Gardeners' Chat

MmePoppySeedDefage · 2023-05-16T21:04:55+00:00

Chat. For gardeners. About gardening, but we can go off piste and chat about things like non-gardening clothes, or food or whatever, without being told off

Britinme · 16/05/2023 22:21

We had a landscaping lady over yesterday who is giving us a quote for a patio at the back - it's quite big so I am a bit nervous about the cost. As it happens, we have about 1500 paving-quality bricks stacked behind the garage so they will be the basis of it, but we want pavers as well. We went to have a look at some yesterday and the ones we like work out at $5.81 plus tax, so that's $4000 before we've paid for the labour involved. However, we think what we might do is get the base laid and allow it to compact over the winter. Our winters here in Maine are long and cold, and it actually does make things like driveways and paving more durable if you do that first, and it will allow us to spread the cost out.

We've been in this house four or five years now and haven't touched the yard at all - been too busy and spent too much renovating the interior, and ran out of money.

PurpleParrotfish · 16/05/2023 22:36

I have a new allotment, it is still very much a work in progress, even the parts I’m attempting to do something with. And most of the various seeds I’ve planted have either not come up or been eaten. But the pea plants are growing, enough for me to put some twiggy sticks in for them yesterday, so yay! Also one of the irises I planted last autumn is flowering and the others have buds.

And I just bought myself a new plant for the balcony of our flat - Salvia ‘Golden Girl’. It won’t be delivered for another month, but it looked so pretty in the photos I couldn’t resist it.

BinturongsSmellOfPopcorn · 16/05/2023 22:51

What state was the allotment in when you got it - reasonably clear or a lot of work to do before you started planting?

timeisnotaline · 16/05/2023 22:59

I am trying to finalise my plan for the back of our garden and worried it isn’t a good plan as I’m a total novice! If I don’t get quotes soon I won’t get anyone in this winter (australia so that’s the next few months) to do it. And that will be another year gone.

HazelTheGreenWitch · 16/05/2023 23:00

@PurpleParrotfish I have an allotment too, I absolutely love it but it's such hard work! I had to clear mine of persistent weeds (still working on that tbh).

WednesdaysPlaits · 16/05/2023 23:04

I’m currently levelling and terracing an area at the back of the house for a kitchen garden. It’s a lot of work. It isn’t really the ideal spot for a kitchen garden due to tall trees on the south boundary but it’s the only place close to the kitchen so I’ll need to be careful with planting.

I also bought ten grotty looking plants today for £3 from a chain diy store but I’m confident I can perk them up

HazelTheGreenWitch · 16/05/2023 23:06

@WednesdaysPlaits what plants did you buy? I love a plant bargain

WednesdaysPlaits · 16/05/2023 23:14

A very forlorn looking but large lupin with two flower buds so that will definitely perk up, a sage that had just gone crazy and leggy, a large pot of something unlabelled but I think agapanthus, two lavenders, a fuchsia, a candelabra primula an aubretia and two random pots of something alpine like which will hopefully reveal themselves as they perk up!

MavisMcMinty · 16/05/2023 23:18

Oooh, a gardening thread!

Mine is always at least a month behind everyone else’s as we’re at the bottom of a deep valley in a frost pocket. But aquilegia, cornflowers, aconitum, hardy geraniums have “suddenly” appeared, along with yellow Welsh (Icelandic?) poppies, as if from nowhere.

This is what it can look like:

WednesdaysPlaits · 16/05/2023 23:21

Britinme · 16/05/2023 22:21

We had a landscaping lady over yesterday who is giving us a quote for a patio at the back - it's quite big so I am a bit nervous about the cost. As it happens, we have about 1500 paving-quality bricks stacked behind the garage so they will be the basis of it, but we want pavers as well. We went to have a look at some yesterday and the ones we like work out at $5.81 plus tax, so that's $4000 before we've paid for the labour involved. However, we think what we might do is get the base laid and allow it to compact over the winter. Our winters here in Maine are long and cold, and it actually does make things like driveways and paving more durable if you do that first, and it will allow us to spread the cost out.

We've been in this house four or five years now and haven't touched the yard at all - been too busy and spent too much renovating the interior, and ran out of money.

