By Trish010801
Kent,
United Kingdom 
Hi there.
I am new to all this gardening stuff and as I just bought my own house with a nice size garden I am keen to garden and fill the front and rear with lots of lovely plants. There is just one problem...EVERYTHING I plant dies! I have erected a trellis as I bought an evergreen honeysuckle three weeks ago. That lasted no more than three days before it started to die. my mission is to cover an unsightly soil stack at the front of my house. The front garden is West facing.I have block paving where I need the plant to be. So what I did with the honeysuckle was to plant it in a liner inside an old chimney pot (I did put drainage holes in the liner). I used the chimney pot as this is the widest thing I can have, as the space I am filling is limited by a wall and the front door. I did mix some growmore in the compost at the time of planting.l have just bought a passion flower as this is my favourite flower but I am now hesitant to plant it in place of the honeysuckle incase I kill that too! Can anyone please tell me how to get green fingers! Will my passion flower be ok in the chimney pot in this position or should I plant something else? Any ideas to cover my stack? Am seriously thinking about buying an artificial plant aklthough I dont want to do this but am tired now of killing anything I touch! Please, please can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong and what best to do?! Most appreciate any advice!!
Thanks. Trish
11 Jun, 2011
Answers
Honeysuckle and passion flowers are both big growers and a chimney pot will probably not be big enough for them. Perhaps you could grow them in the back garden instead if you really want them.
Or perhaps you could lift one of the paving stones, dig out all the soil to at least a spades depth and replace it with good John Innes compost - you would need a soil based compost rather than one used for tubs etc. As anything planted there would be rather too near the wall you should also incorporate some gel crystals to help retain moisture. Honeysuckle should do well in a west facing position but it does need enough root room.
When you say evergreen honeysuckle, I'm assuming you don't mean lonicera nitida, which is a bush, not a climber.
It is hard to visualise your soil stack so please add a photo.
Green fingers is largely a matter of soil preparation, suiting the plant to the position and keeping your eye on things every day.
12 Jun, 2011
Thank you.
I have now potted a passion flower in a small pot and have left it in the position I want it to be, and keeping an eye on it- if it likes it there I will re pot it for good once it is bigger.. My front is block paved and so dont want to mess with lifting the blocks. The site I want my pklant to be is over the drains and this is why I need a pot, as I dont want any roots interfering with the drain run! thankyou for your answers, fingers crossed this one lives!!
13 Jun, 2011
Weight on Old/shallow drains can also cause problems
13 Jun, 2011
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Welcome to Goy I am sure like the rest of us you will overcome these teething problems. Difficult to understand what exactly the problem is? A couple of photos would help get you better input from us, is there any chance?
12 Jun, 2011