Probably grass - a lawn can set off a garden and is probably the part which has the most influence, countrywide. However, for me, beech trees and and the woodland under them.
For me it's wildflowers. Mum used to take me for a walk round the local lanes from when I was a baby and she'd tell me the names of the flowers that came and went in the hedges. By the time I was 5 or 6 I was fascinated and waiting for the next one I knew to come into bloom. And my garden here has mostly either actually wild or only just not wild' flowers. I love them, though they are so fleeting on the whole.
I think the impact of grass is actually the impact of lawnmowers. When you had to pay several blokes to cut your grass with shears, a lawn was a statement of wealth. The advent of push along mowers and then the Flymo has led to the proliferation of lawns for the masses
Last edited: 18 March 2017 08:58:31
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
I was thinking as I watched GW last night, I think the plant that has had the most impact on British gardens over the past 50 years has been the Leylandii .............. unfortunately
Imagine taking a balloon ride over a typical area of suburban gardens nowadays - and then imagine what it would be like without the Leylandii hedges ...
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I was always interested as a child but discouraged my parents too time poor to risk letting me play with beds and plants. Discovered only in my 40s, and long after he was dead, that my paternal grandfather was a keen amateur gardener and prize winner up in South Shields.
What started me as an adult was buying a house with a garden - 85' long and with a row of 30' high leylandii down the eastern side blocking the morning sun from our garden and the afternoon sun and prevailing rain form our neighbours. Suddenly, we had grass to mow, dead roses and weedy laburnum to get rid of and those trees making it all dark. We cleared the rubble and planted a fruit cage, took down the trees and found our garden was suddenly a whole lot wider and lighter and then started planting with help and advice form our new neighbours who were delighted the trees had gone.
We'd come home from work and make a cup of tea and wander about the garden admiring blooms and veggies and pulling weeds and gently de-stressing and now find that a garden and the process of caring for it are essential to our well-being. Love sharing plants and info and tips too.
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)."
Bromton Stocks my dad used to bring them every year from the market wrapped in newspaper would help him plant them in the front garden the fragrance was wonderful
I went to a tiny village school ( only13 pupils in the whole school at one time) and we were taken out for regular walks along the footpaths by a plant-obsessed gardening teacher who taught us all the plants' names and where to find orchids and stuff like that - I've been obsessed with plants ever since - and when I was very little my granny's gardener showed me that a horrid prickly plant produced wonderful delicious raspberries, then gardening seemed like a good idea to me So I suppose the plant that had the first big influence on me was the raspberry.
Last edited: 18 March 2017 10:05:22
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
when I was very little my granny's gardener showed me that a horrid prickly plant produced wonderful delicious raspberries, then gardening seemed like a good idea to me So I suppose the plant that had the first big influence on me was the raspberry.
You have that in common with my greyhound. I have many times looked around because I could hear a strange rustling noise in the fruit beds to see Jenny carefully picking the ripe raspberries off the bush
I doubt she'll get a vote in the GW survey
I think you may be right about the leylandii
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Posts
Probably grass - a lawn can set off a garden and is probably the part which has the most influence, countrywide. However, for me, beech trees and and the woodland under them.
H-C
For me it's wildflowers. Mum used to take me for a walk round the local lanes from when I was a baby and she'd tell me the names of the flowers that came and went in the hedges. By the time I was 5 or 6 I was fascinated and waiting for the next one I knew to come into bloom. And my garden here has mostly either actually wild or only just not wild' flowers. I love them, though they are so fleeting on the whole.
I think the impact of grass is actually the impact of lawnmowers. When you had to pay several blokes to cut your grass with shears, a lawn was a statement of wealth. The advent of push along mowers and then the Flymo has led to the proliferation of lawns for the masses
Last edited: 18 March 2017 08:58:31
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
I was thinking as I watched GW last night, I think the plant that has had the most impact on British gardens over the past 50 years has been the Leylandii .............. unfortunately
Imagine taking a balloon ride over a typical area of suburban gardens nowadays - and then imagine what it would be like without the Leylandii hedges ...
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I was always interested as a child but discouraged my parents too time poor to risk letting me play with beds and plants. Discovered only in my 40s, and long after he was dead, that my paternal grandfather was a keen amateur gardener and prize winner up in South Shields.
What started me as an adult was buying a house with a garden - 85' long and with a row of 30' high leylandii down the eastern side blocking the morning sun from our garden and the afternoon sun and prevailing rain form our neighbours. Suddenly, we had grass to mow, dead roses and weedy laburnum to get rid of and those trees making it all dark. We cleared the rubble and planted a fruit cage, took down the trees and found our garden was suddenly a whole lot wider and lighter and then started planting with help and advice form our new neighbours who were delighted the trees had gone.
We'd come home from work and make a cup of tea and wander about the garden admiring blooms and veggies and pulling weeds and gently de-stressing and now find that a garden and the process of caring for it are essential to our well-being. Love sharing plants and info and tips too.
Bromton Stocks my dad used to bring them every year from the market wrapped in newspaper would help him plant them in the front garden the fragrance was wonderful
The first flower that I ever noticed was a calendula. I still have a fondness for them.
I went to a tiny village school ( only13 pupils in the whole school at one time) and we were taken out for regular walks along the footpaths by a plant-obsessed gardening teacher who taught us all the plants' names and where to find orchids and stuff like that - I've been obsessed with plants ever since - and when I was very little my granny's gardener showed me that a horrid prickly plant produced wonderful delicious raspberries, then gardening seemed like a good idea to me
So I suppose the plant that had the first big influence on me was the raspberry.
Last edited: 18 March 2017 10:05:22
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
You have that in common with my greyhound. I have many times looked around because I could hear a strange rustling noise in the fruit beds to see Jenny carefully picking the ripe raspberries off the bush
I doubt she'll get a vote in the GW survey
I think you may be right about the leylandii
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
I think that's the only thing I'm likely to have in common with her - if only I had her metabolism and elegant figure
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
The ROSE, single in the hedge rows, the big cover all rambler, delicious scent of the hybrid perpetuals, it's a never ending love story.