Gardening in 2019!

[GarethSouthgatesWaistcoat]

I'm trying to get my mojo back for spring gardening
Does anyone have any exciting plans, large or small?

I've been keeping a low profile on here due to horrid neighbours making my garden a misery. They've unexpectedly sold their house (relief!) so I'm ready to get back out there (ahem once the winter passes)
Crossing my fingers that the new occupants are more considerate.

My main plans are to clear the (smallish) patio and treat it with the bleach they use for dairies/swimming pools. Research tells me this will kill the lichen and bring the original colour back. Still researching as I don't want to wreck it

Then I'm going to reduce/reposition/replace the various planters/baskets to better effect.

I need to reduce/kill the ivy on the fence. I have stumpkiller at the ready but felt the critters might appreciate as winter coverage. Cutting it hasn't worked, there's too much of it!

For a bit of frivolity I might install an arch halfway down the lawn and shape the flowerbeds into it

Tell me of your 2019 garden plans!

Mainly I am going to try to rein in the seed planting. I did too much last year and got overwhelmed.

Your ivy is probably full of berries that will keep the birds going through the later winter (I love watching our wood pigeons trying to balance in the ivy. ) and it will be good nesting /hiding for them in spring. Please don't poison it!

MrsBertBibby Hello again! I've definitely been guilty of the seed thing in the past. I tend to stick with small plants/plugs now and scan the shelf of death. I can't really cope with trays of seedlings everywhere especially as I lack a greenhouse.

I haven't done any pots of bulbs this year. I'll probably regret it come spring but I needed a break. Perhaps I'll splash out and buy some spring planters instead

I'm still loving the windowboxes I made this year (shout out to Aldi self-watering design!).

Good point about the ivy. This one doesn't seem to get many berries but that's exactly the reason I've been putting it off. Unfortunately it's gone a bit crazy the past few years and needs reigning in. Clipping it doesn't last 5 minutes. I'll let some grow back from the base again - it's everywhere, under the hedge etc.

I grew the ivy to appease the birds but I've never seen one in it The birdfeeders are adjacent and lots of delicious rosehips, apples and berries...but nope!

I do enjoy seeing the wood pigeons and blackbirds snacking on my pyracantha

Take some before and after pictures please.

I have let my garden go also for the same reasons as you OP. I can imagine how happy you are.

I am going to ignore the GFs and get on with life in my garden.

Good idea about the before and after pics GardenOfSeeds

I'm sorry you're having the same issue. It's soul destroying isn't it? I'm making extremely tentative garden plans, I can't quite believe they're leaving. I hope the sale doesn't fall through. Also a bit worried the extension and renovations they've done will attract a similar 'type' (mid-late 20s couple pre-children living their last days of partying)
Fwiw I get on with all my other neighbours and always have wherever I've lived!

Anyway I'll just have to see what happens. I'm concentrating on general tidying, rejuvenating and portable improvements (!) in case I decide to sell up...

I will photograph also.

I decided I am going to be happy.

Excellent!

This was probably the wrong time to start a thread, the gardening crew have gone dormant for Christmas
I'll reboot it in Jan/Feb for more replies

I am definitely gardening a lot in 2019! Two new borders, some kind of mixed native hedge and lots of planters. Excited!

Sounds good Trippingalongalong!

I think I've almost forgotten how to garden

What have you got planned for planters? I need to rethink mine. I usually stick a mish mash of basket/bedding plants in them but it would be nice to have a scheme

What type of soil do you have? Which way does your garden face? Hello on a different thread Take care with bleach, it could kill your nice plants too and the birds if they eat the dead ants !!! There's a natural cleaner you can get. Boiling water is good!!

Oh I know ppeatfruit (hello!) I severely limit chemical usage in my garden but the patio is dire. I've been pressure washing it every spring but it's no longer coming back.

If I decide to go down the bleach route I shall be very, very careful. I'm going to test a small area at the back first (away from plants) to see if it has any effect before applying it everywhere.

I've never seen any ants on the patio but you're right it's no good for the ecosystem

I have a small pressure sprayer for the purpose in the hope I can control the application.

I'm ESE facing with clay soil

So you can have rhodies and azaleas lucky you . And maple type trees. I tried a little bleach (a tiny bit mixed with very hot water, scrubbing on my hands and knees! don't laugh !) on our terrace (not all over, I got fed up quickly !) and the result lasted a year! We have standing water on it when it rains and if we forget to go out and brush it off it stains . 2 effing pressure power machines have died. I hate the effing things, they cost a lot, of course dh buys them (boys toys) !!!

Sorry about the rant

Rant away

My pressure washer is borrowed from a family member so fortunately no outlay there! Same as you, my (inherited) patio stones are rippled so rain pools. The stones have turned an attractive greigey black over the last 2 years despite my chemical-free efforts

I have a few azaleas and rhododendrons though I've never got into them properly. My best one is in a pot filled with ericaceous compost.

I have a mini forest of acers mostly obtained from the Morrisons shelf of death
They're pretty slow growing, none are bigger than 18"/2ft really. Maybe one day I'll have one of those gorgeous big statement specimens!

Yes gareth Our stones are inherited too. it's odd because this area is all white stones and they laid them but in cheap crazy paving!

Yes sorry, acers, I love them, the delicacy of their leaves and the colours they turn, they are slow growing but yours ARE growing .

