gathering dust for nearly a decade! Need to remember to put ropes under the pot when it is plunged though

How's your Exotic bed done this year? Your D.A.'s hopefully looked spectacular? and survived last Winter OK?

 

I like the idea of the heated car seat Something battery operated to avoid having to run mains out to the garden. I thought my Castor Oil plants were impressive, but its the first year I've grown them so dunno if they should have been bigger. Ditto the cannas, but mine are mostly for leaf-effect, but I expect the flowers would be more impressive in a sunnier year.

 

Ive started some castor oil off just to see if i could germinate them(pink & red)
Kristen your blog is brilliant ive been reading through it for hrs now

 

Looks fab Kristen, good job Btw, no probs with the link....

 

Rather too early I fear Joolz ... they grow like blue-blazes, and you'll struggle to contain them until last-frost. Suggest you keep them as cool as you can (but frost free) after they germinate so that they don't put on much growth.

I went to an exotic garden last year that had massive castor oil plants, and he said he over-wintered them to get them that big, but everyone else I have spoken to says there is no need as they grow so quickly. Started mine last year (first year for me) in around March and they were 6' or 7' by the end of the season.

 

Looking absolutely fantastic Kristen, hope my exotics look half as good as yours this year.
A lot of effort is now definitely paying off

 

Blimey .. last post was 01-Jan-2013 .... on that basis I should have plenty of material to bore you rigid with.

I'll kick off with the pretentiously sounding "Centre Court". Back in 2013 it looked like this:



We had recently seeded the lawn (in the distance), planted those tall Yews, and around the outside (left, far end and right) was a Yew hedge we had planted, as tiddlers, some years previously. The rough grass left and right is to become a Knot Garden.

When we moved in Centre Court was just a mere Outside Court ...



Despite my learned counsel to my daughters (both under 12 at the time ...) that Tennis might well be useful when husband-hunting, they weren't interested, the court was knackered, and slap bang in the middle of the garden. So I dug it up





and sowed some grass over winter 2011/2012



We had planted the Hornbeam hedges alongside the "long walk" (in the distance) a year or two earlier. They, and the Yew Hedge surrounding Centre Court, seem tiny now I am looking back in time.

By the middle of 2013 the Hornbeam were coming on, but the Yews standing fairly still ...

Tip: When planting a Hornbeam Hedge do that just before the wettest Summer on record !

By August 2014 the Hornbeam was doing really well, and the Yew perimeter was starting to be something you had to walk around, rather than "over"



We'd started building a Folly at the far end of the Long Walk and you can just about make out the Red Berberis "skirting board" around the Yew Perimeter



I bought cell grown plants in 2013 at 35p each potted up ... and potted on ...



The Berberis Skirting Board was planted out in 2014

This was my plan for the Folly (no artistic talent here ...)




Footings ...


Brick work ...



2018 and the perimeter Yews were coming along ... and I was keen to get the Knot Garden developed on the sides



... we finished the Folly



I also started "planning" for the Knot Garden. That involved quite a lot of Measurement, Spreadsheeting and leaning on my shovel agonising over whether everything would line up, and whether the sight-lines would work.

There was a significant drought in Summer of 2018, and my normal method of layout for new features, which involves mowing some lines, and then waiting for them to re-grow so that I could then mow Version Two.



The snag with that is that the grass needs to regrow, so each iteration was much delayed.

 

Welcome back Kristen - your garden looks amazing. The folly is superb and something most of us can only aspire to having in our own patches of garden. What a bargain the skirting board of berberis were. You have certainly been busy gardening on such a grand scale.

 

Hedges are filling out nicely and that folly looks fantastic, @Kristen!

Nick