I feel your pain. Hard landscaping is crazily expensive. I’ve told dh that if we ever move again we have to factor in the value of the hard landscaping more. We had a quote to level the kitchen garden of £9k!!! We hired a digger and dumper and have done it ourselves!

Lagershandy · 16/05/2023 23:37

Last year I bought an Astilbe from Poundland. It was a pathetic looking dried up brown stringy thing, but for £1 I wanted to give it a go.
I repotted it in good soil, and babied it on, and now 'tis a thing of beauty. Healthy looking with loads of fronds ready to burst forth.

Last week I bought a Spirae Houttiana from Poundland, which at the moment is a tiny twig, but I shall coddle it and see how it turns out.
Gardening definitely teaches patience!

WednesdaysPlaits · 16/05/2023 23:51

My purchases were all the more satisfying because after putting the first one through for £1.20 the checkout woman kept saying “well nobody is going to want that sorry looking thing, let’s say 20p”, “That one is dead! 20p”. I did tell her I thought I could bring them back but she clearly thought I was nuts!

Britinme · 16/05/2023 23:55

@WednesdaysPlaits - if we were somewhat younger I might have tackled it ourselves but I'm 73 and he's 80 so I quail a bit. I have a budget of $8k which I hope will cover it. I want really low maintenance in this garden. I had an acre and a half lot in my last house and it was just too much. This one is a great deal smaller but is a wasteland at the moment.

4plusthehound · 17/05/2023 02:54

Britinme · 16/05/2023 22:21

We had a landscaping lady over yesterday who is giving us a quote for a patio at the back - it's quite big so I am a bit nervous about the cost. As it happens, we have about 1500 paving-quality bricks stacked behind the garage so they will be the basis of it, but we want pavers as well. We went to have a look at some yesterday and the ones we like work out at $5.81 plus tax, so that's $4000 before we've paid for the labour involved. However, we think what we might do is get the base laid and allow it to compact over the winter. Our winters here in Maine are long and cold, and it actually does make things like driveways and paving more durable if you do that first, and it will allow us to spread the cost out.

We've been in this house four or five years now and haven't touched the yard at all - been too busy and spent too much renovating the interior, and ran out of money.

Hi @Britinme

Can I ask - where in Maine?

I went once - to the Kennebunkport area and it blew my mind. It is incredibly beautiful and don't get me started on the bloody lobster rolls!

The house project sounds long but lovely?!

Britinme · 17/05/2023 03:03

Hi @4plusthehound - we are in Portland and yes Maine is really a lovely state, and I like the city a lot too.

The work we've done on the house really is a lot. It was built in 1973 at the height of the fashion for sunken living rooms , and that made the layout of it really stupid. Luckily we bought it before the prices in Portland started rocketing up, and we've probably spent almost half as much again renovating. We built a kitchen addition and moved the stairs 90 degrees to come down in a different place, raised the living room floor, changed the front door to a different location and added a bay window and knocked through into the dining room. All done slowly because we ran out of money and my husband did a lot of the inside work himself, which bearing in mind he was 80 last year makes you a bit slower!

4plusthehound · 17/05/2023 03:34

Britinme · 17/05/2023 03:03

Hi @4plusthehound - we are in Portland and yes Maine is really a lovely state, and I like the city a lot too.

The work we've done on the house really is a lot. It was built in 1973 at the height of the fashion for sunken living rooms , and that made the layout of it really stupid. Luckily we bought it before the prices in Portland started rocketing up, and we've probably spent almost half as much again renovating. We built a kitchen addition and moved the stairs 90 degrees to come down in a different place, raised the living room floor, changed the front door to a different location and added a bay window and knocked through into the dining room. All done slowly because we ran out of money and my husband did a lot of the inside work himself, which bearing in mind he was 80 last year makes you a bit slower!

I have no words! 😁

Actually it sounds amazing! Like a TV show.

Britinme · 17/05/2023 03:37

Ha ha! We should have filmed it but it's too slow to be entertaining!

Original poster

MmePoppySeedDefage · 17/05/2023 06:24

Ooh this is nicely lively! Mavis your photos and your garden are beautiful. Is it you who usually grows lots of foxgloves?

I'm impressed at those who can nurture plants from the Shelf of Doom back to life. I rarely do - the 20p ones were an amazing bargain in particular. I've had some good free large plastic pots from our local Squires help yourself dumping ground in the past, though. Must go for another rummage. A good clean and they are as good as new.

