Totally off the motorbike topic, this, but Birdie and Glidd asked for it, so don't blame me... I thought it might be pleasant to watch our collective gardens grow via the medium of photography (could be interesting, I'm an even worse photographer than I am a gardener:frown, so please feel free to post up pics of your back garden, front garden, lady garden... My garden is a pit, it was completely overgrown with brambles and ivy when I moved in a few years ago, and I cleared that all away but did little else. This year will be different! Trouble is I know less than nothing about gardening, so I'm after tips. Or more importantly, tips that cost nowt, cos my gardening budget is precisely zero - I have far better things to spend my money on. Tis only a little garden, and it's completely surrounded by mature trees, plain trees and oaks, and a random conifer, so it gets bugger all sunlight in the summer, the only thing that seems to grow is weeds and ivy (I seem to have successfully killed off all the brambles). Worse still, just under the surface is the remains of an old outbuilding that was knocked down during the war, so the soil is chock-a-block with bricks, roof tiles and assorted rubble. View attachment 11540 And then there's the small issue of a fallen tree...The house is rented, and the landlady is fiercely protective of the trees, so there ain't a damn thing I can do about them View attachment 11541 Grass is a problem, it just doesn't want to grow, so I could do with some advice there. View attachment 11542 And some ideas for the crater left by the fallen tree would be good, too. No ponds though - I'd be spending every waking hour fishing leaves out of the bloody thing, not my idea of fun.
Here are some random thoughts, fig: (If I had anything to do with it). If the fallen tree is no longer alive, get rid. What's the landlady going to do apart from give you an earful? If she sees you making an effort in the garden, she may suddenly become well disposed. I would remove as much ivy as possible. It's just land trying to revert to forest (brambles, ivy, holly, that sort of thing). Ivy strangles trees too and makes them look rubbish. Rip the stuff off. Rip out all the old grass and weeds. It's never going to look any good. Sift the earth in a sieve to remove crap. Buy some soil/peat/compost/whatever and in the spring, sow some new grass that likes shade (you can buy packets of these grass varieties). If you think you've got any hope of getting anything to grow, you could look into having a micro-veg patch. Just don't bother putting in tomatoes where the sun doesn't shine. Aim to fill all your flower pots with herbs, when the weather finally warms up. You might look into getting a honeysuckle to replace the ivy. Smells good, pretty hardy, grows fast, nice flowers, cheap. Remember, if in doubt, be ruthless. It can't look any worse and it will all grow back anyway.
Is that a Belfast sink fig?? People' like those . Also they make nice planters .. My old Belfast sink is in my old houses garden. My other house which my ex lives in has my plants in it including my lovely jaquamonti silver birch has Snow White trunk really stunning.. Phormiums? Big spikey tropical plants of mine .. My big Japanese Acer .. In a pot. I planted the garden when I did not have my bike anymore to fill a gap.. It's been five years now and it's all matured.. Now I have a big garden but its full ground elder it's hell. The ex tennents emptied the garden ., ripped up the pond . It's heartbreaking really . I wanted a little place in my garden to chill .. I like animals and although a dog person I don't mind cats. But next doors one is horrible . It messes on the lawn on the paths weed up my bike several times wrecking a cover . Leaves dead things in my garden including people's pets!!!! Cockatiels .. If I put a plant in it messes on it and digs it up. Buried our pets and tried to put stuff down to stop it messing .. Dug up our pet crapped everywhere .. Often it has the runs .. It was doing it out front as well. I brought membrane and put slate down it cost £150 to do .. Soon as I was done her cat dug it up and crapped all over it .. Not solid .. Every day it did it no matter what I put down . I had to buy more slate . I'd be cleaning it up and the cats owner used to just watch smugly .. It doesn't have a litter tray because she's a clean freak .. She used to leave dirty disposable nappies on her doorstep as she did not want the dirty things in her house bin!!!! I'd love to plant my garden but with ground elder and this cat At wits end with it Was spending £30 a month on cat repellents which had no effect. I litterally just finished putting skate down went in came out to find that cat crapping all over it.
I've put paving slabs on ground elder to block out light . Don't know how to kill it . Also next door other side is like Harry Enfields " only meeeee!" But posh . If I do anything in garden he's out there .. Don't do this .. Don't do that! What are you planting I don't want things seeding in my garden !!!
I love all animals, including cats, but if there was a cat doing that in my garden over such a prolonged period of time, i would be tempted to help it move onto a better place!!! I suppose in this instance an early morning Termi (without baffles) wakeup call can be especially satisfying!! Maybe a particularily territorial tomcat of your own would help redress the balance??!!
Aanyway, back to the garden... No touchy tree, it's as simple as that, I honestly thimk she'd evict me if I tried to get rid of the fallen tree, apart from anything else the bugger's still growing The ivy can stay on the tree root for the time being, but I'll be ripping the rest out in due course, honeysuckle sounds the way forward. I did successfully grow some potted herbs a couple of years ago, but they made a bid for freedom, most of the 'grass' you can see is actually chives...So I think a big pile of topsoil might come in handy once I get round to digging up the lawn. The lawn is something I'm going to have to spend a bit of money on, cos I've been trying to grow one for five years and it just won't take. I'm thinking of turfing it, to be honest.
Fig grass normally grows any place it can Are your trees blocking light to your grass area? My dogs have ruined mine it's like a tuft here and there with bare patches The area that's covered by tree cover has no grass and something like clover growing
Yep, all 10 of 'em, and they're probably sucking all the nutrients out of the ground too. Well it's on the ground, so I'm guessing south... (In other words I've no idea, probably west).
The garden is west of the house, so it doesn't see any sun til probably 11am, and by 2pm the trees have blocked the sun completely, and the branches are too high and too big for me to do anything about them, so I'm stuck with it.
gravel and pots gets my vote - they die you just pop another on in you can get one that looks like mine (sideshow bob)
Plenty of helpfull websites out there to - this one has its own section on narrow back passages :wink: Shady courtyard garden - Shoot
