Come into the garden with Maud - all obsessive and wannabe gardeners welcome

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

Whether you've got rolling acres or a tiny courtyard, whether you're a novice or a gardening die-hard, whether you're aiming for a garden of Sissinghurst loveliness or self-sufficiency à la Felicity Kendal in The Good Life, this is the place to be. Take a seat on the tastefully-painted Lutyens bench and chat with fellow enthusiasts. There may even be a bottle of gin in the potting shed.

well, there was no Joe Swift, for one thing.

'nuff said!

I'm glad a link was useful blackpuddingbertha. My internet went a bit dodgy today too. I couldn't help noticing that Monty looks as though he could do with gloves. And hand cream. That other garden with the magnolia stellata and tulips and lovely seed grown red plant thingy looked nice.
I'm fascinated by these seed growing tips and see that I havent been doing it right at all and no wonder I gave up years ago. But if the army wives can do it then so can I, and Monty looked so happy potting things on gently that I will try again. I love it that the army wives will have sweet peas growing up hazel canes.
My little hellebore seedlings are growing very happily and the hellebores from last year are still blooming freely. They are palest white and green, with one double frilly one and the little seedlings will be red flowered next year. The forget-me-nots are beginning to flower, soon it will be a mass of blue round the beds. I heard a cuckoo this morning.
My heart rate goes down to normal when I look at the garden.

Also the Munstead bare root rose has shoots!!!!!! Dr Jamain and the Generous Gardener are still thinking about growing.

Damn I missed it. Can't stand Joe Swift but don't want to be mean about him since this is Gardening rather than AIBU.

There have been other threads where we've put the boot into discussed JS, if you want to search for them.

Loved GW last night, and it was very useful to see CK's piece on planting seeds.

People were talking about muddy hands up thread - I was always told to make bread to clean my hands after gardening

I am back home and delighted to see my seedlings have been watered and are thriving, phew. My borlotti beans in particular are getting big.

I have been house hunting recently and I visited a house on Weds that I think is perfect. I have a bit of a dilemma though because the garden is huge (for a city garden). It's 85 feet!!! I have been searching for a house with a big garden but I was picturing about 50 feet and I'm worried this is just too big bearing in mind I have a disability and would need to pay someone to come and help me.

What do people think? Could you cope with 85 feet? In theory I want as big a garden as possible but the reality is so daunting. They said no one wants to buy the house as the garden is too big so it's been on the market for ages. I have plans to convert the bottom half to raised beds so I could grow veggies (bark chips around them) and stick in fruit trees, and then in the main garden have big beds of perennials which once they're in wouldn't need too much work. Just mulching/dividing/watering (although could put gravel down like at Hyde Hall in the dry garden so not so much watering to do).

This is only my second year gardening. Last year I only had about 8 plants! This year I have a bigger bed and am growing lots more but suddenly landing in a place with so much garden might be biting off more than I can chew.

Am I being unrealistic in thinking I could get someone in twice a year to dig/mulch/prune and the rest of the year let the perennials do their thing?

(sorry that was long!)

The thing is, garden design is difficult because ones own garden and budget is hardly ever the shape or size of the gardens shown. Besides, when interested in plants, who wants to talk about decking or silly white ball sculptures? This is why I find garden design in general irritating. Except of course when looking at Italian gardens or Monet's garden or other people's specialist plant and tree gardens (like Sissinghurst) and then its a bit like great art: one admires and is inspired.
When I got my first flat (with a garden) I bought loads of books on small garden design but all that hard core paving patio stuff involves heavy labour and money and I simply didn't have those as a twenty something and I still dont have the will as a much older person. Though sometimes I wonder about Japanese style though its so minimalist. I had a neighbour once from Japan and I loved watching her garden. She would spend hours deciding where to plant one red begonia in relation to a drooping fir tree and when she had done it one could see exactly why.

Well I have a big list to get on with today... Lots of heavy shifting and lifting. And unfortunately it seems that the under-decking rats are back, because someone in the vicinity leaves out food for wildlife (not me). Neighbour (he of the five Akitas, plus new litter of puppies) is thinking of getting a Jack Russell to deal wi them - great, yapping as well as poo smells. I however am going to make the void inhospitable with whatever I can find, particularly so they don't tunnel down and undermine yet another of the plants in my lavender/rosemary border. Oh and poison pellets too.

Need to figure out how to secure a double-door shed too. What are those bars called that drop horizontal across barn doors?

Worzels, there's a scheme where people without gardens go and share someone else's, I forget what it's called but it might be right for you. Aimed at the elderly perhaps. Or look into time-banking? If you have a craft or skill which you can do, you donate that, and put up a request for someone else to come and do the heavy work in your garden. Or get in touch with you local scouts to get you started with raised beds etc?

