Garden Fun

[Ems]

Now that we have some sunshine, gosh almost 2 days in a row, I'd be interested as to what people have for their tiddlers in the garden.

Anyone bought anything fun, new, or discovered something really simple that has become a great hit with the children.

We recently bought a BIG ball from ELC that both children are enjoying at the mo.

Re prices of plants, trees, shrubs etc: just want to add that in my experience it's a false economy to buy cheaply. Buy the most expensive ones you can find, especially trees, they're usually much better quality.

Tigermoth, two excellent garden centres not far from you are Manor Brook (on the A2 near Gravesend, about 25 mins from SE London, honest), and Ruxley Manor on the A20 near sunny Sidcup. As a garden novice I threw myself on their mercy and both places have knowledgable staff who are happy to advise. We inherited what we can only describe as a "bloke's garden". Nicely kept, easy to maintain, lawn, shrubs, patio and no bl**dy flowers.
I'd definitely echo Sml's advice on false economy. Both the above charge double what B & Q do for most plants but we have bought top quality clematis (likes sun at top/shady roots, could be good for your flower bed) and honeysuckle there which even I have not yet killed.
Getting the boys involved is also an excellent idea. We are "growing" nigella and sunflowers together - possibly the best watered seedlings in the universe.
Our garden is also quite shady in parts and the most flourishing shrub is a magnificent cotoneaster, masses of berries for birds in the Autumn and now thick with creamy, bee-friendly blossom.
I am slowly colonising the garden with lupins, phlox (like Rhiannon), wallflowers and roses. Next year we'll be trying sweet peas and runner beans as well. I like my gardens to smell nice and contain edible items, not acres of chipped bark with the odd snail to add interest...
You could use the slates to create a raised bed, maybe? If your garden is already terraced, use them to border existing beds?

Low maintainance Shrubs/ flowers for semi-shade -
Nepeta (catmint) - lovely dark blue flower and lime green leaf, flowers June and July grows into a biggish bush (3ft by 3ft)
Canterbury bells - will seed themselves and come up year after year - May and June (blue or white) tall 3ft, same with delphiniums and flox (flowers a bit later)- plant in groups of 5 and leave to it.
Hebe - very easy, evergreen shrub - various different colour flowers will become a biggish bush.
Buddlias will grow anywhere - you see them growing out of walls along railway lines - but you can get some really interesting colours - orange balls, or lovely bushy white flowers. Grows large. Flowers July, Aug.
Roses also don't mind semi-shade - if you can remember to feed them a couple of times with a general/ tomato fertiliser they'll do even better. Don't need daily watering - just a really long drink every week. For a climber you can't beat New Dawn (vigorous, disease resistance and will tolerate a north wall)
Camelia - flowers early with really impressive rose-like blooms, lovely dark green evergreen leaves. likes shade and acid soil - so you need to water with sequestered iron fertiliser to be on safe side (in case you're soils not acid) a few times a year - same goes for rhodedendrums and azaleas (all like acid soil - all flower quite early)

For easy shrub can't beat a Keria - Yellowly orange ball like flowers. Long lasting - flowers right though March, April and May and is lovely and bright. Shade tolerant.

Geraniums will look after themselves also - look for ones which are long flowering and they'll go nearly all summer through and come up year after year with no help.

For your sunny side - how about a ceanothus - it's the one which is covered in masses of blue rectangular blobs in May and has nice shiny dark green leaves - really spectacular.
Perennial sweet peas are also lovely -like to climb over something.

Enjoy it - I started gardening a couple of years ago and have really got into it. I planted my garden in our new house up this year - it previously was a concrete strip - so I'm just beginning to see some results. Will take a couple of years to really get going though.
If I have any more thoughts I'll send them through.

tigermoth, if you want shady bedding plants busy lizzies, begonias and lobelia all seem to do better in a shady spot (a bit of sun helps though) - also mimulas - we have quite a lot of shade from a tall SW house wall so they get a bit of morning sun and do really well.

Thank you all. It's very intersting to hear that it pays to buy the best. I used to fill my tubs with the cheapest geraniums I could find, courtesy of a local market. Will be a bit more choosy when buying shrubs.

Thank you Marina for those useful garden centre addresses. I have visited Thompsons Garden Centre along Shooter's Hill Road, but would like to go further afield, so I am planning to go to one of your suggestions this weekend. A friend with similar garden needs will be coming with me, I think. Isn't the internet a wonderful thing!

And Robbie, what can I say! Thank you for your comprehensive and useful list. Stangely, my husband was talking about us getting one of those 'blue flowering plants with little leaves' for the sunny side. Think he means a Ceanthus, exactly as you suggested.

I'm going to pick a quiet time at work and print off all these messages and take them with me on when I go plant shopping. Thanks again.

I would love to have some bright flowers at the front of my house but the only problem is that I don't get hardly any sun there. I have looked through various books and looked around my local B&Q but I haven't found anything yet. I would like either hanging baskets or window boxes I don't really mind which. Can anyone help me?

Hi kid, I have been looking at a rose called
'Souvenir du Docteur Jamain' it is a deep red colour and good for north walls. Grows to a height of 10ft so you'd need to trail it against the house (trellis).

I think there are also several books about shady gardens, I'll have a look on Amazon for you (and me).

Me again, that was quick, I searched 'shady gardens' on Amazon and they came up with two books which may be useful:

100 Plants/Shady Gardens
Ramboro Books Plc £2.99

Shady Gardens
Virginia Reed £7.50

Good Luck

kid, check out www.crocus.co.uk or com, a good site with advice. Or even onto BBC website and look up Gardeners World things.

Thanks Ems and Rhiannon
I will check out those books and website as soon as I get bck from my holiday. Maybe I will wait for next spring/summer before I actually plnat anything out there.

Hi Kid,
Here's a few ideas for some bright flowers that you could grow in a window box and will tolerate shade...

begonias
fuschias
busy lizzies
lillies (mine have just appeared in my shady front garden and they're spectacular)
pansies

Good luck!

you all sound so knowledgable - someone must be able to help! I am in the perhps unusual position of having my first ever garden in my mid-thirties, and I wouldn't know a busy lizzy from a willow. I really haven't got any idea about plants gardening anything green - anything I've attempted has died very shortly afterwards.

In my mid-teens we moved to a house with a garden & my mother promptly had it paved over, with 2 token circles for plants which remianed ever bare.

the garden is a bit shabby & run down, don't have a clue what to do. Would love it to be fun for my 2 boys plus them have a role in it, but how do I teach them when I know nothing??

Anyway, they're both too young still. Anyone know any good books/web sites /other means of teaching a TOTAL newcomer how to cope with a garden?

Or indoor plants for that matter?