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The Gardening Fred 2009


ClazUK

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That's lovely,I love those flowers - and love eating the fruits even more :laugh: I've been very remiss this year in planting up borders,pots etc.It all seems so expensive going to a garden centre and my garden is just too small for planting up from seed.May invest in some shrubs at end of season for borders and just keep bedding plants to pots and one hanging basket next year.

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I have a couple of passion flowers that desperately need potting out, am feeling terribly guilty about them now!

 

Few pics of my garden looking rather overgrown:

Campanula and alchemilla mollis on the steps (oh yes, and Bungles! Bungles get everwhere!)

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The pond - I am a bit annoyed I forgot to take pics when the irises were in full bloom. They are doing really well now, but I think I'll have to cut them back.

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Foxgloves and dewdrops.

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The Beans (and on the far side, a row of strawberries)

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The peas are storming away.

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Pea flower with more dewdrops.

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Ok, so in here are raspberries, roses, rhubarb and on the right, the cherry tree. Possibly this area needs some work. Maybe with a machete... :whistle:

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My contribution is, I can't afford to get my garden done :(

 

The hard landscape blokey wants £2500 for his bit (2 other quotes came in around £4k) and I really can't imagine when I'll be flush enough to get it started.

 

I'm still too skint but I've borrowed the money, I couldn't bear looking out on the mess anymore. I'm hoping it will be done in 2-3 weeks, then I'm doing the planting myself.

 

There have been a few tweaks from Helens original design, partly to save a few quids and also to accommodate Sky who is refusing to pee on anything but grass, and my new baby bunnies who need somewhere for their run to go.

 

So the top swirly bits remain the same, but from the front of the gazebo down to the pointed end of the garden will be one long swathe of grass with a swirl at the tip. The bunny cage will be on slabs to the right of the gazebo, where the 3 shrubs are in the plan.

 

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Progress to date (eeeek! at orangeness of fence):

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 5 weeks later...

My front garden used to be half lawn/half crazy paving. The crazy paving has been down for over 30 years and was horrible. I also had lot of fings growing over and around it which were taking over the garden, so I had a man come in to dig the lot over and take out the crazy paving. H e did a great job and I now have a blank canvas to play with. I want the bit where the crazy paving was to be all lawn, so I went to B&Q to buy some turf and they didn't have any fresh in, but they were selling off some old stuff which has obviously been there a while, but I got it really cheap (10 pieces for £8) so I thought I'd lay it and see if it resurrects itself.

 

It looks like this at the moment:

 

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I have lightly sprinkled some seed on it as well, so hopefully it will revive. However, if it doesn't then I will just rake over some topsoil and seed it.

 

I have been out gardening this morning and have chopped off about 2/3 of the Eucalyptus tree as it was as tall as the house again (only chopped it down a couple of years ago). I am going to keep it short now to encourage more growth at the bottom :

 

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I have been buying a few plants the last couple of days and have bought a couple of hydrangeas, some french lavender and a cherry laurel which I will plant out. I am also probably going to plant out the rhododendron which I currently have in a tub.

 

I also bought a hardy gardenia to plant in a tub - I just adore the smell of the flowers. I am a bit trepidatious as I've bought gardenias for indoors before and have never managed to keep them alive for very long. However, the garden centre give you a five year guarantee on all 'hardy' plants so if it dies I can get a replacement or credit note.

 

I bought another indoor gardenia yesterday as well which is just coming into flower so am going to see if I can keep that alive.

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  • 3 weeks later...

One of my hydrangeas has started to wilt so I gave it tons of water yesterday.

 

The half dead turf I laid at the front is starting to grow and the grass seed I scattered is also growing - I will have my lawn after all :biggrin: Even with it being a bit patchwork, I still prefer it to the overgrown crazy paving which was there previously.

 

One thing I am really chuffed about is that the hardy Gardenia I planted in a tub has started to flower - the smell is absolutely divine :wub: The indoor Gardenia I planted has also started flowering (just one so far). I've tried several times to have these in the past and they have never flowered and usually ended up dead, but I have found the key (give them rainwater cos they don't like the chlorine in tap water) so am chuffed. Hopefully I may get a few more blooms :biggrin:

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The half dead turf I laid is coming on nicely and my next door neighbour has just put some lawn feed down for me, so hopefully that will make it grow a bit quicker. I am looking forward to having a 'proper' lawn out front next year.

 

The bit on the right which has always been lawn is full of moss, so I am going to chuck a load of grass seed on top in the hope that it will grow and kill off the moss. Neighbour also gave me a tip for killing moss - he said moss loves a really short lawn, so if you change the mower setting up a notch the moss will die off. It's worked on his front lawn so fingers crossed.

 

BEFORE

 

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AFTER

 

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Your lawn is looking good Alex, I bet you won't be able to see the join soon :flowers:

 

As the chooks have decimated my back garden, I've been trying to cheer up the dull bit of driveway outside the doors a bit (both my 'front' and 'back' doors are on the same wall of the house for some reason :wacko:).

 

The lion is rehomed - I found him in the woods along with a load of garden rubbish. I also rehomed a lovely hosta and a fern from the same pile :biggrin:

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  • 1 month later...

My neighbour chucked some lawn feed on the front lawn a few weeks ago and it's brought the lawn on a treat...

 

BEFORE

 

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AFTER

 

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Am really pleased with it now and it looks so much better than when the crazy paving was down and all sorts was growing over it. When spring comes I'll chuck some topsoil on to even it out a bit and then concentrate on getting rid of the moss in the lawn, plus planting some more fings in the borders.

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