Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => General Forum => Topic started by: Lesley Cox on September 22, 2009, 11:39:29 PM
-
Having decided to clean up and reduce my nursery and get it up and running properly again after a couple of years of nothing doing, I'm starting near the entrance to our place and have decided the best way is simply to rake the rubbish or remove if possible, cover the space with a bought/brought in soil mixture then plant it. Sounds simple enough but it is involving a lot of hard physical work.
This part of the nursery consists of blocks of polystyrene trays with the plants in them. The outer edges have been tramped gravel but are quite wide so I'm making some ribbon beds as a more interesting edging. Besides, I desperately need planting space.
I've started by removing the furthest out block of trays (just 12) and raking gum leaves and weeds which I've sprayed, into the centre. As with all horticultural operations I have help of a canine nature.
The trays in the pics are attached to the ground because they had small plants in them of Leptospermum lanigerum. Suddenly they were very large plants and not able to be removed. Roger has chain-sawed them as low as possible and I've simply dumped the soil mix on top and will try to forget about them. It means sacrificing a few trays but what the heck?
All I can say about the last pic is that it is of 2 cubic metres top soil, 2 c m pine park fines, 1 peat, and half each of 5mm crusher dust and 10mm crusher dust. I've used this mix before and find it drains very well and is an excellent "soil" as distinct from potting mix. Further, I can assure everyone that Teddy is lying beside me now and is not under the pile which arrived yesterday afternoon. I started to spread it and then the rain came down. It continues to rain today.
Since I hadn't mentioned that I planned this operation, I found it expedient to be at the supermarket at the time Roger normally arrives home, but miscalculated, as he arrived late and I was home before he was. However, he came in apparently cheerfully, and so far, hasn't said a single word.
Just 5 pics so far. More will come over a period of time.
[attachthumb=1]
[attachthumb=2]
[attachthumb=3]
[attachthumb=4]
[attachthumb=5]
-
Lesley,
I am looking forward to see how it unfolds. My canine always inspects my work as well...my spouse too.
-
congrats on the renovations and new planting space :)
anything particular that is to go in there?
i'm working on some shade beds (as mentioned before) and completely re-digging my old rock garden from teen years (large area of native clayey soil with lots and lots of rocks from gravel to barely movable by hand size);
though yours looks like a big operation, i think your method looks a little easier than mine ;D--but of course i could only get away with covering up whats there if i put soil about 20 feet deep, then it might take the stuff (weeds and tree suckers) a couple of seasons to get through ;)
so i'm painstakingly digging sod and roots and rocks by hand...
-
Interesting developments Lesley !
It will be great to have such an empty surface to plant out all your goodies !
Have fun... after the sweat has dried up.... ::)
I look forward to seeing more !
-
Thanks for your interest. These bead won't be rock garden per se as I don't intend to put rocks into them. I'd love to, but local rock costs the earth and in any case I'm always a little dissatisfied with my rock work.
The contents will be "alpines" but not the most precious. Dianthus, phlox, campanula, small irises, silenes, etc etc and primulas of the tougher kinds, auriculas etc. The first planting will be right beside the gateway where at present it is shady, of Sorbus reducta, the running form, Polygonum affine 'Donald Lowndes' and Cornus canadensis. The new beds will curve around the eastern end and along the south side, while on the north side at present is a long border, quite wide and filled with large pittosporums, seedling macrocarpas (Cupressus macrocarpa), Leyland cypress, a large and gangly Azara and assorted cabbage trees (Cordyline australis). When I can persuade Roger, I want all of these out and I'll replant with deciduous trees which colour in the autumn and underplant with woodlandy things, including those which colour, hence the 3 already to go, mentioned above which should look nice as one comes in the gateway on the road.
-
The spreading of the heap hasn't progressed much as the weather has turned to winter again and we even had a little snow yesterday. There is a bitterly cold wind and I'm looking for excuses not to go out. No red dust from Australia though.
-
Lesley, what an exciting but huge undertaking judging by your description and the pile of earth :P
Autumn colour sounds perfect for your entrance with that sweep of drive to welcome people in and encourage them to look further.
Having spent so much time trying to extend and plant a rockery this year I know how much the weather and canine friends can change your plans ;D
Teddy looks very active in enjoying the whole scenario, he looks a real character! Best of luck with your new bit of garden and I look forward to seeing it progress.
