new garden - deciding how to start!

I know what you mean, Freddy. The problem is, I have no "soil" per-say. It is either sand, a few patches of clay (probably from the building - and are hard to locate) or compost. Being in a foreign land, I wouldn't know where to go to order topsoil, and I've not seen loam for sale....

About halfway through the refill, I gathered up all the molehills, which seem to be in the more clay-like areas of the garden (hubby reckons that is because they can't physically make their tunnels in the sandy areas - it really is that bad!) and put a 2" layer through the bed. Thanks to my willing little helpers ... I could probably do the same again?! That would be before the topmost layer of compost. Also, the compost is not beautiful crumbly stuff - three is still quite a bit of bulk in there, as not all the twiggy stuff is fully broken down. I didn't sift it (haven't got a sieve, or a spare slave!), so there is a little extra bulk in there. My reasoning was that it was definitely going to be better than the sand I dug out, and the bulky bits should stop it all forming nothing more than a nutritious slurry in the bottom of my dug-out bed.

I do get your point though - and I hope that my sowing later this month will work.

 

It does seem to be more than 1/2 acre, especially when pushing a barrow of compost from the lowest to nearly the highest point! Seriously though, it should be an accurate measure, as we are taxed by the government on the amount of land - hence I have the figure down to one hundredth of an Are. The figure is just over 24 ares, and I took one are out for the gate entrance loss, and the footprint of the house. If it is more, I'm keeping my head down and keeping quiet!!

The plot is very open, with no strong features in the centre of the garden, so that might be making the shots look bigger?
Maybe I ought to work on an overhead plan.....

 

We have a lot of trees on our property, wooded feel. If you go to redstars gardens you can see what we have done over the years. Right now we have about 60 thousand flower bulbs planted that start coming up in spring and so on. Always doing something to the gardens.

 

I love having trees in the garden. There used to be two big trees in the centre of the garden here. One stump remains, about 1' above the ground, and 1' across. I have ideas of making a round "tree" seat to go onto the stump, with the large pot in the centre. Still just a mental plan though, not even put down on paper... There was at least one other tree, there's a dip in the grass, with very different plants in that area of the "lawn", indicating a change in the soil nutrients. We are surrounded by woods, and with the Belgians generally liking open gardens, we have had to make a tough decision. In order to keep the house easy-to-sell, we will not plant any more big trees, and keep the garden open. But fruit trees are not covered by this "ban", and are being positively sought out.

We have done two main fruit tree plantings, 10 in all. 2 have died, both in the same spot (hole redug much deeper), and near to the patch of "changed" soil. We suspect that there is some soil contamination there. No more trees will be placed there, and instead new trees, hopefully being sorced later this year, will go further up the garden. So far we have bought "warehouse" trees, I'd from shops / garden centres. The remaining 2-3 Apple trees will be bought from a specialist nursery. Because of the poor soil, we need something stronger than the normal dwarfing rootstock (M26?), probably M106. The extra rootstock vigour will hopefully compensate for the poor sandy soil.

We are getting there. I need to keep telling myself this! It does seem such an uphill struggle though...

When the eye bed is flourishing later this year, I plan to do a separate thread for this, from start to finish, if that's ok. I think I will be doing the majority of views on it, just to tell myself that we are getting there!!

 

I thought I would go round the garden, trying to take exactly the same photos as the initial ones (won't be quite the same as taken with iPad, not camera)

Interesting to see what has changed, what has not!
The flat bit and the steep bit...


Instead of an amputee tree, we have two new apple trees, as well as a red currant and black currant


Both of the large trees in this shot are smaller than before - I thinned out the dead from the cherry tree in the first year (one with seed feeder on), and the apple tree to the right has been reduced, as it had bad canker this year


You can really see the reduction of the canker apple tree in this shot, as it is now not much bigger than the "small" tree I referred to...


The scrubby silver birch bed is looking MUCH better! That is supposed to be a sour cherry tree in the centre, but we suspect Mr Aldi was having labelling issues, as the fruit is the size and shape of a greengage!! (Although it did flower early, along with the other cherries, rather than with the plums...)


Major improvement here. From a pile of builders rubble, to a beautiful and very productive herb, veg and flower bed!

 

And the next few shots...


We now have a very productive veg bed, on the second attempt. We are currently picking courgettes, mangetout peas, asparagus peas, lettuce, and rocket, with two rows of toms, a 2nd yellow courgette plant, and a couple of aubergines yet to come into production...
The raspberries and strawberries just to the left of the veg bed I'm sure are very productive, but you would need to ask Mrs Foxy on the quality of the fruit. Maybe that's what she was screaming about at 4am this morning...?!


Not so easy to make out on this photo, but there is a lot more "texture" in the top bed. I have taken out many hazel stools, and will cut the remaining ones back soon. The canopy of the young oak tree has been raised, to allow more light in for the young cherry, and gooseberry bush (hope Mrs Foxy doesn't strip this bush, as she did the one at the other end of the garden....)


