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Scottish City Garden
WeekendPruner
Posts: 28
Hello
Nice to meet you all. I have bought my first home and first garden. I have decided to try and create a nice space to enjoy a little wildlife and tranquility in an otherwise busy city.
Long moved in before my arrival are squirrels, birds slugs and the neighborhood cats who seem to be intrigued with the changes to the the the space over the summer so far.
The gardens are a communal space for myself and neighbors to enjoy but has been left unattended for some time. Despite this, there is some real potential to make a space with a variety of interesting plants. The location is south west facing, out reaching the shadows of a traditional 1900's Glasgow Tenement housing block.
The garden features a secluded red brick wall which I have already created a rudimentary soil border with compost and brick edges. The location is sheltered and in a sunny position for the majority of the day and will hopefully be a great spot for a dining space.
Across the garden , the south west facing position also has a small flower border flanked by very mature trees and bushes.
It had lain empty till this summer where I planted a few different garden center plants bought without knowledge to make a start.
I will be looking for advice an input from all members to create something nice that will survive in the varied positions in the garden in a difficult climate.
I will try and post up some pictures shortly.
Nice to meet you all. I have bought my first home and first garden. I have decided to try and create a nice space to enjoy a little wildlife and tranquility in an otherwise busy city.
Long moved in before my arrival are squirrels, birds slugs and the neighborhood cats who seem to be intrigued with the changes to the the the space over the summer so far.
The gardens are a communal space for myself and neighbors to enjoy but has been left unattended for some time. Despite this, there is some real potential to make a space with a variety of interesting plants. The location is south west facing, out reaching the shadows of a traditional 1900's Glasgow Tenement housing block.
The garden features a secluded red brick wall which I have already created a rudimentary soil border with compost and brick edges. The location is sheltered and in a sunny position for the majority of the day and will hopefully be a great spot for a dining space.
Across the garden , the south west facing position also has a small flower border flanked by very mature trees and bushes.
It had lain empty till this summer where I planted a few different garden center plants bought without knowledge to make a start.
I will be looking for advice an input from all members to create something nice that will survive in the varied positions in the garden in a difficult climate.
I will try and post up some pictures shortly.
3
Posts
The city is more sheltered than where I am, but there will be loads of plants that will suit.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Finally, some photos of the garden and the start of planning out what to do with it. The site is south west facing but finds itself in the shadow of a traditional Glasgow Tenement, built circa 1890. The garden runs parallels to some smaller homes which allows some sunny spots in the garden.
Due East is roughly behind the large free in the far-ground. This grassy area gets good morning and afternoon sun then into the shadow in the building.
This flower bed has been here for quite some time and was empty aside from broken ceramic pot with a thorn bramble drowning out another unhealthy plant. However, the bramble lives on in the flower bed.
This flower bed alone has been a learning curve this summer. I have an Azalea, not in acidic enough soil. As a result, I have been learning more about them and have now used some Sulphate of Iron to try lower the Ph level of the soil around the plant and the rest of the bed. All that remains in this bed is the Azalea and a Fox Glove.
The Rowan Tree and the bottom of the garden which I am considering growing a climbing plant into it. I have been looking at clematis but feel more research might need to be done to select the right plant for the job.
This small section has sunny wall which gets good light towards the afternoon but does dip into shade into shade towards the evening and in early morning before the sun has moved. I dug out a small wall-side border to perhaps grow some vines and some flowers in the border. Small area has been seeded with shade grass seed to hopefully squeeze out some growth before winter.
The garden ethos is to be relatively fuss free aside. I am keen to set the garden on a path that wouldn't need to much work as some these plants will be here longer than I own this flat.
Flower Bed: Dwarf Azaleas
Flanked by a large Cypress, Evergreen Spindle and a Sycamore providing dappled shade at the rear, the front of the border is a full sun position for many hours till the evening. Slugs everywhere, Caterpillars and the rest for neighbors.
I would like to plant some Dwarf Azaleas in this spot as the main shrubs and commit to an acid border with complementing plants in a pine barked bed.
