How does your garden grow? - The Bear and Badger

n0face

Thanks Nina and Eric I'll look those suggestions up.

I want to fill the gaps in and cover the fence with a few different plants that will look have some flowers in summer and autumn.

And does anybody know what this is?

And can I save it?

davyK

Going by those leaves it's fine. Might need a judicious prune to make it shapely?

Eric

It's a Rhodedendron and yes, you can cut them back quite vigorously. Once its finished flowering cut back all the dead wood and it'll be fine.

Plant it at the your border as they will tolerate semi shade just be prepared to prune it back hard as they can take over.

n0face

Excellent, it was covered in ivy and seemed to have just been placed out of a pot on the ground.

Eric

That was probably to restrict it's size and spread which is fine short term, but they will need repotting. They're not my bag but Rhodedendrons are good space fillers, they just don't really share the limelight very well and tend to take over.

stonechalice

Went mad today with the garden renew - shed moved - full dismantle and reassemble - was an absolute cunt - fences stained and deck built and painted. All ready for new patio and fake grass - I'm fucked...

Before...

After...

Dinostar77

Nicely done thats alot of work to get done.

Kow

I'm not sure what the purpose of a deck is really. Is it just for sitting on so you don't have to put a chair on the grass? Why would you put it somewhere that you have to traipse across grass to get to it?

yourfavouriteuncle

Dinostar77 wrote:

Awhile back i was talking about redoing my garden and @unc made some suggestions. One of them was a picture which i cant find as i cant recalk the thread it was on. Basically to paraphrase @unc he was talking about layering your plants. He posted a pic of plants against a wall. There were low ones and then a set of tall plants (tree?) thin brown steam and the folliage only started very high up. They were pinned against the wall. I ask as for the life of me i cant recall the name of that plant he recmmended recommended as it was good for screenage due to its height and made the layering with the low plants look better.

I know its a shot in the dark..

These were pleached trees. Available in lots of different species but standard stuff is carpinus betulus, photinia, pyrus chanticlear, lime, prunus lusitanica though there’ll be loads of other varieties.
It’s basically a standard tree grown on a flat panel of bamboo to create a raised hedge.

stonechalice

Kow wrote:

I'm not sure what the purpose of a deck is really. Is it just for sitting on so you don't have to put a chair on the grass? Why would you put it somewhere that you have to traipse across grass to get to it?

That corner of the garden gets all the sun. There will be fake grass and a patio there next week. I toyed with the idea of putting fake grass down over the whole lot but it gets bloody expensive. I got the deck for free off a mate. The ground can get shitty after bad weather so a deck keeps you out of that. Also, less shit for the dog to bring in. It's also kind of nice being slightly raised off the ground for some reason. I've got two decks now.

davyK

Nice.

Dinostar77

yourfavouriteuncle wrote:

Dinostar77 wrote:

Awhile back i was talking about redoing my garden and @unc made some suggestions. One of them was a picture which i cant find as i cant recalk the thread it was on. Basically to paraphrase @unc he was talking about layering your plants. He posted a pic of plants against a wall. There were low ones and then a set of tall plants (tree?) thin brown steam and the folliage only started very high up. They were pinned against the wall. I ask as for the life of me i cant recall the name of that plant he recmmended recommended as it was good for screenage due to its height and made the layering with the low plants look better.

I know its a shot in the dark..

These were pleached trees. Available in lots of different species but standard stuff is carpinus betulus, photinia, pyrus chanticlear, lime, prunus lusitanica though there’ll be loads of other varieties.
It’s basically a standard tree grown on a flat panel of bamboo to create a raised hedge.

Thank you buddy. Appreciated. Thats the one.

poprock

Loving your deck work Chalice. Looks like a proper job.

We simply don’t have the time to tackle ours, which needs completely replacing because it’s rotten after being left uncared for for two years. We’re paying a joiner instead. We’ll at least be staining and treating it ourselves afterwards.

Eric

Decks are great for dealing with level change as you don't have to retain loads of fill, they certainly have a place in a garden.

If you can afford to go hardwood it really is worth the investment. Even a decent composite deck like Millboard which look super wood like are worth a look.

davyK

You can get decking made of recycled plastics that is really hard wearing. Think it's pretty expensive though.

n0face

A good days work getting my green house base level. I ran out of left over junk in the garden to finish it completely. Time to go skip surfing for bricks to finish it off.

poprock

Some top work going on here. Spring sunshine brings out the DIYers.

stonechalice

davyK wrote:

You can get decking made of recycled plastics that is really hard wearing. Think it's pretty expensive though.

Mate of mine is a landscaper and uses new scaffold boards exclusively whenever he does a deck. They come out really, really good and they last.

yourfavouriteuncle

davyK wrote:

You can get decking made of recycled plastics that is really hard wearing. Think it's pretty expensive though.

That’s what Eric was mentioning with the mill board stuff (though there’s plenty of less good stuff about too).

poprock

Anybody know why all the saplings in our meadow have bits of plastic tied to them?

My best guess is that they were put on to mark the tree positions when the saplings were much smaller and hard to see, and are just still there …

acemuzzy

It's to deter leaf rustlers

poprock

Do you see any leaves on that tree? Don’t think it’s working.

LivDiv

Do you have leaves in Scotland? Seems redundant.

stonechalice

To mark a trail maybe?

g.man

poprock wrote:

Anybody know why all the saplings in our meadow have bits of plastic tied to them? My best guess is that they were put on to mark the tree positions when the saplings were much smaller and hard to see, and are just still there …

The blessings of the trees.

poprock

Hahaha. Nice find G. This part was my favourite, it tells you everything you need to know about the person:

I photograph the trees only rarely, when I feel I have their "permission."

yourfavouriteuncle

You’re right Pops. They’re generally marked like that if planted really young to give a guide not to mow them down.

poprock

Grand. So the previous owner’s been industrious enough to stake and tie every young tree as it grows, adding plastic protectors at low level, but at the same time too lazy to untie some little ribbons. People are weird.

Nina

Planted everything I wanted for the year this morning, now I can watch it slowly wither away. The coleus I planted last week already has big holes, but I don't see anything on the leaves.

Will post pictures later when I'm on a computer and can upload a bit easier.

Question about roses:
The ones that were already here are slowly being overtaken by whatever decides to grow in the same spot. There's still flowers, and I like them. Is there a way I can take cuttings and make new and healthy shrubs?

(I don't really know if there's a difference between a shrub and bush, but Animal Crossing used shrubs and it's a fun word)

yourfavouriteuncle

Here you go.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/popular/roses/growing-guide

Head to the propagation tab and it’ll give you a bit more info as there’s a few ways you can go about it. I’m not an expert on roses as I generally hate them for their lethal thorns (had to have one surgically removed the top of my head!) and short flowering so I can’t offer too much real world experience I’m afraid. Well, other than don’t get the thorns stuck in your scalp.

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