My garden makes me so happy

[HumphreyCobbler]

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

Failing the guided tour, can people post pics on their profile of their gardens? I'd really love to see them

I have got some from last year, but it is going to look SO much better this year

I might go out and take some this evening.

Right, stuck the leggy cosmos seedling in, and just planted a bit deep. Hopefully they'll be OK

Did put the peas out today though, on their little bamboo sticks. Ridiclously pleasing

Yes, I am really looking forward to putting the peas in. Am going to plant straight in the ground and hope for the best. At least I know I won't get a last minute phone call into work on a Saturday.

My courgette plants have not come up, they have been in (in pots) for about ten days. I am tempted to dig one up and see if it is doing anything....

DH finished the path today, he is rather pleased with himself as he has been moving stone around for about six weeks now, doing the herb beds as well. It looks great. He ordered a Rosamundi to go into one of the new beds, any ideas for what rose we should plant on the other side? Or would you put in another the same?

Have you tried planting the peas in a guttering half pipe Humphrey? I find it always works really well especially with earlier sowings. As it get later and the mice have more to feed on there's less benefit.

Put some pics on profile of new and previous gardens

Hmm ... after a week or so I think my VB are not actually coming up - they're all sweet peas. I had three trays which I planted up which I tried to keep separate (2 of SP/1 of VB) but my DS muddled them all. Now I have seedlings coming up in two and nothing in the 3rd. Bah - I'm going to Homebase :o

Wow!

Humphrey - half my courgette plants are up after 9 days, still waiting for the rest and only have one squash poking up so far. I have a habit of nudging the soil aside for a peek every now and then, doesn't seem to do them any harm.

I'd like also to express my appreciation and enjoyment of this thread. It's like having my only personal garden advisors even if half the time I don't know what you're talking about! Learning all the time.

Pea bed prepared. First seeds going in tomorrow.

Second picking of rhubarb done tonight too - going in the bircher muesli for breakfast tomorrow. Yum.

AintMissBeehiving Wow - your gardens are FABULOUS. I hope mine looks that good one day.

I thought about the guttering but I don't have any handy. Will it work sowing direct into the ground now?

Just watched Monty. Made me happy.

I tried to put some pics on my profile but I couldn't seem to manage it, they wouldn't load.

Aintmissbehiving - agree, Wow!

Humphrey - I had the same problem with photos - you have to make them a small file size. There's some text at the bottom of the photo loading page that tells you how.

Wow indeed! How completely fabulous - they look like pro gardens. My crappy little bits are going to look rubbish by comparison

I will post the stages of my exciting bed though when it actually starts growing (grow - damn you ) because that might be vaguely interesting. My garden now is about 1/2 the size of my previous one and that was only about 65x40!

Thank you . I did love my old garden - it was in magazines and on telly and everything. I touched Matthew Wilson when he came to visit it when making a programme . I am miles from that standard with the new garden . Still all the fun's in the making

They'll be fine Humphrey!

Wow again, Aintmissbehaving. Are you/were you in the Yellow Book? Both gardens look truly fab and as for the thatched cottage ....

::swoons::

I once stood next to Matthew Wilson in the de la Warr Pavilion, you know.

::feeble boast::

thanks

in your photo labelled back garden, what is the plant with small blue flowers on the bottom right?

I love the height on your borders, that is really what is wrong with my garden yet, it lacks height.

::Joins Humphrey in zooming in on the plants::

In the second photo labelled back garden, at the RH end of the border, there is a plant with huge circular leaves splashed with yellow. What is it? It looks very like something I bought at a plant sale last year, where nobody knew what it was. Mine's still a baby with leaves about 4 inches across, but if it's going to get that big I'll have to move it!

also the meadow!!!!!

bloody amazing.

::Thinking wistfully of what it must be like to escape the urban sprawl and live somewhere with laaaand::

Ain'tmissbeehiving! those are gorgeous gardens (and houses,I am green with envy) what is the lovely dahlia (?)with the red foliage and the pink flowers in the big border? I wish my borders looked like that.It's what I'm aiming for but not at all what they are like now,they look very bare..

I love this thread,the de la ware pavilion! So fab. If anyone is in Pembrokeshire this Summer come and have tea in my tiny garden .I'll make cake.

Yes, HellyMelly, the de la Warr Pavilion with Matthew Wilson in it.

::Strictly horticultural swoon::

Maybe we should all try to get into the Yellow Book and then organise a charabanc tour?

yy was in the yellow book for a few years. You are all very kind.

Humph Plant with small blue flowers is Geranium "Johnson's Blue". An easy well behaved variety. Cut down after flowering and you get a second flush of flowers in August.

Maud That's Petasites japonicus variegata. On good soil the leaves reach rhurbarb proportions and it is quite invasive. I do like it though and it is easy to dig up so, it stays.

Helly - that's Dahlia "Jeanne d'Arc". The coloured foliage is Lobelia "Queen Victoria". The clash was a homage to Christopher Lloyd

That garden took three years to make - it's amazing what you can do with annuals and biennals and bedding whilst the structure is establishing.

OMG where did you get your Petasites? I've been keeping my eye out for one for ages but can only find non-varigated ones.

I've been lucky enough to have spend this whole week working (paid work report writing, honest) in the garden and am now going to have the whole weekend doing all the things I thought about while I should have been working.

I LOVE my garden, it's wonderful, and my ambition is to have one big and beautiful enough to open for NGS

Been away from mn for a while but this has brought me back in...

I've been in my house for just over a year and the garden is one of my most favoured projects. will post pics on profile soon but just wanted to mark my place.

we are also north facing, on solid clay, with woodland behind the back fence. last summer we built an extension and I got the builders to do the holes and cement in the posts for decking. we have a wood floor inside and it sort of carries on out to the deck which is the same size again as the extension (3x4m)

when we moved in, half the garden was paved, then there was a knee height wall cutting the garden in half, then the rest was a circle of soggy mossy grass with gravel beds around it, on which were pots with some sad plants and shrubs, and large architectural rocks. I think it was meant to be zen. there was (and still is) a pond with a rockery behind it, some hardstanding down the bottom and a shed.

Oldenough if you want some Petasites, PM me and I'll send you a root in the post.

I was going to offer you an offshoot of petasites, Oldenough, but Aintmisbehaving beat me to it! I am now a bit nervous about what I've let myself in for ...

::eyes tiny garden nervously::