Does anyone know anything about gardening?

I feel you though. I swear front gardens are the hardest.

We have a drive, so our approach had some neat constraints to make things easier - car, motorbike, water access - plus some established plants that made sense to keep. But I still found it hard.

Randomly some bog weed planted itself in the middle of a bed, so I've used that as a center peice.

As it looks like you've got a blank canvas I'd start with these questions:

1. Is there water access?
   
2. Would you ever sit there, or is it purely for the view upto the house/from the house?
   
3. In a binary choice which way would you fall - hard lines/minimalist or cottage/prairie?
   
   
   

Personally I like scented plants generally and especially at the front of the house so that, and winter interest, would drive a lot of the planting.

In terms of low maintenance here are some pics from the Hampton Court show... I forget the theme but it was sort of low maintenance surviving climate change or something.

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Interesting. Have done similar in the back garden. It’s all open with a path to the front door so wouldn’t sit there or really spend time in it. No water access either so needs to be fairly easy to maintain. Clay here is really rich here though and roses do well.

I'd be tempted to chuck a wildflower/meadow mix down on that. Maybe some roses around the box.

Maybe a bit dull, but my first reaction would be to:

• rosemary and lavender along the path leaving enough room to expand
  
• rose bushes outside the front window
  
• something central as a focus point
  
• something like a white forsythia bordering your neighbour to screen and give winter interest.
  
• replace the lawn with gravel or a lawn substitute*
  
  

However, if you can put the effort in I think copying the pond from the video on the other page and building around that as a focal point would be really cool.

*my red creeping thyme looked insaine when in flower, and nice and thick when green, but now looks a bit ropey so is not a suitable lawn replacement Imo.

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Cleared out one of my blueberries today as they're starting to fall off. The other later one is really getting going now.

It's been such a good year for them.

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Cycled out to John Little’s garden, Hilldrop, in Essex on Saturday for the open day. Amazing place absolutely buzzing with bugs, bees and general biodiversity.

Looks wonderful! 🙂

This is really helpful, and good fun.

https://www.psbooks.co.uk/my-garden-is-a-car-park

Anyone had any experience with eucalyptus tree planting? Thinking of some for some screening..

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We had one and ended up taking it out of the ground and into a pot.

It’s a bit of a thug, can grow big quite quickly unless maintained.

Other cons:

• the leaves decompose slowly
  
• they consume a lot of water
  
  

Dwarf varieties are available.

I know there's been a backlash but like all trees if planted considerately in the right way and maintained correctly I like them.

To add one more small problem with Eucalyptus, they are shallow rooted and fall over at the least provocation.

My least favourite memory is removing a big one from the roof of a house before it caved the roof in. On Christmas Eve. In the dark. The root was so shallow it came out in one piece when chained to a Land Rover.

Do not plant a strong growing variety near to anything valued by yourself or anyone else.

or anyone else

Except as revenge

Staghorn fern Platycerium bifurcatum.

I'd seen this down the flower market and wondered what it was, it's a houseplant in UK.

Two cool things about this plant, it's an epiphyte, lives on trees and collects water and nutrients from the surroundings, and it's Eusocial. It sustains and nurtures weaker plants in the commune.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eusociality

One plant, the epiphytic staghorn fern, Platycerium bifurcatum
(Polypodiaceae), may exhibit a primitive form of eusocial behavior
amongst clones. The evidence for this is that individuals live in
colonies, where they are structured in different ways, with fronds of
differing size and shape, to collect and store water and nutrients for
the colony to use. At the top of a colony, there are both pleated
fan-shaped "nest" fronds that collect and hold water, and
gutter-shaped "strap" fronds that channel water: no solitary
Platycerium species has both types. At the bottom of a colony, there
are "nest" fronds that clasp the trunk of the tree supporting the
fern, and drooping photosynthetic fronds. These are argued to be
adapted to support the colony structurally, i.e. that the individuals
in the colony are to some degree specialized for tasks, a division of
labor

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Eusociality - feels like society could use some of that at the moment

Tomato time

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There's something almost pornographic about that image.

Urghh!

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Went with the roses suggestion.

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Is that horse poo on them? Lovely.

Mix of fresh compost and two bags of manure! Top soil was very gravel heavy so had to dig that out and take a few loads to the tip first.

Friends came and took a lot of money from us yesterday for the fencing. No photo attached but a long stretch of feather edge and two returns (two gates so there’s a little bin-store separate).

This afternoon I put more effort into the pond…

The very shallow “it seemed deep at the time” pond-to-be got some hours put in. The other day we got a large fibreglass pond for free. Need to patch a couple places for good measure but free is free.

Probably another 10” all around and it’ll be low enough to do a small banking around the front edge to raise it from the lawn without looking silly.

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My ali-hori arrived, such good value.

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Waiting on mine. Says out for delivery, so it could be anywhere in the northern hemisphere.

So close….

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