An interesting perspective from top of the structure. Never thought of doing this before. Sort of an upstairs view of garden from an upstairs that we do not have.
That looks fantastic @owd potter, I do love a good project although that one is probably beyond me now. Your garden looks similar to ours as it slopes up from the house and we had the same set up but with a 3-4ft breeze block wall about 3ft or so away from the house wall. Looked horrible with green slimy water oozing through so we got a man with a tiny digger in to dig it all out and terrace it in stages.
Thanks @Lizzie27, that's the easy bit done, just got to decide what to cover it with now... Yes, gradients add lots of difficulties but make for interesting gardens. You can see on a couple of the photos that we have a similar issue with algal growth on the lowest level retaining wall adjacent the house. It's a difficult problem to resolve as it's all about adequate drainage to prevent the wall becoming too wet. It's not too bad fortunately but does look untidy and is something that I need to look into at some point.
I am now on the hunt for a rose to plant in front of newer lowest section that will make a good vertical screen on that pergola section in front of garage and form a canopy which I can train potentially up all 3 pergola levels. My main requirements for it are in this order:
White (or with pale tints is ok);
Vigourous but low maintenance. I hope this is not contradictory. It would be nice not to have to wait years and years for it to fill the pergola, but equally, as access to deadhead and prune will become tricky in my advancing years ideally i'd like a plant and forget rose
Fragrant; the stronger the better
Repeat blooms. A preference not a deal breaker
Single or semi double flower form in an ideal world, but also not a deal breaker.
This is my shortlist of contenders and queries that I have:
Mme Alfred Carriere. Ticks most of my boxes but Beales say it needs hard pruning and deadheading to flower well so maybe too demanding?
Rambling Rector. Saw this in bloom in Austin's rose garden in June it looked fabulous and smelled wonderful. Is it too vigorous/big for my location
Adelaide D'Orleans. By it's description alone this would be a good fit, but it was not particularly impressive in DA garden in early June, maybe wrong time for it?
Alberic Barbier.
Felicite et Perpetue.
Guirlande rose. Suggesed by @Imprevu I think, described by Beales as pink rather than white?
Would love to hear from anyone that grows any of these with any thoughts, or indeed of any others suggestions that may suit. apologies for the rambling post (pun fully intended) cheers
Guirlande rose is light pink and fades to white in the sun. If you really want white you can have a look at guirlande d amour . I do not have the last one . But understood that the canes are a little bit more stiffer. Guirlande needs deadheading, the flowers do not age really nice. But if you do not want to do it , you have small hips 😉.
I grew Mme Alfred Carriere once which was lovely but very vigorous with thin, long canes which grew vertically very quickly. It can grow up to 20ft and cover the side of a house I believe. As mine was on a highish (3-4ft ) raised bank/bed which meant a small stepladder to get near enough to tie it in, I eventually admitted defeat and took it out. Even then, part of the root I inadvertently left in tried to have another go at growing!
Posts
Never thought of doing this before. Sort of an upstairs view of garden from an upstairs that we do not have.
Your garden looks similar to ours as it slopes up from the house and we had the same set up but with a 3-4ft breeze block wall about 3ft or so away from the house wall. Looked horrible with green slimy water oozing through so we got a man with a tiny digger in to dig it all out and terrace it in stages.
Yes, gradients add lots of difficulties but make for interesting gardens.
You can see on a couple of the photos that we have a similar issue with algal growth on the lowest level retaining wall adjacent the house. It's a difficult problem to resolve as it's all about adequate drainage to prevent the wall becoming too wet.
It's not too bad fortunately but does look untidy and is something that I need to look into at some point.
My main requirements for it are in this order:
- White (or with pale tints is ok);
- Vigourous but low maintenance. I hope this is not contradictory. It would be nice not to have to wait years and years for it to fill the pergola, but equally, as access to deadhead and prune will become tricky in my advancing years ideally i'd like a plant and forget rose
- Fragrant; the stronger the better
- Repeat blooms. A preference not a deal breaker
- Single or semi double flower form in an ideal world, but also not a deal breaker.
This is my shortlist of contenders and queries that I have:- Mme Alfred Carriere. Ticks most of my boxes but Beales say it needs hard pruning and deadheading to flower well so maybe too demanding?
- Rambling Rector. Saw this in bloom in Austin's rose garden in June it looked fabulous and smelled wonderful. Is it too vigorous/big for my location
- Adelaide D'Orleans. By it's description alone this would be a good fit, but it was not particularly impressive in DA garden in early June, maybe wrong time for it?
- Alberic Barbier.
- Felicite et Perpetue.
- Guirlande rose. Suggesed by @Imprevu I think, described by Beales as pink rather than white?
Would love to hear from anyone that grows any of these with any thoughts, or indeed of any others suggestions that may suit.apologies for the rambling post (pun fully intended)
cheers
thank you for your comments