Starting a "natural garden" - help please!

Hi to you all

I'm not at all a gardener, but am keen to learn and put in the time. We have a small back garden area (about 10m x 8m) that has been owned by guinea pigs and climbing frames for the last several years but is now unoccupied. I'd love to turn it into an area appealing to birds, bees, butterflies, bugs, etc. I'd like it to look natural rather than manicured.

Reading other threads I can see I need to find out the pH of the soil. But where do I go from there? Some plants presumably thrive in wetter or drier soils but which are right for mine? What would be a suitable mix given the space I've got and the things I'm trying to achieve?

There seem to be plenty of books out there but are there one or two brilliant ones that would give me what I need?

Any advice gratefully received.

thanks
Gavin.

 

Hi Gavin - welcome.

It's easy to work out whether your soil is 'dry' or 'wet'. First of all look at it after it's rained or you've watered - that might seem to be stating the ruddy obvious, but once it's damp, grab a handful and squeeze it in your fist then open your hand.

If it sticks together in big solid lump and, when you rub a bit between your fingers, it feels 'greasy', then you've got a clay or heavy soil, which will usually be of the wetter variety. Clay soil is good because it holds nutrients well but it can be a swine to work with, solid as a rock in summer, thick, heavy, waterlogged and dratted hard work when it's wet in winter. The less you walk on it when wet, the better. You can improve clay soil by adding lots of organic matter to break it down.

If your handful of damp soil crumbles if you so much as look at it, and feels gritty, then it's a 'dry' or light sandy soil. This type is much easier to work but doesn't hold nutrients so you'd probably have to water more frequently and improve it's nutrient retaining properties too - again with lots of organic matter.

Of course, what you're really after (aren't we all) is something in the middle!

Once you know your soil's pH and it's type - then (if you don't really know what plants you want) it's just a matter of either looking at the pictures in books, or on 'the net', under something like 'wildlife gardens'; 'wildlife friendly plants' or have a look somewhere like this: http://www.letsgogardening.co.uk/Wildlife/WiPlants.htm where you'll find loads of suggestions (with pictures) and next to each plant, which wildlife it attracts. Make a note of the ones you like, check out what conditions they prefer against what conditions you have and, when you've got your list ... plant 'em.

Buddleia is nearly always the first plant (shrub) one thinks of, but if you want really informal - take a look at this
http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/basics/techniques/organic_meadow1.shtml which is just one suggestion for making a meadow type garden.

 

Hi - thanks for this advice. It's a whole new world for me so I'm grateful for your patience and help

regards
Gavin.

 

You're very welcome. No-one knows it all -a quick look here proves we're all still learning. Just look at it this way, if you can dig a hole you're well on your way to being a gardener! :hehe:

 

Hi again - so now I know my soil is alkaline and therefore likely to be low in nutrients. I've currently got a concrete path bisecting the garden so as my next step I'm borrowing a friends sledgehammer next week to remove this.

Should I be removing all of the turf and working in nutrients at this time also? And if so should I leave it alone for weeks or months until I plant? Or does the current turf have a role to play in the future.

The garden is about 10m wide by 6m long which in one way is quite small but equally to fill it will take quite a few plants so I'm a little unsure about how to plan it. I've seen the advice on 3s, 5s, 7s, etc and whilst avoiding maxxing out my credit card at garden centres! Is it just as simple as buying relevant plants in 3s, etc, planting them, filling up all of the available space and seeing how it turns out a year or two later and changing what doesn't seem to have worked? I guess the number of plants depends on how closely they like being planted.

thanks again
Gavin.

 

Sorry I didn't reply sooner - no excuse, just busy. By now I'm guessing you'll have had your session with the sledgehammer (and the masseur? :hehe.

It depends on what type of 'natural' garden you're hoping to achieve as to what you do with the turf. You could remove it (more on that in a minute), or you could just lift bits here and there, plant spring bulbs in the soil beneath and replace the turf over the top - this will give you some ideas ... http://gardening.about.com/od/floweringbulbs/a/Lawn_Bulbs.htm

If you're planning on getting shot of most of the grass there are several ways you can tackle it.