-
Thank you for your comments Robin. I can see it all in my mind's eye and hope eventually to achieve something close to what I want. This pile of earth is the first of probably 4 or 5.
-
Lesley, I hope you will give us a running commentary with pics for your new venture.
It will help those of us who will be in the thralls of winter, enormously.
I can see Teddy is a huge help for you.
The cornus canadensis caught my eye, I love it so much. ( first time I ever saw it for sale in Oz was at the Viburnum Gardens nursery, my sister actually bought a pot of it, dormant for 32$ Oz that was in the mid 1980's. It never broke dormancy so it may well have been deceased ::)
Here, where I live, there are miles and miles of it along the roadside in spring, it is my favourite native plant.
Oh, btw, those polystyrene boxes in the pics, how do you use them, are they partly buried and filled with sand and then have pots plunged in them???
-
I will indeed, give progress reports as things happen. Obviously it will be more interesting as planting starts. I have 7 Cornus canadensis from seed and will plant the lot in a group in reasonable hope of getting fruit in due course.
The polystyrene trays are what mushrooms used to be exported to Japan in. We can't get them now as the Japanese prefer cardboard trays. Fair enough but the poly trays are handy and so light of course But they get damaged easily (especially when one's small son, in a fit of tantrums gives a few a good kick!). They are just laid on weed cloth, straight on the ground and the plant pots put in them, not plunged. They have holes which drain excessive water and are just about 10cms in height. I use them for taking plants to a show or stall somewhere too but now they're no longer available, I'm making do with other things. Banana boxes are good but can't be watered.
-
The boxes look very much like the boxes that brocolli is delivered in to the supermarkets around here.
Maybe I can get some from the local co-op.
-
The boxes look very much like the boxes that brocolli is delivered in to the supermarkets around here.
Maybe I can get some from the local co-op.
Helen - I saw the staff unloading grapes at Sobey's last week. They had stacks of these styrofoam boxes and it looked as if the tops and bottoms were the same size. I hesitated but they would be good for starting things.
johnw
-
John, will ask at the co-op next time we go.
I get 5 gallon plastic buckets with lids from them at times, they're great for storing veggie peels etc for the compost bin during winter.
-
Thanks for your interest. These bead won't be rock garden per se as I don't intend to put rocks into them. I'd love to, but local rock costs the earth and in any case I'm always a little dissatisfied with my rock work.
The contents will be "alpines" but not the most precious. Dianthus, phlox, campanula, small irises, silenes, etc etc and primulas of the tougher kinds, auriculas etc. The first planting will be right beside the gateway where at present it is shady, of Sorbus reducta, the running form, Polygonum affine 'Donald Lowndes' and Cornus canadensis. The new beds will curve around the eastern end and along the south side, while on the north side at present is a long border, quite wide and filled with large pittosporums, seedling macrocarpas (Cupressus macrocarpa), Leyland cypress, a large and gangly Azara and assorted cabbage trees (Cordyline australis). When I can persuade Roger, I want all of these out and I'll replant with deciduous trees which colour in the autumn and underplant with woodlandy things, including those which colour, hence the 3 already to go, mentioned above which should look nice as one comes in the gateway on the road.
lots of work to go! sounds like its going to be great though :) fall colour is a very nice thing to have.. cornus canadensis really are nice in several seasons-- as the leaves unfold, immature flowers (greenish) then white, then orange red fruit and darker red leaves (they are at that stage here, though not all turn colour at once)
-
Thank you for your comments Robin. I can see it all in my mind's eye and hope eventually to achieve something close to what I want. This pile of earth is the first of probably 4 or 5.
Hi Lesley,
we've found a pile of earth a very effective growing medium! We've mounded soil in places around the Rock garden and found that the plants love growing in these elevated beds or "berms" as the Americans have called them. One astounding thing has been the effect on the trees next to them. Most likely because they get their roots underneath them and benefit from the protection from drying out. Two almost identical Claret Ashes in our garden look now look years apart in age as one was next to a newly constrcuted mound and within the year had twice the trunk girth of the other! A similar thing happened with some small oak trees; the one in the mound is now 3 times the height of the other. Albeit our climate is a bit different to yours and these deciduous saplings were not having the best life anyway!
cheers
fermi
-
A lot of hard work for you Lesley !