I would like to know what the great mogul gardens were like in days of yore. There are the gardens of Shalimar in Kashmir, and the ladies gardens in the palace in Delhi and clearly the moguls had a thing about formal gardens but what plants did they grow? Was it all lotuses in lakes? Were they like the spanish gardens of the Alhambra?
worzelswife that house and garden sound fab go for it. How is 50 foot in any way a big garden? 85 foot sounds a decent size and perhaps even large enough to have a garden design!

I have dog poo smells from the current neighbour (the house next door is rented out so the neighbours change) . Sadly the Japanese gardener left. In the place of the begonia are cheerful statues of meerkats, solar garden lights and pots with pansies.

I supposed 50ft is a large garden if you have only ever had a few pots before!

Lexi those are great ideas - we do have a timebank organisation nearby plus of people on the list for the allotments who would love some space.

So no one on hear thinks 85ft is unmanageable? (I guess it does depend on how many hours people work)

Sorry to hear you have rats back; I've had rats in my house recently and it's been vile. Snap traps have been good but I was keen to get in a terrier for a day.

worzelswife I work full time though I have been on annual leave this week. I think an 85 ft garden is manageable and desirable. You will have a vista. You have the potential for veg and fruit and trees and leaf mould pens and arches and all sorts. It will be absolutely thrilling. You need a good lawn mower though. You could divide it into thirds as Joe Swift (ahem) mentioned. See, I listened! Irritating though his drawings were.
Which way is the garden facing, thats the thing.

That's good to hear funny, and yes when I stop feeling daunted I feel so excited because there could be veg and fruit and flowers and a compost heap and maybe room for a bee hive or chickens and it would pretty much be heaven. I haven't put in an offer on the house yet - going to see it again next week, but I am pretty darn desperate to. I would seriously think of taking the lawn out, I have to say (or some of it) and just have HUGE flower beds, and gravel and a fountain or statue in the middle and climbers all over the fences. Undecided; trying not to get too carried away until/if I actually buy it .

Oh and to answer a previous question that I'd missed before, I have some of my grandmother's diaries (early 20thC) and she went round lots of the gardens in Delhi. She talks particularly of one in Delhi with a huge rose garden. This is one of the ones she went to. I'd love to go/learn more about them too.

Phew. Back from my hols to find that the seedlings have survived and the sweet peas have at last germinated.

85 ft sounds to me about the maximum of what can be managed if you also work outside the home, but I think the advantage of a garden that size is that you can afford to have some areas that are a bit wild and woolly. In a tiny garden, I feel everything has to be well-tended at all times.

85 ft that sounds like my idea of heaven (ahem). You could do so much with that but I guess much of it could be low maintenance. Agree that a small garden almost takes more work to look immaculate as it is more noticeable when there are any weeds (speaks from experience!).

Has anyone else got a Robinia tree? Mine has started to come out earlier this year but the new ends of the leaves have got frosted - hoping it will not ruin my lovely tree for the whole year (sigh)..

Worzel - if you plan out the garden you could find ways to manage it. (Have seen you post elsewhere I think and know someone with the same condition). As you say, raised beds for the veg to cut down on the digging element and you can control the size & position of the individual beds so they are manageable. Obviously get some chickens and then easily managed planting elsewhere, some help in occasionally for any heavy stuff, and you'll be fine.

Not sure I've reported back lately on 'Bertha's Plant Rescue Corner' but the Japanese Anemone has new shoots! Hurrah - it lives.

Aha! That reminds me. I bought a huge Japanese anemone (which I'm promised will be pink) at a WI market this morning for the extortionate sum of £1.

surviving perhaps if I buy this garden and house I should actually charge gardening obsessed mners to come and garden for me, rather than paying someone to do the work .

I'm going to be so disappointed if it goes before I get my act together now, and end up with 20ft of concrete garden.

Really great to hear everyone's input, thank you. You'll all be invited round for strawberries and cream in the garden if I get it. Now I've just got to look down my sofas for some loose change so I can actually buy it.

The Japanese anemone sounds fabulous.

Worzelswife - I'm planning my outfit for the Pimms and strawberries party even as we speak!

I have lots of the white Japanese anemone (Honorine Jobert, I think) and planted some red (Prinz Heinrich) last year which hasn't yet surfaced. As they do quite well for me, and last well into the autumn, I've decided to keep adding to them.

My rescued Japanese Anemone is the most glorious pink with yellow centre - or at least that's what it looked like when growing happily up the road. Bit like this one but grows tall - well over a metre.

That would be lovely. As dahlias always fail here, I'm going for Japanese anemones for late summer colour.

I love Japanese Anemones. I have white and pale pink.
My friend has some beautiful bright pink ones, I keep meaning to ask her for a clump as they are amazing.

Perhaps MN could do for Japanese anemones this year what we did for thalictrum delavayi last year!