The message
from "Heather" contains these words:

Hi all

Happy Christmas H

I posted here a few weeks ago saying I'd got a new garden. Now I'm at the
"planning what to do with it" stage and I'd appreciate any thoughts or
advice you might have on the following projects:

1. The instant herb garden project.

There's a pre-formed fibre glass raised pool with a wooden surround right up
by the house (surrounded by wooden deck). I don't want it as a water
feature (I have two other ponds - one quite LARGE). I thought I might empty
it out, drill holes in the fibre glass, fill with gritty compost and plant
with herbs. It's about 5' x 3' and about 2' off the ground. Faces SW and
gets reasonable amounts of sun. What do people reckon - will this work or
will it get waterlogged?

Waterlogging could be a problem, I'd make LOTS of holes (big enough
not to block with washed-down soil debris) and put a 6" stoney drainage
layer in the bottom..any old bricks and broken blocks etc will do, as
most herbs don't mind lime mortar.

2. The native hedge project.

Deciduous hedge runs up one side of the garden for about twenty five feet.
It's about six foot high and has obviously been trimmed with hedge cutters
and not much else done to it as it's got very thin in places. Hard to tell
what it's made of at the moment, but I reckon it includes hawthorn, berberis
and possibly viburnum. Also full of old brambles and rubbish growing
through from next door's neglected and overgrown patch. I'd like to thicken
it up a bit and try some evergreens to give a bit more privacy at this time
of year - any ideas for relatively quick growing - preferably native -
plants. I'd like it to stay an "informal" hedge.

It sounds well established, so it may be easier to renovate the
existing plants than plant new ones in soil that's full of roots.
Cutting back hard and a good mulch with manure will produce thick new
growth from low down. I'd keep some brambles; they are so fast and can
be trained across baldy bits, a good deterrent to dogs/intruders, and
produce blackberries. If you decide there's room for new plants, there
are some good evergreen cotoneasters which are quite fast. Holly is
lovely but much slower, especially where there's competition from
established plants. Ivy can be useful as a filler. All of them support a
lot of wildlife.

3. The anti-magnolia project

I think it's ordinary emulsion,
although it looks almost luminous in poor light and is doing the "natural"
look of the garden no favours at all - any ideas for removing it?

If it's just emulsion, rain and weathering should wear it off,
eventually :-)

I hope you don't mind multiple questions in one message - I expect I'll
think of some more later..........

It's not a problem, but posters often get more replies if they post
each Q separately with its own header. It's better to state the topic in
the header, too, that attracts far more interest than vague headers like
"help" or "query".

Janet