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Are you brave enough?
I moved into a new home 18 months ago with big plans for the large mature garden. Whilst I have done a lot I have yet had the bravery to really do what I want. An example is 90 foot run or mature rhododendron about 8 foot tall. Whilst I admire them I would prefer a more structured look and would love to swap then it for an 8 foot yew headge. The desire to wait 6 odd years for this is probably the thing holding me back but I guess that's what gardening is all about, patience! Still if I had been brave enough 12 months ago at least I would have a 2 foot hedge now. Anyone else having trouble creating their perfect garden because they aren't brave enough to rip out the old?
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No, I inherited a garden that's no been touched for at least 15 years. I have no qualms about getting rid or moving anything. I have had very few loses. Plants want to live. I always take cuttings so I never completely loses anything. But then I have a overgrown nightmare and you probably have something lovely. I do what seems right to me. My garden is MY space.
I am tempted to make one of my borders into a cutting plot
...when I took over my last garden I got a tree surgeon in straight away to remove a huge Birch, Alder and goodness knows what else... a whole hedge of this and that...usual things like old Forsythia etc... the whole garden was cleared with nothing left, ready for replanting.... I felt bad for a time, like a guilt complex, but soon moved on and got my own things put in...
..done more or less the same here, between the two of us... apart from a single Azalea which was in flower when we looked at the place...I thought..that's got to stay...and it has...
...otherwise, nothing lasts forever...
I'm with you Blue but conversely I moved in to a new house and daren't dig up the perfect, but boring, rectangle of pure lawn that's about a third of an acre. Wish I had the expertise and confidence to know what I want and how to do it!
Instead ive crammed in a greenhouse and raised beds around the side of the house!
Little-Anne, I'm having a go at a cutting plot for the first time this year. Am sacrificing a couple of raised beds that I normally grow veg in. Defo think you should have a go too. We can compare progress!
Too many years I hated the garden path that ran through my garden rooms so predictably, weaving through the middle.OH and I discussed for a couple of years but money was too tight for major landscaping, but then finances got better and I got digging across the middle garden to make a large border. OH laid a lovely step that led into a passage connecting to the bottom gardens.
It was hard work, a fair bit of money but absolutely the best design change I ever made to my garden.
Always go with your gut feeling
if you can afford to
I would love to take down the Leylandii at the bottom of my garden but I would be really overlooked and I think it would take too long for something to grow to get my privacy back. If I had the money I would take them out and replace them with a large ready grown hedge.
I'm not ready to give up my veg beds but I have a boarder up in my veg garden that I find a bit difficult I think when the weather improves I will come to a decision
I've just taken the bull by the horns and cut a winter flowering viburnum down to 12 inches. It had been growing (6 -7 foot tall) and making thickets around itself for about 15 years and I was reluctant to lose the winter flowers. I discovered that there was a flower bed in front of it which had been completely covered, and I can see daffs coming up now. I hope the drastic cut will not mark the passing of this shrub - fingers crossed it will regenerate in a more sober form. Meanwhile I have lots of ideas for how to replenish the lost flower bed.
Do it BB! I would!
When I moved here seven years ago we had enormous fir tree slap bang in the middle of the garden! OH always promised to take down but never happened! Every year I tried to wish it away! I have already promised myself in the next house I will get it out if I don't like it as you always regret making do and working around it