Smufters Garden Progress

hope you are all well????
New member here from Bexhill on Sea, East Sussex.
Have the makings of what could be a lovely garden, but sadly this has been badly neglected over the last few years, (embarrassingly so), so with time on our hands during the current situation have finally decided to do something about it.
Too ashamed to post any pictures of what a state it was in before we started, but over the last 8 weeks or so a lot of the more "back breaking" jobs have been done and we are finally beginning to see some light at the end of the tunnel.
Looking to gain some inspiration and ideas from you knowledgeable gardeners on here, to try to help our own particular garden become an oasis of calm and relaxation!
The one thing I've discovered in the very early stages is that pulling miles and miles of bindweed out is strangely therapeutic!!
Thanks for reading.
Regards
Rob

 

Hi Rob, welcome to GC, never regarded bind weed, as theraputic, lets just hope you got all the root, pictures would be a good idea (just swallow embarressment), they give other members a better idea of what you are up against, and ideas on dealing with potential problems, and help towards the end product (warning, no such thing as an end product). Get a pen and paper ready, because, it wont be long before you have some great ideas.

 

Hiya Rob welcome to the forum

 

Here's a fairly recent picture of "work in progress". It looks a bit better now as I have managed to go over tiers 1 and 2 on the right and have got most of the bindweed out. I know some of it is likely to come back at some point, but I am determined to stay on top of it.
The biggest problem we have (apart from the lawn being in a terrible state lol!) is the top "tier" which is large, and on a very severe slope, so not the easiest to navigate your way around.

 

@Smufter will be lovely to see it when it is completed (of gardens can ever be complete) then you can sit back and admire and enjoy all your hard work knowing you have created that

 

This is where we are at the moment. Picture literally taken five minutes ago (beautiful morning here!).
Wife has got carried away and started planting already lol!
Going to finish top tier next week hopefully, and looking to increase the height of the woodwork on the steps to stop the soil falling down onto the chippings.

 

That's looking fabulous

 

Very rude of me.....
Thank you for your welcomes by the way

 

This is what it looked like about 8 weeks ago...I cannot believe we let it get this awful. My bad.

 

Wow! What an amazing transformation...very well done to to you and your wife, obviously a lot of hard work put in, but fantastic results

 

Welcome Smufter

What a huge transformation well done . I would recommended holding back on plants for a little bit , Bind weed its very difficult to get out manually the easiest option is to weed kill it when it start coming through again.

What plans have you got in mind ? It usually easier to start with a theme in my opinion , like English cottage garden or Medtratian or mixed and herbaceous borders - formal ideas with topiary etc. Then go with colour , I have a entire border just for hot colours .

If you want shrubs or small trees start with them first then herbaceous then bulbs. But before all that you need to know your soil conditions Boggy or free draining etc - is your soil loam ( like top soil ) - clay - sand - chalk and PH acidic / neutral / alkaline and sunlight hours . I know it sounds a lot but it narrows it down , I have to many people asking me I want something colourful thousands upon thousands of plants are colourful but also thousands of plants may not tolerate your conditions .

 

Hi Perki,
Thanks for your informative response, it's all very useful stuff.
As far as our soil is concerned, I think we're blessed with having a loam soil, a little bit of clay in a couple of small areas but the vast majority we would class as loam. Being on a slope the ground drains very well and we do get a lot of sunshine. Don't know the pH level yet but have got a testing kit on it's way to me so will let you know.
As you can see by the picture, our garden is laid out on three very definite tiers, or steps. I think the plan is that we have the smaller plants on the bottom tier, gradually increasing in size up to tier 3 if that makes sense? The top tier is our biggest headache because it is large and has quite a severe slope front to back which makes maintening it tricky, especially during the winter months. The wife is thinking about planting a colourful swathe of phlox there to try to help keep the weeds at bay and cut down on the maintenance side of things. Also, the surrounding fences at the three sides lend themselves to some climbers, maybe a rambling rose or two in there for good measure or something else along those lines?
Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated. Again, thanks for your response.
Rob.

 

Sounds like you are already way ahead .

Phlox are a great easy plant with lots to pick from - White admiral and david are excellent white variety's with over colours like starfire reddish - franz schubert lilac plus many more, one problem though if the ground is free draining and I think you are in a dryish area of the country they are vulnerable to powdery mildrew, they will benefit from a bit of afternoon shade with lots of organic matter dug in to retain moister.

Pervokskia blue spire are easy shrubs ( look good behind phlox ) . Choyisa family are excellent white dazzler / goldfingers are very good, choyisa white dazzler / GF planted next to a ceanothus repens ( next door blue plant ceanothus ) , C.repens has a more spreading habit not upright so will suppress weed or go over a wall. Also good shrubs Abelia grandiflora - berbis nana / fireball good red plants - pittospermum are interesting shrubs - hydrangea lots to pick from for different situations like H.quercifolia big plant - hypericums hidcote / others easy. Could have a look at grasses like the miscanthus family or others very easy to look after. lots of herbaceous perennials to pick from to many to name.

Roses are generally high maintenance , a rambling rose may soon hop over the fence and join your neighbours though, repeat flowering roses which includes climbing and repeat ramblers require dead heading after flowering to stimulate more flowers and need tying in often plus feeding ( mainly climbers ) plus annual hard pruning in late winter ( climbers ) or after flowering for ramblers around July. I am not trying to put you off them they are like queen of the garden just make sure you can get at them without injuring yourself. You'd be best looking on the david austin and peter beagles website for variety's , I grow a rambling rose which just flowers and flowers its called Ghislaine de feligonde its seems. well behaved so far. Dont forget about clematis every garden should have one.

I hope I've give you something to think about , I can't see all the garden but I would consider going with a specimen tree / shrub at the top like acer / cornus / cercis / malus etc add the odd shrub here and there and inter plant with herbaceous perennials and bulbs, easier said than done though.

Another piece of advise - be patient a garden takes time

 

Welcome to the forum @Smufter ! Looks like you've been working hard and it has paid off.

 

Hi Rob and welcome.