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Gardening

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

Original poster

My garden makes me so happy

981 replies

HumphreyCobbler · 24/03/2011 20:08

I wanted a garden all my adult life, and for the last three years I have had one.

To begin with I was worried it wouldn't be as much fun as I thought it would be, but I soon discovered it was even better.

It was an overgrown, tangled mess when we moved in and slowly we have transformed it. I am still a beginner, but I already know so much more than I did.

Today I came home to find a massive pile of well rotted horseshit waiting for me. It was brilliant.

I don't really know what the point of this post is, I just wanted to share Smile

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ComeIntoTheGardenMaud · 04/04/2011 19:34

Oh yes. I have a special spoon (5p from charity shop) for scraping the larvae and their poo off the leaves. These beetles were a gift ::rolls eyes:: from neighbours who had them and did nothing about them because they thought they were pretty. Which of course they are until I crush them under the heel of my gardening clog.

ComeIntoTheGardenMaud · 04/04/2011 19:38

And I realise now that one benefit of changing the compost in lily pots every year is that it dislodges the lily beetles.

::gets shotgun::

Original poster
HumphreyCobbler · 04/04/2011 20:28

Last year I fed all the big slugs to the pigs. It was strangely satisfying vile. The pigs slurped them up with relish.

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ComeIntoTheGardenMaud · 04/04/2011 20:40

So, do you live on a farm, Humphrey, or do you drive around with a bucket of slugs until you find a field of pigs?

NotaMopsa · 04/04/2011 20:43

my poor dp is out there now in the pitch black laying our path!!!!!!
I love my garden and am trying transform the 'festival of laurel/weeds' into a very traditional english garden...
Poor dp is not enjoying this bit - he has done it all weekend in the rain and the last two weekends
will put 'before' pic on profile Smile

NotaMopsa · 04/04/2011 20:46

humphrey - we live opposite a small wood and throw our snails over the single track road - as long as i dont hear a crunch - as they fail to reach the wood and hit the road - i sleepeasy.
Heaven knows what it must look like as i do it with weeds too when feeling lazy!

Original poster
HumphreyCobbler · 04/04/2011 20:50

we had four pigs that we raised to eat.

they were great, we just ate the last bit of ham on Sunday (other people had some of the other pigs - one of whom was flopemout who popped into the thread earlier).

In fact, I am waiting for a phone call about the next lot tonight. Looking forward to having pigs again, they are really easy to look after. I am always worried they will get out and trash the garden though.

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Original poster
HumphreyCobbler · 04/04/2011 20:52

NotaMopsa, I also throw weeds across the ditch. I am sure it is a bad idea but I can't always be bothered to walk to the wheelbarrow

Well done to your DH to be laying a path in the dark. That is dedication for you.

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ComeIntoTheGardenMaud · 04/04/2011 20:52

Gosh. How exciting. The only livestock around here are the urban chickens.

ChristinedePizan · 04/04/2011 21:02

What lovely neighbours :o Blimey Humphrey - amazing to go from no garden to one large enough to keep pigs in three years! Please post a pic of your pigs when you get them. I have a soft spot for piggies (my grandad used to keep them)

Pkam · 04/04/2011 21:09

I'm with Humphrey, now I want a tree peony too. This thread is proving good at emptying my bank account. Did a quick google search for tree peony varieties and my favourite was £150!!! I will not be buying that one.

You've also reminded me to order my slug nematodes. I nematode the veg beds at the beginning of the season which holds them off for a good while when the plants are little, then I get inventive. Wish I had chickens or pigs to feed them to; that sounds fun. I enjoyed putting the caterpillars on the bird feeder last year.