As winter's coming you could ...

a) dig down about 4" and turn over each spadeful of grass and just leave it to rot down over the winter. It won't be very pretty to look at and probably not all the grass will die, but it can save you a lot of work and, as the grass dies it will help to add nutrient to the soil.

b) you could 'slice' off the top layer of grass, remove the 'pseudo-turfs' and heap them up somewhere, grass side down (possibly where you'll eventually have a compost heap) and allow them to rot down over winter. Again, it might not all have rotted off by Spring, but eventually it'll make you some useful compost.

c) alternatively, what I've done in the past, particularly if you're working only a smallish area at the time, is to wait until it's fairly dry then 'slice' off the grass, knock the dry soil off the bottom of the clod back onto where the 'border' will be and deal with the remaining grass as at b) above. In an ideal world, you should really dig in some compost (bought if you must) or some well rotted manure (just make sure it is well rotted because 'fresh' and it can burn plant roots), but basically you'll be able to plant something straight away.

Now that you've got bare earth - give it a good dig over, remove any lumps of grass root and, if you've got it, dig in compost. Again, there's no reason why you shouldn't plant 'straight away' - but, as it's getting late in the year, have a look on the net for suggestions of what to plant now. You might be advised to wait until Spring (on the up-side, winter frost will help break down the soil for you). If you spread compost or manure on the garden now, the worms and weather etc., will drag a lot of it into the soil over the winter for you - needing only a light fork over come Spring.

As for your actual plants - if you want a 'natural' garden, then from a very personal point of view, I wouldn't worry about '.. how to plan it..' The obvious thing to do would be have tall stuff at the back, shortest at the front - but then my garden is a happy 'higgledy-piggledy' mix with small things hiding amongst the taller ones - mainly because I buy a plant I like, stick it in where there's a hole then steadfastly maintain it was 'meant to be like that'!!

Which plants to grow is of course, a matter of what you like and what will grow in your particular type of soil. Purists will tell you to plant in odd numbers, yes, or in 'drifts' of different colours and usually they'll suggest having bright, vibrant colours nearer to the house with blues and greys etc., further away (it's all to do with perspective and making the garden look bigger). Me? I just plant what I like, where I like, so I have bright splashes of orange crocosmia all over the place, 'frondy' stuff like pink and white gaura and blue linum ... wherever.

As for the credit card issue, my 'top tips' would be...

1 Look at the height and spread details on the plant labels, if the eventual spread is 2' then you'd be best advised to plant 3 of the same thing at least 2' apart (fill in between with annual bedding plants until the other stuff gets established - bedding plants can often be bought silly cheap).

2 Buy things you can take cuttings from and propagate your own plants. I'll often choose a plant, not because it's necessarily in flower when I buy it, but because it's got lots of nice growing tips for propagation.

3 Make lots of trips to places like Homebase, B & Q, Wilko and of course your garden centre specifically to look in what I call 'casualty corner'. There's nearly always something reduced but unless it's very seriously dead, there's usually nothing that can't be revived by repotting and a bit of TLC.

4 Until your garden is established, don't under-estimate annuals. Cosmos is a great favourite of mine - makes a big plant to fill a hole quickly and has lots and lots of flowers throughout the summer.

5 Smile sweetly at your rellies, friends and neighbours. Gardeners are usually generous people, often they'll happily 'dig you up a bit', give you some cuttings or left-over plants. Even if it's not your plant of choice, it can fill a hole for a while. Try WI sales, farmer's markets, boot fairs. I have, on occasion, been known to see someone in their garden, stop, chat, make complimentary and 'I'd love to grow that, can you give me some tips?' type remarks and come away with some in a pot or a cutting.

I've just looked at the length of the this post. Maybe I should just stop talking now (:yez so I will! Hope it helps.

 

Wow thanks Fidgetsmum - I'm actually quite excitedly looking ahead to getting to work on the garden now I've got a clue about what I should be doing. Sledgehammer is this weekend! Removing all the little pebbles we inherited in the "borders" also if the weather holds up. I do have a good physio if I need it!

So I've gone from :flag:to :yho:in only 2 weeks - many thanks

regards
Gavin.

 

My pleasure mon ami!