Does anyone know anything about gardening?

The other thing that's cool that I saw years ago and want to incorporate into a future garden somewhere is using jungle-style plants as water substitutes.

Basically imagine Mikenetic's garden with ferns and hardy banana plants in place of the water.

If you got really creative you could make a bridge and then have an under section.

EDIT: I think the garden I saw used steel cages as walkways and tunnels. Pretty sure it was a Home Front w/t Diarmuid Gavin where it was a couple with a little boy.

Would love to see this. I was looking at a load of gardeners world gardens of the year last night (all on YT playlists on their channel if you're interested) and they're SO densely planted. this one by a colombian living in London was cool, although it's probably not and ideal concept for my own garden

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SM8zMlnCAwo&list=PLRo3QakIQRin9oduKZW4Yk6ePyyP0rPV3&index=2&t=0s
&t=0s&v=SM8zMlnCAwo

I love how this is his idea of a 'medium-sized garden'

1 Attachment

'No garden, however small, should contain less than two acres of rough woodland'

Where's the re-meadowing?

I tried hard while procrastinating yesterday to find it. But couldn't. TBH any of the old Home Front with Diarmuid Gavin are worth watching on YT if you want ideas for nuts structures.

I like that dudes garden. What's that floaty almost moss-like stuff around the banana plat at 1:13?

It's funny, I'd always assumed I'd live in London with a tiny garden so had tonnes of cool ideas about what I'd do. Now we're in the 'burbs with a decent sized established garden and lawn it's pretty uncreative.

That said our front garden is a shit show and I have zero energy to come up with a concept.

1 Attachment

If anyone needs a gardener give me a shout, N4 area.

That reminds me... Anyone know a gardener that covers EN5?

Do you also do things like lay paving and putting up privacy trellis?

The John Brookes book is very good at helping you come up with ideas that reflect your house. I also stumbled across this yesterday on front garden design.

Ours right now is a tiny lawn that's completely obscured by mature bushes that leave it in shade 90% of the time, and a stupid shit border at the back that passers by can't see. then a crappy patch of tarmac that looks like it was tipped off the lorry and stamped on a bit.

Our aim is to re-surface the lot in nice hard lanscaping with lots of gaps for small, structurally interesting plants including a couple of small trees like acer and magnolia, plus pots where appropriate and possibly a climber. our house has a reasonably strong and distinctive look from the street, so we want to reflect that in the front garden, which will also give us some practice for re-doing the back.

I am after having the corner of my garden paved / concreted or in some way levelled off, so that the guinea pig hutch will no longer be perched on top of a fox dug Somme. They cant get into it, but it is a bloody nuisance. Also, having hard standing will make cleaning out the cage a lot easier.

Potentially it will be integrate with some new planting / small scale architecture / features.

It's an area of about 3m x 3m.

Does anyone know anyone who can advise, plan and do this work, near Herne Hill?

would you consider it yourself or are you set on getting someone in?

It feels like a slightly too big a job for me. Also, I will take forever to get it some and I have poor aesthetic sense.

The wildflower patch is starting to bloom!

1 Attachment

Maybe sandstone like this with a few stones missed out for planting? I could possibly do this for you.

1 Attachment

Bees are doing well, macadamia are about to burst into blossom so they're gonna be very happy in a week or so... I now want to attract and encourage beneficial insects like ladybirds, lace wings, etc, any tips?

Something is still taking big lumps out of my kale, put pellets down and found a few unhappy snails on top of the soil the next day... Not a road I wanted to go down but there you are, the beer in the cup thing wasn't working... Could be caterpillars as well, tho' I haven't found one yet...

Exactly the kind of thing I want. I'll PM you!

I'm thinking of that paving with gaps for my front garden, but DIY. If I'm digging down to lay a hardcore base for the paved bits, do I just leave topsoil in place where the gaps are?

Best method is non-woven geo-textile under the slabs,
(prevents weed growth and soil-heave),
with gaps filled with resin-bound gravel to ensure
storm water can drain between the slabs into your soil.

You're better off digging down 6"/150mm and laying a continuous 4"/100mm bed of concrete. The day after concreting lay out your sandstone pattern with 1cm gaps, cut the areas for planting out with an angle grinder and diamond blade, the concrete will still be soft. Lay the sandstone on a continuous sheet of mortar 1"/25mm thick, this is essential. The stone and mortar will bring you up to the finished level of the dig. Don't forget to put a fall of a degree or so on the concrete to clear water. Allow a ton of concrete per 6 sq. m of surface. Hardcore bases tend to slowly compact and subside, causing the surface to crack. If you want further detail and how to best do the jointing, PM your number and I can give you more detailed advice.

Even the best of the geotextiles, Terram, which I use under compactable gravel driveways doesn't stop soil heave completely. Cracking can still occur in inflexible stone surfaces.

Anyone else had the weird seeds in the post thing from China??
Might start a separate thread

Greta detail, thanks. So a 4" concrete bed straight onto soil?

Exactly that! Your best bet is to shutter all sides with 4×2 timber set to the correct angles and tamp down the wet concrete with another lump of 4×2.

Cool, thanks. I'll keep that in mind for when I get round to it in 2026 :D

I've seen various reports of it being biological security/related. Obviously the advice is don't open/plant anything that you don't know what it is

https://metro.co.uk/2020/08/02/why-are-people-receiving-strange-seeds-post-china-are-safe-plant-13072324/