So busy...landscaping, plum gravel & raised beds plus a few feathered friends!

Hello and welcome to another round of Higgy's blog.

What a busy couple of months it has been and I've hardly seemed to have the time to get on the computer let alone write another post on here! I have so much to write about and plenty of pictures that I think I could write half a dozen posts and probably still not bring you up to date!

With the ever increasing numbers of visitors we are getting to this blog I have felt under pressure to get something written again but I have so much to do outside! I am so grateful for all your support and as ever look forward to further correspondence with some of you via the comments and emails which I am sent, please do keep them coming as I am enjoying the banter and will always reply and help if I can.

Right then where do I start!...

Well to finish off the last post would probably be as good a place as any.... here are a few photos of the greenhouse project now, It's still not completely finished but is in place and functioning in as much as I have some tomatoes growing in it currently!

I used some of my 'free to collector' breeze blocks and paving slabs to make planting and standing places inside of the greenhouse. 

Once the greenhouse was up I used trellis panels between 3x3 fence posts to screen it and make a feature out of it. The arch way through connects it to the tropical raised bed and gives access to the 'working' area created between the greenhouse and tool shed. The trellis has already been planted with three different varieties of honeysuckles so next year this should soften it's appearance and create a nice fragrant area to work in.

Right that's the greenhouse done so the question is what did I move onto next?....

Well I've had so much interest about the development of the area behind the pond I felt obliged to start this!! I am just going to remind you of how it did look and then once I have brought you up to speed on my feathered visitors I will show you the start of this project.

So here is the space behind the pond in need of development....

Right then here are my recent feathered visitors....

As always the fields and garden are filled with gulls looking for a free meal!!...

My new Robin fledgling who greedily watched me unearthing worms whilst developing the area behind the pond where it found plenty of juicy morsels to feast on...

Not the greatest picture but taken at some distance, this kestrel and it's family nest nearby and can often be seen hunting across our field and hedgerow over the last couple of weeks I have watched the adult bird teaching the young to hunt before they finally fledge .

SPARROWS!!!...well my little flock of about a dozen has now grown to in excess of 30 birds! They are polishing off a full large seed feeder a day! Here's a few of them squabbling for the seeds!!

A young female sparrow taken some time out from the fun...

Now I have been privileged to have a family of Buzzards in the trees a few fields away from our garden, they can often be seen hunting along the hedge line at the bottom of the garden and out across the fields. So far I've been unable to get a 'good' shot in the garden but here is one of (HARRY!) flying low across the paddock.... 

I have much more to post in the form of garden visitors such as butterflies and insects but these will have to wait until next time!

So here we are then the moment which many of you have been waiting for the start of the area behind the pond! My initial thoughts were to go for a tropical feel with raised deck walkways but on reflection I didn't feel the space could quite carry it off. Having used plum slate around the new feature rockery I thought the use of it for a pathing material would tie everything together and give some continuity to the designs despite their differences. I have planned to use raised beds and this hasn't changed other than the type of material used which has changed from sleepers to bark edged boards, which came from here: http://www.fountaintimber.co.uk/gate-posts-sawn-timber/treated-gate-posts-and-sawn-timber/waney-edge-board.html 

As always here it is in pictures....

So just to remind you here is the area and the steps which I built as part of the feature rockery, which take you up behind the pond....

As you can see from both this and the above picture, I have had to dig out a good amount of soil to get the levels correct and deal with the Horse tail and bind weed which were deep rooted here...

As the design was quite fluid on this project I worked a small area at a time and worked from the front into the plot which really helped me see and feel where I wanted the features go. This was a difficult design as the space is quite small so a 'little as you go' strategy seemed the best solution, by adopting this approach anything which felt wrong was easily corrected without changing large amounts of work and effort!

Due to the horrendous Horse tail weed and the added nuisance of bindweed I again used weed control membrane following digging to help keep it at bay or at least make it manageable. 

The feature path was then marked out using round posts which the boards would eventually be fixed to and create a series of raised beds...By fixing in the bottom board I was able to use the plum slate to help me visualise the flow of the path and therefore the placement of the next posts....

With the posts sunk deep into the ground with my trusty sledge hammer I was then able to screw the boards onto the posts using good quality exterior timber screws. As well as the boards being screwed into the post they were also screwed into each other where possible to give plenty of strength and rigidity to the beds.