I've got a proposition : what if 5 or 6 forumists came over to help you out... maybe the SRGC can sponsor the flight ??? :-\
I'm sure there would be plenty of European volunteers... ;D ;D
-
What you need now Lesley is a few tons of slate to make a bed like Cyril's?
-
Yes, Luc, to the European volunteers please. All welcome but especially the young and fit. I'll make the scones and choc cakes. :)
The slate would be great Anthony. I don't know of any source around here. There are old houses locally with slate roofs but I think the slate may have been imported from the UK over 100 years ago. I've thought about crevices for these beds and generally, I think the mixture will be too rich, with one third topsoil but there's another place where basically I want to dump a truckload of gravel (much the way Gier Moen did, in Norway, with great success) and make a crevice garden there. Central Otago schist would be the way to go. Why didn't I do all this 12 years ago when we first moved here, instead of waiting until I am 66 and in no longer perfect health? Answer, no money then. My back and knees were up to it then, but not the bank balance.
Broccali comes in much deeper boxes Helen. I use those for "fishbox" troughs.
Fermi, you have me a bit worried. I know how quickly the gum tree roots reach into my pile of potting mix, right up through it in just weeks, making the roots up to a metre higher than the ground level base of the tree. Another reason why I want the pine/cypress seedlings out altogether. They're already up to the power lines and will be a real problem if not removed very soon.
The spreading is a bit delayed with a real return to winter (poor new lambs) with bitter winds and driving sleet this morning. The forecast generally is beastly for the foreseeable future.
Roger still has not uttered on the subject. :-\
-
Haven''t anything much on tomorrow Lesley so I'll pop round in the morning and give you a hand for an hour or two ;D
-
I'll make the scones and choc cakes.
Expect the hordes ;D ;D
-
.. maybe the SRGC can sponsor the flight ??? :-\
hmmm.. no reaction to this suggestion ::) :P
-
Lesley, do you have 'Woofers' in NZ? Not sure of spelling ::) My sister-in-law swears by them - they are volunteers who come and help you with a project for a period of time and in return get food and lodging - lots of keen young gardeners who want to learn from Japan and elsewhere ;D
-
What a great project, Lesley. I think my little Nipper would get along well with your Teddy, he's black but is the same sort of inquisitive fellow. Love those terriers....
-
We do indeed have Woofers Robin (Willing Workers on Organic Farms for those who haven't met them.) They turn up from time to time at the Market with various organic growers and speak a wide variety of languages. Not a bad idea really, though I'd love to have Luc and others. Luc I'd sponsor the flight myself if I could, but.....
-
We do indeed have Woofers Robin (Willing Workers on Organic Farms for those who haven't met them.) They turn up from time to time at the Market with various organic growers and speaker a wide variety of languages. Not a bad idea really, though I'd love to have Luc and others. Luc I'd sponsor the flight myself if I could, but.....
Chris, I still have your card with Nipper's portrait and yes, I'm sure he'd enjoy Teddy's company on the dig. I love terriers too, even when they're terriorists, like Teddy.
-
There is no doubt that gardeners are an imaginative lot - here is the perfect example: a pile of earth is a garden, clearly seen in the creator's eye and simply has not materialised yet.
Keep going, Lesley. I'll come for the scones.
Paddy
-
Lesley
I note all the overseas offers of help and would like to do the same :D :D :D however i've been busy myself recently.
Although our bush is protected under a QE covenant we are allowed to cut back where trees are becoming dangerous/leaning too close to the house.
The first pic shows a small area available for planting after removal of a large Wineberry tree --Unfortunately i didn't think to take a before shot however you can see how much shadow it produced by the spindly one sided growth of the Rhodo(beside the orange spade).
I managed to locate 3 unused railway sleepers from elsewhere on the property and once in place back filled with some old compost .
The third pic shows poly boxes of Helleborus seedlings x fellow forum member Tim Orpin of Aussie --seed was sown dec 07 --of course there were too many for this plot .
Next pic is of how the new bed fits in with the rest of that part of the garden.
Last pic is of finished planting ??---helleborus --trillium chloros-- grandiflorum including some doubles and roseum
Cheers dave
-
The damned weather is still holding up my activities. Heavy rain this morning and very cold wind. Sorry to be such a wimp. I should be out there on the end of the shovel. Gathering up a good collection of plants though from the hundreds on the waiting list. There will be audible sighs of relief as they are at last released from their pots.
