Garden Projects and DIY

Hi! The whole local are here is full of Rhododendrons, in remarkable abundance. I have a camellia and it's growing very well too. I might get another test to confirm. I'll see how it goes.

I like your design @Sogni verdi and am pleased to see those grasses in your plan! Your Phormiums may need a bit more space as they expand, but they can easily be divided. If that’s a Cordyline in the middle, beware, they can suffer in severe winters and look a bit tatty. A dwarf pampas grass may...

No worries! Thanks so much for getting back to me, I really appreciate it. Off to B&Q tomorrow then. Happy gardening!

Really amcGeorge? I would be fascinated to find out all the things that people were eating who lived in my house in 1832. I would also like to know what those things cost, what their house looked like, what jobs they did and their life stories. I would read with great interest a snapshot of a...

Oh dear @LunarSea - not quite what I meant

Not sure my wife would speak to me again if she saw the price of that!

Thanks all - given me some ideas for the way to progressI'll let you know in a couple of years

Thank you @Bear1 . Yes, I don't like conifers either, so an excuse to replace it with a native mixed hedge would be good. The soil is very good, and topped up regularly with fresh goodness from the river at least once a year... There are loads of local apple trees (but mainly cider types) as...

This worked very successfully when I was teaching....Foundation stage. We set up garden area with paving slabs in a chequerboard pattern so that they could stand on slabs to tend the areas around them. Led to germination, in verandah area, pricking out, planting out, watering, weeding...and...

Chaenorhinum origanifolium 'Blue Dream'

Just checked my records. 4 plants, 3 varieties Hedychium gardnerianium x 2 H. coronarium H. densiflorum ‘Assam Orange’ The H. coronarium is a lot smaller than the others as that is a replacement for one that failed, for some reason.

Tidied up the summer house and put the lights on for the first time in..... well, what seems forever. Lovely quiet evening.There is a plant in there, A Peace Lily which loves the heat!

Sounds like you will be OK if you done tiling and that sort of thing. It just needs a little preparation. Get levels right and a slight slope off the steps to throw off rain.

As just added to the above, don't add too much more compost, a few long gentle waterings should restore things.Dried out compost can be difficult to re-wet so you could could add a couple of drops of washing up liquid to each watering can as that helps the water soak in more, don't overdo the...

I was told that the tubular things in the trees were for detecting dormice.

Wouldn't it be easier to build raised gardens along the fence line and then dig out some of the higher area and deposit in the raised beds? You could have just one long step along the patio to step down to the new grade?

Thanks for the idea, but I think I'll pass when it comes to ponds. We have a large drainage ditch and a water reservoir 20 meters away, and our demand for mosquitoes is already met a few times over.Additionally half of our porch once was a giant pond before the previous owner realised the same...

Hello Ali, welcome to GC. You've got the potential there to make a nice little garden! Definitely go with weed-suppressing membrane. It comes in brown as well as green, which makes it useful for covering a cleared, dug area which you then plant with easy maintenance shrubs. As long as the...

A wonderful problem garden to have, so much more interesting than a flat square of grass. Do you have a must-have and nice-to-have lists? It's essential that any must-haves have a place (BBQ, trampoline, bins, veg patch, football area...).Do you have a style in mind? The gravel patio would...

Improving now with a lot more colour.