Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

How does your garden grow?

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    How does your garden grow?

    This is NOT a thread about products Gillette advertize. What is your (actual) garden like?

    I have a patch of lawn to the front, with some shrubs up one side of it making the border between mine and next door. Out the back, I have a lawn and a patio, just big enough for a patio table for four and being able to chip a few golf balls up and down the grass, and a few rose bushes dotted about that are meant to grow red-white-yellow in sequence, but last year most of the white ones seem to have died. There's also a Wendy House that takes up half the patio, that now my kids are teenagers I should probably demolish.

    I'm a lazy bastard so I hire a gardener mate to come and look after my garden while I'm at work - mow the lawns, trim the bushes, that kind of shit. He only charges me £10 a visit, and comes once a fortnight in the summer.

    How would you sum up your garden?

    #2
    How does your garden grow?

    Corner lot. Hedge neatly trimmed and compliant with all city bylaws. Grass cut weekly. Massive pine tree off to one side. Enormous wildflower garden smack in the middle in front of the window/door.

    Comment


      #3
      How does your garden grow?

      Rogin the Armchair Fan wrote: I'm a lazy bastard so I hire a gardener mate to come and look after my garden while I'm at work
      You call that lazy? I bought a robot to vacuum clean my one-room apartment while I'm at work.

      It's a third-floor apartment; I have no garden. Since I can barely be trusted to keep a yucca alive, it's probably for the best.

      Comment


        #4
        How does your garden grow?

        A work in progress, and a learning exercise. It was totally re-landscaped a couple of years before we bought the place. As is frequently the case they over-planted so it'd look good instantly, I'm now dealing with the consequences. Giving away plants, trying to figure out what to do about tulips emerging from the middle of mature shrubs and so on.

        Comment


          #5
          How does your garden grow?

          This is the sort of thread that could be enhanced by some photos...

          Comment


            #6
            How does your garden grow?

            Anyway - we've been in TrL Towers for 10 years, during which time we* have transformed the front from a load of cracked and weed-ridden flags and a dustbowl lawn to a block-paved drive with gravel beds either side containing a few poorly trimmed shrubs.

            (* - we did none of the heavy lifting, of course - we merely paid a landscape gardener to come and do it)

            Out the back, we've not done much except get a bit of decking outside the conservatory/kitchen. It's a corner plot so dominated by a big, sloping lawn with a conifer hedge down one side and a cherry tree, some shrubs/small trees down the other (including my only real addition, a Snow Gum) and a summer house (posh shed), wooden fence plus beech/poplar trees separating us from the Liverpool to Southport railway line at the bottom.

            Comment


              #7
              How does your garden grow?

              Nine years this week in Chateau Sits. It's a 75 year old house and the basic forms of the garden are as they were. The front has a circular lawn edged with a 2 inch high slate "wall". There's a magnolia growing in a round bed in the centre, and mixed beds all round it. Lots of Clyveas in the beds. The garden and drive are hedged all round with Lilli Pilli. Drive is original "crazy" paved sandstone. Up the front of the house grows a really old Camelia tree (they love this area).

              At the back, a dog-worn lawn, beds all round mainly full of Clyveas and Agapanthas. Also assorted Camelias, shrubs and flowering plants Mrs. S has added. Marea hedge down one side, a young Ficus Benjamina and an old Lemon. On the other side a Jasmine hedge with a couple of biggish palms behind it on the perimeter. In the middle of the lawn (way too big, way too close to the house and bending towards it) is a huge old Blackbutt Gum. We have asked to remove it and replace with something new, but getting a mature native tree out is like getting blood from a stone with this council. It's lovely, but terrifying.

              Close to the bottom of the garden we now have six raised veggie beds, bought as flat packs for $50. They are at various stages of cycles but we've had a lot of tomatoes, masses of salad veg and spinach. Two have mesh lids (anti possum/bandicoot) and the tall-growth beds have frames I've nade with nets over them. Now the critters are learning to chew holes in the nets so I am commencing improving the frames. The first is done, and here's a photo as requested:

              y

              Oh and down the gloomy mossy side of the house grows a big old Magnolia Grandiflora.