-
So long since I started this but at last I have the soil spread (Roger helped!!!) and yesterday I started to plant. As you see there's not a rock in sight but the soil is shaped a little (hard to see in the pic) and the plants as they grow will provide ups and downs.
The first planting is right at the road gate and consists of 28 plants in all, 16 species. The little tree is Acer saccharum the sugar maple which as it grows will give some summer shade to the plants in this first part, (about 1/10 of the whole). I doubt if it will grow too big in my lifetime and probably won't produce sugar as I doubt if we are cold enough here but the autumn colour is god which is my aim.
Other plants include Cornus canadensis, the little Sorbus reducta both running and non-running forms, Rumex sanguineus, Dysosma pleianthum, a tiny Hosta ('Dewdrop') Galax aphylla, a couple of primulas and Arisaemas consanguineum and speciosum. I'll add more soon. It doesn't look up to much yet but by next spring when there are some flowers and the litle tufts are bigger, it should look like a garden.
The next plants will be slightly more heat-tolerant things.
[attachthumb=1]
[attachthumb=2]
[attachthumb=3]
[attachthumb=4]
-
Since the soil was spread, I've had to fork it over twice already to get out hundreds of tiny pieces of root of creeping (Californian) thistle. There are still a few and if they come up in or very near a plant I'll have to spot spray them with Roundup. There are also several million weed seedlings but they seem all to be annuals so shouldn't be too much trouble to sort out.
As the cooler plants grow I'll mulch them with rotted pea straw and the warmer plants with gravel, as if they're growing out of the driveway which also needs re-gravelling.
-
Hi Lesley
Looking forward to the next episode, you certainly aren't scared of hard work. I always think the fun bit starts when the planting starts.
Angie :)
-
Lesley, it's great to see the beginnings of the planting for your new bit of garden and i can definitely see the rise and fall effect which provides nooks for your babies - you left me a bit behind with some of the plants but in your care I know it will look terrific - looking forward to the next phase...
PS Your wheel barrow looks exhausted I hope it recovers soon ;D
-
I'm sure it will Robin. I left it in the photo to signify that it was work in progress. :D
-
Lesley,
Good job!! Good to see that you have a couple of guards out making sure that no-one steals any plants as well. ;D
-
We (Roger and I and dogs) went down to Hokonui Alpines yesterday to collect 6 troughs I had ordered, my Christmas present to me. :D
Here they are and I am so looking forward to getting them planted. I already have heaps of plants that are suitable. They will form the first part of a barrier between the new bit of border and the actual nursery. To make them go a little further I may plant one or maybe two of the many little bearded irises between each pair.
[attachthumb=1]
[attachthumb=2]
Peter used his little (but strong and sturdy) Dingo to lift the pallet of 5 smaller troughs onto our trailer. (I'm sorry Peter, to have cut off half your head.) with back wheels lifted in the air you can see how heavy they are.
[attachthumb=3]
[attachthumb=4]
Roger, to the right, is standing in typical stance, ostensibly waiting for a job to do. ;D
[attachthumb=5]
This is the largest already off the trailer when we arrived home.It is 500mm x 440mm x 200mm. The others are smaller but a little deeper. One has no holes and I plan to leave it that way and try a few things which need constant moisture.
[attachthumb=6]
-
That's a great gift to yourself, Lesley. Useful sizes... great depth..... what fun you will have planting those!!
-
I certainly think so Maggi.
Here is a pic of me, with new SRGC Forum T-shirt, a lovely and generous gift from Scotland. :) The background is typically rural NZ, a dogstop on the way home. Being summer in Dunedin now, I am still wearing a thermal under the T-shirt. I have never, so far as I can remember worn anything yellow in my life before. It has made me abandon the self-delusion that I am still blonde, and accept that I am totally grey. :'(
[attachthumb=1]
[attachthumb=2]
-
Lesley, I love your birthday prezzie to yourself, can't wait to see them planted up.
My other half just saw your pic in your snazzy new shirt and asked me when I got the yellow shirt haha!!
Seriously.
It must be the hair!!!