I've just had a small path laid. It's been done very well, with proper foundations but it cost £1,700. But I was fed up of it looking scruffy as my husband was always forgetting to mow it, and it got swathes of dandelions as I kept forgetting to weed out the seedlings.

OP posts:

HazelTheGreenWitch · 17/05/2023 06:29

WednesdaysPlaits · 16/05/2023 23:14

A very forlorn looking but large lupin with two flower buds so that will definitely perk up, a sage that had just gone crazy and leggy, a large pot of something unlabelled but I think agapanthus, two lavenders, a fuchsia, a candelabra primula an aubretia and two random pots of something alpine like which will hopefully reveal themselves as they perk up!

This is an epic haul!

HazelTheGreenWitch · 17/05/2023 06:33

Is anyone else finding it hard to get seedlings to grow big enough to plant out? I think it's a combination of poor peat free compost, and a lack of sunny days. I'm feeding with seaweed but growth is still really slow. My tomato plants are still tiny as it took them forever to germinate.

DeanVolecapeAKAelderberry · 17/05/2023 07:18

Oh lovely, a gardening thread, just when my laptop has been repaired.

I will have many things to say, but must read other people's comments first, so will just mention, in passing, that I HATE couch grass.

Redandblue11 · 17/05/2023 07:39

@MmePoppySeedDefage I have been waiting for a good space to chit chat about gardening … and other stuff… thank you for the thread!

@Britinme , I also feel your pain we just got a quote to add a very small patio at the bottom of the garden and path towards it and got a £6K quote (poppy if the path costed you 1.6, that makes the 6 sound reasonable!, I am waiting for another quote too) we are choosing porcelain which is crazy expensive but hoping for less maintenance , that bit of the garden has a couple of massive deciduous trees, it is near the sheds and I want to put a basketball hoop for son so he goes there and not right next to my patio kitchen. I am also planning for it to end in irregular edges to allow me to plant big grasses to soften it, I also have two massive pots with bamboo that I can move down there to soften the overall look.

Times, (good to see you here) - planning a garden can be daunting and expensive. Are you trying to get quotes for landscaping or soft planting or both?
At least if you get the quotes you can get an idea for the overall cost. I find that if I am unsure , I like getting the overall structure and then the bits in between leave more fluid so you can do and modify with time. Goes without saying that considering stuff like sun light and times… do you have a plan with a patio to sit and enjoy the morning or afternoon sun? / or shade ? Depending on the season? Are probably some of the key choices.

tapdancingmum · 17/05/2023 07:44

This is my garden and the space at the top has just been made so we are off to order my new potting shed at the weekend 😀 He has 4 sheds so it's about time I got something for me.

Gardening wise, I have lots to do to get it looking nice again. I have some heathers that have all of a sudden got huge, so I need to work out when I can get them pruned. We have a raspberry patch that has got to the end of its days so after they have fruited this year I will be moving them so I can have some more flower beds and the seat can go in that area as its in the way of my new potting shed (did I mention I'm getting a new potting shed?).

We have another area over to the left that needs a good tidy up, but I will slowly start doing that in the sumer holidays (hopefully before my new potting shed arrives) 😀

MontyDonsBlueScarf · 17/05/2023 07:50

Oh yes, death to
Couch grass
Slugs
(whisper) peat free compost, I was persuaded this year to do my bit for the planet and have been rewarded by poor to non existent germination, difficult watering as there's nothing in between totally soggy or dried out with a hard crust, and very slow picking up when the few surviving seedlings got potted on. It's not just one brand either.

PurpleParrotfish · 17/05/2023 07:51

BinturongsSmellOfPopcorn · 16/05/2023 22:51

What state was the allotment in when you got it - reasonably clear or a lot of work to do before you started planting?

Very thick, well-established grass. To work out where the beds might have been in the past needed more archaeological work than I was prepared to put in, though I did occasionally find bits of wooden plank under the grass. The worst thing was the black weed membrane across one part, with the plants all growing through it and stuck to it. There’s still a load of the horrible stuff at the far end near the fence but I’ll leave that until next year. Still, it could be worse - the other plot I was offered was covered in brambles.