Hi,

I currently have an average sized concrete terraced yard with about 15 pot plants in. It's north facing but gets a reasonable amount of sunlight. I'm thinking about what I can do to make it "more green", and to attract more wildlife. I would like to retain the shed and decking. Currently we get visits from blue tits, robins, slugs, bees, blue bottle flies, and ladybirds in small numbers.

I would like a patch of lawn but there doesn't seem space for it. Also anything that involved digging up the concrete would probably be expensive.

Does anyone have an ideas for things such as lawns,water features,beds,particular plants that would make my yard more green?!

See attached for photos of my garden.

thanks

Ric

I think you've got the basics all right - what you need is more of the same! I would suggest trying to replace your current containers by larger ones - they'll hold water better and not need watering so often. Improvise, or build your own.

You've obviously got more scope for trellis and climbing things up walls. But don't let things get too tall - they have an annoying habit of leaning over the edge and flowering for your neighbours and not for you!

For wildlife - avoid pesticides - the things that eat your plants are food for the birds. Think about growing british native plants, or at the very least avoid plants with double flowers.

Certainly try a small water feature - you may get some insect life in it. But make at least part of it shallow enough for the birds to splash in. We noticed a big increase in birds when we added a shallow "stream" to our pond.

How about a bird feeding station from the RSPB ? Mine has attatchments for everything, including a small bird bath and you could simply isert he stake into a large planter ? What about a half barrel pond for water plants ? And maybe build some raised beds next to the wall ?

many thanks for the suggestions.

i'm probably going to go down the route of getting a couple of very large containers.

i was even thinking of getting a separate half-barrel from somewhere and making a tub pond

also, i don't have a car. so does anyone know of how to get a large quantity of soil to fill my containers delivered?

i do have a birdfeeder already - you can see it in the photo attached to my kitchen window!

On Tue, 24 May 2011 20:31:35 +0000, redbush wrote:

islaygardener;922667 Wrote:
How about a bird feeding station from the RSPB ? Mine has attatchments
for everything, including a small bird bath and you could simply isert
he stake into a large planter ? What about a half barrel pond for water
plants ? And maybe build some raised beds next to the wall ?

many thanks for the suggestions.

i'm probably going to go down the route of getting a couple of very
large containers.

i was even thinking of getting a separate half-barrel from somewhere and
making a tub pond

also, I don't have a car. so does anyone know of how to get a large
quantity of soil to fill my containers delivered?

I am car-less too. I don't know how physically fit or capable you are
so... I cycle almost everywhere. Courtesy of Freecycle (nothing to do
with cycling look it up on http://www.freecycle.org) I now have a trailer
for my bike. There are livery stables about 2 miles from here and they
have a huge manure pile. They are happy to let me dig a couple of feet in
to get through the actively rotting layer to the rotted down nutrient
rich layer which is a bit rich on it's own. They gave me a couple of feed
bags to fill up and I can tow about 60Kg of composted manure back per
trip. I'm mostly going to use this to improve the soil in the small back
garden here, but I also mix it in with bought soil based compost for my
pot based plants.

Cost so far is about £10 for the compost. The exercise is priceless

Warwick

On Tue, 24 May 2011 20:31:35 +0000, redbush
wrote:


islaygardener;922667 Wrote:
How about a bird feeding station from the RSPB ? Mine has attatchments
for everything, including a small bird bath and you could simply isert
he stake into a large planter ? What about a half barrel pond for water
plants ? And maybe build some raised beds next to the wall ?

many thanks for the suggestions.

i'm probably going to go down the route of getting a couple of very
large containers.

i was even thinking of getting a separate half-barrel from somewhere and
making a tub pond

also, i don't have a car. so does anyone know of how to get a large
quantity of soil to fill my containers delivered?

i do have a birdfeeder already - you can see it in the photo attached to
my kitchen window!