-
By, jove, you look super..... the yellow is lovely on you, can't believe you haven't worn that before..... and, by the way, you're an Ash-blonde ! 8)
...... you, too, Helen?? 8)
Good to know that NZ summers require the use of thermals, just the same as here in the UK!
-
A really pretty yellow, wow these t.shirts are all over the world now :o. Lesley you look so happy with yourself cant blame you those troughs look fantastic. Enjoy filling them up with your lovely plants. I agree with Maggi ( Ash Blonde), still my mum always says grey hair is a sign of sophistication.
Angie :)
-
hello Lesley good to see you!
The troughs look great. Are they concrete or a lighter mix?
-
I always hoped I'd go from blonde to pure white and miss out on grey. (Funny how it's only women Forumists find this an interesting subject :D)
Mark they are a hypertufa mixture. Not sure of the proportions but some peat, anyway.
-
I always hoped I'd go from blonde to pure white and miss out on grey. (Funny how it's only women Forumists find this an interesting subject :D)
I expect the male Forumists who have hair are just pleased, no matter what colour it is! ::) ;)
-
I'm sure you're right Maggi. If the avatars showed fewer dogs, galanthus and assorted other pics, we'd perhaps learn something. 8)
-
congrats on the new troughs, they look great!
good to see the new pic of you, too--photos are fascinating things, capturing a split second of a person's appearance, and so can seem so different from one to another..
funny, it seems blonds/blondes (apart from the palest of them) seem to go more slowly to pure white than folks with very dark hair...
-
wow.... these troughs..... I'm green with envy Lesley ! I wish you lots of fun planting them up !!!.... and don't forget to show pix of how they look when you're finished !
and... wow again... you look smashing in yellow Lesley !! ;)
-
I'm sure you're right Maggi. If the avatars showed fewer dogs, galanthus and assorted other pics, we'd perhaps learn something. 8)
So true Lesley. Makes ya wonder what they are hiding ;D
-
Mark,
I am not hiding anything.... I've always maintained that Elfinraer is a much nicer thing to look at than a picture of me. That isn't hiding, it is just straight out telling the truth with no sugar coating!! ;D Those who looked at my Movember posting will know that for a fact. ;) Actually, I must upload the last awful pic to the site to show how dreadful the final moustache looked. :o :o All gone now, in fact went on the first of December. I couldn't wait to get rid of it.
So.... MUCH better to be viewing my dog rather than me. I notice that there is an increasing trend to show pretty things instead of pics of oneself. 8)
-
My mother was very dark haired and my sister and brother the same but Dad was palest pale blond and I took after him. There was never a time with Dad when it could be said he was blond then silver, the transition was so slight and gradual and in fact - and I follow him here too - when the sun shone on his hair it was palest gold right up to his death at 84 but on a dull day it was silver. I feel I'm quite fortunate actually.
Going to do a final weeding of the new soil today then put the troughs in place behind it.
-
Lesley,
Great set of troughs which will look wonderful when you have planted them up. Also, you look very fetching in your yellow SRGC top. Re yours and Maggi's comment on hair - any colour would do me with the little I have quickly deserting me.
And finally, regarding hair colour:
A gorgeous young redhead goes into the doctor's office and said that her
body hurt wherever she touched it.
'Impossible!' says the doctor 'show me.'
The redhead took her finger, pushed on her left shoulder and screamed,
then she pushed her elbow and screamed even more. She pushed her knee
and screamed; likewise she pushed her ankle and screamed. Everywhere she
touched made her scream.
The doctor said, 'You're not really a redhead, are you?
'Well, no' she said, 'I'm actually a blonde.'
'I thought so,' the doctor said. ........ 'Your finger is broken.'
Paddy
-
;D
Much to learn from this Forum - until now I believed jokes about blondes were a German speciality
Gerd
-
Tut Tut! I'm no joke, believe me. ;D
-
It has taken a very long time but at last I have the first of the above troughs planted. I did it yesterday after the weedeater I was using ran out of nylon cord. A new one today so no excuses.
