Ideas for garden, starting from scratch

[jocelyn plummer]

How thoughtful to provide scratching posts for Zebras!!! Penners, your garden is lovely, much changed since we saw it. Rambling roses are amazing-we had several here with trunks about 8 inches thick. We cut all the growth right out as it was spreading across the garden from side to side, after years of neglect by our vendors--now the roses are re sprouting happily and we can train them along the fencing .

 

[jocelyn plummer]

I like the idea of dry stone walling, and , Zebra, the flints look fine--dont forget the edges will all soften if you tuck little wall loving plants in the gaps--Valerian is a cottage garden plant that loves walls--bit invasive but good for the soul !

 

[Penners]

Valerian was reputedly introduced into Britain by the Romans. Its root is used to make a herbal medicine that is said to be a sedative, and to be helpful with insomnia.

One word of warning about valerian - it is apparently a cat-attractant, like catnip. Whether or not this is a disadvantage depends, I suppose, on how you feel about cats!

However, in ancient Sweden it was sometimes tucked into the wedding outfit of the bridegroom to ward off the envy of the elves. If you want to know what the elves were envious of, you'll have to use your imagination!

 

[MatthewC]

If you have enough for a couple of yards, I would do a section of wall with just flints, as the sort of "feature" that TV programmes like.

 

[Zebra]

I have dug out the ivy plant in my garden but it is coming back because - shock horror! - it has rerooted itself next door. The roots of the ivy plant next door are under my new flower beds. I have dug out as much as I can but there are still roots there, they go deep, and they are re-sprouting. My question is whether lining the beds with geotextile fabric will be enough to stop the ivy popping up in my beds?

 

[Penners]

My question is whether lining the beds with geotextile fabric will be enough to stop the ivy popping up in my beds?

Very unlikely, I'm afraid! Ivy is as tough and persistent as a very tough and persistent thing - it's a b*gg*r to get rid of.

The only time I've had success at doing this was at our old stone house in Oxfordshire, which was very neglected and smothered in ivy when we bought it. I eventually managed to strip it all off the walls and to cut its growth back to a sizeable stump near the house wall. I drilled several deep holes in the stump and poured in a strong solution of SBK brushwood killer. I then sealed across the top of the holes with Plasticine. That finally did for the ivy.

It's not very organic, I'm afraid, but I'm not aware of any organic solution to the problem of ivy.

 

[Zebra]

Right. Well, the ivy plant is now next door, so I would need permission from my neighbour to go round her side and try to kill it. I think she will be in agreement, however, especially as it was originally an offspring of my ivy.
Most weedkillers seem to have the same active ingredient - glyphosate. This is what I have been using so far to kill any roots I cannot get out. A little googling reveals that SBK Brushwood Killer has a different active ingredient: triclopyr. Would you happen to know what the difference might be?
Thanks

 

[Penners]

Zebra, the main difference between glyphosate and triclopyr amine is what they kill. Glyphosate kills anything, while triclopyr kills mainly broadleaf plants, but not grasses. Glyphosate has no residual effect in the soil, but triclopyr does have a certain amount.

They can both be applied to the leaves or to stems (do it as quickly as possible after the stem has been cut). However, ivy leaves have a very tough, leathery surface which tends not to absorb herbicides well, so putting SBK on/into the trunk is the best solution. The reason that I like to put it into holes drilled into the trunk is that (a) it is contained and doesn't wash or run off, and (b) the liquid can't soak into the earth.

I hope that helps.

 

[Zebra]

Progress on the garden has been made! This has been my summer project, and it is almost done. All the paving is done, including a pretty bit round the back made from all the old floor bricks I've found. The pond is in, hoping to attract frogs in due course. I also copied and adapted your pergola-thing, Penners. All it needs now, is green things with leaves. I am awaiting my gardening friend, who will come shopping for plants with me at the weekend. Very excited.

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Zebra, that is fantastic! You are so lucky to find all those bricks around to use in such a way! Good luck with your outing to buy plants -this time next year you will be enjoying the results even more !

