Tickle the earth with a hoe, and she will laugh with a harvest

[Rhubarbgarden]

Potting shed chat for all those interested in wittering on about gardens and sharing the love of plants. Plenty of dusty old deck chairs to sit on and sloe gin to warm the cockles; join us!

wrt house plants, I have one yukka. which undergoes it's natural dry season gets forgotten regularly until it goes floppy. then I water it and it is well for another couple of months.

in the kitchen we have a climbing plant, devils ivy, thatis supposed to clean the air. it gets the same treatment as he yukka.

I love that funny

`You will like these pictures on pinterest too , then mausmaus with a list of plants: I like it that the plants used are commonly found low maintenance perennials but havent got my head round how much maintenance such a garden actually needs

www.pinterest.com/shootgardening/piet-oudolfs-favourite-perennials/

planting plans show how each plan uses only 4-5 plants.
www.oudolf.com/piet-oudolf/planting-a-new-perspective

funny I'll have to get online later to see the photos, but it sounds beautiful. And it sounds very appropriate too. Wish someone could come in and do all the work for me!!! Will take some photos of the bank and upload later on. It is currently a mass of some type of yellow daisy that def isn't native to the area and red poppies that may have appeared due to the ground being disturbed as they are all around everywhere we moved earth. DH is not impressed with the bank at all. He thinks it is a horrendous mess and is threatening weedkiller and grass seed for next year. At least I gave the wildflowers a go. I amn't giving up, but it's a huge undertaking (physically AND financially!) and I may tackle it bit by bit, as well as working on other bits of the garden. For now, I'm just watching it!!! Your idea would be very manageable if I did a 'swathe' or two each year maybe...feel a bit defeated by it at the moment!

Ironically there have been fab wildflowers everywhere else around me all summer except for on the bank! Perhaps I should have left it to self seed with the local wildflowers!!!

With regards low maintenance perennials; they are usually chosen as the seed heads form part of the end of season design; so can be left for months. the whole garden then gets cut down once a year, usually between late autumn and winter or early spring before the new shoots are up. Then left again and just tidied up when they fall over into paths.

funkybold does that once a year cutting down thing include the grasses?

castle gardens aren't usually built in a day : they grow and evolve over time. You have a little one to incubate and house stuff to do!

You could do it swathe by swathe or you could do it section by section, using cuttings divisions and seeds from a first section to grow onto the next section the following year.

I recall you have gentians growing in the wild don't you? Are you allowed to collect seeds? humphrey had a wildflower meadow she may be able to advise on what to do with your seeded bank. I love wild poppies. I wonder if you will get them every year? I also love that lavender is growing well where you are: perhaps one of your repeating waves could be lavender and if you think this then now is a good time to take lavender cuttings!

I worry that I'm not a professional: funkybold and rhubarb and cutteduppear and others are all much much more knowledgeable.

Here is a naturalistic planting scheme with lavender and miscanthus grass
www.pinterest.com/pin/431078995553537663/

Irises will do very well if lavender does well where you are. They come in all sorts of mountain/purple/blue colours and will look great behind the lavender and in front of the stipa. They need sun and well drained soil.

www.claireaustin-hardyplants.co.uk/t/plants/irises
www.woottensplants.com/genus_search.asp?F1=i

funkybold does that once a year cutting down thing include the grasses?

Yes, if there are lots of them, the whole thing gets chopped back in the early spring.

Some VB seedlings for you Funny. Plus a photo of cut flowers I took to a friend's house today as a thank you for lunch. I'm loving the cut flower beds and may have to expand on these next year. Plus a photo of the heather from a bike ride this morning just because the colours were glorious and I wanted to share

Heather photo wouldn't fit in the previous post.

Wow that heather looks gorgeous Blackpudding where do you live?

I can't remember if your bank has trees and is stony Castle? If so and you want wild flowers you won't need to remove the top layer of soil (which I was advised to do by Bob Flowerdew at a Q and A at an organic exhibition). Then you just put "plugs" in , the swathes idea sounds and looks lovely funnypersonIrises don't last long in flower but you get leaf interest too I suppose.

Hampshire/Surrey border ppeat. Lots of sandy common land around here that the heather loves.

Thank you blackpudding My seed tray doesn't have any vb germinating. The contents are going on the compost heap. . That heather looks lovely. I've been ill in and out of hospital all week. Very tiring.

Oh dear, funnyperson. Are you feeling any better now?

Oh no, not again Funny. Hope things start improving soon

I can't do a link, and you might already have seen it, but there's an amusing thread about whether hydrangeas (and other plants) are common.

oh dear funny that's shit. hope you feel better soon.

the hydraenga thread is interesting. tbh I would never have chose one for my garden if I had a blank canvas to fill, but I really like the ones I have. my neighour is well jealous, she's got many plants but none flowering.

have got 2 currant bushes today sort of for free, as had vouchers. one red and one black. healthy looking plants from a supermarket.

Funny I hope you feel better soon. Sorry you've had a bad week of it.

Can finally see photos! Your heather is fab Bertha, really lovely.

Thanks for all the bank suggestions and photos, but I am just not going to do a thing more with it until next year at the earliest and just try to focus on roughly planning the rest of the proper garden. And everyone gave me so many lovely suggestions before, and I don't want people to spend time mulling it over now when I can't bear to even think about it!!! Here are some photos. It doesn't look that bad in the photos, actually. Just in reality, it looks like weeds and DH is disgusted with it. And in fairness I was supposed to have sown a mix with 90+ varieties in it!!!

Having trouble loading the photos.....

The bank.

And another...

My apple tree...anyone know what variety it might be?

That bank looks cheerful in those photos castle .

Link to funny hydrangea thread mentioned above

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/a2161039-To-wonder-how-a-plant-can-be-common

I dislike red pelargoniums, hanging baskets and bedding plants, hybrid tea roses, sterile flower hybrids, alyssum, carnations and at the moment my buddlea which is out of control.
I would adore a walled garden, a knot garden, and a yew hedged garden with 'rooms' as at Sissinghurst but don't have the space in my semi-rural suburban garden. I think I am probably gardening 'common'.

I have a small lace cap hydrangea, and hydrangea petiolaris, and am buying hydrangea Annabelle because I am hoping she will flower in the white border though I am slightly worried that she may overwhelm all the other more delicate non flowering white plants in the shady border as nothing else in the garden is as blowsy. I suspect judging by the thread above that by the end of this weekend the shops will be out of white hydrangeas.

I like that bank castle

funny

Thanks for the link funny I just read the whole thread.
A friend of mine took a whole weekend to dig out her mahoosive hydrangea because she felt it was too 'old lady' I quite like them especially the Annabelle.

Thank you blackpudding My seed tray doesn't have any vb germinating. The contents are going on the compost heap. .

Don't put it on the compost heap, sprinkle it where you would have put the verbena. If it comes up then great, if not, then no losses.