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Successful Succession
sam bevington
Posts: 130
Hi
We've been at our beautiful but scruffy two acre plot in North West Staffordshire for five years now and enjoyed many successes but equally lots of failures - rabbits, pidgeons, chickens, ducks, pigs and various dogs contributing to losses! Gradually learning the ropes and taking the stance that every day's a school day! Planning for next year - stream, pond, summer house and lots of planting but how do you plan for succession? I've taken lots of photos of things that have done well, where there's gaps and things that need dividing this Autumn to double the plants and fill them but how do you plan for spring into early summer? I can't get my head around spring bulb planting and then perennials, what to do first? Sage advice please?
We've been at our beautiful but scruffy two acre plot in North West Staffordshire for five years now and enjoyed many successes but equally lots of failures - rabbits, pidgeons, chickens, ducks, pigs and various dogs contributing to losses! Gradually learning the ropes and taking the stance that every day's a school day! Planning for next year - stream, pond, summer house and lots of planting but how do you plan for succession? I've taken lots of photos of things that have done well, where there's gaps and things that need dividing this Autumn to double the plants and fill them but how do you plan for spring into early summer? I can't get my head around spring bulb planting and then perennials, what to do first? Sage advice please?
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Shrubs, trees a,d many perennials are best planted in autumn when the soil is still warm and there's enough moistur eto help them get their roots settled so the plant is well anchored and feeding itself in time for the spring burst of energy.
There's a chap in Yorkshire who has produced a very helpful and throrough almanac of what to do and when. Have a look and see if it can guide you but remember to adjust timings if your neck of the woods is a week or two ahead of his local conditions.
http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/index.htm
You have a much bigger area to deal with than l do, but l would suggest that the first thing to do is plant bulbs such as daffodils, narcissi and crocus where you can see them through the windows. They can really cheer you up on a cold day in early Spring. Secondly, l would think of the areas that you are more likely to access at that time of year. It's not worth planting bulbs if no one's going to see them, but you could have tulips in other areas as they can flower much later, April into May.
If you want to plant perennials for colour for Spring, things such as pulmonaria will give you colour, but as Obelixx says, you need to take your local planting conditions into account.
If you have areas you are really struggling to envisage, post a couple of photos and l'm sure there will be lots of suggestions
Joyce - that's a great idea, thanks
Marking them with a branch or canes etc, as already said, helps, but I'd agree with @AnniD that taking photos, and looking at the borders at different times of year, is really helpful in seeing where the gaps are. You can then pinpoint areas needing some extra colour. Don't be frightened to 'repeat plant' too, with bulbs and perennials, which provides unity.
Definitely use plenty of bulbs and some early perennials for areas you can regularly see from the house. Evergreen groundcover too. Bulbs will happily grow through it.
Your coneflowers will still be developing below ground, whereas the nursery one will be more mature
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
It's amazing how your garden changes over the years, a bit like your face I suppose!:(
Plan for next spring is to change the 24ft x 12ft greenhouse into a summerhouse (cedar - I'm lucky my OH was a cabinet maker back in the day!). I lost a favourite dog, Tula and plan to move our chicken pen to a more sensible plot; not bang in the middle - those of you that have chickens/ducks know that whilst the fowl are engaging, their home is not pretty!
Plan is to have a summer house - garden is south/west facing so we can sit in the spring and out of the wind. We'd like a stream/pond (we have power and water in the existing GH) and I'd love to have a deck that hangs over the water and also another seating area (arbour with bench so that Tula's ashes can be put to rest there). The chicken pen is on a gentle slope and approx. 5m wide by 8m long. It sits next to a partly renovated partierre ( boxed hedged 5 x 4 m x 2