Does anyone know anything about gardening?

Clearing the ivy covering the beds seems to have had a big improvement on the number of daffodils coming up (unsurprisingly). Was a massive pain to do though.

Looks more like a park! 😍

Tx! Yes looking into having more happen late in the year / winter with snowdrops etc.

I love self seeders, they take the place of weeds.

Soil here is iron rich clay pH 6-7

Woops! I get little input so safe that way ;)

Did the plants mostly live?

The garden is a weird shape, sloping in two ways and half assed terraced... On the upside, sun all day, lots of birds and bugs.

I'll definitely lay a stepping stone path though. Here are some pics, waiting on gardener to remove stumps so I can work on hedging near fence.

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Does the terraced section get sun?

If so I would build this out properly so you can sit on the steps and then grow compact herbs, Alpine plants, wall flowers, etc through and around them.

For the rest of the garden, given the banks on the side I'd go with the prairie style because you could get some really interesting height.

You'd know best for your garden, but ime stepping stone paths don't have great longevity - even less so in heavy clay - right now mine is better than the lawn, but still shit. I'd be inclined to put in something a bit bigger and more robust.

Trying to work out what to do about a bit of our garden.

We had a load of leylandii around the edge of the garden which I've mainly ripped out. On one side though my girlfriend is umming and ahhing about removing them as she doesn't like bits of the neighbour's garden (he's a lovely bloke and the plants in the garden are nice but he also likes attaching things like dolls and father christmasses high up on the walls).

Any suggestions on what can go above the fence to just break up the eyeline a bit? Was thinking some kind of plant on wires between the posts would be nice but I assume you need to grow these up from the ground which would take a few years. Is there any way to have stuff growing on the trellis without it being rooted in the ground?

Any other ideas, as you can tell from the above I don't really have much of an idea but I would like to be able to rip the rest of the leylandii out so I need a solution.

Tx! For future I want to build some retaining walls and steps, unfortunately no £ ATM.

They did not build any retaining wall near the garage so underneath a platform it's just a slope. Sigh...

There are lots of grey basalt chunks left in the garden, those seem pretty tough and I'll use those as steps

I can imagine standard pavers just crack ..

Any concrete slab or prepared stone slab will crack on clay, you need at least 3" of concrete beneath it. If and when you get round to the walling and path, dm me your number and I'll tell you exactly how to do it, it only appears to be a small area and well within DIY boundaries.

Raised planters would do the job, but they need watering and ain't cheap. How long and high is the fence? Clematis Montana and pretty much any Passion Flower would cover pretty damned quickly if trained along wires.

It’s an iterative process. Some plants live, some plants die. Go back to the garden centre and repeat. Darwin would approve.

Passion Flower

Note that this will die back in winter. But you can grow some slower climbers through it so by next year you've got some good coverage.

Honeysuckles or jasmines have year round foilage, and grow pretty quick. Or you could do some roses?

2nd for a honeysuckle, mine is going great, has already put on a load of growth this year.

One garden with garden centre here has that approach.

They just keep going until they have cultivars that technically cannot grow in damp clay and yet they do.

Have to say most plant kabels aren't helpful.

They often don't even call out "must use ericacous soil" or "no clay will die" or "dies in frost"

Then unsurprisingly plant conks out and people give up...

Tx!

I had a look at Tobermore bricks for a raised bed. By the time I counted up the bricks I was at £1200 😳 (that's for the whole area near fence)

Of course the drainage underneath the sitting area tiles is also not well done. Sigh.

It's going to be A Job :)

Operation fuck up the stupid pizza oven stalled a bit recently due to waiting for a skip to be delivered. That arrived this morning and I’ve just spent a good 30 mins taking some frustrations out on it with mattock.

Satisfying.

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You might need to consider a larger and more robust wheelbarrow.

You can pretty much halve the number of bricks by using 4" blocks at the rear (about £2 each, 1 block = 6 bricks) and brick the front and top, see below.

Blocks.

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Bricked over.

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Tx! Seem builders do that.

Was looking at these, look good and little mortaring. Dry wall and only top part needs mortar. But £

https://www.tobermore.co.uk/homeowner/products/retaining-walls/secura-lite/

How did you get rid of the ivy? I've decided to try and improve the garden this year as the house is now habitable.

Also, has anyone bought/used an electric scarifier successfully? Our lawn is trash and needs some major help (plus might be useful for a meadow garden at the front)

Get some espaliered fruit trees?

Cut it off the trees it was climbing up and literally pulled it up out of the ground... Hard/slow work

LOL #wouldrep

Last bits came apart much more quickly than I was expecting. Down to the concrete slab now, the smashing up of which is going to be a job for next year. Just going to slam some pots on the top for now and call it a day.

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