Garden dreams ....

[SimpleC]

Hi all,

I’m fairly new, rarely posted before, but hoped you wouldn’t mind me sharing something. (I find Mumsnet a bit bewildering but I’m hoping if I start a thread and people reply it will start feeling a bit friendlier).

I’ve just ordered 17 metres worth of bareroot hedging plants. They’re to go along a fence between us and the chapel next door where some of their windows and a path directly overlook the bottom of our garden so will provide privacy. In front of them is a young oak tree with a few Hazel stumps that we’ve just coppiced. It’s strange ground; all kind of lumpy and bumpy, but it means that eventually I’ll be able to put a seat in there to overlook the rest of the garden and it will be quite a secret space under the oak tree.

I’m going to plant up the space with things like anemones, bluebells, pulmoneria, hellebores etc. so it sits well with the oak but kind of has a ‘magical’ feel to it.

What dreams and ideas are you pursuing in your gardens at the moment?

C

Hello!

That sounds like a lovely spot to place a secret seat, I’m sure the hedging will grow quicker than you imagine. Make sure you take before and after photos. When we moved in to our (small) neglected garden there were a couple of small trees that had blown over but had kept growing sideways, everything was overgrown and we set about clearing pretty quickly. I can’t believe we didn’t take before photos!

The ‘after’ is a work in progress. I am busily planning what plants to buy /seeds to sow in the spring for a border of pollinators to attract bees. I’m going to keep a small end of the lawn wild and put some meadow plants in to keep a little wild patch. I built a hedgehog shelter after spotting a hedgehog ambling across the lawn one evening. I have only spotted a couple of poops since, never the hog himself but, I’m hopeful if I fill my garden with enough things to attract wildlife I may get regular visitors.

Hi @Panicsettingin (get me, using an emoji!)

Keeping one end of the lawn wild - me too! I’ve sown a whole load of rest yellow rattle and hoping it will take so I can sow some wild flower seeds next spring.

Awwww .... for the Hedgepig .... cute.

I’ll get on to the ‘before’ piccys

I went off to google yellow rattle, I will add those to my list of things to sow. Winter isn’t even here and I am already impatient for spring to be here so I can get started on my gardening plans.

Yes to the before and after photos. I also keep a diary - not a regular daily one, but a "book of days" in which I make a not of anything striking. So that when I see the winter flowering Viburnum in flower in September and think "gosh, that's early!" I can look in my diary and see I've remarked on it opening in September pretty well every year.

Regular photos have also demonstrated to me that bits of my garden have gone downhill and need some serious thinning out. So if anything, that's my project for the year.

But my small project to keep me amused is to sow a packet of mixed rose species from Chiltern. Already, at 3 inches tall, I can tell from the scent that I have at least two sweet briars.

Which reminds me - having tried to convert my own lawn to a wildflower meadow, and created a wildflower meadow in the local nature area that I help look after, I strongly advise sowing the seeds separately and planting out when the plants are large enough to hold their own against the grass. You'll need perennial wild flowers to grow in grass - the annuals depend on the ground being cleared every year. The exception is semi-parasites like yellow rattle, which are annuals, and even they do better if you make sure they're in contact with the ground when you sow.

Your secret seat plan sounds awesome!

And I am constantly envious of those with space for a meadow

I have just planted several berries - some in my brand new fruit cage, some to make better use of the previously useless patch behind the dc trampoline. I have two different gooseberries and a white currant in the cage, and thornless tayberry, Japanese whineberry and aronia berry behind the tramp. The wine berries have been dug up and resited from previous unproductive positions. My garden is very exposed and hot and sunny in most of it in the summer and they were in full sun against the house. New site is shadier and hopefully less dry.

I am also planting up what will hopefully grow into a bit of a windbreak at the end of the garden where there is currently just a chain link fence which, while it allows lots of sun, the sometimes incredible wind battering is worse than the sun is good. So I have put in a twisty willow (resited from where it had been previously languishing), a wisteria (plan is eventually it might grow through the willow), a Toona Sinensis 'Flamingo', a buddleia and a cotoneaster (the tall version). I have underplanted the shrubs with comfrey, which I will chop and drop in situ for mulch and feed in one. The only thing I had to buy for this is the flamingo tree, wisteria was already there and the buddleia and cotoneaster were volunteers from elsewhere.
There is a park on the other side of the fence, and there are three hazel trees growing on the other side which I prune, and I will allow these to get a bit bigger so hopefully will end up with a half decent shelterbelt - if everything doesn't die... I'm aware that the toona and wisteria would probably prefer a more sheltered position...

And I am constantly envious of those with space for a meadow I'm not sure some of our meadows would provide enough hay for a hamster let alone for a flock of sheep Mine is about 3-4m square, my friend's is 1m x 1m.

Japanese whineberry Are you really treating so badly it has to whine?

Oh god - really should proofread I am though, it has been thoroughly unhappy for two years frying in the summer...

Ok - space isn't the issue, just space that won't get trampled my hoards if dc

I'm planning a seat and table in a bare corner freed up by moving the kids playhouse. I want it to be a wild corner, with either a tree or whippy shrub that's tall enough to be a feature to distract from the house behind, and some ground cover. But I haven't established exactly what yet. Its very shaded by the fence so I'm thinking woodland flora rather than ballsy flowers.

Hello that sounds lovely! I’m about to move into a new house which has a big lawn. I’m thinking of putting half to meadow as that will be lower maintenance. I’m told it’s quite hard to stop it running to weeds though. Be great if it can get hay as we spend a fair bit feeding our Guineas.

What a lovely thread. Your wooded area sounds lovely.

We’re working on the hanging gardens of Babylon according to dh. I’ve just removed the front lawn to make a wildflower meadow, and put all the grass and topsoil into a pile for raised beds at the back.

We’re pruning back some very leggy shrubs now that we’ve removed a leylandii hedge. It’s a three year project so we don’t kill them.

The third project this winter is to outline some flower beds so that I can start putting in my little seedlings in spring. I’m a novice at planning beds, I’ve always gone for the chucking in random hand-me-downs approach, so I’m reading lots of books. Can anyone recommend any good sites for advice?