Many garden centres and some of the sheds (such as B&Q) sell suitable
compost such as John Innes (and occasionally topsoil) by the bag and
have local delivery services. More expensive than ordering a truck
load of topsoil but less likelihood of significant weed content. We
invariably use JI No 3 for our containers.

rbel

that's a nice thing to do, but when you plant it up, be sure to get plants that don't grow too large. Specialist nurseries sell miniature waterlilies, for example - don't be tempted even for one minute to pick up a cheap waterlily from your local supermarket or DIY shed. And avoid plants with words like "vigorous" in the description.

But also put in some water feature (even if only a large shallow bowl) where the water is only 1-2 inches deep.

A lot of small quantities? ;-)

You need some more then! ;-)

I find it is useful to provide food that your neighbours don't provide - in may case this means fat cakes (which bluetits particularly like), and a mesh tray that I can put food on for ground feeding birds - your robin would like that. Especially if you added suet pieces and dried mealworms.

by the way - good luck - and let us know how you get on.

On May 24, 11:11*pm, Sacha wrote:
On 2011-05-24 21:31:35 +0100, redbush
said:







islaygardener;922667 Wrote:
How about a bird feeding station from the RSPB ? Mine has attatchments
for everything, including a small bird bath and you could simply isert
he stake into a large planter ? What about a half barrel pond for water
plants ? And maybe build some raised beds next to the wall ?

many thanks for the suggestions.

i'm probably going to go down the route of getting a couple of very
large containers.

i was even thinking of getting a separate half-barrel from somewhere and
making a tub pond

also, i don't have a car. so does anyone know of how to get a large
quantity of soil to fill my containers delivered?

Can you trade something you can do for an hour or three with someone
who will bring you compost/soil for *your tubs in their car or truck?
snip
--
Sachawww.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I would be carefull of bringing in topsoil as you don't know what
weeds you may be importing as well

On 24/05/2011 13:55, redbush wrote:
Hi,

I currently have an average sized concrete terraced yard with about 15
pot plants in. It's north facing but gets a reasonable amount of
sunlight. I'm thinking about what I can do to make it "more green", and
to attract more wildlife. I would like to retain the shed and decking.
Currently we get visits from blue tits, robins, slugs, bees, blue bottle
flies, and ladybirds in small numbers.

I would like a patch of lawn but there doesn't seem space for it. Also
anything that involved digging up the concrete would probably be
expensive.

Small lawns are a lot of hassle for no great benefit. Try growing some
of the nectar rich flowers recommended in the butterflies thread and
scented annual climbers like sweet pea and morning glory on the sunny
side. If you are patient hydrangea petiolaris will do very well on a
north facing wall. Things that are a drought tolerant will be less
trouble in containers like thyme, rosemary, chives and sedum spectabile.

Does anyone have an ideas for things such as lawns,water
features,beds,particular plants that would make my yard more green?!

Any chance of breaking down to soil level up against the wall so you
could plant some of the climbers into the ground?

More of the same sort of container planting after choosing a theme
colour for them would be one way to go.

Regards,
Martin Brown

On 24/05/2011 16:41, Martin Brown wrote:
On 24/05/2011 13:55, redbush wrote:
Hi,

I currently have an average sized concrete terraced yard with about 15
pot plants in. It's north facing but gets a reasonable amount of
sunlight. I'm thinking about what I can do to make it "more green", and
to attract more wildlife. I would like to retain the shed and decking.
Currently we get visits from blue tits, robins, slugs, bees, blue bottle
flies, and ladybirds in small numbers.

I would like a patch of lawn but there doesn't seem space for it. Also
anything that involved digging up the concrete would probably be
expensive.

Small lawns are a lot of hassle for no great benefit. Try growing some
of the nectar rich flowers recommended in the butterflies thread and
scented annual climbers like sweet pea and morning glory on the sunny
side. If you are patient hydrangea petiolaris will do very well on a
north facing wall. Things that are a drought tolerant will be less
trouble in containers like thyme, rosemary, chives and sedum spectabile.

Does anyone have an ideas for things such as lawns,water
features,beds,particular plants that would make my yard more green?!

Any chance of breaking down to soil level up against the wall so you
could plant some of the climbers into the ground?

