I liked the rose lady. Loved the way her favourite rose changed between being asked the first and second time. Think we can all sympathise with her! My favourite changes daily depending what looks good at that moment
@Heartinthedirt I love listening to Advolly Richmond too. I have followed her podcast series on my phone. @didyw I noticed last year that Monty Don's plants don't look healthy in his overcrowded beds. When I started my bed in 2020, I did the Monty way to find three months later the same issue. I then took out some plants and gave all my plants space to breath and to get sunshine and eh voila, they looked so much better. I'm also not a friend of "fill beds up to keep the weeds down". A good bed has no weeds because once I see a tiny green thing, I pick it out. If a bed is too crowded, weeds will still find a way to grow and I can't see them growing.
Agree about the crowding in Monty's beds. Plants need space and air as well as light.
Really enjoyed seeing Sue Beesley again. She used to post on the old GW forum until she won the Gardener of the Year, changed career, bought the nursery and became too busy. Thought her garden was great too. Love island beds.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
I don't know what's going on, but yet again l watched the whole thing through from beginning to end.
I remember Sue Beesley @Obelixx , in fact l bought some plants from her nursery a few months ago. Had to laugh at her comment about having the beds in the middle and the lawn around the edge. I've said that to my OH a few times only to be met with disagreement, and sure enough the same voice of dissent was heard again last night 😁.
That pond of Monty's looked like a death trap to be honest. I couldn't make out where ground ended and water began. I always remember him losing his balance and falling in years ago.
I'm looking forward to seeing Sue Kent's garden at Hampton Court. Gardeners' World is on Thursday next week from the show, but l can't see any specific programmes about it anywhere else. Hopefully l'm mistaken, considering the amount of Chelsea coverage the BBC provided.
Really enjoyed seeing Sue Beesley again. She used to post on the old GW forum until she won the Gardener of the Year, changed career, bought the nursery and became too busy. Thought her garden was great too. Love island beds.
Yeah, so did I. We've bought most of our plants in recent years from her (Bluebell Cottage Nursery). I got talking to her in the little tea shop at Bluebell a few weeks ago and asked about a grass I'd seen in her garden. She immediately ran off and came back with a flower stem from said grass. When I'd confirmed that was indeed the one, she then took me up onto the nursery and showed me which one it was (Deschampsia schottland). Great personal service.
We visit at least 3 times a year and use our 'two for one' ticket to get into the garden. I don't think that piece on GW went anywhere close to doing her garden justice. There are some celebrated views in there that were just not shown at all, and they didn't even mention the attached nursery & mail-order service.
Clay soil - Cheshire/Derbyshire border. I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
She is lovely @VictorMeldrew. A group of us went to Tatton RHS in 2007 to see her first show garden and we all had a good laugh together. I'm really pleased it's all worked out so well for her.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
I have to control the yellow flag iris in my garden too, but it's much easier to do it in the autumn or early spring, when you don't have all that foliage to contend with and can see what you are doing.
I have to control my Darmera as well, that's another job for a nice winter's day. I filled 2 sacks this last winter and haven't even started on the Dell yet. It goes everywhere in my damp soil and it isn't a small plant by any measure, though his looked small when he planted it, as things do. And no way would I have chosen to plant yellow Lysimachia in a bog garden, a nightmare in the making!
Had to laugh at her comment about having the beds in the middle and the lawn around the edge. I've said that to my OH a few times only to be met with disagreement, and sure enough the same voice of dissent was heard again last night 😁.
We finally agreed to have a go (on a small scale) in our front garden 3 years ago having repeatedly extended the perimeter beds. What we've ended up with is two beds in the middle AND the original beds around the edge, with lawn in between. Far more interesting and more scope to try different plants, but it ain't 'arf difficult to mow the lawn now
This is a shot from an upstairs window.
Clay soil - Cheshire/Derbyshire border. I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
The answer's obvious @VictorMeldrew!! Join up those two beds in the middle so you can just mow round them and have loads more interesting plants to fill up the new space.
We inherited 2 small round beds in what passes for our front lawn. One contained a fruit tree which the previous owners had cut to the base leaving just the rootstock to re-grow as a multi-stemmed specimen and the other held a blue hibiscus and a yellow honeysuckle. They were bone dry and starved and baked so we joined them up as one large bed now filled with bearded iris, stachys lanata, gaura, kniphofia, cyclamens, a couple of sages and other drought tolerant plants that like to be sun-baked.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
The usual advice trundled out is to decide on the shape of borders using a hosepipe. The most of practical way is to use your lawn mower! Let the grass grow a bit then mow a shape that the mower can cope with easily, with mower-friendly curves.
Posts
@didyw I noticed last year that Monty Don's plants don't look healthy in his overcrowded beds. When I started my bed in 2020, I did the Monty way to find three months later the same issue. I then took out some plants and gave all my plants space to breath and to get sunshine and eh voila, they looked so much better.
I'm also not a friend of "fill beds up to keep the weeds down". A good bed has no weeds because once I see a tiny green thing, I pick it out. If a bed is too crowded, weeds will still find a way to grow and I can't see them growing.
I ♥ my garden.
Really enjoyed seeing Sue Beesley again. She used to post on the old GW forum until she won the Gardener of the Year, changed career, bought the nursery and became too busy. Thought her garden was great too. Love island beds.
I remember Sue Beesley @Obelixx , in fact l bought some plants from her nursery a few months ago.
Had to laugh at her comment about having the beds in the middle and the lawn around the edge. I've said that to my OH a few times only to be met with disagreement, and sure enough the same voice of dissent was heard again last night 😁.
That pond of Monty's looked like a death trap to be honest. I couldn't make out where ground ended and water began. I always remember him losing his balance and falling in years ago.
I'm looking forward to seeing Sue Kent's garden at Hampton Court.
Gardeners' World is on Thursday next week from the show, but l can't see any specific programmes about it anywhere else. Hopefully l'm mistaken, considering the amount of Chelsea coverage the BBC provided.
Yeah, so did I. We've bought most of our plants in recent years from her (Bluebell Cottage Nursery). I got talking to her in the little tea shop at Bluebell a few weeks ago and asked about a grass I'd seen in her garden. She immediately ran off and came back with a flower stem from said grass. When I'd confirmed that was indeed the one, she then took me up onto the nursery and showed me which one it was (Deschampsia schottland). Great personal service.
We visit at least 3 times a year and use our 'two for one' ticket to get into the garden. I don't think that piece on GW went anywhere close to doing her garden justice. There are some celebrated views in there that were just not shown at all, and they didn't even mention the attached nursery & mail-order service.
I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
We finally agreed to have a go (on a small scale) in our front garden 3 years ago having repeatedly extended the perimeter beds. What we've ended up with is two beds in the middle AND the original beds around the edge, with lawn in between. Far more interesting and more scope to try different plants, but it ain't 'arf difficult to mow the lawn now
This is a shot from an upstairs window.
I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
We inherited 2 small round beds in what passes for our front lawn. One contained a fruit tree which the previous owners had cut to the base leaving just the rootstock to re-grow as a multi-stemmed specimen and the other held a blue hibiscus and a yellow honeysuckle. They were bone dry and starved and baked so we joined them up as one large bed now filled with bearded iris, stachys lanata, gaura, kniphofia, cyclamens, a couple of sages and other drought tolerant plants that like to be sun-baked.
The most of practical way is to use your lawn mower! Let the grass grow a bit then mow a shape that the mower can cope with easily, with mower-friendly curves.