PeterS garden creation

I have been chatting to Angelina, who expressed interest in my garden and what I grew. So I thought I would reply here with the aid of some old photos.


September 2002

I retired in the summer of 2002, having never taken much interest in gardening. But, on retirement, I had planned to put up a fence, whilst my neighbour was abroad (less hassle that way :D), and re-lay some old crazy paving slabs.

But to put up the fence on the left, I had to remove some old shrubs. I had hoped to work behind an old shed in the corner, but realised that I couldn't - so that had to come down. Then a concrete path going across the garden was in the way, so the end had to be removed. As it wasn't very beautiful I ended up lifting the whole thing. Thereafter things began to get a bit destructive and I ended up trashing the entire garden - but it was fun. :D

It was only at this point that I bought my first digital camera, and the picture above shows the garden close to the start of the exercise. I had no plan in mind, though I did have a vague idea of having a summerhouse and a patio in front. There was a bit of order to the chaos, with separate piles of rubble, topsoil, subsoil, wood ash from the burnt shed and some leaf compost that I found behind the shed.


My friends told me to get a skip to remove the old concrete path, crazy paving, and shed etc. But being lazy, and a cheapskate, I decided that was too expensive. I knew the shed would burn and I needed some material for foundations. The surrounding area is on a slope, so there was an old retaining wall at the back - but it was pretty scruffy - that had to go. I decided that with all the excavations I would have more soil than I needed. But having estimated the volume of all the piles, I calculated that if I continued the retaining wall round the right hand side in the picture, I could fill the gap behind with all my spare soil.

The picture above was taken a short way into the project. I had already left a space for the summerhouse on the left and built a foundation for a patio in front. I had seen Tichmarsh on the TV (Ground Force) showing how to lay a patio directly onto a sand base with five blobs of cement and a paving slab on top. But I thought that was really shoddy, so I built a base suitable for hard standing for a tank. I excavated up to eighteen inches in places and filled the void with my old concrete path, the old crazy paving slabs two layers deep and some other paving slabs from another path.

Before laying the top slabs, I started on the walls. I had never done any brickwork before, but found that it was easy - as long as you did it very slowly and kept checking everything - such as levels and spacings. At my speed I would have never earned a living at it.


I knew that a single layer straight wall would be very unstable and susceptible to ground movement. Curves and angles make a wall infinitely stronger, as well as more interesting. Its quite easy to do all sorts of curved shapes, such as the above, if you practice with dry bricks first to get the curves looking right. I did this in the picture before last. Above is a little dummy pathway - leading to nowhere.


The walls are now finished – with drainage holes at the bottom, There never had been a wall in front before, just a slope. I then placed the soil from all the piles behind the walls, with the subsoil at the bottom and topsoil on top. Luckily it fitted spot on. With empty beds, I took the opportunity of improving the soil with organic matter, and sharp sand and gravel to break up the clay.


October 2002

The patio slabs have now been laid and three runways, on the left, were foundations for the summerhouse. The other slabs are just infill using the remains of the crazy paving.


Late November 2002.

The patio is finished, a summerhouse erected and a gravel surround laid. By Christmas I was happy with the hard landscaping. But I would now need some plants – and I knew nothing about them.

One method I used to learn about plants was to look at lots of pictures in books to try to decide what sort of garden feel I wanted. The pictures that I kept coming back to were of naturally planted perennials in blues, pinks and purples. I knew I couldn’t afford to buy all the plants that would be needed, so I would have to grow them from seed. Thus I got the catalogues of Mr. Fothergill and Thompson & Morgan and started looking for perennials that would flower in the first year. Both catalogues highlight these.

Another method was looking at loads of sites on the internet.


July 2003

The following spring I cleared the area this side of the patio. I made some beds around the edge – just using log roll. I flattened and leveled out the central area, then put gravel over garden fabric. The “artistic” stones around the pots were simply the result of my policy of not taking any material away from the site. These were local stones that I had dug up in the process of laying foundations for the walls and patio.


October 2003

In March I stared to grow a number of perennials and by October, they had already grown well and many were flowering. There are a few purchased plants in the picture above but most were grown from seed – Achillea “Cassis”, Linarea purpurea, Malva sylvestris, Verbena bonariensis etc. Later I learned that some that I had chosen such as Centranthus, Linarea, and Knautia arvensis are really weeds (technically called wild flowers). But Centranthus is a superb weed – and one of my favorites.


October 2003

The Verbena was particularly good for its first year.


August 2004

A year later in August, the garden (above and below) had filled out even more.


August 2004


August 2004


August 2004


March 2005

By March the next year, I discovered that I was enjoying growing flowers, so I decided to enlarge the main border. This involved digging up every plant.


April 2005

And then re-planting in April


May 2005

A month later in May the early flowerers were starting – Aquilegia in the foreground, Clematis Montana on the trellis and Centranthus in the background.


