Does anyone know anything about gardening?

cherry laurel

Turns out I have a massive one of these in my back garden. Had no idea what it was until now.

Beech retains it's leaves through the winter, so gives you year round privacy and is native.

Completely agree with this. I bought a native hedge pack from the woodland trust a couple of years ago, mega cheap and great to support an excellent charity. And now I have a 5ft hedge. Pretty bare in winter so I have some beech too, but it's slower growing

Is it too early to put toms out in raised beds? I got 4 in wee pots from the garden centre and they have doubled in height in a week by the french doors. Don't really want to have to re-pot them indoors.

Have grown the last few years but I think I planted them out in mid May the first year and later last year as I left it late and couldn't find plants.

I don't like Portuguese laurel, it spreads in the Belfast hills and is extremely hard to kill.

Even with super strong glyphosate, the one you need a license for, often doesn't kill it.

Also no use to pollinators. For a boring hedge, privet at least makes the hedge sparrows happy.

There are native evergreens or get a non native evergreen that works, my Hazel have grown very fast. The holly is slow though to fill out.

We’ve got osmanthus burkwoodii as a front hedge which is lovely. Great leaves, flowers and scent, evergreen, and is good for pollinators and birds too.

It’s slower to grow though (30cm/year I think), and not native. Might be worth a punt?

plant Russian Vine

Someone did this about 50m down the railway from us. It's absolutely rampant and we fill about 4 green bins a year with just the clippings from the bit behind us.

About the only time I've seriously considered glysophate

If something quick and tall is wanted, musa basjoo will get you the coverage during the summer at least. Might be hard to find cheaply in large numbers

I respect the hustle

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The thing I'm not sure I get is what having say a laural hedge would do for your privacy anyway.

I mean how tall are you going to grow it, and over what period?

Personally I'd be tempted by a pleached tree inbetween the gap of the other trees on the left then a native fruiting hedge for wildlife and the kids. Maybe some sort of rambling rose on one side and keria or honeysuckle on the other. Even if the pleached tree is a hassle just get one and then if you cba, let it become a normal tree.

Basically go with what you like the look of.

Bloody hell, I could make a killing with the amount I have in my garden

There are native evergreens

Not many! There are 5 British native evergreens

Yew, box, holly, scots pine, juniper

Box is now unusable due to caterpillars and blight

Yew makes a fantastic hedge but it's slow

What about ivy?

Pretty sure in GQT they were jizzing all over it's benefits for wildlife.

I like ivy but you can't make a hedge out of it. I guess you can have it in your hedge

Evergreens above are our only native trees/shrubs

Yew probably also unwise if you have young kids given its toxicity

Right, but you could grow it up a chain link fence....

You could, but as you say it wouldn't give you any privacy

Personally I'd go for a hornbeam hedge, which also keeps its (brown) leaves over winter, with a border full of grasses and perennials in front, to hide the fence and provide beauty. If you can't afford to lose that much space, do either a hedge or a border instead of both.

Do the privacy bit with a pair of big fast growing deciduous shrubs/multi stemmed trees. How much privacy do you really need in the garden in winter anyway? Bare branches will still break up the view and make you feel less exposed.

I'd go for a pair of elders - sambucus nigra black lace is beautiful, fast growing, quite early into leaf (mine is leafing up now), and gives you flowers you can make into pink elderflower champagne. Its big but can be pruned as hard as you like if it gets too big. See artists impression (albeit it's leaves are purple not green).

Plenty of other big shrubs / small trees available if you don't like the elder

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we have a winner!

megalolz

Right. Approximately one year on. I'm still at battle with the grass. I lay yellow rattle seed last October-ish time but can't see any evidence of it yet. It's due to flower in about a month.
In the interim, I've also put in some supposedly perennial tulips to brighten my mood. I think that I may have put a load of Camassia in as well. Though also, I can - as yet - see no evidence of that.
Next year, along with more yellow rattle seed, I'm also thinking about putting some bare root perennials in.
F*ckin' 'ell! I just wanted a nice bit of wildflower meadow. Couple of poppies, etc.

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Another one. Currently we have slate covering the front garden. It gets loads of leaves/bits on it from a tree in the street. Also falls on the path. I'm fixing the path bit with Everedge edging, but are there any better, possibly more compact aggregates that would pack down better and be easy to keep looking clean?

My partner isn't a fan of the slate, but I think mainly not a fan of the inability to sweep it clean. I want something that drains well so def not paved. Having seen that a ton of gravel is not too expensive, I'm willing to change it, but not if it's just as bad/better.

Pic attached. Plan is to move the bins to in front of the bike shed, add large paving slabs as a path to the bins and bike shed and put planters of some kind, maybe corten where the bins currently are.

Edit, very much trying to do this on the cheap and there is a distinct slope from the bike shed to the path that I don't want to have to level.

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F*ckin' 'ell! I just wanted a nice bit of wildflower meadow. Couple of poppies, etc.

Fuck knows.

My current thinking on the subject is you're best off removing a couple of inches of lawn, replacing with impoverished soil, then laying those wildflower seed mats.

That ground looks way too fertile not to end up with lush grass.

2nd hand electric leaf blower from FBM/eBay will be the cheapest solution.

There was some chat about self binding gravel in the architecture thread recently. It'll be easier to sweep. But Idk if it's the right look.

planters of some kind

You can buy these premium fake lead fibreglass ones. They're really good as they're light for the initial setup, not crazy money and very durable/frost proof. My mum as ones that must be at least 5yrs old and still look like lead.

@cjr
inability to sweep it clean.
Bastard neighbour behaviour is to hoover it twice a year with a garden vac.
It won't pick up stones just the leaves and organic shite.