The planter issues continue

The new bed is proving problematic, if it's not problems finding the plants, it's the central raised planter.  The idea was to build a poured concrete circular planter for the olive. It seemed simple, the plans put into action, but became obvious very quickly that it wasn't going to work.

Next up 60m of rope.

We had already made a circular raised bed out of several layers of bamboo barrier so it was more about the looks than strength.  The top was going to be the most important bit, and to ensure it was level we started from there.

Once the top row was all glued and set it was a much simpler case of wrapping the rope around and ensuring it was firmly up against the row above.

All done, and is fine, but I'm not sure. It needs to weather in, and for the plating around it before we can say for sure if it is going to work.

What do you think?

In the mean time, the plants are starting to go in. There have been a few purchases, an agave Blue Brian and a yucca rostata from Urban Jungle.  They turned up perfectly packed with no damage which is always a good start.  The agave is lovely, and I'm torn if it should be planted or not.  I'll do a post once I decide. Having got a fair few of my hardy agaves from them there is no doubt that Urban Jungle are one of the best the places to go in the UK for hardy agaves, and they have just added a larger selection of Cacti as well. Plus they have a great cafe, which I understand on colder days has not just blankets but hot water bottles.

One of the plants going in the planter is trailing / creeping rosemary, one of my local nurseries, the Palm Centre, had some in stock so I went down to get a couple.  Bad idea. visiting any tropical nursery means a look around their succulents.  In their yucca rostrata section was a double header, in the smaller / affordable size!  I looked at the price expecting it to be more expensive, but no. The same price as the single headed plants.

So now I'm the proud owner of a double headed yucca rostrata. It could be two separate plants, washing off all the soil would give the answer, but then I may be tempted to split them. So better to just keep it as a double.

At this rate I'm going to have to be supervised when I visit nurseries!

Back taking shape

It is funny to think that the original time table was to have the workshop built for this weekend, so I thought it was time for an update on plans. With the lighter evenings, and some nice weather, it has been possisble to go out after work, so there has been slow progress.

With the space cleared it was poassible to set out some options for the new bed.

Even at this time of year it gets the last of the evening sun, so is going to be a lovely place to sit and enjoy a drink or two.

Then onto the new terrace, leveling and setting out the slabs to see what they look like. This is where the old garage was, so the ground apart from being very compact is full of rubble. Great for a patio, terrible for digging flower beds, we have already removed 15 bags full of rubble, with more still to go.

We lived with this for a while, then the slabs were layed properly. One thing that still has to be worked out is the interchange between the gravel path and the slabs.

This bed has been named the paisley bed, for obvious reasons. I think we are going to take a break from the boring stuff for a bit and actually get onto some planting. With this section finished, we can plant the whole way around to join the succulent rockery. Moving the greenhouse can wait. Two of the three trees are already here: the olive, and a trachycarpus fortunei.  The third is proving elusive, a strawberry tree, Arbutus 'Marina'. Ultimately it will go where the greenhouse currently is, when I manage to track one down and the greenhouse is moved.

Hopefully the next post on this section will be it all planted up.

Although the focus is on getting this area ready, the green roof is always in the back of my mind. Ideas and plant list are forming, soruces for bulk buying plants explored and there may have been the odd visit to local nurseries and a few test purchases.

 
I'm saying these are all for the green roof, this may or maynot be true.

Starting on designs

Last weekend was spent putting up the new fence aroud the bottom of the garden. It's good to have the garden bact to being enclosed.

Now comes the work designing that end of the garden. So this week was spent measuring, drawing and going through different options. The first decision is what to do about the greenhouse.  The idea is to build a lean-to in the space next to the workshop. 

We went through several options for the size; continue to the corner, or stop and allow space for planting or a bin store.  As this smaller design is still bigger than the current greenhouse it will be good to use the remaining space for planting. 

