On 9/1/08 16:33, in article ,
"Eddy" wrote:

Sacha wrote:
Our Gunnera is planted near our soakaway in a sort of wooded bit of the
garden, known to its original owner as The Rhododendron Walk. It's a bit of
a mix of soil and shale there, so I don't think they're over-fussy. But
perhaps Charlie's idea of judiciously chosen bamboos and then some lovely
ferns would do it. Perhaps you could have a sort of stone 'folly' ruin and
plant ferns among the crevices. ;-)

Thanks, Sacha. It's amazing what people hide when they're selling a
property, and amazing too what one fails to detect no matter how closely
you scrutinise a property before you buy it. We visited this place SIX
times before buying it, just to check it out thoroughly. Maybe we
should have smelt a bit of a rat because on each occasion we noticed our
beautifully and closely the lawn had obviously just been cut! We just
put it down to the owner being manic about his lawn. Of course it
turned out that with the "richness" flowing beneath it, it needs cutting
every seven days except in winter!

We have friends with a similar 'problem' in Jersey but it's just down to
their garden being partly on a steep hillside and a lot of water seeping
down that to a stream at the bottom. In those conditions most lawns would
need cutting each week, I would think. Six times does indeed indicate a
thorough approach. ;-) I must admit that I usually know within 30 seconds
whether I like a house or not and then I've done another visit if I do, then
the "has it got dry rot or a collapsing roof" survey thing and then bought
it. Or not.

Anyway, as to how to turn it into a trouble-free zone, I'm grateful for
everybodys' help. As a result I have stumbled upon the following very
helpful page - tailored just for this situation. Just a case of
googling each species now and looking for the right combination, and,
for me, some which are reasonably tall!

from:
http://www.clallam.net/EnvHealth/ass...s.pdf#cooliris

snip


All I'm going to say to that very useful list is that if you get
Convallaria to grow it's quite possible that I shall never speak to you
again. I have failed with it in every garden I've ever had, wherever
situated. I'm now so paranoid about this that I have asked a member of our
staff to plant it for me and I haven't even touched it!
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove weeds from address)
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'