 

[mims&pip]

That looks really fab, Zebra!!! Can't wait to see it fully planted up

Mims x

 

[Flyfisher]

The random brick path photo looks really good Zebra - did you bed those in mortar after your sand issues with the herringboned bricks? And is the herringboned area firmer now?

I'm also looking forward to seeing it fully planted - should look great this time next year.

 

[Zebra]

The random bricks are individually set in NHL3.5 mortar, individually pointed. They are all different depths, so required a different approach. Time-consuming though, and I was glad I didn't have to point the whole lot. I will cautiously say that the herringboned area seems, after the initial bit of movement, to be settling in. The odd one I have lifted and reset, and I am hoping that given a year, it will all seem a bit more sturdy.
I have "instructed the gardener" (my friend came round last night), and we have decided on a central cherry tree; climbing rose, jasmine, climbing hydrangea, golden hop and sweet pea along the front pergola; box shrub, philadelphus, cistus, eunonymous, viburnum and fuchsia shrubs, and then perennial flowers like rose, crocosmia, delphinium, geranium, geum, hollyhocks, helenium, lupins, lychnis, Michaelmas daisies, poppies, peonies, and verbena; with bulbs such as grape hyacinth and snowdrops too.

 

[steveb]

not that I would wish to impose my tastes on your house, but naff

--edit - just seen I was replying to the first page with flints on top. Luckily you followed my advice and did without them - the end result I must say looks excellent

 

[Penners]

we have decided on a central cherry tree; climbing rose, jasmine, climbing hydrangea, golden hop and sweet pea along the front pergola; box shrub, philadelphus, cistus, eunonymous, viburnum and fuchsia shrubs, and then perennial flowers like rose, crocosmia, delphinium, geranium, geum, hollyhocks, helenium, lupins, lychnis, Michaelmas daisies, poppies, peonies, and verbena; with bulbs such as grape hyacinth and snowdrops too.

I imagine most of those will go into the additional acre that we can't see in the photos! :wink:

The "skeleton" looks great, Zebra. We absolutely have to see more photos when it's been fleshed out with the plants, please!

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Goodness me Zebra, you have gone from proclaiming to know nothing about plants and their names, to a veritable expert, all in the space of a few months. You have chosen a lovely selection!

 

[Zebra]

Have I? I really don't know anything about plants, I've just looked at pictures in a book and said "that one..... and that one........"

 

[Penners]

...which is what - in the end - we all do (either in the catalogue or the garden centre)!

It's a lovely selection, Zebra.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Looks fab Zebra! Love the brickwork! And the sound of the plants!

 

[xanthe]

Roses - look at David Austin for an 'old rose' look and smell but with bigger choice of colours and the modern benefits of disease resistance and repeat flowering. They have a very nice help-line and can give suggestions if you can't see anything you are certain about on the website. Lots of his will climb as well as stay as small shrubs.

Ones I would suggest as good options:

Yellow - Graham Thomas, Molineaux
Apricot/Pink - Abraham Darby
Pink - The Countryman, Gertrude Jekyll, Mary Rose
White - Winchester Cathedral

I'm obsessed with the real Old Roses, but you do have to put up with a very short flowering period and a lot of nothing but leaf.

I'm beginning plans for our garden and toyed with the idea of only having 'old' plants. We do have a lot of box hedges from a very modern 'hint of knot garden' the previous owners had, and having discovered how very low maintenance knot gardens are - an afternoon with a pair of scissors once a year does the job - we're putting in a bigger and more formal one with lots of herbs. I've set the rules that everything has to smell nice - or have such amazing form/flowers that I can overlook it.

There are some great videos on Youtube on heritage plants - having watched the ones on lavenders and daffodils, I've created a load of work for myself as I don't feel I can just grab what's on offer at the local garden centre when there are old varieties in desperate need of saving.

Are you going to have vegetables at all? Having visited an old walled garden recently with the most beautiful kitchen beds of old varieties I'm very tempted to have a small version, looked so pretty with all the flowers on everything.