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new flower bed
I'm still feeling nauseated by toothache and the only thing that seems to help me feel better is being outdoors gardening.
Hence, I've done three and a half hours work in the neighbour's front garden today. I've taken the centre bed that was shaped like a club from a deck of cards, but with the edges eroded by 20 + years of edge-trimming and enlarged it to an egg shape which looks more of a natural shape.
I've added in about half a dozen buckets of compost from my compost heap as the soil was in really poor condition. No organic matter and not a single worm in sight. I think the last owners of the house just removed weeds and put them in the rubbish and never added anything back to the soil. No wonder the two surviving roses were in such bad shape. (I've now removed those, along with another two roses - one was in bad shape in a poor position and the other was growing out over the pavement.)
Forked over the entire bed to the full depth of the fork - the ground was like cement in places, but I've broken it up a lot and the compost should make a real difference. (I may add even more compost - the basic soil here is clay with flints)
This bed is the one that is going to be blue/purple themed. I had a chat with the neighbour today and irises are definitely in. He loved one that was flowering in my garden earlier this year (it was the most lovely iris I have ever seen - impressive as it was a free gift from the garden centre!). He's also keen on a bit of silver foliage and plants with attractive leaves, so I shall add a couple of hellibores as I love their leaf shape and they look attractive all year round.
He likes a 'natural' look with plants all growing into each other, which is great as I like that kind of effect myself. He's not a bedding plant person and neither am I.
It's a relationship made in heaven. They're afraid that I'll suddenly stop wanting to do it and I'm afraid that they'll suddenly decide that having a gardener is too expensive.
What's so nice is that they're giving me a very general idea of what they'd like and letting me work out the fine detail and trusting me to get on with it. They don't tell me to mulch and compost, but I do that because I know it will get the best results for them in the long term.
I guess tomorrow, I really ought to get some work done on my own garden... I've galdioli to stake (a task I normally forget and then find the flowers ruined by falling over - this year, I'm more organised and I've staked several *before* they got top-heavy), the rockery plants to cut back, a hedge to trim (I'm reducing it in width and I'm trying to find the balance between severe reduction and not killing it) and the wisteria to cut back.
I also need to find some new plants to fill gaps in my semi-wild areas, but need to wait a week or two yet as many of Naturscape's plants http://www.naturescape.co.uk/ are autumn dispatch. I'll combine some things I'm getting for my neighbour with my order. We'll both be having bluebells and probably both have monkshood as well.
I will be ordering some foxgloves for myself and probably a few other things besides.
Hence, I've done three and a half hours work in the neighbour's front garden today. I've taken the centre bed that was shaped like a club from a deck of cards, but with the edges eroded by 20 + years of edge-trimming and enlarged it to an egg shape which looks more of a natural shape.
I've added in about half a dozen buckets of compost from my compost heap as the soil was in really poor condition. No organic matter and not a single worm in sight. I think the last owners of the house just removed weeds and put them in the rubbish and never added anything back to the soil. No wonder the two surviving roses were in such bad shape. (I've now removed those, along with another two roses - one was in bad shape in a poor position and the other was growing out over the pavement.)
Forked over the entire bed to the full depth of the fork - the ground was like cement in places, but I've broken it up a lot and the compost should make a real difference. (I may add even more compost - the basic soil here is clay with flints)
This bed is the one that is going to be blue/purple themed. I had a chat with the neighbour today and irises are definitely in. He loved one that was flowering in my garden earlier this year (it was the most lovely iris I have ever seen - impressive as it was a free gift from the garden centre!). He's also keen on a bit of silver foliage and plants with attractive leaves, so I shall add a couple of hellibores as I love their leaf shape and they look attractive all year round.
He likes a 'natural' look with plants all growing into each other, which is great as I like that kind of effect myself. He's not a bedding plant person and neither am I.
It's a relationship made in heaven. They're afraid that I'll suddenly stop wanting to do it and I'm afraid that they'll suddenly decide that having a gardener is too expensive.
What's so nice is that they're giving me a very general idea of what they'd like and letting me work out the fine detail and trusting me to get on with it. They don't tell me to mulch and compost, but I do that because I know it will get the best results for them in the long term.
I guess tomorrow, I really ought to get some work done on my own garden... I've galdioli to stake (a task I normally forget and then find the flowers ruined by falling over - this year, I'm more organised and I've staked several *before* they got top-heavy), the rockery plants to cut back, a hedge to trim (I'm reducing it in width and I'm trying to find the balance between severe reduction and not killing it) and the wisteria to cut back.
I also need to find some new plants to fill gaps in my semi-wild areas, but need to wait a week or two yet as many of Naturscape's plants http://www.naturescape.co.uk/ are autumn dispatch. I'll combine some things I'm getting for my neighbour with my order. We'll both be having bluebells and probably both have monkshood as well.
I will be ordering some foxgloves for myself and probably a few other things besides.
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We now have Parkers Dutch Bulbs wholesale catalogue circulating around the neighbourhood: amazinly cheap prices if you can order sufficiently large amounts of stuff (but min quantities of any one variety as low as 25 bulbs, or 5 or 10 of other stuff.) Parkers are 'Good Bulb Guide' accredited -- do not source their bulbs from endangered wild stocks.
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Irises - absolutely.