Back to Plan A?

[Colin]

Hi,


Back to "Plan A". Over the last few weeks I've grafted clearing lots of our rear garden removing hedges; digging up stumps and roots; dragging out masses of English Ivy and digging over with a spade collecting lots of stones and breaking up a large buried concrete slab; shredding big piles of brash etc so at last the top of our rear garden is about ready to be remodelled. Bron kindly bought me a nice 4hp Hyundai petrol rotavator for Christmas and if the weather ever picks up in a couple of months I can now use the rotavator having hand cleared all the roots and stones.


Plan A was to mass plant lots of shrubs and mulch with wood chips then forget apart from a bit of trimming but then I became interested in creating a meadow flower area having seen Sheffield Council create such areas where council houses had been demolished and cleared so how difficult could this be it being my Plan B?


I quickly located suppliers of bulk meadow flower seeds at very reasonable price with a decent choice but then as I dug deeper into meadow flowers my bad luck bit me again. Meadow flowers apparently thrive on very poor soil but at the top of our garden the soil is wonderful; over many years the hedges have dropped leaves and once I dug out all the stumps/roots and stones the soil is rich to about 6" deep whereas other areas of the garden need dynamite to create a planting hole; there are flowers suitable for rich soil but not the type of flowers I would like and wanted.


In my gardening ignorance I assumed all I had to do was to prepare the ground then sow the seeds then wait for the glorious display of flowers? In Autumn I then would go over with the rotavator and the following springtime simply repeat the seed sowing? I hadn't realized rich soil was a no go also it wouldn't be just a case of sowing the seeds and sitting back; there's a lot more to meadow flowers than this. We can't see the top of the mountain from our kitchen window so I hoped by creating a meadow flower area it would more or less look after itself whilst looking nice and attracting insect life?


So I'm now back to Plan A and will start looking at a nice selection of shrubs and flowers; I've already got six Viburnum in pots on the patio ready for planting in springtime but I'll wait now until springtime before buying more shrubs to save the hassle of worrying about them during winter; I can buy in springtime then plant immediately. I've bought a selection of flower seeds ready for sowing in spring so I'm making progress. I'm possibly a typical novice gardener wanting to do everything at once; I've got plenty of gardening kit and funds aren't a problem so I'm keen to get into the garden but can't when its white over with frost. In a previous thread members have very kindly suggested an assortment of shrubs and I keep receiving booklets from shrub and seed suppliers so it's a case of spending time during winter and planning rather than doing?


This isn't a major problem but I'm just adding this thread wondering if other members have wanted to do something differently but find they can't for one thing or another; there are lots of lovely flowering shrubs including nice evergreens so I'm OK but just a little disappointed.


The pictures below show a bit of the effort I've gone to just to clear the top of the garden. I also removed 100' of conifer hedge and after shredding used it for mulch creating a wide border; I then erected the new mesh fence which is maintenance free. I plan to add more shrubs to a number already planted in this border. I wish our weather wasn't so bad the year round then I could really enjoy myself.


Kind regards, Colin.

 

[zigs]

Going back to the wildflowers, you could deplete the soil by including some heavy feeders in the mix such as our native cabbage and asparagus.

Also add some hayrattle which is semi parasitic on grass and helps to control vigour.

Remove the growth at the end of the season and compost for use elsewhere

 

[Colin]

Hi,

Many thanks zigs for your very helpful reply; much appreciated.

Here's similar information I've lifted from the web and as I stated earlier creating a meadow flower area isn't as easy as I imagined; with my luck had I wanted to create such an area lower down the garden then this would be the area of highly fertile soil;

Cornfield annuals
Where soil fertility is too high to allow perennial wildflowers to flourish, consider sowing a cornfield annual mix that includes plants such as cornflower, corn poppy, corn marigold and corncockle. Some barley and wheat seed will add an authentic touch.

• Sowing should be done on bare soil, free of perennial weeds
• Autumn sowings generally favour poppies, while spring sowings favour corncockle
• Many plants will flower within three months of sowing
• Leave the plants to self seed, clear them away in spring and rake over the ground to remove weeds and encourage seed to germinate
• Additional sowings may be required in the first few years until the wildflower seed bank increases in the soil

Given our dire climate 6" thick concrete is a good option?

