Gardens and gardening

Yep - best place to be outside. Followed by the allotment.   Hehe, toatl of 4 domestic sized greenhouses too...  Found out this year (third year of keeping one in a pot) that blueberries are ericaceous - so if I might pass on a tip that (if you didn't realise already) the raised bed you mention might need a special fill and fertiliser.  I am daft enough to have several trees in my suburban garden as well as shrubs et al.  Oh and figs either side of the front door (south west facing) keep the house cool in summer and splendid to eat too!  Despite making the house look particularly eccentric it makes a pun that my family DO give two figs.  All the best with your gardening :-)

I think trees can make a small garden look bigger, I hate that sort of "dad" gardening where everything has to be in neat rows around the edges of a lawn, geraniums, busy lizzies and lobelia with maybe the odd tortured rose bush. I think it makes a garden look smaller.

I do know blueberries need ericacious soil, so do heathers.

I have greenhouse envy now! I wanted a big poly tunnel where the veg patch was but was overruled, so now it's having more trees and fruit bushes.

Most people don't have the experience, confidence or vision, to use height.

You have to also know something about trees to pick the right one, plus you have to actually be bothered to prune them to get the shape.

in my case the trees are either self seeded (including by squirrels in pots!) planted by children, special garden centre purchase and most spectacularly when a local charity shop received a donation of many potted plants.  Agreed too with the use of the garden - in my case having been in this "house for life" for a long time the garden has evolved with time and the changes it brings.  Design is by the same process - "does this grow here?" being an important part of it.

No - I seldom watch gardening programmes.  Although I agree they can be inspirational.

I think it depends on where you get your trees from and how big they are, I think a lot of people are stumped by the gardens they inherit with a house, gardens need to reflect the life of the people who use them too. Children will probably want space to kick a ball or a trampoline.

I suspect a lot of people don't know where to start and need something desigened for them, like they do with interior decor. Modern houses have such tiny gardens too and I think it takes vision and confidence to make something of such a small space.

Does anyone else watch programes like your garden made perfect?

YesStuart333  I too think that is often the case.

Trees also take longer. In an era of instant gratification and moving house for jobs etc. planning a garden for 10 or more years in the future escapes most.

Some bedding from the garden centre, a dubious rose, some maltreated lawn and an oddly overgrown shrub or two that came with the house is about all most manage. Along with some weeds, some ants and some moss.

Good point - thinking above the horizon is relatively unusual.  For me it is a physical perspective about how one interacts with the world (long martial arts story/neuroanatomical analysis available if required ;-) )  best summed up by there being five directions:, low, middle, high, left and right!  Yep picking the right tree important (am still learning the hard way!  Have a walnut that is planted in memory of my wife's brother that is rapidly becoming a challenge - if only i'd started shaping it a little harder a few years ago...)  and pruning is all part of the fun (learnt that the hard way too after a neighbour flat pruned a boundary tree their side and it all came crashing down on mine...  I tend to keep mine in large pots for a few years before taking the plunge,,,   there's an oak I have with an interesting trunk shape achieved by wiring it when it was in it's pot.  I did this after learning that originally the shape of Welsh harps used to be made from wood that was held in that shape as it grew!  Can you imagine how much of an investment in the future people made back then?

Good point - thinking above the horizon is relatively unusual.  For me it is a physical perspective about how one interacts with the world (long martial arts story/neuroanatomical analysis available if required ;-) )  best summed up by there being five directions:, low, middle, high, left and right!  Yep picking the right tree important (am still learning the hard way!  Have a walnut that is planted in memory of my wife's brother that is rapidly becoming a challenge - if only i'd started shaping it a little harder a few years ago...)  and pruning is all part of the fun (learnt that the hard way too after a neighbour flat pruned a boundary tree their side and it all came crashing down on mine...  I tend to keep mine in large pots for a few years before taking the plunge,,,   there's an oak I have with an interesting trunk shape achieved by wiring it when it was in it's pot.  I did this after learning that originally the shape of Welsh harps used to be made from wood that was held in that shape as it grew!  Can you imagine how much of an investment in the future people made back then?

in my case the trees are either self seeded (including by squirrels in pots!) planted by children, special garden centre purchase and most spectacularly when a local charity shop received a donation of many potted plants.  Agreed too with the use of the garden - in my case having been in this "house for life" for a long time the garden has evolved with time and the changes it brings.  Design is by the same process - "does this grow here?" being an important part of it.

No - I seldom watch gardening programmes.  Although I agree they can be inspirational.

I think it depends on where you get your trees from and how big they are, I think a lot of people are stumped by the gardens they inherit with a house, gardens need to reflect the life of the people who use them too. Children will probably want space to kick a ball or a trampoline.

I suspect a lot of people don't know where to start and need something desigened for them, like they do with interior decor. Modern houses have such tiny gardens too and I think it takes vision and confidence to make something of such a small space.

Does anyone else watch programes like your garden made perfect?

YesStuart333  I too think that is often the case.

Trees also take longer. In an era of instant gratification and moving house for jobs etc. planning a garden for 10 or more years in the future escapes most.

Some bedding from the garden centre, a dubious rose, some maltreated lawn and an oddly overgrown shrub or two that came with the house is about all most manage. Along with some weeds, some ants and some moss.