colourful plants & a greenhouse....

Hi All,

I'm back again and ready to write a little bit more on this years jobs within my garden project and tell you about any current visiting wildlife. Thanks for the responses to the last post and a big thank you to Marion who Identified the picture of a butterfly which I posted as a Large Skipper, it's always nice to know what's visiting so that I can workout if certain habitats which I've tried to create are actually working or not!

Still very overwhelming is the large amount of followers from different corners of the world (literally!!) thanks for logging in and following this little bit of Somerset here in Britain it is appreciated!

So what have I been up to in the last couple of weeks? Well to be completely honest not a great deal! Unfortunately the whole family has been down with this nasty cold/cough/chest infection bug which has been doing the rounds recently, this combined with the wet weather has prevented me from doing anything too 'taxing' in the garden! The only thing that I have completed is the purchase and erection of a new greenhouse.
My thoughts on a site for the greenhouse were that it needed to be out of the way but not tucked into a corner right at the bottom of the garden, where getting to it becomes a chore. Having my workshop and tool shed near the top of the garden but along the left-hand fence line meant incorporating the greenhouse in this area was the most logical solution. This would keep all the 'working' parts of the garden (my HQ) together for easy access. To disguise the structure a little but make a bit of a feature out of it I planned to use trellis panels around it to create a contained area combined with the tools shed and of course more growing space for climbers!

Maybe not my most interesting project but in true 'Higgy' fashion here it is in pictures....

So here is the proposed site behind the tool shed and raised tropical border. As you can see this area has been a bit of a dumping ground for me and I think used to propagate horse tail weeds by the previous owners!!! 

   As with just about every project in this garden eliminating and preventing horse tail weed growth is generally at centre stage! This project was no different and after the footings were dug a layer of strong weed membrane was used before filling with the old recycled bricks from the feature rockery site.

This hardcore was smashed up with a sledge hammer and then covered with 'chippings to dust'  to create an even and level base for the greenhouse base.

I got a great 'package' deal on a greenhouse (details below) which included a 4 inch base which the greenhouse fixes down onto. I cemented this base in place to make it solid and secure. At this stage it is very important to use a spirit level to ensure that the base is level, also measure corner-corner to ensure that it is square also. Doing this will mean a nice easy and accurate fit of the greenhouse onto the base.

 I then added extra cement in the corners and levelled the ground inside the greenhouse with further 'chippings to dust'

The greenhouse is then assembled as per instructions and fixed onto the base. I then levelled and landscaped the area around the greenhouse and shed to create some space, tidy it up and make a few more planting areas! 

I used some "free to collector" breeze blocks to build a little planting pocket and landscaped behind the greenhouse with rocks which a friend was disposing of.

To allow for some pictures of flowers currently out in the garden I am going to leave this project here and write some more next time when we will put up the trellis panels and finish off.

So here we are then what's out in flower at the moment in Higgy's garden?.....

Japanese anemone

I have a vast selection of irises which I am attempting to grow near the stream/bridge areas

Lysimachia Punctata (yellow loosetrife)

Astrantia (bees love this!)

Day Lilly

Anemone (I currently have different varieties out all grown from seed)

As the hour is now getting late and I have an early start in the morning I will have to leave it there for now unfortunately. I hope to post again soon where you will see the completion of the greenhouse area, some more flowering plants and I thing a well overdue look at my feathered friends.

Many thanks for reading, I do hope that you are enjoying my scribblings and the subjects interesting and varied?....Let me know what you think?.....

Higgy

Gardening for wildlife....

Hello All,

Firstly apologies as my intentions to add more posts didn't happen last month as promised due to the amount of jobs in the garden which have needed attention and the little spare time that I get.

Despite ill health knocking me back a bit during June and my realisation that some 'heavy' jobs now need to be delayed or require assistance, I have got a little done such as, prepare an area for and erect a greenhouse, which means that I will now be able to bring on so many more plants (hooray!!), complete the feature rockery and get a few more plants in....

Before I show you the results of the feature rockery I wanted to share with you something which was on my initial 'wish list/plan' for the garden and I hope you will agree is slowly proving a success?....Number eight on my list was.....


"8. Encourage wildlife in the garden"


As usual to save space and relay more information here in pictures are the results so far of the wild-flower lawn area and the wildlife that it has attracted.....

Here are a couple of pictures looking through the wild'flower lawn area and you can see plenty of colour, including...

Corn Cockle....

Corn Marigold....

Corn Flowers and I have these in blue, white and an interesting variety which is purple almost black!

There are other flowers and plants within this meadow area but too many to list on here. If you would like to find out in more detail about these plants please to contact me and I will be more than happy to email you with further details/pictures etc...

Right then what creatures have made this area the 'in' place to be seen this year?....

Lady birds have been showing in huge numbers in the garden which is really pleasing as they will help me naturally control all the bugs!

Oedermera Nobilis (thick legged flower beetle) I had never seen one of these before this year and now have lots in this area where they particularly like to feed on the pollen of the corn marigolds

Bees and hover-flies of many different types visit regularly and I will do a feature about these at another time once I've managed to identify them all!!!

Again as with bees and hover-flies, many different species of butterfly visit and I will try and cover them all as the season goes on but here are three recent visitors... 

A Painted Lady

A Ringlet (female)

Now I would guess a Skipper of sorts, but I not sure which species....let me know if you can ID this one please?....

A couple of caterpillars which again I haven't yet identified....let me know??

Finally a (not so good) picture of a Grass Hopper. 

Obviously these are pictures of only a tiny proportion of the insects that I have been fortunate to attract to this area of the garden this year and there are just too many to include in one post. I will write further posts about specific insect types and these will include butterflies & moths, Bees & hoverflies. I'm also hopeful of attracting other wildlife into my small plot and have further projects planned to encourage just that....watch this space!!....

Finally on the wildlife front here is one of my natural slug controllers!!..... 

Meet Tommy Toad, my natural slug controller!! Here sat between the shed and the cold frame where he has been guarding my seedlings from hungry slugs and snails (good lad!!)

Well that's about it for now folks except to leave you with a picture of the feature rockery as it is now....planted and making a nice entry to the area behind the pond which is still awaiting landscaping!!...

As always many thanks for reading and following my blog. I appreciate your nice comments and always answer ALL comments sent so please keep them coming? Thanks to Thomas for his question about my colourful borders, it's nice to know that you are keen to try some of my ideas and I hope that my 'long winded' answer was ok and gives you the necessary information to have a go?

Keep the questions coming and I will look to post again really soon, including some of the plants currently flowering in Higgy's garden as a bit of a change from the hard landscaping.

Cheers

Higgy