discussion Our garden

[Ian M]

Carina aka SWMBO is sooooo close to getting her fire pit.
WE have been doing the base, two segments at a time, for a few weeks. Yesterday we finished the last segment. Now we just need a low 30 - 40 cm stone wall around the back 2/3

More news as it happens.

 

[adt70hk]

Cool!!

 

[Guest]

Fire pit, mine watches all those murder documentaries, now sleep with poker under the pillow....

 

[minitnkr]

Beautiful masonry, but can it tell time?

 

[minitnkr]

....or the season?

 

[Ian M]

....or the season?

Well....it is in fact a compass. The double rows of pavers are the prime points North being the bottom right in the picture

 

[minitnkr]

Cool, extra special for GenZ kids who haven't a clue w/o their phone.

 

[Guest]

Very nice Ian . Someone's enjoying themselves

 

[Ian M]

So this cool and rainy spring early summer has been kind to the rhodo's this year. They are opening nice and slow and lasting long. Last year it was direct from frost to 20C
everything opened at once and done in a week! so it seamed..
So far:

This is always the first to open, we have two one each side of the garden. Looks white here but is in fact very pale pink in bud and fades to white as it opens. You can see it has plenty of buds to open yet.

This beast at the end of the garden has had a hard life. Hidden in the back corner it has been trampled upon, beaten by the wind from across the field, used as a rubbing post buy the deer calfs, tasted by hares and plucked by wood Pidgeon's and other pesky birds. Each year it put out these fantastic deep red blooms. I thinks it is a "Captain Jack" We are considering moving it to a place more protected and easier to see. And yes they are real English bluebells.

This little gem has some of the larges clusters A nice soft pink and s very pleasant smell! The close up of the cluster is about the size of a football (as in soccer).

A rather droopy rhodo. Quite why I have no idea. It just droops. Has nice small flowers that have an orange tint to the center.

 

[Ian M]

More of the Rhodos as they bloom.

Bare soil! have to do something about that! The twiggy bush is a Korean Kornel that we moved last autumn, its doing well. We 'acquired' some primroses the other day so popped them in here. This is the 'other white' rhodo by the way.

The two Japanese Maples are in fact one. The reddish coloured part is a branch that I sliced and pegged down into the soil. Did that last year, I think it's ready for its new home. I have another in a low cloud like Maple that is also ready but hard to photograph due to the size of the plant lol-
The leafy green in the bottom is pulmonaria and the bees LOVE it. in our garden its almost a year round thing. Only taken aback a little by frost. It's the first to start and the last to finish. A very good groundcover plant.


I tried to count the buds on the Wisteria. got to around 150 and gave up. lets just say loads!

New beginnings! Carina wanted trees for her 50th.. So a hanging Willow and at the back a hanging Japanese Cherry. (both molested by the effin Pidgeon's) Each of these are place holders for new beds. A third bed is also planned between the cherry and the hanging larch. We have a sweet almond that needs moving.
Some azalia that have already flowered, a couple of Maples that I have propagated, and a few bits here and there...
The long game is to slowly get rid of the "lawn" AKA the weedy patch of moss with grass in, and replace it with beds. All good fun. Ouch my back/neck/shoulders/elbows.... lol

 

[Ian M]

Moving on to the veggie patch.
What can I say. Denmark like most of Europe got a beating with some storms. Living quite close to the coast, (a 20 minute walk, or so the wife tells me. I'll stick to the five minutes in a car... Well when the road is back. That's another story). The fence around the veggies survived but the supports holding it; not so much.
Of the 10 m2 of wood chip that was our paths and weed protection, the circa 3m2 that was not totally bound in by WEEDS washed away in the rain, covering half the grass bit in the process. The field next door slopes toward the garden. So we got the run-off from that as well. Veggie garden was a wreck.
The last weeks project.

The brother in law came by with his drone. A nice birdseye view of the garden. The boxes at the top is where the beds used to be. from the left: the four small beds one have Jerusalem artichokes in, the three others used as buffers. The five long beds our peas, beans etc. the large square bed the spuds and next to that, the herbs. Then the last bed Sweetcorn.

Last week I was in the barn and built 6 new planting boxes, setting them and moving all the soil over. The bed for the spuds is now two beds, one for earlies the other for chips. and jackets (aka late crop potatoes )

The four boxes at the left have now gone. I got about 8kg of those glorious globes of nutty goodness which I sold to a local restaurant. for £25 not a bad return for £1 worth of Jerusalems... (jordskokker is a much easier name). I digress. as they are gone the veggie garden is being shrunk down.
There is a huge cherry and a half dead Acacia that need to come down befor they fall down. so I need to move the fence. sigh.
The weekend saw me planting posts and bracings - going for H braces this time all in 10cm with 8cm cross bars. and the wire fence will be stretched tight this time.
About wood chip paths. Weeds grow really well in them regardless of the landscape fabric below. Any and all airbourne seed root with 100% success!
As the Deer keep eating the tops off the strawberries (third year running), they will be getting moved inside the fence. where the herbs are at the moment.
The herbs with be moving out here where Carina is doing a bed of healing and health plants. I call it the Witches bed. lol. I am looking for a typical witches caldron to put in it when she is not looking. They are all things that can be used for eating, drinking or cooking. hmm


And I wonder why I have a stiff neck. lol

 

[Tworrs]

I'm in awe Ian, very well done, your garden looks lovely.

 

[Jim R]

What a wonderful garden. All credit to Carina and yourself.

 

[Si Benson]

Very nice Ian and what a lovely place you have, I could spend all day pottering there :smiling4:

 

[Lee Drennen]

Beautiful Place everything looks so nice but 9 acre’s would be great for you to get some critters but sometimes less is more. That’s why I just stay on about 3 acres and leave the 7 acres of my property in woodlands untouched this is enough for me to keep up.

 

[colin m]

That's a lovely garden Ian, but there can't be any, 'I'll just pop out and cut the grass' or do you borrow some sheep ?

 

[Ian M]

That's a lovely garden Ian, but there can't be any, 'I'll just pop out and cut the grass' or do you borrow some sheep ?

At the moment, cutting grass is a two day job. Our Lawn tractor/ride-on mower chose the busiest time of year to demand a trip to the workshop. My old knees can just about manage one bit at a time, so I have to deal it out in two or three bits. The first cut took forever, the last cut halv the time. but sun and rain = long grass!
guess what I'm doing this afternoon

 

[Ian M]

I'm in awe Ian, very well done, your garden looks lovely.

What a wonderful garden. All credit to Carina and yourself.

Thanks gents, it keeps us out of mischief.

Very nice Ian and what a lovely place you have, I could spend all day pottering there :smiling4:

Thank you. I do. as long as the weather is ok.

Beautiful Place everything looks so nice but 9 acre’s would be great for you to get some critters but sometimes less is more. That’s why I just stay on about 3 acres and leave the 7 acres of my property in woodlands untouched this is enough for me to keep up.

Back when we bought the place we would have had animals on one third, sheep/goats a couple of pigs and maybe a calf to fatten up a bit. Oh and Chickens naturally.
What was left would have been woodland meadow..

 

[Lee Drennen]

Chickens naturally.

I think you need a few chickens. There’s nothing like fresh eggs if you like them.

 

[Guest]

Beautiful Ian. Thanks for posting.
Those Rhododendron looks fantastic. Think you should perhaps do another Bonsai with a Maple.

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