I've just planted a dark red hamamelis (hazelnut tree) and it's is also slow growing. This is a big garden we've been here for nearly 13 years and I'm just starting to get the chicken garden in order (we call it that because the last people here kept chickens, ducks etc. in that section. It sounds worse than it is to look after, it's mainly trees and grass elsewhere.

I'm in a new house, so I have loads of plans for my new garden. I have a bigger back garden than my last house, but only a tiny patch of lawn in the front garden. I've already planted a box hedge in the front, and I am waiting on delivery of 11 bare root roses that I'm going to plant as a hedge behind the box hedge. I've also planted a climbing rose against the house. For Spring I want to plant a wisteria at the front of the house, and a limelight hydrangea behind the rose hedge with lots of perennials.

I plan on digging out vegetable beds in the back garden, widening the narrow border that already exists on one side, and digging a new border on the other side. I have to get all my plants that I dug up and moved with me from the old house into the ground. I also want to plant lots of fruit trees and some cobnut trees.

I'm going to need to install a fence as my 8 month old collie loves nothing more than digging up newly planted plants.

It sounds like a lot of work ! Have you got a very sunny front garden? Because box needs some sun, but roses need LOTS of it. I've got a climbing rose, I planted nearly 6 years ago that hasn't EVER flowered .

I've just been thinking about the garden and next steps!
Sadly I have more fencing to do, were splitting the front garden in half down the middle, have planted a few trees so give it 3-5 years should be as private as the front. The right hand side as you come up the drive and into front garden houses the small creatures (chickens, rabbits, guineas) This is where I need to be creative.
The rest of the garden is eclectic tropical, ie everything I love!! multiple palms, lavender, olive trees, tree ferns etc
The village however is rural, 'english' so I need a pared back element for the front. I thought about a veg patch but it would be so odd in comparison to the rest and also is under dappled shade of some large silver birch.
So I'm needing some kind of rural, farming Italian vibe. I love the idea of a concrete trough with water pump and surrounded by lavender but that's many pennies. I need a cheaper option or patience :/

Iamaweed Have you looked at the 2nd hand places for old troughs etc.? If you already have a mature lavender plant you can take cuttings to put round the trough or you could dig in a 2nd hand half barrel.

I've just put in a preformed pond liner it was reduced in a GC. (I didn't fill it myself, it's filled with rain now!!)

I put it on top of a used waterproof liner and am making a damp garden around it by filling it with earth from around the outside of it. because there was already a hole there which of course wasn't the right size for the preformed liner.

ppeat - our local reclaim place wanted a mere £600 for a concrete trough, it did include delivery though!
The problem I have is, to me it's beautiful. I thought about creating similar with sleepers but it just wont be the same and I'm sure i'd only end up ripping it out and replacing eventually - I'll need an electrician in to get power there so if i'm already investing it may as well be right. I think this year I'll sow some wild flower seeds as the grass is knackered and save up.

Test

Snap about the wild flowers Iam Dsis bought me a bag of that already mixed stuff. I've been looking at it guiltily for years because it always seems to be the wrong time of year to broadcast them! This spring I will do it. There I've posted it which means I WILL do it!!!

My pond is without electricity, I'll splash out (geddit!) sorry! On a solar powered fountain when there's one reduced in the GC.

I need to get back into it too. Just have had no energy for the past 6 months so the garden is a total mess!

I need to do a big tidy up, create some new flower beds for the children, open up the fenceline (once the new outside hedge has no gaps), and get some trees and/or large shrubs. We're in a new build so it was a completely blank slate when we moved in and I'm slowly bringing life to our outside space.

Also want to get back into growing some vegetables but really need to work on which ones we really want and which will grow well for us.

Get some lovely fruit trees Grouchy Most of them are sold smallish now, they won't take over! My pear fruited in the first year (we're on alkili soil apparently pears like that ) the cherry wasn't so successful but it's new. We're not here enough to grow veg. but I love my fruit trees! and lots of herbs.

I had about 2 hours out there this weekend clearing up and tidying up. I was surprised how much better it looks just for a quick clear up.
Paths swept, branches chopped up and put in the green bin and a few bamboo screens reattached.
I spotted one neighbour mowing his lawn and seriously considered it but we are a bit lower and wetter than them so even on the highest setting I fear I'll churn the grass up more than the dogs!
If I didn't have a stupid tax bill end of this month i'd be down the garden centre stocking up on hellebore's for a splash of colour. I can't wait for pots of bulbs to start appearing (cos I didn't plant any) and now desperately need lots of snowdrops, white tulips and the palest yellow daffodils I can get my grubby mits on!
I also trimmed our neighbours apple tree that was overhanging last year and found the branches, popped them in with the rabbit who loves them. Now eyeing up an apple tree for him in his run...so much to do!
Sadly other than the silver birch nothing in our garden is mature. The last person who lived here once had a beautiful cottage garden which was massively overgrown, stinging nettles, brambles and ivy was smothering most things so year one we ripped it all out and turfed. Now I'm building the garden from scratch and as fun as it is my pockets aren't as deep as my imagination!

I didn't know that rabbits like apple trees! Thin whippy branches? Of course they love gnawing don't they? (she says thinking back to one the dcs had that was a 'house' rabbit, it gnawed everything!