Don't get down hearted even if it doesn't work, as you say we all have to start somewhere.
We moved into our new build house 3 years ago, our first garden. Over the first couple of years wasted a lot of money on buying the wrong plants for the wrong place or not doing the right soil preparation or not looking after them properly (feeding and watering) etc but the most costly mistake was employing cowboy gardeners.
It's only since beginning of this year that after all the failures I started to educate myself on gardening and thanks to lockdown had a lot more time to invest in the garden and have just finished giving the garden a makeover. I have no idea how many plants will survive or even if I will like the outcome as it's a bit of a mishmash with mix of native hedging, formal looking beds and topiary and some cottage garden plants thrown in for good measure. But it doesn't matter as I am loving it and learning from my mistakes.
Re your photo, only if it’s really sticking out at a mad angle, less is definitely more with these trees. It will thicken up and fill out on its own and you don’t want to be lopping bits off unnecessarily, so think gently training the growth it gives you, not pruning 😊
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
Re your photo, only if it’s really sticking out at a mad angle, less is definitely more with these trees. It will thicken up and fill out on its own and you don’t want to be lopping bits off unnecessarily, so think gently training the growth it gives you, not pruning 😊
THANK YOU that makes total sense!!!
I’m just going to leave them be and hopefully come back to you all with a success story!
Don't get down hearted even if it doesn't work, as you say we all have to start somewhere.
We moved into our new build house 3 years ago, our first garden. Over the first couple of years wasted a lot of money on buying the wrong plants for the wrong place or not doing the right soil preparation or not looking after them properly (feeding and watering) etc but the most costly mistake was employing cowboy gardeners.
It's only since beginning of this year that after all the failures I started to educate myself on gardening and thanks to lockdown had a lot more time to invest in the garden and have just finished giving the garden a makeover. I have no idea how many plants will survive or even if I will like the outcome as it's a bit of a mishmash with mix of native hedging, formal looking beds and topiary and some cottage garden plants thrown in for good measure. But it doesn't matter as I am loving it and learning from my mistakes.
Great so you hopefully have loads of helpful and patient advice to give to newbies which I think this forum needs.
Have you any photos of your garden?
New builds are challenging to breathe any life into! Especially when they are built up like ours.
Grass is always greener on the other side, I wish I had a blank canvas like yours but as it turned out we inherited a native hedge with a 5 yr preservation order (2 more yrs left), a lawn with only 2 inches of proper soil and some generic developer plants.
As such we are in the middle of a transformation plan but hope we can get it looking nice in a couple of years. I do not have a panoramic pic of the garden but here are some snippets anyway. Must take a panoramic pic once the plants start to bloom, I am anxious to see how the semi circle bed will turn out like in a couple of years when the plants fill up that patch. I have ornamental grass and hebe at front, agapanthus & allium in the middle and hydrangea at the back flanked by a couple of Thujas, meadow rue & white hydrangeas on either side. Meanwhile I have potted up some Arenaria & Calibrachoa in bloom that I shall use to fill up the gaps. Like I said a total mishmash
@elfer thuja are super pretty aren’t they and that acer!!! 😍😍😍
You are doing well as I would never have guessed that was a new build garden!!!
We had a fully landscaped front to our house... the hebe has become an absolute monster! I had to cut half of it out as it was creeping over other plants! Lovely looking plant tho.
Hebe rakaiensis is beautiful but as you say very fast growing and so needs a couple of good trims a year to keep it in check. I bought a pair of topiary shears last year and been practicing on them but I may have started too late as they are quite woody underneath. I opted for the emerald green variety in the semi circle patch as it's much smaller.
The Acer is looking very good, it's the first plant I got when we moved and it survived .... I am on the lookout for a green one too, should have got one at the same time. Will you be planting anything else in your rear garden?
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We moved into our new build house 3 years ago, our first garden. Over the first couple of years wasted a lot of money on buying the wrong plants for the wrong place or not doing the right soil preparation or not looking after them properly (feeding and watering) etc but the most costly mistake was employing cowboy gardeners.
It's only since beginning of this year that after all the failures I started to educate myself on gardening and thanks to lockdown had a lot more time to invest in the garden and have just finished giving the garden a makeover. I have no idea how many plants will survive or even if I will like the outcome as it's a bit of a mishmash with mix of native hedging, formal looking beds and topiary and some cottage garden plants thrown in for good measure. But it doesn't matter as I am loving it and learning from my mistakes.
As such we are in the middle of a transformation plan but hope we can get it looking nice in a couple of years. I do not have a panoramic pic of the garden but here are some snippets anyway. Must take a panoramic pic once the plants start to bloom, I am anxious to see how the semi circle bed will turn out like in a couple of years when the plants fill up that patch. I have ornamental grass and hebe at front, agapanthus & allium in the middle and hydrangea at the back flanked by a couple of Thujas, meadow rue & white hydrangeas on either side. Meanwhile I have potted up some Arenaria & Calibrachoa in bloom that I shall use to fill up the gaps. Like I said a total mishmash
You are doing well as I would never have guessed that was a new build garden!!!
The Acer is looking very good, it's the first plant I got when we moved and it survived .... I am on the lookout for a green one too, should have got one at the same time. Will you be planting anything else in your rear garden?