This is the biggest trough. After I put in about one third depth drainage and filled with a really gritty, gravelly compost (which included about 20% loam), I placed the stones and thought about it overnight. In the morning I took them out again because after all, the point of a crevice garden is to make crevices for the roots, rather than the tops of plants - I think - so I decided I needed more rock under the surface. I placed some big pieces over a thin layer of the compost then covered them and finally set the slabs in place again. They're not buried deeply so the plants themselves as they grow will have to hold them in place. The drainage is excellent and until things are established and growing, I'll need to water every day it doesn't rain, maybe twice a day as the top crevices are filled with tiny seedlings of Dianthus glacialis, Degenia velbitica, Gentiana verna alba, Saxifraga frederici-augustii and Edraianthus pumilio. So small you can't see them yet!
Others include Campanula zoysii, C. waldsteinniana, Silene hookeri (already with a couple of seed pods), Myosotis capitata, M. 'Hokonui' (capitata x uniflora), Androsace barbatula, Vitaliana praetutiana, Saponaria pumilio, S. p. x lutea, Gentiana verna, and Daphne petraea 'Persebee.' I've also put in a couple of small bulbs, Fritillaria alburyana and Oxalis laciniata both of which don't mind summer moisture, and there's space for perhaps a small crocus and a couple of others seedling plants.
The more matting species such as the Vitaliana are near the edge where they may overflow it and the really tufty species are in the crevices and tight spots. Hopefully, the quite hard mixture will keep everything compact and tight growing.
So, a quick fingers crossed that all will be well.
[attachthumb=1]
[attachthumb=2]
[attachthumb=3]
-
After a week or two when everything has settled, I'll top up the compost a little then add a layer of crushed stone, in the same type as the slabs. They are Central Otago schist and can be broken up very easily with a hammer. In fact you can even take slivers off just with fingers.
-
Professionally done Lesley. I think after seeing yours done I need to do some revamping of mine. Looking forward to seeing the others soon.
The troughs look really good quality, nice gift to yourself.
Thanks for the seeds :-*
Angie :)
-
Lesley,
those troughs look very nice, it's always a lot of fun to plant them up.
-
Lesley, your new toughs are full of such wonderful plants which I'm sure will love their new home with such an excellent well made bed :)
Alpines here definitely look for the cool root run under rocks where moisture hangs whilst enjoying the baking hot summer sun 8)
Will search for Vitaliana praetutiana on the Web today as I've not seen it before. Looking forward to hearing more about your New Bit of Garden
-
Looking very promising Lesley ! :D
It will be interesting to see how the wee plants will get along !
Surely you will provide more pix next season.. 8)
-
Robin, the Vitaliana is one of those plants which has
more names than hot dinners.... :D
Androsace vitaliana (L.) Lapeyr.
Androsace praetutiana (Sünd.) Kress (ssp.)
Douglasia vitaliana (L.) Hook. f. ex Pax
Gregoria vitaliana (L.) Duby
Primula vitaliana L. (basionym)
-
:o Well those will take more than a coffee break to research, thanks for the list Maggi....imagine if Lesley is growing it it must be worth finding out about :D
-
It's really good plant for a trough, Robin ... in New Zealand, Aberdeen and in Valais!
-
well that settles it - I'm looking for new ideas this year 8)
First search brought up this site if only they had something like this for Switzerland - glad to have found it!
http://www.biolib.cz/en/taxonimage/id12639/
http://www.biolib.cz/en/main/
-
Robin, here's another picture of it. It makes a really flat mat and if grown hard, is very tight and floriferous.
Two days later, all is well. Teddy hasn't leapt onto it, next door's cat hasn't found it and we haven't had a hot, nor'west wind to dehydrate it. I've dribbled a little fresh seed of both blue and white forms of Gentiana verna into odd spots and maybe they'll fill any little spaces and look "natural." They won't germinate though until September!
-
The picture above shows a lesson. It is simply that these flat, matting plants love to be in the full open air and not partially overgrown or overhung by larger plants. On the right where it is in the clear, the plant is gradually creeping further and further to make a bigger mat. On the left it has stopped growing and the growth already there is looser and will, eventually become soft and maybe even die back. As a lesson it seems so obvious but so often space restrictions force us to plant where it would be better not to.
-
Nice job Lesley.
-
Lesley, your troughs are inspiring me, now all I need to do is acquire a trough or two.
Can't wait to see how yours look in a few months time.
Regarding the last pic of Vitaliana, how big is the mat?
It looks magnificent.
-
I should have said that particular mat isn't mine. It's in another garden but as I remember it, it was maybe 40cms in diameter.
