relocated newbie
 

Sacha writes

On 4/9/05 12:01, in article , "Flower
Bobdew" wrote:

snip While I'm here then...

Fairly new to gardening. Long story short... My 'sporting life' was cut
somewhat dramatically short, and after a good few years of hoping
against hope and generally floundering in my spare time, I suddenly
caught myself watching Gardeners World and... GULP!... Enjoying it!! :)

So, here I am, about 2 years [or growing seasons] down the line and full
of enthusiasm. I'm hoping that some of you good folk might help with
some of my mistakes and, who knows, I might even have the confidence to
share advice with some of things that have seemingly gone right. Umm,
always assuming I know why they've gone right, of course! :)

Sorry to hear about whatever it is that curtailed the sport but you've found
yourself a wonderful new interest.

Yeah, don't worry, I'm not going to bore anyone rigid with my tales of
misfortune, it was simply my way of briefly saying how such a positive
effect the discovery of gardening had on me. Something that I really
hadn't expected.

Actually, my first ever visit to a garden centre was also nearly my
last. It was around two years ago, last February... I wandered into a
local garden centre and bumped in to - and bear in mind that they were
also both there independently - my father and his brother! Both were
walking with the aid of stick following recent similar surgery...

It was like some horrific glimpse of my future life arriving too soon. I
almost ran out of there screaming! :)

The people here are mostly very friendly and the pooled knowledge is
fantastic.

'Mostly'. Uh, noted. Thanks. ;) I'm certainly looking forward to
expanding my knowledge in here. There's only so much you can glean from
reading books. [In fact, as good as some of the books can be, I've often
found they raise just as many questions!]


Dave and I live in South Devon (Torquay and nr Totnes, respectively)
and others live in Bristol and also in Devon.

I'm in [north] Bristol too.

Ask away and don't forget the archives in Google carry a lot of good
info, too. Welcome to urg!

Thanks for taking the time to respond, Sacha. :) I've actually moved
this follow-up to a new thread, as I thought I might get lost in the
spam-deluge one.

Right, I'm off to post my first urg question. :)

--
Flower Bobdew
South Facing Garden
South West: UK

On 6/9/05 12:26, in article , "Flower
Bobdew" wrote:


Sacha writes

On 4/9/05 12:01, in article , "Flower
Bobdew" wrote:

snip While I'm here then...

Fairly new to gardening. Long story short... My 'sporting life' was cut
somewhat dramatically short, and after a good few years of hoping
against hope and generally floundering in my spare time, I suddenly
caught myself watching Gardeners World and... GULP!... Enjoying it!! :)

So, here I am, about 2 years [or growing seasons] down the line and full
of enthusiasm. I'm hoping that some of you good folk might help with
some of my mistakes and, who knows, I might even have the confidence to
share advice with some of things that have seemingly gone right. Umm,
always assuming I know why they've gone right, of course! :)

Sorry to hear about whatever it is that curtailed the sport but you've found
yourself a wonderful new interest.

Yeah, don't worry, I'm not going to bore anyone rigid with my tales of
misfortune, it was simply my way of briefly saying how such a positive
effect the discovery of gardening had on me. Something that I really
hadn't expected.

Oh, I don't think anyone would be bored though I suppose a few might thud to
the floor in a faint along the way! ;-)

Actually, my first ever visit to a garden centre was also nearly my
last. It was around two years ago, last February... I wandered into a
local garden centre and bumped in to - and bear in mind that they were
also both there independently - my father and his brother! Both were
walking with the aid of stick following recent similar surgery...

It was like some horrific glimpse of my future life arriving too soon. I
almost ran out of there screaming! :)

The people here are mostly very friendly and the pooled knowledge is
fantastic.

'Mostly'. Uh, noted. Thanks. ;) I'm certainly looking forward to
expanding my knowledge in here. There's only so much you can glean from
reading books. [In fact, as good as some of the books can be, I've often
found they raise just as many questions!]

It's pretty amazing just what is covered in here, really. And being a
newbie to gardening gives the rest of urg a clean slate to work on. ;-)


Dave and I live in South Devon (Torquay and nr Totnes, respectively)
and others live in Bristol and also in Devon.

I'm in [north] Bristol too.

Ask away and don't forget the archives in Google carry a lot of good
info, too. Welcome to urg!

Thanks for taking the time to respond, Sacha. :) I've actually moved
this follow-up to a new thread, as I thought I might get lost in the
spam-deluge one.

