Gardening

[Harrison]

I know I'm getting old when I ask this question. Is anyone else into gardening?

Where I used to live it was a new build with a small garden. We had shrubs and a few trees that we kept tidy. And would plant a few tulips, geraniums and lilies in pots. But that was about all.

We even shared an allotment with a couple of friends for 2 years and grew quite a few vegetables. It was hard work clearing and keeping it weeded and watered, as it was a long way from the house, so we had to drive there.

Anyway, we when we moved at the end of 2015 to the house we are in now it has a massive garden that totals 1/3 acre in total. We bought the house from an elderly couple in their 80s. You could see they loved gardening, but could no longer manage it. There were a lot of nice well estabished plants, but everything was overgrown and a mess. Lots of brambles and stinging nettles everywhere. And things like self seeding Budleigh in strange places.

The first couple of years was mainly clearing, weeding, digging up and removing roots. Then I started to really get into gardening. My mother-in-law is very knowledgeable about plants. Her father was the head gardener of a large estate in West Sussex called Stopham, so she grew up gaining knowledge about gardening. We moved her closer to us in 2018 and I started to do the garden in her bungalow for her. I've learnt a lot about plants as she buys a lot and it's me that has to plant and look after them.

Anyway because I started to gain knowledge and took an interest, I started to get favourite plants and began buying and collecting them for my garden. It gets very addictive.

I was still clearing and doing more hard landscaping until 2 years ago. We had a big new patio installed, then I could start to really get going with the actual planting. It's all started to come together in the top garden last year and started to look really good this year.

My favouite plants are all hardy perennials because I think it's far better to buy more expensive plants that live many years once estabished. Rather than buying annuals you throw away every year. Although I do add a few.

My favourite plants are all types of Salvia. I discovered these when my mother-in-law bought a few and gave me half of them. They are great plants and flower for over 6 months, and you can get some hardy ones. And they are fairly easy to take cuttings to get more.

My other favouite are Hydrangeas. Especially a type called lace caps. Ive owned one for years in a pot that has dark green leaves and dark purple flowers with white centres. That finally got planted this year and has already thanked me by growing a lot. I also discovered you could get a climbing variety but they were expensive everywhere. Then we discovered a growers nursary not far away that have a lot of different plants at great prices, and very knowledgeable owners. And they had climbing Hydrangeas for £8. I've started growing this up the side of one of my sheds to hide it from the house, but I discovered this one plant can end up growing 60m x 55m. So I need to keep it trimmed! I've added quite few others to the garden to. Another favourite this year is a white mophead hydrangea that starts off with large round green flowerheads earlier in the year, then turn white over sumner, and then gain a pink tingle into autumn.

As you can probably guess, I'm now quite into gardening. I grow a lot of fruit and veg now too. Had a really good chilli crop this year. And have 7 apple trees, pear trees and some other fruit trees I've only just planted. Plus I get loads of loganberries, redcurrants and blackcurrants I turn into jam.

And with the flower planting I watch gardener's world and they featured a garden at the Chelsea flower show that I just loved, and I found a site that listed the plants. So last year and this year I managed to find a lot of them and created my own version. It has an orange, purple and white colour scheme, which I think is a great combination. And includes tall purple salva Amistad and orage tangerine geums. Plus lots of other purple, dark magenta/pink and white flowering plants. And as its a semi shade side of the garden I also added ferns and other shade loving plants such as Astilbes.

I've also planted loads of lavender and herbs.

Furure plans include a different flower border next to the garden studio. The fence at the back of the garden is visible at the back of that border, so we already had the idea of planting a hedge and have managed to buy some big red robin trees/shrubs where their new growth turns red and looked great. Planting them is a job for this coming week if the weather is nice.

Another future plan I have is to create a Japanese garden. I love Japanese trees such as Acers, Maples and cherry and want to create a secluded garden tucked away in the bottom corner of the bottom garden. I might make it a water garden with a small koi pond, but not decided yet.

I'm also planning on making a vegitable garden with raised beds and gravel paths. There is a big area in my bottom garden that gets a lot of sun and would be ideal, but it's one of the large areas I've not cleared properly yet. There are a lot if stinging nettles and bind weed. That's a project I want to start this winter when thr weeds have all died down.

Problem with owning a large garden is you know it looks great when you put the work in, but it's having the time and motivation. It's also addictive buying plants and creating new areas in the garden.

I've become my dad! I watch gardening programs and read gardening magazines. And probably spend more time in the garden these days then I do on a computer or gaming.