SugarSkyHigh · 04/04/2011 21:34

re: slugs - does anyone have a pond with frogs in? I have one in my back garden and they must hop around and eat the slugs up at night or something because there is a limited slug problem in the bag garden. The front is a different matter though (no pond there)

UnrequitedSkink · 04/04/2011 21:39

Frogs are a brilliant idea - except I think my cat would think so too. Grin

NotaMopsa · 04/04/2011 21:54

not a big peony fan here - i do love them but find the flowers too short lived and the whole plant a bit large and leavy for one short flowering

I do love a nice rose but do not have a great deal of luck with them. I have one beautiful old fashioned rambler which is just about getting established on a VERY high dark wall. I also bought a dog rose which when I bought - a garden centre owner said to me 'you don't want one of those - you'll regret it' . I do not regret it though - it is so wonderfully prolific and is covering a new fence in no time. I wind and weave it into shape with much cussing as it is a feisty mare! I also love it's very 'englishness' which is definitely the theme of my garden

ComeIntoTheGardenMaud · 04/04/2011 22:07

Ah, but with tree peonies the leaves are so lovely that it doesn't matter that the flowers soon fade. My tree peony is very sculptural and I love it!

NotaMopsa · 04/04/2011 22:10

oooh will have a look then!!

Original poster
HumphreyCobbler · 04/04/2011 22:11

It was a big jump, from no garden to a large one. Especially since it hadn't really been touched for about five years and was a solid mass of bindweed/ground elder. We had the luxury of time though, my DH was luckily able to spend a lot of time in the garden for the first two years, just getting a lot of donkey work done. There were no flower beds except for a small one at the front, so there wasn't anything to take over. Where the veg patch is has obviously been a veg patch for many many years, the soil there is of completely different quality to the clay everywhere else.

We spent a lot of time in the preceeding ten years visiting gardens and looking longingly at them. Although until I started planting myself, I had no memory for plants at all. I still have no real knowledge, it is frustrating. I have started writing things down in a little book, I feel that might help.

I will certainly post some pictures of the pigs.

I just moved a dog rose NotaMopsa, I hope it will grow as prolifically as yours has.

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oldenoughtowearpurple · 05/04/2011 09:21

I went from 3/4 acre of garden (+ veg patch + paddock + woods) to a tiny town garden 6m x 24m. Initially Sad but now Grin as I no longer have to buy at least 5 of every plant or a ton of manure or huge petrol-driven tools but can buy one of something expensive and beautiful like a tree peony, and have lovely rechargable lightweight electric tools, and beautiful copper hand tools which i heartily recommend to everyone.

I do spend a lot of time planning how to squeeze everything in though.

Pkam · 05/04/2011 21:00

I have been talking to my seeds to encourage them to grow and I have an overwhelming compulsion to measure the ones that are already growing. Am I going mad or is this perfectly normal behaviour?

ComeIntoTheGardenMaud · 05/04/2011 21:00

I think you know. ::wink::

NotaMopsa · 05/04/2011 21:13

Anyone have any MUST HAVE suggestions for an eglish cottage garden look? I don't do yellow or orange but would love your wise suggestions as am still a novice Smile

ChristinedePizan · 05/04/2011 21:26

Verbena, verbascum, delphiniums, nigella, geraniums, nepeta, potentilla, sangiusorba, scabiosa, knautia, agapanthus, astilbe off the top of my head :o. Plant in drifts if you can, big groups of flowers always look much better than little bits here and there. And go to see some big Jekyll-esque borders if you can for inspiration - National Trust or English Heritage are usually a good bet. If you say whereabouts you are, I might be able to suggest places :)

Original poster
HumphreyCobbler · 05/04/2011 21:31
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NotaMopsa · 05/04/2011 21:41

Christinede Thankyou so much am going to look on crocus now!!!

Am west/north yorks which since we invested in national trust membership - seems a little bereft!!

ComeIntoTheGardenMaud · 05/04/2011 21:41

Big drifts are fine if you've got the space but if the garden is small then single specimens bunged in pell-mell (but in a well-thought out and carefully arranged kind of way) is authentic for a cottage garden look. Think railwayman's cottage.

CdeP's list is fab. I'd add sunflowers (red or bronze to overcome the ban on yellow and orange), nasturtiums (esp deep bronze Empress of India) for the children to grow in summer, thalictrum (esp delavayi) and my current love - alchemilla mollis. Hellebores for winter. Clematis, honeysuckle and roses for height and to cover fences/walls/arches.