I've now had a chance to read the 'abc' posting and the webpages it refers
to. Since no-one has commented on my "Freesia bulbs" question as yet I
thought I'd try following what was suggested in the abc+FAQs and give a
brief outline of my situation/interest as I am a 'newcomer' to gardening.

I had to take 'early retirement on the basis of ill health' last May. Still
do a small amount of part time/freelance work - e.g. as a writer. However
the change has given me a chance at last to start gardening. Been meaning
to get gardening for many years, but combination of work and illness has
prevented it until now. As a result our garden is the result of a sort of
'benign neglect' over the last 20-odd years.

We live in St Andrews, Fife. Hence on the east coast. For Scotland we seem
to get relatively 'protected' weather a lot of time and get less in the way
of serious frost or snow than inland. In effect, we get the 'sea' weather a
lot of time as opposed to the 'inland' weather.

Main feature of our garden for many years has been:

1) Ground eldar. aaargh!

2) Trees. Mostly self-seeded from the park that backs onto our garden.

3) Raspberries/Tayberries. These have flourished and provided loads of Jam.

All the above have done fine under the 'benign neglect' regime, but we are
now trying to change things - whilst keeping (3) as best as we can! The old
regime seems to have resulted in good soil. albeit dominated by allowing
the leaves from the trees to fall and rot down where the fall each year for
20 years...

In general terms, our main problems at present are the obvious ones -
general ignorance and the need for loads of hard work. :-)

Since we have the park at the back we get a good view, but occasional
problems with kids in (or vandalising) the garden. There is a brick wall at
the end, and I am hoping to grow roses, and perhaps some thorny bushes up
this to give a 'pretty deterrent' here. 8-] However the ground in the
garden slopes down to this end-wall which then faces east. So the garden
side of the wall loses direct sun in the afternoon.

!+2+3 above means we've had a sort of 'green glade' for many years. Nice in
its way being shady, bushy, etc. However I am now keen to have a lot of
colour in terms of a variety of flowers. I've chopped down some of the
trees to get more light to the ground.

No doubt I've already made a fair few mistakes, but I hope to live long
enough to learn from them and end up with a 'better' garden. At present
working on a 'one area at a time' basis with ideas that adapt as I find out
things, etc.

I planted various bulbs in some areas last year, and it has been very
pleasing to find that they *do* come up and give flowers. :-) However
some seem to be less happy than others so I hope people here can advise on
this in due course.

I have some other specific questions/problems extra to the "freesias" one,
e.g. the 'failed bulbs' one I refer to above, but I'll post the details in
due course after I see what response (if any) I get to this posting and the
'freesia' one... :-)

Slainte,

Jim

--
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