In summer I'd like to plant some unfussy one season flowers in the border for a colourful show.
Sunny Wall: Scented Climbers and Flowers
Thinking of planting some hardy, scented climbers with a wall trelis as well as treading a nice bed at the feet of the climbers. Clematis and Jasmine, Roses could be nice.
Shaded Wall:
All year round green and some colour in the summer months. Its a bit of an ugly spot that could be made far more interesting. In the shade of the rowan tree, I am also thinking of growing a flowering vine/climber into the tree. Might be a bad idea but with the right plant, it could work.
If you have any suggestions for plants to grow in these spots, please share.
You'll probably find the azalea is just struggling with lack of moisture - there's a lot of large shrubs/trees there which will be taking it all. That isn't usually a problem here in the west, but the last couple of years have been drier, so that's made a difference to denser planting which we can usually take for granted over on this side.
If you keep adding organic matter to the bed, that will help.
Is that the azalea in your third pic? It looks more like a rhodo. Have you got a close up?
Avoid that star jasmine sit doesn't usually cope here, although you may get away with it where you are - sheltered and in the town itself. I think we suggested clematis for your rowan on another thread.
Re the editing - you get an hour after posting to edit. The little cog top right of your post is the one for that
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Azalea - Pink Spider
Azalea - Encore Sunburst
Also got some £1 plants as stocking fillers but more on that later.
No dispatch time yet for either the plants or the soil. Added to the order some live organic leaf mulch.
I think this should give these Azaleas the best chance.
As for the current Azalea. It's quite leggy which made me think it was more likly to be deciduous but could be a Rhod.
Was sold as Azalea Jap. I'll try and dig out the pot it came in to see if there is an ID.
It's not very happy at the moment due to my gardening ignorance, I would suspect. Worst effected leaves have been plucked. There are still new shoots emerging from the crown and buds set out for next year.
I am half temped to pull it from the bed and start a fresh in a pot...
There's always a lot of talk and disagreement about rhodos and azaleas [all azaleas are rhododendrons, but not all rhododendrons are azaleas] but the bottom line with them is - they need decent soil, plenty of moisture and good drainage, pretty much regardless of type. Moisture, in particular, is really important as they're shallow rooted, so they don't like being dry long term. That's where the soil and thorough watering on planting are so important. Once established, and thriving, they can cope better, but long term dry conditions are their weakness. Until a few years ago, it would have been easy, but we're experiencing longer dry spells, and the high temps are higher than they used to be. I've noticed those change for around five or 6 years, or even more. We used to wonder what was wrong if we went three days without any rain, and now that's becoming more frequent, so it's not as easy to establish shrubs or trees now, in that kind of site.
If that was recently planted, it will have struggled for that moisture and nourishment, and the best way to sort that is to add loads and loads of organic matter. That just means rotted manure, good compost, and when you can manage it - home made compost and leaf mould are excellent as soil conditioners. The other thing that's very useful for these shrubs is bark. You can get composted bark which is the best thing for your site, but if you add a mulch every so often with any kind of bark, that will also help. That's also ideal as a top dressing [mulch] for your container azaleas.
An occasional 'chemical' feed [for want of a better term] is fine through the growing season, but it's the soil condition that will help it long term. Hopefully, it'll improve over autumn and winter.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Still making mistakes but enjoying learning.
I think you are spot on with the underwatering. The site is flanked by some greedy trees which have likely already sucked the nurtirion and moisture right out the border. It is also in a very sunny position for a large part of the day.
The leaves have started to curl up the way on a few stems. 😞
On the road home now but left a gallon can of tap water out overnight to water it this evening. It's gonna get the full gallon after I have a quick poke around the soil.
I have ordered some leaf mould from ebay, I have some erracious soil and planning on getting some pine bark chips to cover the full border soon. At least around the plant for now.
If I put a skewer into the soil and it comes out dry, Im sure that'll tell me how little water there is in the bed. Kind of like a cake...