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Get your garden out
- Thread starter aliclarke86
- Start date
When we bought our house 3 years ago I absolutely had to have gas installed so I could have gas hobs to cook, being in the fen's this meant digging up our front garden to install a tank. Also being in the fen's this meant losing the top 12 inches of soil and back filling the hole with the gault clay that came out of the 12ft deep hole which the area is famous for. Being a quick fix as we had a whole house gutted to put back together I only invested in 3 inches of top soil when reinstating.
Anyway loads of plants went in randomly to see what would take, I knew I wanted a woodland style but that was it. As solid clay it's a wet mess in winter and baked concrete in summer.
3 years later the surviving plants have finally reached maturity.
I appreciate it's a disorganised mess and next year everything will get moved around to achieve what I hoped for but I'm pretty pleased with the plants that survived the experiment.... hosta's have gone mad this year!
Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
Anyway loads of plants went in randomly to see what would take, I knew I wanted a woodland style but that was it. As solid clay it's a wet mess in winter and baked concrete in summer.
3 years later the surviving plants have finally reached maturity.
I appreciate it's a disorganised mess and next year everything will get moved around to achieve what I hoped for but I'm pretty pleased with the plants that survived the experiment.... hosta's have gone mad this year!
Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
G
Guest
Guest
I like chaotic planting, I think it looks good as is. But your methodology makes good sense. Moving stuff around and redesigning is all part of the gardening experience, similar to re-scaping a tank but more work 🙄
I've done something very similar in our front garden, but only planted it up March just gone. There was amenity planting there before; shrubs that had become overgrown, now transferred to the back garden.
Again heavy clay subsoil with very little top soil, so I can totally relate to your garden; Somme in winter and concrete in summer with cracks as wide and deep as the Grand Canyon. It's a new development so a nice mix of builders rubble and half bricks as well
It's a bit of a mess atm but we'll see what survives and what does well and maybe move a few 😉
Just one half of the front garden, the other half is so bad it's not photo-worthy...
OP, on Flickr
I've done something very similar in our front garden, but only planted it up March just gone. There was amenity planting there before; shrubs that had become overgrown, now transferred to the back garden.
Again heavy clay subsoil with very little top soil, so I can totally relate to your garden; Somme in winter and concrete in summer with cracks as wide and deep as the Grand Canyon. It's a new development so a nice mix of builders rubble and half bricks as well
It's a bit of a mess atm but we'll see what survives and what does well and maybe move a few 😉
Just one half of the front garden, the other half is so bad it's not photo-worthy...
OP, on Flickr
zozo
Member
It looks like a good Cherry year!?.. 
Better than last year.
Hedelfinger Marmelade.. Giving it an estimate, enough for 3 days cooking and 5 litre and still leave the top for the birds. 😎
Better than last year. Hedelfinger Marmelade.. Giving it an estimate, enough for 3 days cooking and 5 litre and still leave the top for the birds. 😎
G
Guest
Guest
Bumper crop, must be a mast year. But no net? I used to live in a former cherry growing region in Essex. About this time of year some of the remaining trees would be covered in netting otherwise the birds'd eat 'em all...the cherries that is.
zozo
Member
No net, never had a net, but still enough left to make to much marmelade.. I still have from previous year standing around.. 🙂
Having cats around probably helps a lot.. Do you see him, sitting almost at the top? Unfortunately he's no longer among us, but he was mad.. Could sit in the tree for hours when the cherries were ripe.
I also have birdfeeders hanging, but don't see much birds.. It's to close to the ground and to many cats strolling around.
G
Guest
Guest
Haha...no net needed...maybe a safety net.
Hi all,
The Limnobium looks quite good, but the Pistia is still struggling. I'm not sure whether it is the change to higher light intensity or the cool nights.
cheers Darrel
I took this one this morning, the pond has gone from about <"1/3 Azolla coverage to about 70%"> in ~10 days.
The Limnobium looks quite good, but the Pistia is still struggling. I'm not sure whether it is the change to higher light intensity or the cool nights.
cheers Darrel
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Hi all,
I took a couple of shots of the garden while I was photoing the Azolla .
This is the gravel garden, it has filled out remarkably from <"earlier in the year">. I'd assumed that a lot of it has died (it was all brown and withered when I came back last august), but I think most of the plants were just taking a siesta.
This is the West facing border in the back garden, this is about as good as it gets, it is all down hill from here flower-wise for the rest of the summer. There is an earlier incarnation on <"page 2">.
I've tried lots of later flowering plants, but I don't water the garden and they tend to struggle. Looking back at the pictures <"Allium cristophii"> loves this border. I bought five bulbs ~15 years ago, this border has ~25 flower-heads, all the one I've moved elsewhere have died, I've no idea why.
cheers Darrel
I took a couple of shots of the garden while I was photoing the Azolla .
This is the gravel garden, it has filled out remarkably from <"earlier in the year">. I'd assumed that a lot of it has died (it was all brown and withered when I came back last august), but I think most of the plants were just taking a siesta.