I have had success in drilling through concrete - 16mm hole - and
pushing the roots of a small home grown honeysucle cutting into the hole
with some compost. The plant is thriving 10 years later. If you can
hire/borrow anSDS drill and use a 25mm bit and enlarge the hole
slightly, so much the better

Malcolm

On Tue, 24 May 2011 16:41:45 +0100, Martin Brown
wrote:

On 24/05/2011 13:55, redbush wrote:
Hi,

I currently have an average sized concrete terraced yard with about 15
pot plants in. It's north facing but gets a reasonable amount of
sunlight. I'm thinking about what I can do to make it "more green", and
to attract more wildlife. I would like to retain the shed and decking.
Currently we get visits from blue tits, robins, slugs, bees, blue bottle
flies, and ladybirds in small numbers.

I would like a patch of lawn but there doesn't seem space for it. Also
anything that involved digging up the concrete would probably be
expensive.

Small lawns are a lot of hassle for no great benefit. Try growing some

A man on the car boot was recently selling off cuts of astroturf.. All
the look and none of the mowing

of the nectar rich flowers recommended in the butterflies thread and
scented annual climbers like sweet pea and morning glory on the sunny
side. If you are patient hydrangea petiolaris will do very well on a
north facing wall. Things that are a drought tolerant will be less
trouble in containers like thyme, rosemary, chives and sedum spectabile.

Does anyone have an ideas for things such as lawns,water
features,beds,particular plants that would make my yard more green?!

Any chance of breaking down to soil level up against the wall so you
could plant some of the climbers into the ground?

More of the same sort of container planting after choosing a theme
colour for them would be one way to go.

Regards,
Martin Brown
--
http://www.voucherfreebies.co.uk

mogga wrote:
On Tue, 24 May 2011 16:41:45 +0100, Martin Brown
wrote:

On 24/05/2011 13:55, redbush wrote:
Hi,

I currently have an average sized concrete terraced yard with about
15 pot plants in. It's north facing but gets a reasonable amount of
sunlight. I'm thinking about what I can do to make it "more green",
and to attract more wildlife. I would like to retain the shed and
decking. Currently we get visits from blue tits, robins, slugs,
bees, blue bottle flies, and ladybirds in small numbers.

I would like a patch of lawn but there doesn't seem space for it.
Also anything that involved digging up the concrete would probably
be expensive.

Small lawns are a lot of hassle for no great benefit. Try growing
some

A man on the car boot was recently selling off cuts of astroturf.. All
the look and none of the mowing


Funnily enough, I heard a couple of hours ago in a conversation with my
elderly neighbour and his visiting son that a new housing development in the
town centre is surrounded by astroturf lawns!


Ian

"Ian B" wrote in message
...
mogga wrote:
On Tue, 24 May 2011 16:41:45 +0100, Martin Brown
wrote:

On 24/05/2011 13:55, redbush wrote:
Hi,

I currently have an average sized concrete terraced yard with about
15 pot plants in. It's north facing but gets a reasonable amount of
sunlight. I'm thinking about what I can do to make it "more green",
and to attract more wildlife. I would like to retain the shed and
decking. Currently we get visits from blue tits, robins, slugs,
bees, blue bottle flies, and ladybirds in small numbers.

I would like a patch of lawn but there doesn't seem space for it.
Also anything that involved digging up the concrete would probably
be expensive.

Small lawns are a lot of hassle for no great benefit. Try growing
some

A man on the car boot was recently selling off cuts of astroturf.. All
the look and none of the mowing


Funnily enough, I heard a couple of hours ago in a conversation with my
elderly neighbour and his visiting son that a new housing development in
the town centre is surrounded by astroturf lawns!


Ian


Damn good stuff where you do not have the depth of soil to sustain a lawn,
such as in the OP's situation. A 'few inches of soil' dumped onto the
concrete and then lawn would be hopeless, whereas Astroturf would be
satisfactory and give the 'green lawn effect'. My step mother used it at her
hotel when she converted some bedrooms on the front to make an apartment for
herself, with a veranda over the Snack Bar covered with Cyril Lawn, as it
was all those years ago.

Horses for courses.

Mike


--

....................................
It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.
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