              Comment


                #8
                How does your garden grow?

                Severely needs mowing and weeding (I swear the grass is up to my knees in patches) and home to one and a half sheds.

                Comment


                  #9
                  How does your garden grow?

                  In just over 4 weeks time, I've got 2 weeks off work and have hired a digger for me to completely demolish and landscape the back garden. At the moment there is about 4 different levels, a sort of bandstand wooden construction around a drained pond and loads and loads of slate shingle everywhere. There is no grass.

                  The shed arrived last week and is in the back corner. Plan is to fill in the pond with the shingle and any other hard core I can find. Will use the digger to level everything out and will need to build some retaining walls for the big plants to go in (such as our cordolines and palm trees which are in pots currently). All traces of the former garden, including 10 bastard conifer trees, will be gone. Will put lighting in the decking which I'm keeping and building a water feature where the water will fall over a retaining wall into a sump which will be beneath the decking.

                  Most of the garden will be taken up by an irregular shaped lawn so that at last, the dogs will have somewhere to go. Its not a massive garden, roughly 15 metres x 20 metres but at the moment we absolutely hate it and really looking forward to getting it sorted.

                  And am proper excited about having a go with the digger obviously.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    How does your garden grow?

                    I've just gone from a North facing central London balcony, to an impressively sized south facing split level plot with a raised deck and a fair sized lawn.
                    Unfortunately, the previous owners were not garden people, so when I got here the lawn was hip deep. After hacking it back it appears to be a selection of ant hills, moss, weeds and tree shoots interspersed with rough grass and nettles.
                    Is going to take a while to sort out...

                    Comment


                      #11
                      How does your garden grow?

                      Back garden manageable size, mostly lawn with a nice space next to the garage that used to be a vegetable bed but is now gravelled. It’s a real sun-trap and last weekend I laid a row of flagstones so we could situate some pots and planters. I'm not much of a handyman but I followed the instructions on various websites as thoroughly as I could, and the slabs went down pretty straight and level. It was only when I finished that I realised I’d bedded them on soft sand instead of sharp sand. Whoops. Hopefully it hasn't turned to mush in the rain. Fortunately they aren't going to be walked on, so I think it’s unlikely they’ll sink into the earth.

                      Lawn mowing is a thing of the past since we got our latest two rabbits. Fortunately the garden is walled and fenced, so they roam free all day. The only patch of grass they don’t raze is the little clump in one corner they use as a toilet. I have to rake the droppings out and take the strimmer to it every couple of weeks so it’s still less hassle than hauling out the Qualcast.

                      Front garden… don’t go there. Literally don’t go there. It’s a spongy tract of moss with the odd forlorn blade of grass spearing through. One day it will be shaled over.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        How does your garden grow?

                        hobbes wrote: I've just gone from a North facing central London balcony, to an impressively sized south facing split level plot with a raised deck and a fair sized lawn.
                        Unfortunately, the previous owners were not garden people, so when I got here the lawn was hip deep. After hacking it back it appears to be a selection of ant hills, moss, weeds and tree shoots interspersed with rough grass and nettles.
                        Is going to take a while to sort out...
                        You can find pint-sized barrels of Agent Orange at many gardening supply centres and army surplus depots...

                        Comment


                          #13
                          How does your garden grow?

                          About 1,500 square metres of grass and trees and about 500 square metres of concrete and plastic.

                          Wild rabbits keep the grass short, I spend about four hours a week keeping the rest in shape and polishing my Kackwurst (the blue thing on the left.hand edge of this (old) photo). Lots of sweeping, raking and picking up fag ends and empties.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            How does your garden grow?

                            Are you not allowed to have ashtrays and litter bins?

                            Comment


                              #15
                              How does your garden grow?

