Does anyone know anything about gardening?

This is one of the little ponds I was talking about. There are three in the garden now, about 90 litres each. They take a while to dig-in so that they're level with the ground but once that's done they sort of disappear into a border. This one is really overgrown and may get some attention once the builders are out of the way, but honestly it's there for wildlife so I'm happy to mostly let it run wild.

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A very good wildlife plant.

You may like the "wild your garden" book and channel, it's all about wildlife and he mentions bog gardens too :)

I got the book and they sell plants too.

https://wildyourgarden.com/

Good luck with the lawn.

All these bog gardens - how do you deal with / avoid mosquitoes?

I think if there's no standing water, and it's just very, very wet soil, then the larvae can't live? Might be wrong. But in standing water you need to have some bigger, badder larvae or other creatures who can gobble up all the mozzies. I've seen damselflies laying eggs in my little ponds and they're apparently extremely fierce and hungry little creatures during their larval phase.

2 year old leaf mulch- like powder!
Middle picture is what was left in the sieve so will use this on the ground/ in borders etc
Last one is the good gear

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My sister uses the last lot for seeds.

As my OH is allergic, if this becomes a problem I will get rid of it.

Tbh this has always been a concern of mine with ponds. But have a memory that a pump to move the water will get rid of this.

Part of the rational for me is to see if there's a way I can harness the solid clay a foot beneath our garden, and create something that has a bit of a wildlife pond vibe within the constraints of not being allowed a pond.

This is my current moodboard from my initial shortlist. But right now I'm having a bit of a mental block with how to arrange it.

Also filled most of it in late last night a couple of bags of compost should fill the rest.

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Cheers for posting a pic

don't want to be negative but i'm not really understanding how this will be a bog. where is all the water coming from? i'm envisaging it in the middle of a scorching august...

We have a colocasia (taro) as a houseplant. For funsies I planted a tuber in our pond and despite being told it needs at least 15 degrees it survived the winter when the pond froze several times and it's putting up a leaf!

Oh cool!

Rebel plant: won't do what the books say :)

It's a fair question. If it's a scorching summer I'll water it. But it's on the shaded, and lower side of the garden, so those beds rarely get truly dry (yellow highlight shows the max sun) after midday).

But basically the main source is via; a gravel drainage channel from the higher side of the garden that will get shed runoff, the gravel trench from the bed to the right and the bed to the left that has a lot of drainage.

I'm assuming having a solid compacted clay bottom to the bed will slow water escaping (the water stood until the next day when briefly tested).

I'm also looking at Sphagnum moss which holds an incredible amount of water. My thought was having that in the centre and weaving through. But still need to understand what it is and if it'll grow.

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Anyone got a good sunflower reco based on the following criteria:

• 1-1.5m (ie not fucking massive
  
• trad looks
  
• open to multiple heads (a combo would be nice)
  
• strong af
  
• long lasting
  

Could just be perspective, but haven't you got space for about 3 plants max there?

Holboellia latifolia in, let's see whether it does what I want (this post is mainly so I can find it later and see how it has progressed).

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How have I only just found out about copper tape?

https://www.greengardener.co.uk/shop/pest-control-outdoors/slug-control/copper-slug-and-snail-tapes/

Not massive, but perspective I think. Possibly because it still needs at least 10-20cm more soil.

Including the rear of the bed it's ~1.5 x 1.6m

Obviously not going to be room for all the plants in my shortlist. Also I'm definitely guilty of more is less, and need to learn to exercise some restraint.

Tbh after spending some of the afternoon in the garden Idk why I'm so fussed about adding wildlife plants. There are fucking bees everywhere and shitloads of insects, including ones I don't want.

Cool. Whatever you go for, definitely include the snakesheads, they are great

copper tape

Not convinced it really works aside from the serrated edge perhaps causing some deterrent

I planted my hedge yesterday.

Made the error of ordering hedge plants and trees at the same time without checking delivery times, so I ended up with bare root hedge plants about two weeks before the trees that really should be going in first.

I've ordered 4 pleached hornbeam trees at some cost. Then in preparing the garden and measuring where they'll go I've found that the area below is unusable because of the old leylandii stumps (roughly where the blue splodge is). It will be behind the shed but it's still annoying.

I can either do three pleached trees equally spaced plus one off to the side, or the three plus another completely different tree.

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Have you checked if you can cancel one of the trees?

Also can you definitely not dig out the leylandii stumps?

I'd like to plant a lavender hedge out the front but I can't find anywhere saying how long they take to get established. Any ideas?

where is all the water coming from?

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In my experience - bloody ages. But I think it depends on conditions. Mine doesn't get enough sun. A self-seeded one, assumed from my garden to my neighbours, sprung up into a decent sized bush in just a few years though, on the sunny side of their path.

I haven't checked but their customer service has been excellent so far and so I get the feeling an exchange would be OK.

It's a group of five stumps together from a tree that was over 10m tall, and they've been ground out to below ground level. It might be possible to get them ground out but it's likely to be really expensive. We'll try and get a quote tomorrow before changing the plans though.