Bernard and Peggy's little bit of England
By bernard
8 comments
We bought this property about a year ago and had a considerable amount of building work carried out to adapt it to our needs. The garden presented a big challenge. Apart from the more formal bit in the vicinity of the bungalow with lawns and shrub borders there is an area of woodland which, together with the rest of the garden, had been allowed to go to wrack and ruin due to the prolonged ill health of the previous owner. The dominant trees in the woodland were Hazels that had been pollarded and then left to their own devices which actually made it quite hard to walk around, so they had to go. Once this was done and a few other sickly trees and shrubs were removed we were treated to a super display last spring of daffodils (several varieties) blubells, crocuses, winter aconites, snowdrops and goodness knows what else. The woodland was infested with ivy, underground and growing up trees, brambles, ground elder, nettles, thistles etc, but I felt I shouldn’t do a general clearance in case I chucked out the good with the bad. So I embarked on a hands and knees selective weeding, getting rid of the obvious villains and leaving anything I wasn’t sure of. My reward has been the appearance of all sorts of wildflowers and shrubs which I had never seen before and the help I have had from the members of GrowsonYou has been absolutely invaluable and I am so grateful. As the garden and woodland develops, I hope to post some photographs for your interest.
4 Sep, 2008
8 likes
Next post: Woodland garden
Comments
You did absolutely the right thing there, Bernard. You've found some gems already! Yes, please, we'd love to have a look.
4 Sep, 2008
How lovely to uncover your garden and find all sorts of treasures you didn,t know you had , very rewarding after all your hard luck .
Looking forward to your pics. to see what you are doing with it .
good luck
4 Sep, 2008
sounds like youve hit the jackpot there so you cant not show us, please.
4 Sep, 2008
yeah, we want pictures.... : )
Gail x
5 Sep, 2008
Sounds like you have your work cut out for you. Glad to see you're selective about what you yank out. Looking forward to pictures.
6 Sep, 2008
Pictures...we need pictures :) lol
9 Sep, 2008
After looking at yet another 'what is it?' question from you, I wondered how you came to have so many unknown palnts in your garden. Now I know! How lucky to get a garden with so many surprises in it. I so relate to your technique of only removing what you know is 'bad'. Even the most unpromising seedlings and 'remains' can turn into something special. There are lots of wild flowers that many 'tidy gardeners would consider weeds, but can look wonderful in a wild garden. My own plot is tiny, but I never pull anything out until I'm sure I don't want it. I particularly like my self-seeded hypericums and Jacobs ladder (can't remember its name) -oh and aquilegia.
Your latest mystery (26 Sept)has me foxed. but don't despair, someone will come up with an answer.
I echo the request for some pics.
26 Sep, 2008
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Thanks for telling us about your garden. So many people just clear everything away without a thought. They don't realise what they could be missing. It will be interesting to see photos of it.
All the best, Hywel.
4 Sep, 2008