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New UK Gardener
dessbsm
Posts: 6
Hello. I'm an Aussie moved permanently to East Yorkshire. Does anyone have some suggestions about a good gardening book for this area? I have a lot to learn about Yorkshire plants and seasons!
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Posts
Join the RHS which will get you free access to Harlow Carr garden all year plus many partner gardens in the area - https://www.rhs.org.uk/ plus a monthly magazine and free access to experts for advice.
Visit as many local gardens as possible - https://www.opengardens.co.uk/open_gardens_in_yorkshire.php or join the Yellow Book scheme which organises private gardens open for charity on specific days - https://ngs.org.uk/
Something else you need to know about is compost formulations for sowing, transplanting and planting in the UK. John Innes types are loam based. No 1 is low nutrients for seeds, 2 is medium for potting on and 3 is stronger nutrition for mature plants. Levingtons is a similar sequence but plant based rather than loam and then there are multi-purpose composts which, in my experience, are just claggy and best used as a soil conditioner. Finally there's ericaceous compost which is lime free for plants like rhodos, azaleas, ericas, skimmias etc. Be aware also that nutrients in commercial composts are only good for 90 days max so you need to add more to keep plants growing or use liquid feeds.
I live on the Yorkshire Coast and I can tell you we have our own weather system so it is very hard to predict weather patterns and sometimes even believe the weather forecasters.
I grow a wide variety of different plants and flowers in my garden and I do get lots of inspiration from looking at other peoples gardens when walking past their houses and also from Monty and also on here. I just need to bear in mind that we have very clay soil so best to have plants that can cope with this type of soil. So you are best off checking your soil type. Otherwise we can grow most things.
I will tell you this though, my garden is often 2 - 4 weeks behind other gardens inland and in southern areas. I used to get down hearted that the blooms seemed slow to appear and thought I was doing something wrong when people posted pictures on here and I just had buds forming. I have got used to that now though.
This is a very friendly forum with a lot of knowledge amongst it members so any question, please ask. I am sure that you will get good answers.
I hope that this has helped. Enjoy getting to know your garden.
There are some cherries that flower over winter, some clematis but only in mild, sheltered areas in my experience, and you can also look at things like cornus alba sibirica which will give colourful, bright red winter stems if pruned back hard in spring. All sorts of early bulbs too.
Weather patterns can vary greatly for one year to the next. We had a 13 month drought when we arrived in October '16 then heavy rain, drought, scorchio heatwaves, the first snow in years over the next 12 months. This last winter was very wet and now we're very dry again........ Climate change on the go.
Hope for the best and plan for the worst.
Winter Gardens here in the UK tend to rely on evergreen plants, although there are some which have colourful stems or which flower in winter.
Fairy lights at Christmas do brighten up some of the gloomiest days, and needn't be too tacky (just a thought)