Does anyone know anything about gardening?

Particularly like the woodland realm.

I'm here for the realms.

Worth cancelling my order?

What mistakes am I going to make?

We moved in about 9 months ago

• No one likes this response, including me... But you should really spend a year looking at the garden - light, shadows, what's there, what does well, etc.

• You can assume the soil under the base you're smashing out will need replacing.

• Have a look at recent post on the last 3 pages on year round interest as thats basically what I'm trying to do.

• For the woodland bit, be aware that on websites and in nursaries "Suitable for planting in sunny and partially shaded locations" means they need sun and don't like shade.

• if you're doing the lawn get a load of snow drops and put them in before to save time.

• wild flowers require poor soil. I would use the dug out soil from the pond to give you that poor soil. I would also suggest buying wild flower turf. This thread is littered with well intentioned wild flowerers. Not sure I can recall any successful e.g. If this is what is in your head,
  
  you need to come to terms that it will absolutely not look anything remotely like this. At all. Ever.

I don't think you can realistically grow a wildflower meadow in one single bed and make it look good.

Instead, you could plant ornamental grasses and, if it gets enough sun, mix them in with verbena bonariensis, prairie perennials like your echinacea, and annuals like poppies, cornflowers or cosmos. That way you might achieve a sort-of-naturalistic look.

in my head, its more that the 'lawn' would be more heavily planted/disrupted in the area I've labelled 'wildflowers'. We're not fussed about having a proper lawn, its a smaller garden than my drawing makes it looks, my OH just wants somewhere to sling the lounger. Definitely going to involve some cosmos, that's a great shout, we've got some mixed in with erigeron in containers already.

@hugo7 your input in this thread lately is mainly what's got me thinking about it properly, decided it was time to write some shit down!

Do it once a month instead

Maybe look up James Hitchmough and shamelessly steal ideas

This is lovely.

Also a good illustration that often, if you don't want/need a grass lawn, then you're better off having paving. It's genuinely low maintenance.

Ivy is not popular but very good for wildlife. I'd go more for lungwort, hellebore rather than Echinacea they need their sun. Lots of woodland planting inspiration online.

Bluebells, primrose and wood anemone are also classics.

The cherry might drop leaves in the pond you need to fish out?

Gravel garden plants can often take shite stoney soil once you know what you have, you can adjust accordingly.

That's all I can think of, it should work I think? :)

But also

For goals of cover fences, provide for wildlife, and provide some year round interest - you would be hard pressed to beat a mixed native hedge on all sides

That sort of wildflower lawn image is basically false advertising ;)

yeah I don't mind the ivy, though next door has it growing into their conservatory... it's completely overtaken the pear tree they have, its more ivy and honeysuckle than tree at this point. Very very popular with birds, butterflies, bees at this time of year.

Good point re. leaves. Pond may not happen, I'll only be able to fit a pretty small one, I just want to encourage frogs!

And if a native hedge doesn't suit as you need everything evergreen, there are many non native species that support birds and pollinators.

Honeysuckle is a good wildflower climber, try to get cultivars of the native one :)

this is totally the dream as far as I'm concerned

I’m looking for that sweet sweet once per year setup

My wildflower meadow was great in year 1 in 2021 but been nowhere near as good since.

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I always figure these images are of the seed nurseries before they harvest the seed for the year.

It's a very specific soil that supports such a meadow, I believe poor sandy chalky soil?

Of course the nurseries have that, most of us don't.

Anyone know what this is? Plant snap is drawing a blank.

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https://www.japeto.co.uk/products/weedin­g/hori-hori-knife-deluxe-leather-holster­

Anyway I'll report back

Inital thoughts on the hori hori are;

• beefy (I tried to flex it and it didn't budge)
  
• finish is fine, I probably shouldn't have expected expert finishing for £40, but it's a bit rough in spots. Overall decent tho and the handle is less agricultural than my mums niwaki - although (possibly) interesting is that it's more comfortable to hold like a sword - almost like the design is aesthetically led and taken from a sword, rather than ergonomically based on how it will be used for digging.
  
• saw is much more saw-like than expected. Like you could actually saw with it out the box. I assume less so once it's filled with dried soil.
  

Edgeworthia, they smell amazing

Wonderful, yes that's it indeed, thanks very much!

Can I just plant a 1L grass into an existing patch of bog standard grass?

Yes. But the bog standard grass may well take over your new grass. (I'm assuming it's a decorative grass?)

I would probably dig a boarder around it and then put cardboard and woodchip down to slot the existing grass encroaching.

What are people thoughts on putting this sort of stuff in the compost?

I'm chucking it all in my green waste, because of the soil and roots still being intact. but it feels like a missed opportunity.

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