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I need help rescuing my grandad who passed aways garden
chrisharry12345
Posts: 34
So this is a long one and I'm not really sure the best way to put it but I'll try my best!
So my grandad passed away about 18 months ago now. He spent most of his later life in the garden and was something he enjoyed. A family member is buying his house and literally plans to turf the whole garden and will throw away the plants. I have asked if I can take some away and they said to take whatever I wanted out.
So to be clear, I am not a Gardner by any means but it's something I am keen to get into and now I am determined to try and rescue what I can with the space I have.
So I have 2 small areas of garden to put plants but 2 fairly large areas of patio at the back for planters and space along the front of the house.
I have used a plant app to try and determin what's what as I'm clueless but some coukdnt be identified and some could be wrong?
What I would really appriciate is..
- Seeing if any corrections are needed on the names
- Help on what plants I could lift straight into pots/ planters (if so what size pots etc)
- Which ones I could take cuttings of if they are too big
- Which ones would live in harmony together
Sorry for the long post I wasn't really sure how to put this but would appriciate any help 😊
So my grandad passed away about 18 months ago now. He spent most of his later life in the garden and was something he enjoyed. A family member is buying his house and literally plans to turf the whole garden and will throw away the plants. I have asked if I can take some away and they said to take whatever I wanted out.
So to be clear, I am not a Gardner by any means but it's something I am keen to get into and now I am determined to try and rescue what I can with the space I have.
So I have 2 small areas of garden to put plants but 2 fairly large areas of patio at the back for planters and space along the front of the house.
I have used a plant app to try and determin what's what as I'm clueless but some coukdnt be identified and some could be wrong?
What I would really appriciate is..
- Seeing if any corrections are needed on the names
- Help on what plants I could lift straight into pots/ planters (if so what size pots etc)
- Which ones I could take cuttings of if they are too big
- Which ones would live in harmony together
Sorry for the long post I wasn't really sure how to put this but would appriciate any help 😊
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Posts
Answering would be very difficult and confusing both for the poster and for you.
Can you relist about 3 or 4 at a time uploading the a photo onto your post or just the names of the plants.
The first photo is I think a hydrangea but which variety and how big it is will have a bearing on what you can do.
I would say the second photo is London Pride but still a saxifraga and easy to dig and pot up.
https://imgshare.io/image/p3lrkq- hydrangea
https://imgshare.io/image/p3afmp - flowers remind me of Pieris but it's too close to see
https://imgshare.io/image/p3lp8f- impossible for me to tell from just bare branches
Hydrangea macrophylla p3lrkq + p3l9iQ
London pride, Saxifraga x urbanum p3azoH
Erica p3afmp, p3lamj, p3lnSK,p3ldc6 + p3lky7
p3lp8f—photo too poor quality and plant not in leaf
p3lNSd—photo poor quality and on its side; could conceivably be Dianthus carthusianorum
Hypericum definitely, but without a scale/photo of whole plant, there are several species it could be p3l2p7
Primula vulgaris p3l5dg, p3lXm4
Hebe, species unknown p3lCTx
Possibly Buddleja? p3lS41
Ophiopogon planiscapus ’Nigrescens’ aka ‘Nakai’ p3lltS
Berberis darwinii p3lOnt
Ilex, I suspect x altaclarensis ‘Golden King’ p313A8 + P3lAbn
Ficaria vernalis p3l7uw + p3lHuf
Blurred pic and not enough to go on, sorry p3lZpe
Euonymus japonicus, could be ‘Bravo’ p3lEiy, p31PAF
Allium triquetrum, a terrible weed, avoid p3li4c, p3lstY
Most likely bluebell, probably Spanish, avoid p3lI3Z + p3l0Pd
Possibly Leycesteria formosana? p3lWu9 + p3lhxX
leaves of bluebell crowding out Muscari p3lvrO
Viola labradorica—now called something else p3lxB5
looks like a weed P3lmcP
Heuchera p3lY3u
A different Hebe p3lcbH
Spiraea japonica ‘Goldflame’ p3lqDp
Aquilegia vulgaris p3lerq + p3lQxt
could be what it’s suggesting, tho looks a bit like Osteospermum to me p3lL71
?Possibly Leucanthemum superbum, tho not much to go on p3lGBx
Osteospermum jucundum p3loDj
You have listed around 40 plants so what next?
Are they going to suit your soil and sun/shade conditions?
Have you room for them all?
Do you even like them all?
How far away is your grandads garden?
Small plants are easy to lift and put in a suitable pot, or even into a plastic bag for transporting home.
Some like primrose will self seed around but like woodland type conditions.
The black grass p3lits is very slow growing and expensive to buy so take as much as you can.
Larger shrubs need digging up as soon as you can, again put into black sacks with soil if you haven't a large enough pot to accommodate the roots. You can trim roots a bit but certainly reduce the top growth by a third.
Can't tell from your photos how large the shrubs are to know if they can be moved. A lot of shrubs you can take cuttings but don't know when is best for each shrub.
Maybe you can persuade the family member to keep some larger shrubs in memory of your Grandad, even if it's just for a while, then you can take cuttings at the right time of year if necessary but knowing how long it takes to complete on a house you have a good few months!
@k67 yes, lots to think about! The house is only 3 miles away so not too bad in that regard.. Timing I think I have some time for the majority but the first thing they are doing is putting footings on for an extension so how much time I don't actually know..
Space wise I will only be able to use ones that will be happy in pots/ large planters so once I had a list of the plants that's the next thing I was going to figure out. I have plenty of space for large pots/ planters though.
I guess I will also need to look up each plant to see how much sun/ shade they need to determine if they go out the front or back of the house!
Lots to think about. It doesn't help I have an issue where using a computer causes motion sickness so I can only use my phone to post/ research 🙄
https://imgshare.io/image/screenshot-20210331-224132-orgplantnet.p3lL7l
When you've worked out which ones you'd like to keep, the next thing is to consider the size of pots you're going to use. Some of them are much more suited to pots than others.
I'm sure your grandad would be happy to know you want to care for his plants as he did, but l think it's better to take just a few that will be happy and are comparatively easy to care for in his memory, than have them all