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Bamboo and Hosta raised beds
Garden transformation Part 7 – Raised shady beds A month after moving in, we’d taken out some unruly overgrown conifers. There was a beautiful old sandstone wall hidden behind the conifers but it wasn’t high enough. We needed to put something back in their place to give us privacy from a house at the back. As we’d had a raised bed with bamboo growing in it at our last house, we thought of it straight away. It’s a perfect screen as its evergreen, but somehow feels light and airy not heavy and overbearing. I love how it sounds and how delicate it looks as it moves in the wind. October 2013…
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Creating a walled garden from scratch – The Great Wall
Garden transformation Part 6 – The south facing wall The ‘Great Wall’ is what it’s become jokingly known as. It starts in the front at 3ft high, runs for over 65ft. Then goes up to 6ft high and runs for a further 160ft to the end of the garden. It’s a south facing boundary, so we knew from the moment we moved in that we wanted to grow fruit on it. We both love walled gardens, more than any others and so set about the ambitious task of creating one. With the small exception of our 80ft long holly hedge, which has to stay for the birds and wildlife. When we…
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Creating a walled garden from scratch – The Shady Wall
Garden transformation Part 5 – The north facing wall This is a 30ft long border on the right hand side of the garden, near to the house. It had an existing old fence that the foliage had entwined itself through. As I mentioned previously in Lets get stuck into the garden makeover, we took down and dug out some very large conifers from this area. Hidden behind them we found a small section of lovely old sandstone wall. We also discovered that the old crazy paving patio in the corner was substantially larger than we’d been able to see. We weren’t really surprised that this had been a seating area.…
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Ladybird plague? Hopefully not quite that many!
I’ve never seen so many ladybirds overwintering in the garden, as I’ve seen this year. I’m really pleased that they all seem to be our classic 7 Spot Ladybird ‘Coccinella septempunctata’, rather than some non native invaders. Every pile of leaves I started to clear had ladybirds under them. All of the covers on the raised vegetable beds, when I lifted them to get at the kale or Brussels sprouts had a few under them. Every nook and cranny more ladybirds. When I was winter pruning the apples, I started to loosen their ties, only to find ladybirds under every one. I’ve just remembered to go around loosening the ties…
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Lady bricklayer ?
Garden transformation Part 4 – How I started brick laying When we moved to our first house it had an ancient wall that was leaning at a very precarious angle. It had to come down before it fell down! My husband and I had both been brought up by very practical parents, prepared to get stuck in and have a go. I had been a big Lego fan as a child and really fancied having a go at brick laying. That Christmas my husband bought me a trowel and spirit level, together with a book – no internet then – and we got stuck in. We knocked the old wall…
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Snow in April!
Well that was the most extraordinary Easter weather weekend I’ve ever known! Talk about extremes. Hot sunshine, then only the third time I ever remember snow in April! Good Friday, was a beautiful sunny day, you certainly needed sun screen on. There was a little chill in the air, but good gardening weather for the time of year. Easter Saturday, it got so hot in the afternoon I resorted to shorts and bare arms. It was so hot in the greenhouse that I had to move my potting tray outside to work. Easter Sunday, another lovely sunny day quite hot again, but only if you were sheltered from the cool…
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Building the raised vegetable beds
Garden transformation Part 3 – 2013-2014 In September 2013 a month after moving in, I started my garden plan. We’d already decided to build a 160ft long south facing wall (the Great Wall), which was going to set the tone for a walled kitchen garden. The centre piece was to be six brick built raised vegetable beds. I’ve never really understood why people put their veg patch as far away from the house as possible. I suppose the idea goes back to the days when you had staff to grow your vegetables and retrieve them for you. But back here in the 21st century! When you get home at night,…
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The bees are back in abundance
Luckily the weather hasn’t been as bad as they predicted. We didn’t have the hailstones I was worrying about this time last week. The bees are back, with abundance! The garden is buzzing already. I saw the first hardy few, back in February. We try and have something flowering all year long for insects. These milder winters mean we pretty much manage it. The late flowerers last year were the Leycesteria formosa (Himalayan honeysuckle), Erysimum (perennial wallflower), the white penstemon ‘snowstorm’, Japanese anemones and most surprisingly was my white fuchsia ‘Hawkshead’ which went on & on into December. Just a small gap before the snowdrops came out in mid-January. Followed…
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New garden, new cat!
Garden Transformation Part 2 – Story of an orphaned cat When we came to view the property, eight years ago. We knew the minute we saw the garden, that this was the one for us! A blank canvas, big enough for what we had planned. With a long south facing boundary, that I could already imagine fruit growing along. Whilst we were exploring the garden, we saw a cat fast asleep in one of the borders. As it was the next door neighbour showing us around, so we asked who the cat belonged to. The neighbour told us, that sadly the occupant of the house had died, leaving her cat…
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Out with the Brussels, in with the beetroot
I’ve finally picked the last few Brussels sprouts of the season. With such lovely weather I enjoyed sitting outside peeling them. Later I took them inside and shredded them ready for a stir fry. Accept for Christmas dinner we do prefer them fried rather than boiled, you get much more flavour and a nicer texture. But then homegrown veg tastes better whatever you do with it. This has been our most successful harvest to date, mainly because we have a proper brassica cover now. We managed to get some specific butterfly netting to cover it with, to keep those pesky cabbage whites out. With the last of the Brussels and…
