Starting to tackle the garden.

I decided that I've got to do something with the front garden. We've lived in the house for 8 years and in that time I've planted a few shrubs (replacing some that were killed by local kids footballs) and cut the grass.

So yesterday I decided to cut the cistus (3 large plants i've since looked up online and they would grow pretty large). I'm glad I did actually as lots of the plant was dead wood only one or two branches were actually growing even though it had a lot of green all over it. They've been growing into the 3 hebes so I've got strange shaped hebes at the moment. Could I cut the hebes back and they'd grow or do I dig them out as well?

This is what it looked like in July but it had grown since then. It looked okay but the other plants that were there the cictus had grown over and killed off. Plus if you moved the green a little you could see all the way to the ground, after asking on the forums about pruning it I decided it had to come out. As you can see it's squashed the hebes.



The area I've started on is 2.4m x 1.2m. It's not a large area, it's against the front of the house (the front of the house faces east). I don't know what to put into the area so any suggestions would be great. I need things that are colourful, don't grow huge as it's a small area. I'm open to all and any suggestions as I'm new to gardening (especially if it's something different looking), if the soil is like the bit's I've had to dig then it'll be a few inches of top soil followed by some builders rubble then solid clay, lol.

 

HI Katherna,

You can take the hebes back, they may even correct themselves without pruning now they have room, but take all the sticky out lumps and they will be fine. You could think about some tall flowering grasses-that way there would be impact without too much space being taken up at ground level. If you like the blousy type of flowers the hibiscus can have quite an impact too.


I bet it already looks miles better for taking the bully out.

 

I'm going to see if the hebes start to recover now they've got some light on both sides, I've cleared away all the old leaves as there was some sort of toadstool or mushroom things up this morning, I've also found 2 varigated ( I remember that they were varigated from when we first moved in although now they're pretty much green all over) plants, might need some help in naming them at some point, 1 drain cover! seriously 1 of the cistus was planted like 6' away from it, 2 bricks that I'll have to dig out and possibly 3000000000000 crisp bags that have blown in. So far 1/2 the soil is bone dry and 1/2 is very very wet. (the wet is where the old leaves were along with crisp bags etc

I'll leave it for a few days and see how it dries out or not, then I'll get busy with the spade/fork/pickaxe depending on what it's like underneath the top soil, I've still got to dig out the roots, don't worry I'll take care around the drain cover.

It looks a lot better now, allbeit a little bare now they've gone, but at least I can put in something that going to look nice.

 

Id dig up the hebes and start afresh.

 

I am looking at your red brick building and would play off that color. There are some very, very slow growing conifers in light to medium blue I would consider. Then a varigated box woods flanking the sides. You can tuck in some coral bells for extra color and some day lilies.
Thats I believe enough.

 

Ohhh I've got some day lillies in a pot in the back garden, they'd been growing in a carrier bag for 2 years at my mums - I said I'd have them and then completely forgot about them, lol, until this year, they didn't flower but then again there wasn't much of them left when I planted them. They have a nice redish coloured flower on them when they do flower.

 

Hi Katherna,

Day lilies are notorious for not flowering-usually because they need dividing. I split mine into clumps of about two or three and that usually does the job-but not always.

 

If I were you Id dig them all out and put some colourful flowers in there. But thats just my opinion.:D 02

 

Heehee, I want something in there thats evergreen as well, so it's not boring in the winter. I have thought about getting some bulbs to put in as well, but I don't know what plants would do well in the bed. It gets morning sunlight, then goes into shade for the afternoon.

 

What about some coloured ferns?

 

It looks like from the picture that there is to much sun for ferns, and now I am wondering about the coral bells who like it more shady.

 

After further consideration I would consider a study in conifers. You did state earlier that you had lived there 8 years and now time to do something, I take that as a need for low maintance plantings. There are some conifers which are slow growers and of interesting colors, blues, yellows and mint greens as well as dark greens, and some with spike needles, and soft fringe type. You could use the lilies as side fringes. Check out some books, and on line for your zone. When in place you should not need to do much work except watch them grow and a good layer of mulch every two years. Oh yes cut back the lilies before fall. Thats all I have. Have fun.

 

Thanks for your suggestions guys. Well I've dug out the roots most came out with a little help of the fork and a tug. I noticed that the roots were still pot shaped! The most suprising thing of all was that the soil was actually soil - no builders rubble, no clay (well for the depth of a spade as I had a toddler helping I wasn't going to dig it any further down).

I've also got to find out what the varigated plant in there is, if it's anything like the rest of the plants and shrubs that were in the garden it'll have a 10' x 10' spread, lol, the 'landscapers' (and I say that very loosely) seemed to think that the biggest and tallest growing plants should be put closest to the lawn and the smaller, slower gorwing ones should be in the most akward to reach places. They also placed plants 8" apart - cotoneasters, bush honeysuckle, and some others that died within weeks of us moving in (eventhough I watered them). I'm sure they bought too many plants and then just stuffed the ones that were left into my garden as nobody else had plants so close together.

The patch gets sun until about 11ish in the summer and then buildings shade it until the next day. I'm also on the coast so I get salty winds as well as the normal ones (well my windows do anyway). My mum is going to give me some of the geraniums she's got in her garden (the pink ones) to put at the edge by the path, as they come back each year and will give some colour. I'm still undecided about the rest of the patch.

Lollipop - with the day lillies it's probably neglect thats stopped them from flowering, they were bare rooted and sat in a carrier bag, they have grown new shoots since I planted them into the big pot though, so hopefully they'll get some flowers on next year. I wasn't actually expecting them to grow - I'm usually better at killing plants than growing them.

redstar - I'll remember to cut them down before the weather starts to turn

 

Looking forward to hearing what you decide. I remember digging out this one huge shrub, had to get the car and pull out the roots with a chain.

 

Holy moley Red! That was a seriously established plant.

Have you any pics of your own garden? It would be very interesting to see how it does across the pond.