                              WOM wrote: Are you not allowed to have ashtrays and litter bins?
                              As I said, that's an old photo. Each of the posts next to the holes now has two brightly-coloured metal plant pots that can be used as ashtrays or bottle holders.

                              In addition, there are at least eight sand-filled plant pots for fag ends as well as two large litter bins and two beer crates for the empties.

                              This still doesn't stop people dropping litter where they're standing, though. Fucking rotters.

                              Comment


                                #16
                                How does your garden grow?

                                Yer all a bunch of farmers

                                Comment


                                  #17
                                  How does your garden grow?

                                  Given that it's an old photo, I'll mentally add in the brightly painted porpoises, palm trees, windmill, pirate ship, etc. 18 fiberglass edifices to thrill the hearts of children and the besotted alike.

                                  Comment


                                    #18
                                    How does your garden grow?

                                    WOM wrote: Given that it's an old photo, I'll mentally add in the brightly painted porpoises, palm trees, windmill, pirate ship, etc. 18 fiberglass edifices to thrill the hearts of children and the besotted alike.
                                    You've forgotten the obese blokes in three-quarter-length jeans bellowing "Nur der HSV!" and then dropping glass bottles of beer that they didn't buy from me onto the ground.

                                    Oh, and the 18 bunny girls walking around with a numbered card above their head.

                                    Oh, and The Lady I Walked To The Registry Office With giving an eight-year-old boy a clip round the ear for standing where he shouldn't.

                                    Comment


                                      #19
                                      How does your garden grow?

                                      We don't have a front and a back as such, just a piece of land with a house on. (OK, two houses).

                                      Basically it's an 11 are plot (look up are, it's a thing, not simply a conjugation of the verb to be), with the house that we live in at the north-east corner. There is also a barn which we turned into a house (as it was in much better shape than the house was when we bought it) towards the north west corner. Along the south "wall" (ie the neighbours' barn) there is a sort of car sheltery thing, a bike shed, a tool shed and a compost pile. And some old wood that we haven't got around to doing anything with yet.

                                      The rest of the garden is a bit of a mess. There is a vegetable zone, which works quite well, next to a gazebo(? - not sure of my terminology here - a long picnic table and benches sheltered by a roof) and a barbecue. Then there is the central bit of what one might laughably call lawn if one accepted the possibility of a lawn with barely any grass and lots of weeds (I do mow these weeds though, so it feels lawnish), which has a basketball hoop in it, as well as another post from which we can string a net, to the basketball post for the purposes of badminton/volleyball. There are flowers round the house, and a herb garden made in a circular raised dry stone wall construction which I made myself (pretty much all the things described I had a hand in making but I was very much a junior partner to -mostly- my father in law). There's also a well (we don;t have mains water) a cess pit (we don;t have mains sewage), and a bread oven. Seriously.

                                      I realise I need photos to explain this as I've done a terrible job so far.

                                      Comment


                                        #20
                                        How does your garden grow?

                                        In my rental house I have a front and back garden. The gardeners from the rental company come once a fortnight. There's a little lawn on each side, a couple of bushes in the front, and handful of plants in the back.

                                        Also a load of concrete and an unheated swimming pool.

                                        The lawns are dying. Every couple of months the gardeners comment on it, try and add water. I keep cutting back the amount of water that goes on through the automated system. Part of the reason for this is sticking with the increasing drought regulations from the city of San Diego. And partly because I want them to die. Because what kind of idiot has a grass lawn in what is basically a desert city in the middle of a drought. I want the gardeners to pull the whole lot out and replace it either with decent quality astroturf, or with some of the lovely xeriscaping that you increasingly see these days, of rocks and succulents and cacti.

                                        But I can't actually do anything about it myself, as I'm a renter, we have gardeners. And because I am one of the few people who can kill a cactus in a desert garden. I am possibly the least greenfingered person on the planet.