That is about as far as I will go with this project for now as it seems a good place to break from it. I will continue with this next time where I will tell you the compost mix I use to fill the beds, show you the planting ideas for this area and the beds and of course reinstate and finish the rockery at the front. This area has been quite a challenge to work and design as it is really a dead space which goes no where. I have had to make up some of the design as I have gone along which has been interesting. As this area has thrown up a lot of interest amongst many of you I would be keen to hear your views on how I have done so far? Please feel free to comment and send me a message and comment which I will answer and maybe discuss on my next posting!!

As always thanks for reading I do hope that you are all still finding my garden ramblings interesting and enjoying my little piece of Somerset as much as I am!?

Just before I go I couldn't not show you my 4yr old's new garden HQ where she proudly keeps all her gardening tools so they are at the ready for 'helping' me out....(I'm sure child friendly and interest was on my original wish list!!!)

Cheers

Higgy

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

Feature Rockery and my compost mix

Hello All,

As promised on my last posting I am writing this shortly afterwards to keep you all up to date of the current work on the feature rockery. This project is proving to be quite time consuming so my intention is to post a little on it a bit more often to try and cover it in as much detail as possible for you.

The area of the garden that I am currently working on is situated to the side of the pond and borders the sun patio where we often sit and eat outside. Getting this area right is important as it is central to the garden and seen in detail by visitors who will sit here with a cup of tea (always a brew going for friends at Higgy's!!)

As you would have seen in my last post the area was cleared following the erection of my new fence and I had already knocked down a retaining wall and dug away soil to create terracing ready for underlay and rocks. The reason why I am doing the groundwork like this is that we have a terrible problem with horsetail weed which having not been managed for many years has invaded the whole garden. For those of you who have never had the pleasure of this weed let's just say it's a nightmare and almost impossible to eradicate. My theory is to dig out as much of the soil (and therefore weed) as possible lay a weed membrane and back fill with new compost/soil. Incidentally my current compost mix which I have found really good and consistent is as follows:
1 x bag of Wickes 'top soil' (currently 5 x 25ltr bags for £13)
1 x bag of Wickes 'peat free compost' (currently 4 x 60ltr bags for £13)
half bag of Wickes 'multi purpose compost' (currently 4 x 75ltr bags for £13)
Wickes compost can be found here: http://www.wickes.co.uk/tools-compost+accessories/compost-turf+bark/icat/gdncompost/

Obviously if you were back filling a large area then this method would be very expensive so for more general bulk filling I use Dandy's compost  http://www.dandystopsoil.co.uk/?gclid=CJrxvo-lo6kCFQNP4QodhErpuA but have found that this is very soil based and therefore not so good for growing on young plants etc.

This week I have done a little more to the rockery and as usual will guide you through it with photographs so that you can watch this area develop:

The retaining wall has now gone to create more space and the soil (and weeds) have been dug out. I have 'terraced' the remaining soil to give firm areas for the rocks to sit and to create planting troughs.

Strong weed membrane was laid over this terracing ensuring that each piece overlapped the next by a substantial amount. My compost mix was then shovelled on to create a nice bank of quality soil.

My "free to collector" rocks were then put into place on the terraced parts of this feature and further soil mix added to part bury the rocks and give a natural look and add further depth of compost to the planting areas. (Note that I have a large amount of membrane left this is worth doing as when the weight of the soil and rocks push and crease it down into the planting troughs it will be pulled into the feature, if you cut it to size it will become too short when the soil is added)

I have included steps which will give you access to the large area above the rockery tying it together. (You can see that even here the membrane is overlapped to prevent ingress from weeds) 

Here's my quick and easy way to making steps; once the ground has been prepared place an old breeze block on each step, fix a board (screwed and raw plugged in this case) onto the front of each block and then back fill with concrete and.....you have an instant step!! (these breeze blocks were also "free to collector"!)

I then followed the same process on the other side of the steps...

Once soil and rocks are in place the remaining membrane can be carefully trimmed off. I then added blue slate gravel to the area between the patio and lowest rocks to finish it off, this gravel will also run along the paths in the area above. I threw this gravel on top of the steps whilst the concrete was still wet so it also runs down the steps once again this should add continuity to the different areas. 

That is about as far as I have got with this project so far and as you can see from this picture I'm not quite finished as I have now run out of rocks! The good news that some very good friends of mine have now offered me some rocks which are perfect for finishing this job! (thanks Mark & Claire!)

As I now plan to try and add a few more regular posts I will update you on the other things which I promised to tell you about in my next post....

As always thanks for following Higgy's Garden Project and I hope to get more of your comments and questions which I enjoy so much?????....

Higgy