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

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

Oh, that's gorgeous! What is the fence for? Do you have to keep rabbits/deer/badgers at bay?

[HumphreyCobbler]

Pkam, that looks wonderful.

[Pkam]

We have everything. In size order: deer (two types of - they are particularly fond of sweetcorn); foxes (love to roll in manured soil); rabbits; squirrels (love to dig in soft soil and sit on seedlings); butterflies and hence caterpillars. Got very sad last year when lost so much to the wildlife so fences got bigger this year! Can't keep the mice out unfortunately and they got most of my peas before they had a chance to germinate last year.

As much as we love the wildlife (especially last year's baby deer) there are bits of the garden I'm not willing to share! Squirrels have also been known come in the house - not happy about that either....

[Pkam]

Oh, and the pigeons. Musn't forget the pigeons.

[FreeButtonBee]

Fox i only have a roof terrace which is 12ft square. Advantages is that it's south east facing and gets sun all day.

I have had great success with the following in pots:

Vinca minor (periwinkle) - evergreen and blooms from early march all the qay through to the autumn provided it doesn't dry out

Agree that veronica is also lovely - mine is just starting to come back

I have a hydrangea, plus a camellia inpots that are doing really well provided you feed them fortnightly through the summer with erinaceous feed

I have a lovely red maple tree in a massive pot

Herbs - rosemary and lavender v good, chives are great too

I had 11 tomato plants last year! All but one grown from seed - theybdo really well in pots.

I find the biggest problem is stopping the pots fromdrying out. Plastci pots are better but i am a snob and prefer terracotta. Tips include buying glazed pots rather than unfinished ones. Also put a plastic bag in the bottom covering any drainage holes (rip the odd small hole in the bag) that stops the water running the whole way through.

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

Come on, Pkam, tell us the dimensions of your garden.

::prepares to sob::

[hellymelly]

My garden is a teeny cottage one,but it is well stocked.2 apple trees,one pear,one plum,one Damson,one cherry.Raspberries, goosegogs,blackcurrants redcurrants and strawberries. I have two largeish flower beds that need re-stocking,and a real mix of habitats as the top garden is dry and mainly a small trashed lawn (chickens).one big flower bed and a couple of little ones.Lower garden has a boggy bit and raised beds for flowers and vegetables ,and most of the fruit trees. I had a gunnera but it really looks dead,I suppose it was just too cold for it,although most things have come back surprisingly. My favourite yellow buddleia looks dead too,and large swathes of my lavender hedge.My favourite things last year were the oriental poppies,and some pretty fluffy grasses.

[HumphreyCobbler]

It sounds lovely hellymelly. I am really looking forward to the oriental poppies I have have just sown coming next year. We lost a few things to the cold too.

Pkam, you are certainly up against a few pests. We are in the middle of farm land, but seem to have no rabbit problem yet (our cat brings the odd one home). Wood pigeons are the worst culprits here, they had all my cabbages last year. We grazed some sheep in the orchard too and the buggers ate my bay tree though the fence, I learned from that experience and chicken wired the lot. We have to make sure we shut the gate, a lot of cattle get moved down our lane and I dread to think what they would do if they got in.

[hellymelly]

You are in Monmouthshire Humphrey? I had a friend in school who lived near Monmouth,I remember her three digit 'phone number!! and cycling through the lanes in high Summer.Its really beautiful round there.

[Pkam]

Maud - the house sits on about 3/4 of an acre which wraps around three sides. Wooded bit down the bottom (can be seen in photo beyond veg plot) we've left wild as the blue bells are beautiful. Our plot is also surrounded by old gardens and woods now abandoned which we treat as ours too - like the old orchard which has several heritage apple varieties, a mirabelle plum, and, my personal favourite, a huge mulberry. There were also Jerusalem artichokes growing wild over there which I've kept on cultivating - spotted the first of these coming up today.

First time I've had a garden worth doing anything with - hence my bragging newfound enthusiasm & pride!

[WillieWaggledagger]

lovely thread. dp and I moved into our first place with any out door space in October (previously upstairs flats). it's very similar to fox's description - a small yard with a tiny strip of bed, and a small bed outside the front. Not myuch but I'm a total novice i can't explain how lovely it#s been seeing the bulbs I planted come up. i've done sweet peas from seed and lots of pots and DP and i did a whole load of herbs in planters today. it's the most satisfying thing.

it's a good job we're limited by space though as we have a garden centre at the end of the road and everything looks so tempting!