This is the West facing border in the back garden, this is about as good as it gets, it is all down hill from here flower-wise for the rest of the summer. There is an earlier incarnation on <"page 2">.
I've tried lots of later flowering plants, but I don't water the garden and they tend to struggle. Looking back at the pictures <"Allium cristophii"> loves this border. I bought five bulbs ~15 years ago, this border has ~25 flower-heads, all the one I've moved elsewhere have died, I've no idea why.
cheers Darrel
mort
Member
- Joined
- 15 Nov 2015
- Messages
- 2,415
Hi Darrel, do you know which species of azolla you have there? I had a couple of little bits that hitchhiked on something and they over wintered fine. They were bright red all summer but as the weather has got sunnier they have changed to green. I know azolla filicuoides is no longer allowed here and just wondered if that's what I have, so I know where to put the excess.
Edvet
Member
We still have a waterdeficit from last years draught.
We have had rain but not enough to fill groundwater levels.
We have had rain but not enough to fill groundwater levels.
Hi all,
I've seen a couple of different species, but the only way I knew they were different was that a botanist told me they were different. Via <"Wikipedia">
I had the great idea that using the red ones would make the Cyanobacteria easier to see, but found that they don't have (m)any.
cheers Darrel
Mine came from the restored section of the <"Wilts & Berks canal">, but as far as I know whatever they are sold as (or collected from) they are <"Azolla filiculoides">.
I've seen a couple of different species, but the only way I knew they were different was that a botanist told me they were different. Via <"Wikipedia">
Mine do that, because we use them for a practical I now know that the large green plants are the ones with <"nitrogen fixing Cyanobacteria"> present.
I had the great idea that using the red ones would make the Cyanobacteria easier to see, but found that they don't have (m)any.
Compost it?
cheers Darrel
mort
Member
- Joined
- 15 Nov 2015
- Messages
- 2,415
Thanks Darrel, I meant to say it's red all winter long and turns green in the summer.
I saw some for sale on eBay that was listed as another species but was just wondering how practical it was for the average hobbyist to identify, or whether they were just claiming it was that species because the other is banned. It seemed relatively popular though and I was just wondering if I could offer mine it to others but as it overwintered I thought its most likely the naughty species, so will compost.
I saw some for sale on eBay that was listed as another species but was just wondering how practical it was for the average hobbyist to identify, or whether they were just claiming it was that species because the other is banned. It seemed relatively popular though and I was just wondering if I could offer mine it to others but as it overwintered I thought its most likely the naughty species, so will compost.
Hi all,
I would guess that the plant sold as Azolla caroliniana (A. cristata) is really A. filiculoides. Azolla filiculoides has been banned from sale since 2014
It isn't a new arrival in the UK, it has been here for over a hundred years (first recorded in the wild in 1883) and I think it tends to come and go (or certainly dramatically vary in abundance) at any particular location.
cheers Darrel
I think identifying any of them to species is a microscope job.
I would guess that the plant sold as Azolla caroliniana (A. cristata) is really A. filiculoides. Azolla filiculoides has been banned from sale since 2014
It isn't a new arrival in the UK, it has been here for over a hundred years (first recorded in the wild in 1883) and I think it tends to come and go (or certainly dramatically vary in abundance) at any particular location.
cheers Darrel
Hi all,
cheers Darrel
It had been really dry (in Corsham), but we've had a reasonable amount of rain now and my water butts are pretty much back to full.
cheers Darrel
zozo
Member
That green desk lamp shade ( i assume) also is a nice classis touch.. 
And its a Antikythera Clock.. 😎
And its a Antikythera Clock.. 😎
A friend bought the clock for me as an early birthday present, I made the back frame from ply and painted it to look like metal. I used some cinnamon powder over the wet paint for a rusty effect.
Yes I found a green glass lamp and I have some green LED tea lights to power it.
I have bought loads of lighting, flame effect bulbs and mini battery LEDs, wire LED is really cool but this is about forward planning as it doesn’t get dark until 10pm at the moment, should look good in the winter though.
I have spent hundreds of hours doing this and now I am behind in every other aspect of garden life!
Yes I found a green glass lamp and I have some green LED tea lights to power it.
I have bought loads of lighting, flame effect bulbs and mini battery LEDs, wire LED is really cool but this is about forward planning as it doesn’t get dark until 10pm at the moment, should look good in the winter though.
I have spent hundreds of hours doing this and now I am behind in every other aspect of garden life!
zozo
Member
Good idea, looks good.. Never though of that.. What background color didyou use, Silver/grey?
We have a paint brand Still-Life (Stilleven) Oxy Rust.. It contains iron particles and probbaly some copper and acids to accellerate the oxidation process. Within 12 hours it looks like iron that was outdoors for a decade. But pretty expensive at €32 for 0.5 litre. Tho never used it, but it look realistic.. Definitively going to try cinnamon, smells better too i guess. 😛
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