As regular readers will already know, I recently moved to a new home in South Birmingham.
My new garden is absolutely huge in comparison to my 4m x 4m patio in London, but its been fairly neglected in the last few years of tenants!
Its got plenty of shrub planting and I'm lucky enough to have inherited some good edibles - an apple tree (that's not been pruned in years and years), a rhubarb and a very sorry looking globe artichoke. I was surprised with the globe artichoke as I thought left to their own devices I thought they made sister plants - but maybe it just hasn't had much love. It'll be getting plenty of worm juice now that I live here!
The veg plot is totally grassed over and at the top of the garden. It's not the sunniest position of this south west facing garden but most parts probably get a good 4 hours of sunshine and this may be extended in the mid 3 months around midsummer.
At present, as we had so many waste cardboard from moving house, we've placed this over the grassed areas to try and start to kill the grass a little before a big clear up job this weekend when my boyfriend and I will both work on removing the grass and exposing the soil armed with garden forks to remove the grass so I can start planting lots of VEG!!!!
I am also working my way around the garden gradually pruning the trees and the shrubs. Some branches of the apple tree could take our eyes as we walk on the path, so I removed all these low growing branches. Looking forward to a proper prune job with ladders with my Mum this coming autumn. There's also a lot of fir trees that need taming. I think I've even got a bay tree hidden at the back, but there are other overgrown shrubs and firs in the way so I need to make a closer inspection.
The front border nearest the house also needs a lot of love and pruning. The bed has completely grassed over but I'm thinking of replacing the grass with something like low growing chamomile.
Can you suggest an interesting low growing perennial to replace the grass at the bottom of a flower border with something more interesting? Preferably edible or herbal :)
My new garden is absolutely huge in comparison to my 4m x 4m patio in London, but its been fairly neglected in the last few years of tenants!
Its got plenty of shrub planting and I'm lucky enough to have inherited some good edibles - an apple tree (that's not been pruned in years and years), a rhubarb and a very sorry looking globe artichoke. I was surprised with the globe artichoke as I thought left to their own devices I thought they made sister plants - but maybe it just hasn't had much love. It'll be getting plenty of worm juice now that I live here!The veg plot is totally grassed over and at the top of the garden. It's not the sunniest position of this south west facing garden but most parts probably get a good 4 hours of sunshine and this may be extended in the mid 3 months around midsummer.
I am also working my way around the garden gradually pruning the trees and the shrubs. Some branches of the apple tree could take our eyes as we walk on the path, so I removed all these low growing branches. Looking forward to a proper prune job with ladders with my Mum this coming autumn. There's also a lot of fir trees that need taming. I think I've even got a bay tree hidden at the back, but there are other overgrown shrubs and firs in the way so I need to make a closer inspection.
Can you suggest an interesting low growing perennial to replace the grass at the bottom of a flower border with something more interesting? Preferably edible or herbal :)
Without looking it up, our last garden had a similar kind of slope (actually rather steeper!) and at various times we had small lavenders and thymes planted at the base because we had a patio table next to the wall (which made a handy place to put bottles, glasses, etc that you didn't want on the table!). We filled in with annuals - calendula and nasturtium mainly - which led to the party trick of eating flowers straight from the plant, no hands (we didn't have many parties, I don't know why...). And oregano (especially the "Greek" type with white flowers) you can grow from seed, as well, and creeping/prostrate rosemary is nice. Or if it's wet, wild garlic! Which is my answer to most of life's problems really...
ReplyDeleteOh yes, I'm an addict of wild garlic too :) Wonderful suggestions - thank you so much.
ReplyDeleteYou certainly seem to be describing a garden just like mine as it does have the wall next to the patio (that you can see in the bottom photo running alongside the patio where we have our table and chairs).
Love all the ideas and was fully intending on growing nasturtiums as I think every garden should have them, love eating them in salads and making pesto with the leaves. I hadn't thought of prostrate rosemary which is a brilliant idea of blocking out vacant soil, especially as the sunny site seems to be a perfect location for them. I hadn't thought of the oregano which will be lovely to brush past let alone add to my mid summer cooking.
Lovely suggestions, thank you.
You're very welcome - it's fun to compare ideas. I look forward to seeing your progress, I loved the posts from your old garden, especially the "how much you can harvest" ones. And the squashes..
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