Whilst being prevented by bad weather from getting into the garden I'm doing quite a bit of gardening research on the web and watching YouTube gardening videos gathering information; I also have lots of ground cover plant options to choose from; I'm not after a show garden that will occupy me full time I only want a garden which is attractive whilst hopefully being lower in maintenance than lots of grass cutting and hedge trimming; once the warmer weather arrives I also want to get into the workshop doing projects with wood and metal; I've restored my lathes but have been too busy to use them in anger. Full time retirement and bad weather somehow don't mix?

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[Silentrunning]

@Colin has you considered hostas? Also known as giboshi. These are one of my favorite types of ground cover and the verigated variety is quite beautiful. They are very low maintenance. I will be planting several on the hills around here this spring.

 

[Owdboggy]

Much of our garden design was dictated by what we found when we dug. The veg patches are where they are as being the only bits of the land not full of batteries (from pre first world war accumulator types to modern torch) so contaminated with nasty chemicals. The pond is only half the size as we found corrugated iron sheets, vertical in the garden and could not get to the bottom of them to remove. The Summer house and raised bed next to it are on the foundations of a Tudor house. In other places there are the concrete floors of three hovels built in 1804. I could go on, but you get the gist.

 

[Colin]

Hi,
Thanks Silentrunning for your Hosta suggestion.

Yes I've looked at Hosta's; our neighbour Carole has quite a few of these but I was a bit concerned about the slug population that these Hosta attract? J Parker's usually have a decent selection of Hostas and here is a bargain at half price;

https://www.jparkers.co.uk/5-hosta-mixed-1010207c

I will spend time looking at all my options after all I'm not in a hurry given the longevity of our winters.

Your garden sounds much worse than my garden Owdboggy with the assorted debris you keep finding; I too have dug up corrugated sheeting but only smallish rusty pieces; lots of this was used during the war as air raid shelters and I bet there's still lots of it buried in gardens. Our gardens are quite good now all the heavy work is just about done so this year I should have an easier time of it and start to enjoy planting rather than digging up.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[Silentrunning]

@Colin - the slug problem gives you a perfect excuse to get a couple of ducks. They will thrive on snails and slugs. Besides that they add an entirely new element to the garden. Our ducks also have the benefit of keeping stray cats from using our gardens as litter boxes.

 

[Colin]

Hi,

Thanks for your suggestion Silentrunning.

I could just see us having ducks; ideally ducks would like a pond to splash around in but this would involve a huge amount of work digging into the mountain also the ducks would need one leg longer than the other to cope with the steepness of our garden; our nasty neighbours would turn nastier but above all when it's cold and wet outside I would be sharing the sofa with the ducks because I've got the kindest and most generous wife in the world; Bron just couldn't see the ducks out in the wind and rain.

Bron and I make a fuss of all the critters which visit us; our nasty neighbours have three lovely cats; a few minutes ago I was in our kitchen and made a noise only for two of these cats to immediately appear so in they came; I made a fuss of them whilst Bron put cat biscuits on a couple of saucers; if I visit our wheelie bins a ball of fur appears and if I leave the door open a furry missile is straight into our kitchen; we think the cats visit us for some TLC but then we must have a dozen cats visit us and all are most welcome; when I dig in the garden the cats like leaving me a little present but it's a small price to pay to have visitors who like us for what we are. In warmer weather whilst it's usually raining we have masses of slugs and I would welcome ducks at this time; we used to have a family of hedgehogs but these disappeared a few years ago. We no longer have a cat but each time I visit the supermarkets twice weekly I return with boxes of cat biscuits and sachets of tasty cat food as treats for our little friends; for the birds I've started buying 25kg bags of bird nuts online just to keep up with their appetites.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[Bootsy]

Your new fence would be a good place to put in climbing plants. These could be perennials or annual or a mix of both.

 

[Silentrunning]

This is a picture of our blind duck. He is very happy in the snow and stays with the other fowl most of the day. Last summer he was busy eating the snails in my garden.

 

[Colin]

Hi,

What a great idea Bootsy; thank you. I'll seriously consider your excellent suggestion and for a long time I've fancied a rambling rose. Roll on warm dry weather assuming it will ever arrive and let me get into the garden.

AWW how lovely Silentrunning; I've just shown the picture to Bron who says how sad but also how lucky to have you in the ducks life; well done you.

I'd like to make a correction to one big item of news regarding GLOBAL WARMING; this should read GLOBAL COOLING; Bron and I have yet to see anything resembling heat even our summers are now cancelled?

An update. I'm now taking more interest in gardening and have been reading at this link;

https://garden.org/courseweb/perennials/Class1/c1p2.html

Kind regards, Colin.