Then onto the lawn.  Lawns are always contentious, too big, too small, requiring too much water.  I like our little lawn, and the dog likes it even more.  The original idea was to extend it slightly up to the railway sleeper hammock post. Looking at this on the scale drawings it was all a bit square. I quite liked it but my better half wanted more curves, so we are playing around with ideas to add some curves.

If nothing else this has given us a scale drawing of the garden to play with.  The right hand side is all planted and can't be changed due to be all the builders rubble and being full of the succulents.  So the question is how to make the new bit work with this.   No doubt there will be a few different designs put other there.

In the mean time, two gardening friends came over and had a nosy around.  They are both garden designers, so I got them to draw what it could look like. It was really interesting to see two different options.  One was very minimal, neat, ordered and how I like to see myself.  The other was slightly more relaxed, and practical to cope with how I am actual am.  The picture of the minimal one hasn't come out, but this is the other.

It still has the square lawn, but it is amazing what a diferent seeing it with rough planting makes.  I have yet to master the whole drawing plants like this.  It looks so simple, but usually goes horribly wrong when I try.

I think the next stage will be to select the paving, then I can decide how to do the patio and how to balance the sleak vs realistic designs.  Let's face it, any empty space risks being filled with pots!  The garden orientation means hopefully the terrace outside the workshop will be a little more shaded, we may put a sail over it in summer to ensure there is somewhere to sit out of the sun. 

So the summer looks likes being lots of little projects:

• Lay the new terrace
• Build the lean to
• Remove the old greenhouse
• Re-shap the lawn and the finish the paths
• Plant the green roof
• Plant up the beds.

That should keep me busy, especially as there will be the usual re-potting and looking after the pots to fit in.  

New year and a new project

I'm back from my winter hybination of not thinking about plants or computers. Today was such a lovely day, I thought it was perfect for my first post of the year.

March is my least favourite month; just when you think winter is over and your plants have made it through, the last grips of cold and wet mean things take a turn for the worse.  I am keeping a close eye on the forcasts to watch out for any real cold or long periods of wet, but until then the garden has been uncovered.

Forgive the mess on the terrace, more on that later.  The plants don't look at all bad, one agave filifera is going to need a big hair cut, and the agave nigras look a little worse for ware but that's it.  The agave nigras are starting to annoy me,  they were fine at the last house, but here just have to be cut back each year and are just starting to look good when we get to next winter.  May be time for a re-think on them.

The main group of agaves looks great with no damage.

I am especially pleased that agave parryi hk1684 is looking so good.

The aloe saponaria variegates seem untroubled by this winter.  We had two weeks of cold, but it was very dry and sunny at the same time, this obviously helped.

I may have to split them this year, keeping the best and moving the less interesting ones.

The only damage was to the echeveria agavoides red edge, and a few of the elegans in the echeveria river.

I took all the dead leaves off, and will see what happens this year.  They just don't seem to have much wet tolerance, the ones under a cloch were fine and totally undamaged. Such a shame as they are great plants when large and I was really hoping to have a row of big plants.

Anyway the big news as mentioned earlier is the new project.  Up until 3 weeks ago the view from the terrace was of this:

The garage, which apart from being ugly and too large, restricted access to a section of garden behind it, so time for the next stage in the garden plan.

Remove the old garage and the concrete pad to give an extra 3m of garden, and build a new smaller workshop behind.

It is great to have 3m more garden to play with, plus a little bit to the side of the new workshop.  Hopefully this will allow the final stages of the original garden design to fall into place.  No longer will the path end half way down the garden, or the olive have to sit in its pot waiting for a spot to be planted.

The most exciting part is the roof.

The idea is for a green roof, some hybrid between a traditional sedum matt and a more lush grass roof. Now I just need to figure out what I want and how much to allow space for growth or go for  instant impact.  Either way there will be regular updates as my plans progress.

Sadly the less interesting bits have to be sorted first, it will be a mud bath down there if the paths aren't put in. It makes sense to do the landscaping first and save the roof until all that is finished.  It will give me something to look forward to.

It's going to be a busy year.