                                        Comment


                                          #21
                                          How does your garden grow?

                                          We widened our driveway last year so now have an apologetically narrow strip of lawn with a toilet, err, shrubbery at the end of it.

                                          Our south-facing rear garden is in shadow due to the unreasonable cunts, err, neighbours refusing to countenance reducing the height of their trees.

                                          "Our trees give us privacy from your house" is their argument. And it would be true even if we lived in the bastard Shard.

                                          Comment


                                            #22
                                            How does your garden grow?

                                            Finished a personal pet project yesterday, which has taken almost a year. The area in front of our shed was just scabby grass which never grew properly. So we decided on a couple of big flower beds. Easy.

                                            That left the issue of getting to the shed and not walking on the flowerbeds. So I've made a path. What's nice is that every single stone was found, or in some other use, within the garden. That's why it took so long; waiting to unearth them as we dug in various spots.

                                            About 70% local sandstone and the rest a combination of bits of paver, brick and other rubble. There was a lot of this at the bottom of the garden, perhaps from earlier efforts at levelling, even when the house was first built.

                                            I can recommend making these as wonderful meditation. Hope it comes out Portrait:

                                            Last edited by Sits; 22-12-2019, 09:41.

                                            Comment


                                              #23
                                              How does your garden grow?

                                              Front garden. Roughly 20ft square. Tiered on three levels with old railway sleepers. Planted mostly with perennials - heucheras, penstemons, hardy fuchsias, geraniums, foxgloves, salvia, bulbs and summer bedding crammed into the gaps.

                                              Rear garden. Some 250ft in length bordered by mixed hedging both sides. Patio windows opening onto a paved area with a table and chairs that's surrounded by hanging baskets and planted pots. Steps down to a small alpine garden, then a further large section of lawn with planted borders (perennial planting as per the front). There's a cherry tree planted 26 years ago when our first child was born, with a bench in the shade underneath. A trellis with clematis and jasmine separates this section from the next, accessed though a rose-covered gazebo, which contains my greenhouse. Beyond that there's a sunken patio of paving, cobbles and camomile (a real suntrap) with table and chairs and a barbeque, surrounded by a raised brick bed (built myself) containing hardy fuchsias and three monster pots each holding a large acer. On the third side is a long wooden pergola supporting a grape vine and a wisteria, with a bench and pots of hostas and ferns beneath. The pergola fronts the 'outhouse' (an old prefab garage that was there when we bought the house 30 years ago). The kids used it as a playroom, but I've recently tarted it up and installed gym equipment (weights, cross-trainer, bike, rowing machine). Past that is my shed, then another lawn holding two raised beds - one of vegetables (currently onions, cauliflower, sprouts, leeks and climbing French beans) and one of fruit (raspberries, strawberries, blackberries and rhubarb), then a mini orchard with pear, cherry, plum and two apple trees. Next is a small wildflower area, then my chicken run holding 14 birds at present (Pekin, Polish and Serama and Millefleur bantams mostly). Past that is a hedge with a gate through to my compost bins and bonfire area, beyond which is mixed mature woodland leading down to the small stream that marks our border, with further woodland the other side.

                                              I love my garden.

                                              Comment


                                                #24
                                                How does your garden grow?

                                                I love the sound of your garden too gjw, it sounds marvellous. Sit's homemade crazy paving is top-notch too, hats off both.

                                                Comment


                                                  #25
                                                  How does your garden grow?

                                                  We've cleared a corner out where we have so far produced cherry tomatoes, a reasonable amount of herbs, broccoli and lettuce.

                                                  We have planted two dwarf apple trees, a mandarin and two lemon trees. Putting some seed potatoes in an old kettle barbecue this weekend.

                                                  Lots of cheap potted colour and some groundcovers between the olive trees and bottle-brushes we inherited.

                                                  At the front some roses and geraniums.

                                                  Never really gardened before so learning as we go.

                                                  Comment

                                                  Working...
                                                  X