-
Thanks for the photo and all the tips, Lesley, showing/advising how best to grow mat forming alpines.... I have noticed the same with the Saxifraga I grow, they definitely like their own space :D
-
Hope your plants survived the dry period you have had Lesley. :-\
Now that my field trips are at an end i've managed over the last weekend or so to continue remodelling the gardens on the east side of the house.
Stage One.
First pic shows 1--the area i planted back in Sept --see postings/pics above in this thread.
2--a new trillium bed after removal of perennials /roses.
3--a jungle area of Rhodos/Camellias badly needing thinned out and a height reduction.
The next pic shows one of the reasons for my activity --a number of Trilliums in the shade house awaiting planting..... :)
Close up of the new bed planted out with 18 Trilliums ......
with a Trillium feature. ;D
Close up of the jungle --before and ......
after the pruning.
Stage two.
Further north of the jungle is the next area being redeveloped .
A Desfontainea spinosa was starting to dominate this bed, shade out some T. grandiflorums and look straggly despite being hedgetrimmed twice yearly ....
and although it has lovely orange /yellow blooms it had to go.
The last two pics show a Double pink weeping Cherry needing work ----before .....
and after shots.
Another day should see that area finished as well ,then i can start on the main rockery......... :P
Cheers dave.
-
Looking good Dave !
Love the general aspect of your garden !! :D
You seem to have some pots as wel... :o :o a very familiar view to most of the forum members I guess... ;D ;D
Hope to see more when you have finished !!!
-
Thanks for the compliment Luc.
Will be well into spring i think before the main rock garden revamp is finished.
You seem to have some pots as wel... :o :o a very familiar view to most of the forum members I guess... ;D ;D
Unfortunately it doesn't end there :D
Shot of a few more pots ......
Back garden path.
Ex glasshouse --Ex aviary --Ex shade house ---currently being used as an oversized cold frame ::).
In which the only plant flowering at the moment was sown Jan 2009 ,(received as Crocus mathewii :-\ ),Corydalis wilsonii.
Cheers dave.
-
What a lot of work Dave but your garden has wonderful 'Himalayan' backdrops with the Rhododendrons and Camellias - trying to work out when they will be in flower for you guess it will be Nov? Will look forward to seeing your new Trillium bed in flower.
-
Glad you've taken over this thread Dave as my new bit has come to a halt for now. Not that I'm not doing things and have planted a lot, especially bulbs recently, but the next part hasn't happened yet and may not until after the winter. I need to do a lot of cleaning up first especially in the nursery part and get some Leyland cypress taken out or down. Something of a puzzle how to do this at present with Roger just about crippled with bad ankle, and I'm not paying some local contractor several thousands for the pleasure.
-
I'm not paying some local contractor several thousands for the pleasure.
Howabout a rehabilitation project for John when he's mended and he feels up to it? ::)
-
get some Leyland cypress taken out or down. Something of a puzzle how to do this at present with Roger just about crippled with bad ankle, and I'm not paying some local contractor several thousands for the pleasure.
Are the trees big enough for firewood ?.If so ,have you thought about a wood merchant felling them for free if he can take the wood ....
Cheers dave.
-
What a lot of work Dave but your garden has wonderful 'Himalayan' backdrops with the Rhododendrons and Camellias - trying to work out when they will be in flower for you guess it will be Nov? Will look forward to seeing your new Trillium bed in flower.
Yip around Oct /Nov Robin.
The trilliums a bit earlier starting in September.
Cheers dave.
-
That's actually quite a good idea Dave and I should have thought of it before because a neighbour felled a few eucalyptus about 5 years ago for that very payment. Unfortunately he has now gone to live in Australia. In any case, the trees will have to be taken out over the road fence as in the meantime I'm cleaning up and restocking the nursery and adding more beds, so no way are they coming out across that.
Robin, John could well be up for it. He has offered previously to help with cleaning up, just the time to do it, but he'll have some of that soon. :)
-
Although it's not in my property ;) i thought i'd post a few pics of the job i have just about finished at our local airport.
Being less than a kilometre from an estuary and an extremely exposed spot ,about 1400 native shrubs and grasses known to cope with coastal situations were planted.
The 3 pics show stage 1 completed with 100 odd metres of chip mulch added to reduce maintance.
Stage 2 mostly around the buildings is yet to receive it's mulch.
Cheers dave.