July 2005.

By July everything was in full swing and you would hardly have known that it had only been re-planted three months earlier.


August 2005

August saw everything in full bloom.


Aug 2005

Even as late as October many of the plants shown above were still in flower, and this contributed to a long season of colour. This brings me round to one of my beliefs – that you need to use long flowering perennials. Some plants like Centranthus can flower for 5 months or more. We have had more than one thread on the subject. http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/general-gardening-discussion/31479-long-lasting-flowers.html

Lessons learned

If I was starting again there are many things that I would do the same and some that I would do differently:-

1) Be bold - start from scratch. The best thing that could have happened to me was to start from nothing. It allowed for an integrated approach rather than having to make compromises. It also allowed me to mentally take full possession of my garden and not to feel that it was someone else’s.

2) The ideal time to improve your soil is when you have an empty bed. Whilst I did add organic matter, sharp sand and gravel – I should have added three or four times as much.

3) Be clear what you objective is. Do you want a neat garden of mowed lawns and clipped hedges, or a pretty garden with lots of colour, or a collection of plants? This is one area that still troubles me. My inclination is for a pretty garden, but I also like growing unusual things. I haven’t sorted this one out yet. But I am aware that if I fill my garden with unusual plants it may no longer be the pretty garden that I also want.

4) Choose as many long flowering plants as you can.

5) Restricting you colour palette will help colour combinations to look right. But don’t let it get boring.

6) Growing plants from seed is great fun and cheap. But there are some plants that you must buy because either the seed doesn’t come true, or they don’t produce seed. Geranium “Patricia” is a great favorite of mine; it flowers for a very long period because it is sterile – it just keeps on and on trying to make seed but can’t. But once you or a friend have got some - its so easy to divide and multiply your stock.

7) One aspect I have come round to more recently is that you must constantly renew your plants. Some die after only a few years, and others just get weaker and don’t flower as well. So keep dividing and taking cuttings.

8) And keep trying new plants – that way you learn.

 

What a super job you've done Peter. It's a first rate of example of what can be achieved if one is prepared to do the work and put a lot of thought into it.
Titchmarsh and Co couldn't have done any better!
Well done

 

I love your "lessons learnt " section. I think we are singing from the same hymn sheet!

 

Hi Peter .
It looks a picture, well done .
You certainly made good use of your retirement.
I agree with the 'lessons learned ' and particualy the one on growing to many unusual plants .

I moved down that route about 4 years ago and last year after looking back on old garden photos reaised how much the overall colour had diminished, so having a big rethink at the moment on my way forward this coming season ..

Dave

 

Looks fantastic! I don't suppose you've been resting on your Laurels since Aug 2005 have you? !!

 

Peter , superb job there That really is a garden to be proud of

 

Fantastic job Peter, top notch

 

Thank you, Peter! You have written something between a novel and a manual. A very enlightening retrospective... I was interested in the raised beds mentioned in one description of your garden and I'll be back on that some time later.

For now, all mentorship I'll take readily on board will stem from:

Rule 1:

Rule 2:

With several sticks of dynamite I can probably put your wisdom to practice :D and sweep it all clean (maybe sparing some exhibits of the 'human kind', but this is a minor concern...)
:D
Marvellous thread, very comprehensive!

 

Very, very impressive work.

Enjoyed this post.

 

Very interesting and informative.
I said a while (or years) ago Peter, that when I get a decent garden I would use your garden as an inspiration. Now I have one I will keep coming back to your thread.

 

What a lovely job Peter your garden looks amazing The planting is beautifull....Hmmm got me thinking now

 

That's interesting - I suppose there are good reasons why the old favourites are so popular. They're tried and tested for their garden worthiness and ease of growing. It's still fun to grow something new, though.

 

stunning peter can i ask what the name of the purple climber is on your fence please id love to put one on my list x

 

Many thanks to all of you for your kind comments.

Armandii. There never was a plan on paper or even in my head - it just sort of happened. One thing led to another.

Dave - you are right. It was only looking back at past pictures that I realised how much the garden had changed over time.


2002 - the start

As an example of how much a garden can change - the picture above is a repeat of the fourth picture in the original post.


2009 - its matured.


2011 Brugmansia jungle - where's my garden gone :D

Strongy - thank you, I am very flattered.

Joolz - Its a Clematis - I am 95% sure its "William Kennet" - but there is 5% doubt as I planted loads of them along that fence. Its still going - but frankly its not got any bigger or better since. I was hoping to have that fence covered with Clematis - but they have not done very well for me. In fact two or three died last winter. By contrast the Clematis montana above has been superb, and I am seriously thinking of running another one along that fence in place the existing plants. However montana does get very big and heavy and might pull the fence over. That's all one plant.


2007 Clematis montana "Maylene"