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Identification and Advice
hello
i am a novice gardener, I have never done much until this last month! My garden has been inherited from previous owners who had developed it years ago but left it to itself in later years.
I would appreciate some help identifying what these plants are, and suggestions for what to do with them (keep them, plant something new, tame them?). I believe most of them are fully established 'weeds' though weeds are plants too and I rather like some of them!
my garden is east facing. Also, sorry about the angle of these pictures, I am attempting to do this from a tablet and having a little difficulty.
Thanks so much for any help, much appreciated!
Best wishes to you all,
John
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Posts
Hi John
1 is a mix of Dicentra spectablis, (bleeding heart) and a Dutch iris.
2 looks like a mix of nothing apple sucker and some other cut down tree
3. The purple shrub is a berberis
4 a mahonia
5 Yew
6 Geranium robertianum, Herb Robert, a weed
7 a eucalyptus
8. yew
In the sticks near Peterborough
1. is OK
2, I would be tempted to remove all those woody ones
4 the mahonia looks a bit tired. It's not a shrub that enjoys sun and dry soil
Yew can be cut and shaped any way you like.
Herb Robert, it doesn't matter what you do, it's an annual and there'll always be more. But not a serious weed
Eucalyptus can be cut right back to base and will regrow every year if you don't want a tree
In the sticks near Peterborough
Thanks so much for your informative and quick reply!
I have a few other queries;
1) there is a lavender in a pot which looks rather odd, i quite like it but i'm not sure if its healthy, some dead bits on it but nice in parts - doesnt seem to attract many bees? they love the dutch iris but ignore the lavender. is this okay?
2) I grabbed some of these cute little things at the shop near me earlier, and i have this pot which i would like to plant them in. not sure about size though; should they have lots of room or are they fine to cram in with other things? I caught sight of a lovely stuffed pot on gardeners world or some programme recently and liked the idea. I believe there were more colours than just the white so I may go back and grab some more if they would 'work' so to speak. I was thinking four of these, possibly even 5, around the edges of the pot, with perhaps lavender in the center? any other suggestions are welcome, I have a few more pots to fill as well so suggestions concerning pots generally would also be appreciated.
3) is this thing okay? I have forgotten the name already (I must write them down somewhere) but i simply grabbed it while in the town becuase it seemed nice and was cheap, put it in the garden put now that ive looked at it properly it seems sort of dead; the leaves have tiny little holes in them or something. I know honestly nothing about gardening (yet!) so excuse any ignorance.
4) the yew at the bottom of the garden has another plant growing under it which looks dead! but some of it thrives and looks lovely! I love the height of the yew as it gives privacy and I just love a high tree (will it keep growing? to what height in what time?) but I want to make that corner of the patio into a little seating area with perhaps a table, and the yew is blocking my way. If i want to keep the height but just cut back that overgrown part, how would I go about it? I am similarly new in tree maintenance, will the parts I cut never grow back again? Any advice/help much appreciated here!
5) on the above picture (the picture of the patio and yew for 4) you can also see the far wall of the garden, with a little ivy in a pot on a trellis I found in the garage and put up; will that grow well? It is blocked from the morning sun by the fence but it gets sun all afternoon till around 6/7 when the sun dips behind the house. I would like this whole wall covered with things (e.g. the ivy, or a climber growing from a pot? There is concrete under the fence so pots will be required, but there is a small patch of soil between the patio and concrete (which on the picture is covered by a fallen concrete border piece of the patio) so i could plant something there and somehow have it grow up onto the fence...? Or plants which will grow to heights of 8ft or something... thats what I'm thinking to make that corner really lovely.
Sorry for this long list of requests, I really have no idea
That post may have been too long and cut off... I really have no idea about gardening! feel free to answer as few or as many of my questions as you please. Thanks so much for all your help.
Here is a picture showing the height of the yew which I mention wanting to cut back from the patio in my above post. I like it so tall but a neighbour advised me to cut it back; I wouldn't like too at all, the taller the better I say! But perhaps he is right?