Sunday 9 June 2013

Garden overhaul

The Cauli's and Cabbages planted in the polytunnel are still getting eaten by slugs (I haven't got around to putting down cardboard yet) so I was quite surprised to find that the ones outside in the raised bed haven't been touched at all.
I do keep them covered with fleece to keep the butterflys off them but surely that wouldn't deter slugs?




Here's a glimpse of the extra land to the side of the house that we're thinking of adding to the existing garden. There's as much of it as I need but as you can see it needs a whole lot of work and extends way out to the right and far behind me.


That ground is about 3ft deep of hardcore so any planting would have to be in raised beds, grass would be viable if we lay a good layer of top soil first.
The back fence does have a line of Willow trees, these are usually shallow rooted and don't last very long in our winds so we dug out a trench all the way along the fence first approx 3 ft deep to the soil below. The 6ft willow were then planted into that and the trenches filled in with soil, this means that at least 3ft of the trees are underground and should therefore stay upright.
Still that's gonna be a lot of work if we go ahead.

Remember when I said in my last post that Mr TG and I were discussing what water feature to add in the pond? Well I was thinking along the lines of this

http://www.retaildisplaysandprops.com/custom_nature-themed_environments.htm

Ok more realistically this

http://www.waterfeatures.co.uk/nh.html
Basically I would have liked us to build something where the water runs off slate.
Today though I left Mr TG to his own devices and I thought he was working on "his" patch of land that he's been clearing but nope he'd been erecting this


Excuse the foreground mess it's waiting for decking to be erected but that piddly fountain is everything I hate about garden water features. Some people can make them look great but the wind we get here makes that kind of 3 tier fountain pretty pointless.
I'm currently convincing Mr TG that we need to collect some of the humongous rocks we have and make it look nicer than just an oblong with rocks round it - hard work though, bless him he thinks a water feature is a water feature is a water feature so it could take some time.

With the first half of the garden requiring only minimal work now - mainly decking - I can get onto to the second half once the dogs have their own area finished.
This is the current state of some of the bit to do


It's full of weed and it's been made worse by the fabric we put down under the gravel. The weeds had no problem growing through it and even self seeded in the gravel itself, this image only shows the grass weed but honestly, it's a mess.
All the Pink and Blue is Aquilegia, one plant that self seeded over and over again and is now more of a weed than a plant - but it's a pretty weed so it gets to survive one more year.
There are some nice plants in there such as a Rhodi, Hosta, a hardy Fuchsia, Dogwood, Cranesbill etc but I'm looking forward to getting to grips with this second half later in the year.

8 comments:

  1. We have cranesbill self seeding too.

    Could the fountain have a teeny accident?

    We want a piece of slate to allow water from our filter to run over it and back into the pond. At the moment it just comes from a pipe attached to the filter and can sound a little like a horse relieving itself!

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    1. I like your thinking Sue :) I could possibly accidentally drop a rock on the fountain ;)

      What a laugh - horse relieving itself lol.

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  2. Hahahahaha....you DO make me laugh....poor Mr TG....BLOKES EH!!!

    I love where your going idea wise for a water feature, hang on in there gal!!!

    Wowsa.....just look at all that land, you could have wildflower meadows, anything at all actually. How wonderful!!! It will be worth all the hard work that's for sure.

    Y'know....us gardeners just go on and on and on with the weeding and as soon as you turn your back the dreaded weeds are back.xxxx

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    1. The problem with so much land though Snowbird is the upkeep, I'm seriously concerned about managing to keep on top of it all, I think I'm going to have to look into minimum maintenance gardens.
      Those weeds are a nuisance aren't they, some here are so rampant I've either got to leave them or poison them :(

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  3. Forgive him, for he knows not what he does. I did have to laugh when I saw that little fountain after your dreamy waterfalls. I'm sure he had good intentions, but then the road to an ugly garden is paved ...

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    1. lmao gardeninacity, I forgive hime, it's not his fault he lacks imagination. He tries to make out the fountain was just to check that the pump still works but I know Mr TG - why change what already works. Darned thing gives me the shivers everytime I see it lol

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  4. Oh Dear! And I am complaining about the work in garden I have to do. Nothing compared to you all!!

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  5. I would say that is not the last of the fountain discussion...my beds are covered in weeds and tall grasses...hard to see any low flowering plants...yours looks wonderful actually.

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