Right, I'm off to post my first urg question. :)

And don't forget to give us a description of your garden and what's in it
now, which way it faces, any particular pros or cons it has etc., whether
you want to grow veg, have a pond, attract wildlife etc. etc.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)

Sacha writes

"Flower Bobdew" wrote:


Sacha writes

On 4/9/05 12:01, in article , "Flower
Bobdew" wrote:

Yeah, don't worry, I'm not going to bore anyone rigid with my tales of
misfortune, it was simply my way of briefly saying how such a positive
effect the discovery of gardening had on me. Something that I really
hadn't expected.

Oh, I don't think anyone would be bored though I suppose a few might thud to
the floor in a faint along the way! ;-)

Ahhh... A few hip operations in here, too, eh? ;)

I'm certainly looking forward to expanding my knowledge in here.
There's only so much you can glean from reading books. [In fact, as
good as some of the books can be, I've often found they raise just as
many questions!]

It's pretty amazing just what is covered in here, really. And being a
newbie to gardening gives the rest of urg a clean slate to work on. ;-)

[Glances out of window]

Ummm, well, its not exactly a clean slate out there now. It may've only
been a couple of years, but I've been, ahem, a bit enthusiastic!

Right, I'm off to post my first urg question. :)

And don't forget to give us a description of your garden and what's in it
now

Blimey! All of it?! % }

Actually, that's one thing I'm really annoyed about. Having started with
that proverbial clean slate - aside from two established fir trees, a
rampant grape vine and a lawn that would otherwise disgrace the name - I
wish I'd done some before/during/after piccies. [Not that it would do a
lot of good here, as I don't actually have anywhere to display them for
folk to see.]

Briefly...

which way it faces

Enclosed rear garden faces a very sunny south... Now a third patio and
two thirds garden: 30 ft long by 20 ft wide.

any particular pros or cons it has etc.

Hmmmm... Pros and cons; I guess that's quite difficult to nail down...

Being surrounded by high fences/walls, despite being south facing, there
are some *very* shady areas - particularly the west facing fence [as one
of the big fir trees is to the south of it and swallows up a lot of
light!] - so that has been a challenge. Pieris failed there [wrong soil!
But they've recovered well since being put in pots with ericaceous
compost. :)], and now I have some slow growing Skimmia [yeah, I know,
but they're surviving! ;), Euonymous, Pratia and a dwarf bamboo in a
small gravel area.

Generally... I was keen to get some structure in the garden, which
means, quite a few shrubs and evergreens went in first. Oh, and quite a
few pots on the patio - shady side/sunny side. The lawn is now a
meandering curved shape [I actually turned one of the fir trees into a
standard, shaped the lawn in an arc and underplanted - that has worked
surprisingly well.]

Favourite plants, so far, and established well in the garden: Choisya
ternata 'Sundance, Acer palmatum 'Sango-kaku' coupled with Cornus
stolonifera 'Falviramea' [red/green stems looked great last winter],
Carex Buchanaii and Carex dipsacea either side of a Phormium Flamingo,
with Parthenocissus henryana climbing up and through the two
pyrancanthas [one orange, one yellow] on the back wall. Oh, and a
tremendous Lavender x sawyers [a gorgeous colour silver, and has grown
huge in its sunny spot]. And the best Pittosporum tenufolium 'Tresederi'
I've seen! :)

Favourite pot plants: 4 Acers [love 'em! :)], Pennisetum alpoecuroides
'Hameln', Robinia pseudoacacia 'Lacy Lady' [looks great in leaf and even
better without, with its twisted stems], and something I was told might
be temperamental but has looked wonderful this summer; Myrtus tarantina
grown as a mini standard.

That'll do, for now... Have you nodded off yet? I told I was keen! : P

whether you want to grow veg

Don't really have the room or inclination. [Although, having seen them
on Gardeners' World, I'm tempted to try potatoes in bags next year.]

have a pond

No. However, I'm possibly leaning toward a water feature of some sort.

attract wildlife

Being just off the Frome Valley we're quite lucky in the bird
department. I didn't think there were too many birds in the area until I
put up some feeders. Wow! And we've even had a family of Wood Mice
raised in one of our pots. Not all good news, though... Two cats moved
in next door a couple of months ago; bird numbers are definitely down
and *all* the Wood Mice have been despatched. I actually found the two
adults on our lawn on consecutive mornings a couple of weeks ago. Not
happy. : 7

etc. etc.

Oh, enough already! :)

BTW... Visited your web site Sacha. Stunning. Do you live on site?

