Does anyone know anything about gardening?

Anyone else had a lot of blind daffodils this year?

usually caused by removing / mowing over the leaves too soon after flowering. Mine seem to be ok this year.

Yeah. My mum said the same.

Most of mine are in beds, altho I may be misremembering how many were savaged by my eldest wielding a stick last year.

I thought I'd learnt to live with the destruction, but they were doing my head in walking on beds when there are young plants coming through. A very stressful week.

Quarry dust is cheap at our local building merchants, not super pretty but they have other types too.

Worth checking there for bulk items (though maybe you already know this) as well.

Cheers! No I didn't. I'll have a look.

Transportation is the main issue.

They will deliver for a fee. BnQ also has bags of decorative stones etc. they also deliver and for free if it's over a certain £ amount.

If it's for weed control, you can also put landscaping plastic underneath and poke holes for your plants and then whatever you like on top.

Don't know anything about Daphnia plants I fear.. see if you can take a cutting perhaps that'll root and you have a new one again?

You need stones/gravel to give the Ecobase it's strength. I'll put weed proof membrane under each of them, just in case something grows up and shifts or splits it. I think there will still be enough space to plant around them.

I've used these in the past and they seemed decent (and helpful on the phone). Delivery may not be too bad depending on exactly where you are. Product prices seemed to be in line with Wickes, etc
https://thompsonsofcrewshill.com/Delivery%20Charge%20Guide.html

Can you lay tiles over Ecobase? The flag stones at the back garden are weed infested and there are sedges come through.

You can lay tiles over Ecobase, they just won't stay put.

A point worth knowing about shingle (as opposed to the decorative stuff) is that a lot of it comes from a saline environment so will not be conducive to plant health. Naturally, weeds will colonise it and flourish regardless.

Any loose stone surface will gain fertile soil from rotting leaves, dust or whatever within very few years. It will grow weeds whether you put down an underlay or not.

We used them a few times. Good value Xmas trees too.

@hugo7 f you want some shingle I have a load in the back garden doing nothing. EN1

I'm not sure. I guess you might be able to. As Colin said, without doing something you'd probably get movement. It would add to the cost and I'm not sure what benefit there is. Where they work well is as a concrete slab substitute.

Or do you mean can you lay Ecobase over tiles.

Cheers. I may take you up on that as I'm in WD6 and got to Trent Park quite often.

I'll drop you a msg later today.

shingle... a lot of it comes from a saline environment

That's good to know as I'm planting around it and was going to plant into the top of some of the squares.

It's been sat there at least a year!

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Tx Colin & Hugo! I guess digging the lot up, installing drainage and putting the stones back is what I will have to do.

So many weeds between the cracks too I don't like tiles for that reason. Perhaps I should lay a screed.

FYI a quick and chemical free method of weed killing is boiling water or steam.

Alternatively, before I grouted our tiles I used to embrace the weeds in the cracks and mow them to stop them getting too high.

I'm thinking maybe I should just put ground cover plants that outgrow the weeds and retile loose around them. Tiled area is really just for the table for the 5 days of sun we get here a year.

I usually pull them out but dandelion plus deep roots plus tiles = lol no I'm staying. Boiling water sounds good might try it :)

And the neighbours brambles of course keep coming up on our end. Our Bosch battery handsaw is good for cutting the roots.

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I also have no idea what I'm doing, are there any garden design books you can recommend?

The wildlife book is good for plants, but where to put trees, how to do drainage, types of garden, how big walking areas should be, general inspiration...I'm a total newbie :)

I think having a look in charity shops is a good idea for books.

Also there's an old ground force one someone recommended to me which has good basics, albeit a dated style.

The Internet is good, but it's almost information overload.

The best starting point is to work out what you have and then search from there:

• which direction do you face?
  
• where do you get sun/shade and how much?
  
• what is your soil type? (you can buy pH testers cheaply off ebay)
  
• what is your soil quality?
  
• which of the above can you change/which are fixed?
  
• what do you want to use the space for?
  
• what is your appetite for maintenance?
  
  

Your Garden Made Perfect on iplayer is fun for inspiration. Garden Rescue is probably more grounded in reality/useful.

where to put trees

Personal bug of mine is people planting right up to boundaries and not researching height/spread. They should be at least a couple of metres in from any boundary, but probably more.

I agree. I don't mind our neighbours cherry overhanging but you may annoy the neighbours.

Or they just saw half the tree branches off which isn't good for it.

Tx!

I worked out what the soil is from the plants that grow on it, unless I want a full bog garden I'll have to replace some of it.

Garden rescue sounds like plan a ATM I'll definitely keep parts "wild" but look at the state of it.

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@JWestland
For inspiration, when I started out tackling my garden I liked Monty Don’s Big Dreams, Small Spaces, on BBC Two.

Tx! :)

Btw driving a micro digger is easy, if you have a big job to do.