Hello from Consett

Barry, 1000 ft up in the foothill of the Pennines thanks for accepting me. Fairly recently downsized into a new Bungalow from a large house with an equally large garden which was becoming too much. New garden is a blank canvas and is reasonably large for a new build. Being on a corner we are hopeful that we may be able to add an adjacent similar sized plot to ours once the present crisis is over, I intend this to be planted as a wild flower meadow.

I'm keen on gardening but not always confident in some aspects of it and would like to use the forum for advice when I struggle. After 28 years of looking after a large mature garden I find myself needing to plan from scratch a new garden and I'm sure I'm going to need plenty of advice.

Thanks again
Barry

 

Hi @BarryC

 

First thing I would be wanting to get sure about was whether the builders were unscrupulous and buried all their rubble in the garden ... 'coz if they have done that it will never make a garden, will most likely have major drainage problems in wet weather, and "now" would be the time to get them back to sort that out

If I ever have to downsize I'll be making an "exotic" garden, stuffed with green leaves / architectural plants.

 

Welcome to GC Barry.

 

Thanks for the welcome all. They are nice houses and good local builders but like all things these days I'm sure it's not going to be that straight forward. The houses are built on concrete rafts and the ground has been rolled into 'submission' hopefully the gardens not so much but I'm going to have to add a lot organic stuff either way. There is a reasonable layer of topsoil but I don't think it's up to that much The drainage doesn't seem too bad, there has been a bit of surface water in some parts but it soon drains despite the amount of rain we've had this winter.

My first query would be a question about a small hedge I'm thinking of putting in the front garden just in front of the house, can someone please advise into which part of the Forum I'd be best posting my query.

Thanks again for the welcome
Barry

 

Barry, blank canvas eh can be a bit daunting but at least everything in the garden is your own work / ideas and your plant choices. Where abouts in the Pennines ( roughly ) are you ? I may play out on the bike around your area.

 

Welcome to the forum!

 

A useful test is to dig a hole (so called "trial pit"), fill it full of water, and see how long it takes to drain away.

There will be some info somewhere on T'Internet as to "how long" is good/bad/indifferent.

I find the Paving Expert (sic) website has good info on Drainage

Drainage - Soakaways

 

Thanks for the advice ARMANDII I shall do that when I get sorted.
Barry

 

Hi Perki thanks for the welcome. I'm from Consett, NW Durham on the border of Durham and Northumberland. I've a friend who is a really good landscaper, he did a bit of work for us in our old garden and he's really good but he's a bugger to pin down!! I basically just need a plan of the hard landscaping we want and was going to take my time developing the planting etc now that I'm retired. However we are also in the process of buying a good size plot on the side of our corner plot and I don't really want to start until that's sorted.

 

Yup. I preferred the old site ...