This area hasn't changed much, apart from the photinias growing, as most of the changes have taken place just to the right of shot (a shady spring bulb area, so not much to see at this time of year)


The garden shed - it survived being rotated by the falling of the big fir tree just to its left


I just can't chop a happy geranium down! It does make getting to the cellar access door behind the house interesting!!



The view remains beautiful!

(Ok, I'm used to being photo-bombed by my dogs, but now my finger is getting in on the act!!)

 

It's looking good Sian, I didn't recognise the eye bed to start with, it's certainly grown up.

 

Thank you @Sheal and @ARMANDII !

It's not the best angle to photograph the new eye bed, but it was the best angle for the rubble!!

Here are some other photos of the eye bed, which show it off better


"Looks good, doesn't it, Mum?"


In this photo you can see why the fennel blocks out the "repeat" photos - hubby calls it the triffid! I find seedlings coming up 50metres away, so he could have a point....


A shot from the first floor, so you can just make out the pupil of the eye....

As you can see, @Sheal, your lovely poppies have moved in!

 

The bed has certainly filled out in a short space of time and the triffid is well underway!

 

I have started to move the partially rotted horse manure from the compost bay (where it was layered with month-old garden compost, about 2 months ago) up to the veg bed.
5 barrow loads have been taken up so far. It is mostly rotted (a few patches were obviously too dry, so have been spread at the bottom of the top-up) with the straw barely visible, and only the odd bit of dung recognisable. When the 8 tomato plants, two aubergines and French beans are finished, I'll move another 10 or so barrow loads up there, and let them rot down over the winter.

Apologies for the ramshackle tomato plants, they got far too heavy for their stakes, and are now just a mad tangle - taking out side shoots has been a challenge, to say the least!

My main autumn project will be a combination of plant musical chairs, and tree planting. We currently have three different ornamental beds, the "patio" bed, the "island" bed, and the "angle" bed. They are all a hotch-potch of different colours. I am thinking of making them a little more ordered.
The patio bed will be mainly whites, with occasional splashes of colour. The main focus of this bed is scent, as it is a sheltered area, just 10 foot from the patio, and so evening summer perfume is desirable.


How it looks when sitting on the patio


The island bed is a bit of a mess, really.
There is a white hibiscus; two different yellow daylilies, which are shy to flower, so I think need dividing?; a pink patio rose, two pink larger roses (one a David Austin, the other an Aldi special), some gladioli, foxgloves and a couple of lavenders. The choke berry tree is a pain. The flowers are almost invisible, the berries are pretty, but the branches are too weak to hold a bird feeder, and too low for mowing. The idea is to make this a "hot" bed, with yellows, oranges and reds. The tree will be removed, and a medlar put in (a little lower down the slope, where the blue pot is). I have some golden celebration roses to put in, along with a potentilla, and a yellow montbretia, curtesy of Mr Wyevale reductions. The yellow and orange gladioli will go in here, along with an Orange montbretia. (I think gladioli need to be lifted, although they overwintered last year. When is the best time?)

All the pink plants will be moved up to the top border, along with my new astilbes, and other half-price specials.

I plan to plant a silver birch (or two) to block the view of the neighbours house, and the street light.... Does anyone have any tips on how to get out a big hazel stool? - about 2 foot across? Do the roots go out, or mainly down?
We also have some hydrangeas waiting to be planted - am I correct in thinking they do better in partial shade? But like to be kept moist? So would they cope in sandy soil in the top border, if I put lots of compost in each planting hole?

I think the angle bed will remain a mix, as although most of the plants are pink or white, there are self-sown English marigolds and sunflowers in there, that keep popping up!


The fruit trees will be collected in November. Will it be ok to do the re-organisation then, or should I start now, and just prepare the planting hole ready for the medlar?

(Finally, couldn't resist showing the Passion flower plants, with their fruit turning orange!)

 

I've not grown them so can't help you with this one Sian.

Silver Birch being deciduous will give you a winter view of the house. If you would like evergreen have you considered Eucalyptus? Depending on which you choose they don't all grow to a great height.

I think that's just going to be hard graft Sian. Hazels apparently have a branching taproot but being as yours is fairly young it shouldn't be to difficult to remove.

Yes, they prefer to be in partial shade. I've seen some locally that are in full shade all day and are the most vivid shade of blue I've seen. I don't see why they would have a problem with sandy soil, they are quite common/popular in coastal areas.

Can you eat the fruit from your Passion Flower?

I'll enjoy watching your progress on this new venture Sian.

 

Oh, I wish, Sheal...

It's not the span of the hazel that is about a foot across - it's the stool, ie the collection of stems and small trunks, must of which are about 2" across...
I gues I know what I'll be doing this autumn, then! Knowing the shape of the root is a great help, though, so

 

Four hours later, we now have a hazel stool with a moat. It ain't budging, though. I think this may take a while??!!



...we we stopping for the day, it having been declared Beer O'clock.