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Country cottage garden

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  • Loved reading your posts Slum, and looked at your photos

    I love looking at 'before and after' pictures, but actually in gardening there aren't really any 'afters'...all a work in progress

    Pity the glasshouse was beyond repair

    Looking forward to the next instalment

  • ClaringtonClarington Posts: 4,949

    I adore the brickwork between the raised beds! I wish I'd seen that before the brick filled skip was collected! Doh!

    It looks like you're really turning from a jungle to a garden. I hope your house is also a home.

  • SlumSlum Posts: 385

    Thank you all again for the words of encouragement.

    Clarington - the bricks are a recurring theme around the garden. There is also a path next to the new greenhouse and they've been used for edging in a few places. 

    Yesterday I cleared and washed the greenhouse and then filled it with young plants. Earlier in the year I bought a perennial plug plant deal from Van Meuwan. If I remember correctly about £18 for 144 plants. I've also grown some from seed so I guess there is in excess of 200 plants to go into the garden next spring. They've spent the last few weeks outdoors but I thought it best to have them undercover for winter. 

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    On the left are a few chilli plants which I'm hoping will ripen a bit more before the cold weather really kicks in. When they're done I'll have a bit more space.

    Hopefully I'll be out again for a little bit today.

  • This is looking good, Slum, well done you.  Do you have a photo of the whole of your garden to compare to the one you took back in 2014?

    I think your gnome probably belongs on Muddle-Up's Monkey puzzle tree, though ;-)

  • SlumSlum Posts: 385

    Hello Bob. This photo is from this morning. It shows how far I've got. The left side beds have been weeded except for the one closest to the patio. The grass running through the middle is new and the area to the right is still to be weeded. 

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    This is a close-up of the small area which I've planted. It shows the kind of look I'm going for - plants jostling for their space. 

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    ...and then these 2 will be planted in spring...

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    This is the right side still full of dandelions, thistles, nettles, grass, ivy etc. On the upside there is no bindweed!

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  • SlumSlum Posts: 385

    The hawkshead fuschias that I bought as tiny plugs from Van Meuwan in June 2015 have done really well. I grew them on in pots until planting them out this spring. All 5 survived and are now good sized shrubs. 

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  • SlumSlum Posts: 385

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    This photo was taken June 2016. It shows one of the views from the garden at sunset. 

  • SlumSlum Posts: 385

    After a week off, it was back to work this week so I've barely seen the garden in daylight. I'm hopping to do a bit this week-end but I'm not sure what yet. 

    An area I planted up early spring this year was next to the house. Originally it looked like this...

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    It is by the main door of the house so important for it to look more attractive. It is a shady spot. Trees to the east, the house to the west and over hanging trees to the south. It does get a bit of sun from the south for a couple of hours or so. I did some research on the internet and found this shady border planting plan. http://www.contemporarygardendesign.co.uk/blog/shady-border-planting I pretty much stuck to that, adding an extra skimmia confusa because the area is a little bigger than the plan and it was on a buy one get a second cheap deal. I've also put in some aquilegia and some hellebores to fill in gaps until the shrubs establish and grow in size. The entire area had been filled with compacted mill waste during our building work so I dug that out and put in new soil. I edged it with more bricks found in the copse. Incidentally the driveway we did with road plannings - something I'd never heard of until researching to find a cheaper alternative to the usual products. It is the waste product from when contractors resurface roads. I think it suits our rural situation nicely, you often find it on farm tracks.

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  • chickychicky Posts: 10,410

    Only just discovered this thread - loving itimage. Great to see what a difference you have made already - its my kind of garden.

    Look forward to following your journeyimage

  • Busy-LizzieBusy-Lizzie Posts: 24,042

    I've really enjoyed reading about the evolution of your garden, thank you.

    Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
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