Martin's New Garden

Could do both daffodils and alliums... what variety do you suggest, Scarlet? I have some chives I could relocate...

I've several different ones but you can't go far wrong with the bog standard purple sensation...I under planted roses in one border
with salvia caradonna - TMTT seeds, and alliums. I loved it last year.

I think the purples are more reliable than the whites/pinks

Thanks Scarlet. Nice ideas!

Today I dug over the first of my two veggie patches and planted potatoes! I've got 5 short rows of 7 tubers. 14 Nicola, 14 Kestrel and 7 saved Charlottes that don't seem to want to chit but seem to be alive. There's space in the patch for some more veggies later on, probably salads.

   

Elsewhere, I tidied up the narrow bed beside the greenhouse and planted some Aquilegias that I sowed last summer. These are from a packet of mixed seeds, so I'm curious to see what sort of blend of colours appears in a month or two.

   

I tidied up the embryonic rose garden this afternoon, too. Now that I've cut back the hedges it was annoying me that the left edge of the bed wasn't straight, so I've now re-cut it so that it aligns with the edge of the greenhouse. I've interplanted the roses with spent crocus, snowdrops and tete-a-tete daffs.

   

A bunch of snowdrops in-the-green arrived in the post today, so I've planted out small clumps in between the roses in the front garden. It's a start, anyway.

   

The next jobs are to dig veggie patch 2 and to get the new lawn area ready for seeding. Let's hope for some reasonable spring weather as we approach the equinox.

Razor sharp edges...please can you come and lend a hand here

Razor sharp edges...please can you come and lend a hand here

P would be in heaven with those  edges and tidy gh like that

You know, I'd completely forgotten about this thread. It can't be an age thing, because I'm still young. Anyway, Mrs H reminded me about it this morning, so I took some photos.

It's been just over a year! So let's dive straight in...

Veg bed no. 1 wasn't great last year, only the runner beans did well. So I've given it a proper digging over with fertilizerand a generous mulch of rough home-made compost. I've sown a row of early carrots under the mesh, planted five rows of potatoes and a few lettuces. Later on there will be sweet corn. In the foreground of the picture there's some wigwams for climbing french beans and sweet peas a bit later.

   

Veg bed no. 2 was OK last year, I got some nice sweet corn and some other bits and pieces. I had a row of sweet peas along the hedge, that space now has a couple of thornless blackberries (Loch Ness). There's a row of autumn rasps (Joan J) in the foreground. The netting at the back is there ready for a few brassicas, I've got some summer cabbage and kohlrabi started in the greenhouse. I've also put some branches in as the start of a runner bean wigwam.
Later on there will be strawberries on the left (next to the lawn) and some more salady bits further back.

   

In that picture you can also see where I've cut away some of the stacked turf. I've seived this and spread it on the lawn where the birds have spent the winter digging up chafer grubs. I put fresh seed there last week and covered it as best I could with spare netting. The birds are still digging up the lawn round the edges of the netting, so I'll have more re-seeding to do later this spring; but we've recently acquired a couple of cats, that will slow the blighters down a bit. Here's what the lawn looks like just now...

   

The Aquilegias in the narrow bed by the greenhouse did well last year and look as if they could be even better this year:

   

The rose garden was really nice last year. I'm hoping for even better things this year, now that the plants are well established. But I will almost certainly need to replace the Dahlias that I put in to complement them; I think the early hard frosts will have done them in. I'm also hoping the apple tree in the middle (Braeburn) will produce something this year too.

   

My pear tree (conference) seems to have established nicely and has some big fat flower buds on it. I've got my fingers crossed that the flowers don't open until the frosts forecast for the next few days have passed.

   

What else? Well, the summer raspberries (Glen Ample) look OK. I left just one strong cane per plant so as not to stress them too much in their first growing season. That pile of dead stuff between them and the compost bins has gone now, I shredded it this afternoon after taking the picture...

   

More pictures in the next post...

Here's a few more pictures of my back garden.

The established Rhododendrons that I inherited are much happier now that the trees which were smothering them have been removed. I've planted a white one to keep them company, along with a variety of herbaceous stuff. The Pieris (foreground of this picture) also seems to appreciate the extra light.

   

Down the bottom of the garden, I've not done much yet apart from taking out some weedy apples that were totally overshadowed by the big apple tree, but I have managed to keep on top of the nettles and brambles. Since I took the picture this morning, I got on a ladder and removed a few of the lower branches of the big tree. I want to be able to walk around easily and let enough light in to grow some shade-loving plants among the Spanish bluebells. At the moment it's only bluebells and creeping buttercups. I also want to dig a wildlife pond in the sunniest part (to the right as we look here).

   

Back towards the house, the East-facing bed by the hedge is a bit tidier than it was last year. The hedge itself has also recovered well from the savaging it received last spring, it's just starting to come into leaf now.

   

The semicircular bed closest to the house is starting to look colourful, as the wallflowers come into flower to complement the daffodils and Polyanthus:

   

The front garden is looking tidy too. The rose hedge established well and the snowdrops emerged to give us some blooms early in the year.We got someone to move a gatepost so I could widen the drive last year, but we haven't yet found anyone to re-pave the drive. I've thrown some spare slabs down so I could park on it, leaving grass in between. It's serviceable but scruffy. I dug a new bed along the edge of the drive and planted herbaceous things that were on hand. I'll probably widen it at some point when I've decided what to grow there.

   

Finally, the pots of spring flowers I planted up in the autumn look nice enough to distract the eye from our scruffy front porch!

   

That's it for now. I'll try and remember this thread in the summer, but no promises!

Great photos, Martin. I've been looking back through this thread and trying to compare the old with the new. You've done so much.
Just one thing worrying me - where's Colin and his little friend?

The boys have had a bit of a falling out, but otherwise they are fine.

Colin is in his usual spot, watching and waiting for the potatoes to break through.

   

Nelson is up by the rose garden among the violets, staying out of trouble.

   

I'm hoping they will kiss and make up at some point this year. Watch this space.