--
Flower Bobdew
South Facing Garden
South West: UK

On 6/9/05 20:36, in article , "Flower
Bobdew" wrote:

Sacha writes
snip of good and lengthy description


which way it faces

Favourite pot plants: 4 Acers [love 'em! :)], Pennisetum alpoecuroides
'Hameln', Robinia pseudoacacia 'Lacy Lady' [looks great in leaf and even
better without, with its twisted stems], and something I was told might
be temperamental but has looked wonderful this summer; Myrtus tarantina
grown as a mini standard.

That'll do, for now... Have you nodded off yet? I told I was keen! : P

Strikes me that you're not that much of a newbie after that litany!

whether you want to grow veg

Don't really have the room or inclination. [Although, having seen them
on Gardeners' World, I'm tempted to try potatoes in bags next year.]

We do tomatoes that way every year, inside one of our glass houses. It's
well worth it and we enjoy them enormously.

have a pond

No. However, I'm possibly leaning toward a water feature of some sort.

I'm biased because my answer to every gardening problem is 'dig a pond'.
But I do think that water makes an enormous difference to a garden and
somehow it *always* draws people towards it.

attract wildlife

Being just off the Frome Valley we're quite lucky in the bird
department. I didn't think there were too many birds in the area until I
put up some feeders. Wow! And we've even had a family of Wood Mice
raised in one of our pots. Not all good news, though... Two cats moved
in next door a couple of months ago; bird numbers are definitely down
and *all* the Wood Mice have been despatched. I actually found the two
adults on our lawn on consecutive mornings a couple of weeks ago. Not
happy. : 7

Keep feeding the birds - they'll repay you by eating insects you don't want
in the garden and if you put in a pond and get some toadspawn for it next
year, your frogs and toads will (after some time) start to eat ground-based
nasties, too.

etc. etc.

Oh, enough already! :)

BTW... Visited your web site Sacha. Stunning. Do you live on site?

Yes. This is home. It takes my husband and stepson about 5 seconds to get
to work each morning! The site was designed by David Poole and then
refreshed by a past member of this group (greatly missed but too busy right
now) called Cormaic, when Dave was too busy!
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)

Sacha writes

"Flower Bobdew" wrote:

Sacha writes

snip of good and lengthy description

That'll do, for now... Have you nodded off yet? I told I was keen! : P

Strikes me that you're not that much of a newbie after that litany!

I am, honest. [Admittedly it might now look a bit like the proverbial
golfer with the alleged 28 handicap winning a tournament by 10 strokes!
:)] Mowing the lawn was the extent of my gardening interest [and I
invariably did that under duress!] until a few years ago, but I've only
really caught the gardening bug during the last couple of years. I think
I'm reasonably fortunate to have quite a good eye for design, though,
being a photographer...which means things have taken shape relatively
quickly. [Albeit the vast majority of the design/layout was an arbitrary
unravelling program in my head, as opposed to a clear plan]. Ahem... but
that 'lengthy description' [and plant names] was helped enormously by
all the plant labels being on the table here! :)

have a pond

No. However, I'm possibly leaning toward a water feature of some sort.

I'm biased because my answer to every gardening problem is 'dig a pond'.
But I do think that water makes an enormous difference to a garden and
somehow it *always* draws people towards it.

It's so true. We have friends who have a pond/water feature, and when
you walk into the garden it draws you in like a magnet.

BTW... Visited your web site Sacha. Stunning. Do you live on site?

Yes. This is home.

Ohhhh, envy envy. :)

It takes my husband and stepson about 5 seconds to get to work each
morning!

What takes them so long? ;) You will let me know if any job
vacancies for keen assistants come up in the future, eh?

The site was designed by David Poole and then refreshed by a past
member of this group (greatly missed but too busy right now) called
Cormaic, when Dave was too busy!

Congrats to both, then. It's a wonderfully simple site to navigate and
shows off your 'home' perfectly.

--
Flower Bobdew
South Facing Garden
South West: UK

On 8/9/05 15:53, in article , "Flower
Bobdew" wrote:

Sacha writes
snip
BTW... Visited your web site Sacha. Stunning. Do you live on site?

Yes. This is home.

Ohhhh, envy envy. :)

It takes my husband and stepson about 5 seconds to get to work each
morning!

What takes them so long? ;) You will let me know if any job
vacancies for keen assistants come up in the future, eh?

The site was designed by David Poole and then refreshed by a past
member of this group (greatly missed but too busy right now) called
Cormaic, when Dave was too busy!

Congrats to both, then. It's a wonderfully simple site to navigate and
shows off your 'home' perfectly.

Glad you like it/them!
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)