Does anyone know anything about gardening?

Our neighbours are putting in a hot tip and had dig out a skip full of earth, so I managed to get some top soil.

Bit more grass and clay than if I'd bought it, and need a bit more, but it's made a dent in the holes.

Wondering if I should cover it with card to prevent any weeds growing, but I think it may be vetoed by the aesthetics committee.

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Tree ferns. I have one and this is its first winter in the uk.

Any point in trying to wrap it in fleece or.
similar, or just leave it and expect new growth next year? It's in a fairly sheltered spot close to the back of the house.

I think it depends where you are in the country. We haven't wrapped the tree ferns at Walworth Garden (spent last weekend wrapping bananas though).

In London's famous...

The Plantation Garden in Norwich wraps them & they look like devout worshippers huddled in the frost.

Ok, might go for wrapping

FYI there is a seller on ebay based around Brick Lane who sells coffee sacks.

Depending on what and how you're wrapping they look a bit nicer that the usual alternatives.

I just saw midges hovering over my "lawn".

Might have more of a damp soil than I thought, hah, having one stream above (covered up, but on the planning map from 1951) and being on a hill (so it all runs down...to us) combined with clay soil that is very dense, it is no surprise.

But may have to adjust plans, the Camillea hedge with a pear tree may not work, a bog garden with Alder hedges (the tree that keeps Belfast together, without out we'd have been washed into the lough already) will work if needed.

Got a nice David Austin Imogen rose in for a pot, yey! :)

It'll get to -1° for me tonight (Herts), so thought I'd flag it for others.

Annoyingly I can't see me having the inclination to wrap my pots tonight after work. Hoping that the lack of recent rain will mean they're a bit dryer.

Think these fig cuttings may have rooted. Positive signs from the bud end. How are yours getting on?

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I've got one definitely rooted

Great stuff. Whoever's this tree was has heavily pruned it back into their own garden, so no more cuttings from this for me for a while. Have one more I've spotted that I need to take some from.

Tidying up and my mum of course got me bulbs again for Christmas, I'm going to run out of space the way this is going :)

I also have no idea what's where, some bulbs are already sprouting too.

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Nice one, we've got some snowdrops, snowflakes, daffs, crocus' and alliums starting to show here.

Bought a PH meter, not the most accurate thing in the world but it looks like I only have pH 7 soil.

So the Camilla hedges are out but there are s few non prickly flowering ever greens hedges that do on clay so I'll adjust plans.

Camilla? Our Queen Regent should really be put to some use, but hedging for us proles is a big ask. Camelias are virtually impossible to kill once established, try them in a little ericaceous compost to start them off and live your dream. If they fail, you can blame me, a complete stranger on an obscure forum (address witheld).

Lol 😂

I assumed I had to dig a massive trench with ericaceous compost as the rest around is all clay with ph7.

But that explains why the neighborhood has a few massive Camelias, they aren't AS fussy.

Berberia is a backup if needed, haven't found any Camelia here that aren't £££

As a major supplier of ericaceous compost, I would recommend the enormous trench full of my product, regardless of the fact that only a few grams will ever come into contact with the Royal roots. I can only apologise for the cost of plants with regal associations. Camellias are big buggers and planting with 5' gaps will eventually form a lovely hedge. Could I suggest planting something sacrificial between them until they fill the gaps? If you go with Berberis, invest in chainmail gloves for pruning time.

Euonymus should do nicely to temporarily fill the gaps for the time it takes for the Camellias to fill out.

Euonymus

That lead me to euonymus alatus compactus / burning bush which looks great for autumn colour.

As we're starting to look at plants for our new front this was interesting as a key issue with our front is that it's great in spring, nice in summer but with little to no interest in autumn and winter.

Anyone got any other suggestions for low maintenance hardy plants with good winter interest?

If you can fit a malus, we have a small one in the front garden - pretty leaves in autumn, then crabapples all winter.

For tree ferns I believe the main thing is to avoid the crown getting wet and cold and rotting since that's where the growth takes place from and it can hold water.

malus

They look great - there's one down the road. But TBH I wouldn't want anything that size or with roots that could damage the newly laid drive.

Where could I plant food?

The brown shapes are 3storey high houses in a terrace.
My house is the middle brown shape.
The green areas I could use, the green circle is technically not mine but is the LL's.
Its very shaded there however and I dont think its very deep soil, bit of grass really.

I will grow what I can rather than I need to grow x

Thanks for any advice

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It looks like the green areas either side could get decent light for half the day each but it does also depend on other houses, trees etc around you.