[IlsaLund]

Pkam - it looks lovely.

[HumphreyCobbler]

Ooooh, I want a mulberry.

It is beautiful round here, I feel very lucky to live in such a pretty place. I am not far from Monmouth at all. It feels like a really ancient landscape, with castles up the road and a holy mountain a few miles away

[hellymelly]

Yes,my friend was a few miles out of Monmouth,her parents farmhouse was early medieval i think,in parts.Really beautiful farm. ( We were at school in Cardiff together.)

[HumphreyCobbler]

I wonder if I know the house hellymelly - there are lots of stunning old houses around here.

Just eaten my first ever rhubarb crop - it was delicious.

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

We had our first home-grown rhubarb last week. It was wonderful (and justified the small fortune I spent on two lovely terracotta rhubarb forcers).

[HumphreyCobbler]

We found not eating it last year very frustrating, all that lovely rhubarb, just sitting there. It was worth the wait.

DH has been digging out the impacted clay in front of the old pigsty and putting a flower bed in. Any ideas for clay soil anyone? Would like it to look cottage gardenish if at all possible. It is a small area either side of the gate.

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

All the plants I listed earlier on growing on clay. What don't do well are those things that dislike being wet and cold over winter - lavenders (life expectancy here is two years at best) and salvias. I've realised too that all the penstemons I planted last year expired during the cold spell.

I forgot to mention ajuga earlier - does very well as ground cover and there are some lovely bronze-leaved varieties. Or try lamium - lamium galeobdolon is very pretty at the moment (it spreads everywhere but is very easy to pull out if it gets too invasive) and lamium maculatum is also nice (and more modest in its habits). Another good doer for ground cover is galium odoratum (sweet woodruff).

[HumphreyCobbler]

ah, all my savias died.

Sorry, of course you mentioned loads earlier - my brain is fried (am applying for a job and getting no sleep). Those others sound great too, brilliant names.

Did you hear the Elegy on a suburban garden on radio four today?

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

No, dammit. Was it good?

I have trained myself to think of any plant demise as a blessing in disguise, as it creates a space for something new (one has to think this way with a small garden). Bought foxglove mertonensis today for that very reason.

Is the job you're applying for in any way horticultural, Humphrey?

[ChristinedePizan]

I heard some of it but my DS was talking non-stop in the car so I shall listen again tomorrow. Today we planted sweet pea and verbena bonariensis seeds (am not terribly hopeful about the latter as the seeds are tiny plus it says that if they don't come up to put them in the fridge for two weeks so they are obviously difficult to germinate - should have read packet before buying) and scattered loads of love-in-a-mist over the flower bed. We also pegged down netting over it to stop the neighbourhood cat population shitting in it

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

Oh yes, I discovered a huge fox poo in the middle of my new planting today.

::applies for shotgun licence::

[HumphreyCobbler]

fox poo stinks, you poor thing

not a horticultural job sadly, a teaching maternity cover that I have no chance of getting due to the fact that about seven hundred other people will also apply for it).

I was hoping that last years verbena bonariensis would self seed but no sign so far.

radio thing was lovely, it will be on iplayer

[ChristinedePizan]

Oh god, fox poo is horrible. At least we don't appear to have foxes here (recently moved) unlike in my last garden where they pooed everywhere AND left dirty nappies (not from my house) and all sorts of other detritus over the garden.

Humphrey - my VB did self seed from my last place - I brought it with me. Had to leave the massive mother plant behind. I feel a bit silly - they were only a couple of quid in my garden centre and growing everything from seed/bulb in my border bar four plants means it's going to be pretty bare this year. Hopefully the nigella will fill in the gaps

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

VB is one of several things that people say "oh it will self-seed all over the place" about, but it never does here. Black grass (ophiopogon nigrescens - another fab plant if like me you're obsessed with black and white) is another one.

Christine - Yes, we get nappies too and old takeaway boxes. Yuk. Fortunately, the upside here of cuts in council refuse services is that they have sent round reminders about what goes in what collection etc and are threatening to come down hard on people who leave out rubbish not in the wheelie bin.