Novice's Garden - trials and tribulations

Well that's helpful. I'd better get a move on. I need to make a start with a bit of grass just to prove to myself it's not overwhelming. It's going to have to be seed 'cos of the money situation and I've got a packet ready. I could do one side of the sandpit so she can still get to the other side. And get grass around the plant beds I'm making so they don't keep filling up with weeds from the side.
But there's so much planting to do too, if the wind is ever going to get blocked.........

 

Clever. Hunting down a beer perhaps! And yes, wargaming is the only hobby worth having. Apart from gardening of course! You a hunter or wargamer then?

 

Re: The wind and ugly neighbours.

There's a lot of wind here and the neighbouring houses need blowing up. Or screening. Lots of plants needed. So in February I got 4-6'' holly shoots, box and forsythia cuttings from by the river and kept them in water. Stipped off the lower leaves and at the beginning of March stuck them in a sharp sand and peat mix here:


Weeds have largely left it alone. Despite using a cloche and cutting some of the larger holly leaves (top left), the holly all died.

The forsythia is growing and rooting like.. like... well, it's taking over the world. I’ve got plans for that.

The box didn't root too well (small plants at front) but then I dipped the bottom in rooting compound and it worked. The box is slow, but you can see new leaves.

And I buried an acorn. It's now a little oak sapling.

This here's going to be a hedge to protect the vegetable patch. There's manure down below 2', then a soil and compost mix. Bit of shaved animal horn. Oak leaf and compost mulch.

Box row, at 6 inch intervals. On the near side there are three larger hardwood branches of box that I just left for five months indoors in a bucket of water with a bag on top. They produced stong roots in all kinds of stange places, including above the water line.


Baby Box. All the box went downhill when I planted them out: crispy, yellow leaves, leaf scorch and so on. Which I now put partially down to overwatering. Now they’re better. The smaller softwood cuttings are now lovely: all perky with fresh green leaves! About a third of the leaves on the hardwood branches are yellowish or white but the rest looks good. I had to plant them out with a lot of leaf buds under the soil and a lot of roots above it so they're probably just adjusting still.

Box is slooooow.

 

I took a fancy to them when I was reading about the Peninsula War.......

 

It's interesting when you see a year's growth of weeds let loose. I remember where the different types were and they gave me an idea of the different soil conditions in different parts of the garden. When I was about to clear them, I reckoned there were some plants that looked a bit like things I might want to keep. And thus stumbled on:

The No Planting Method.

So I suppose these are now one and a half years old, all grown from seeds blown by the wind or bought by birds:

1)

I wish I knew what these are. Birch? Be nice if it was a poplar. Here are the leaves:

You might notice I decided to keep some tall grass clumps too. Hope it will spread! I just wanted something in the garden, the cat plays with it and it looks great in the winter when the sun catches the tops in the evening.

2)

This is like a wild rose with similar small leaves and mutiple growths,

but its not - no thorns. You can see I left grass around it as a wind-break and I also created a water-retaining basin and mulched around the three stems.

3) Then there's this one

and the leaves:

It's as tall as anything in my neighbours' garden and he's been there two years. Be nice if it were lime.

These are just some of what I saved. Any help with identification most appreciated.

 

More on the No Planting Method. Wind-borne trees.

4) I think this might be Goats' Willow.


But who knows. All I know is that it's taller than anything in my neighbour's garden, even though he has the same tree that's been there longer. He molly-coddled his with bought compost and regular tending, but his is shorter.

It makes me think that putting plants in the right place is more important than preparing the ground.

5) This is a woody shrub that grew spontaneously over the builder's thunder box.

I suppose it's a weed and is full of seeds but it gives a bit of softness to the garden.

6) Here's anther one the birds bought.

It's got little green-red berries so perhaps its a lime tree.


7) Another one. A birch?

I think this one is a birch becuase of the triangular leaves. I didn't notice any catkins though.

 

Next project is to use some of this:

So I rigged up this old chemical container:

250 gallons - 1000 litres. Hopefully nothing's going to get thirsty now.

 

Sorry Cacadores, I don't recognise any of the plants, but I don't think any of them are limes. I think a limes leaf shape is more like a sycamore, but can't be certain.

The tanks a great idea, just make sure it's flushed out before filling it with rainwater.

 

Well, from scanning books and the internet, sycamore has a maple leaf-type shape

But perhaps they have the simpler shape when younger.

This is my mystery tree:

Heart shaped and pointy.

These are lime:


These are mulberry:

Less heart-shaped though.

Hazel

Too rounded. Aspen is similar.

Elm

There are lots of trees with leaves like this - with no heart-shaped base.

Birch

Well, some of them are heart-shaped

Silver Birch

Well, a lot of them are heart-shaped but not with the consistancy of the unknown tree. Silver Birch is a lovely tree but I'm lucky enough we have a lot of them I can easily get from the woods around here. They're not effective screeners either and I was hoping it was something else.

What do you reckon? Drat! I think I'm resigned to most of them being birch. I'll have to wait for the catkins to come again before I'll know for sure. I really don't know how some people seem to just know which trees are what. The only one I'm sure of recognising when young is oak!

Used to have formaldehyde in it. If the worst comes to the worst I'll have a very well-preserved garden!

 

The other tree with berries:

Leaves long, pointy, in pairs.

Well, there's Rowan

Has red berries and white flowers. Can't remember if it had flowers.

Cherry? That'd be nice.

There's that similar curl but the serrations on the edge are finer.

I'm losing the will to live.

OK: Rowan.

 

I've just been checking my plant A to Z and it looks like it's a birch. I've come up with two. The first one is Betula 'pendula', but I'm more inclined to think it's Betula 'Trost's Dwarf' which is described as a shrub.

 

Put the pictures in the ID section Cacadores, members are more likely to see them there.