Gardens and gardening

I was thinking about all the people and young families who have to consider their gardening ambitions within the context of living in a private rental property (I found this Royal Horticultural Society article on the subject).

"According to a study by the Office for National Statistics, one in five households in England and Wales rent their homes with the most common age for private renters being 25 to 34 years old."

www.rhs.org.uk/.../how-to-garden-when-you-rent

Yes I love taking care of the Geraniums by our front door. It is very relaxing and therapeutic. 

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.

I have the ‘Sceptered Isle’ rose and would wholeheartedly recommend. It has given me so much joy to watch and tend to. I bought it for my little doggy who is no longer here so I can always think of her when I see it. A beautiful rose. Another one I would recommend is Jane Austen - the blooms look so flat & geometric. Stunning. 

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?

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.

PS no dad garden for me either - hehe more like a jungle!

Sorry to have induced greenhouse envy! I picked up 3 of mine really cheap/free from f'book marketplace from people who wanted them out of their garden.  Aluminium ones in particular are quite easy to move if there's a mind to and many years ago I used to sell/build them so not a problem for me (though a strange sight to see partially assembled section on the roof rack of a Volvo!).   Even a say 6'x8' can extend the growing season and protect tender perrenials so maybe try for a compromise! (OK so I'm still trying to sell them it seems!) Yep poly tunnel with automatic watering is on my wish list too... :-) On can dream.

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.

edit: 5 greenhouses - forgot a lean-to but that's mostly full of bicycles!

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 :-)

Thats one of the things I like about the site too, I wish more websites were designed like that, I get so fed up of FAQ's they never answer my questions.

I'm thinking of getting 'This Sceptered Isle' or 'The geberous Gardener', the colours are always acurate too, I've had roses from other places that don't flower the same colour as the pictures, or are a completely different colour.

I'm trying to edit my plants a bit, as I have a tendency to buy more than I need, our garden centre also does a "rescue" section of plants that are either past their flowering period, leggy, or just a bit knackered, I love bringing them back to life. I actively look for end of season perenial plants as they're so much cheaper.

My garden is more of a horticultural collection than a garden. Probably 3 to 4 times as many plants as it should have for the space.

I love growing new or different things.

I have a 12 ft palm tree.

The bed I'm currently working on is full of builders rubble too, I actually thought I'd found archaeology ones, so I scrapped all th soil away preoperly and found a brick window arch from when the house was rebuilt years before we came here. Some plants like poor soil, so I've been concentrating on plant them. We also have a soak away going to that bed which is covered by a massive stone, it's always hard find something that will grow there.

My roses were all from David Austen too and I am pleased that they are as hardy as claimed, as my garden growing conditions aren’t great. I like the way the website makes it easy to find the right rose for your garden conditions. 

Your Scottish garden sounds nice. If I were to have one of those, it would need to be in a tub too as my garden is on top of builders rubble, and prior to the builders, the soil had been clay.

The borders were heavy work to dig out and I thought I would never get them done because I kept coming across breeze blocks and chunks of concrete. I filled them in with compost, sand and soil, and while many plants have thrived, I also had many failures, including some of my favourites such as the foxgloves. I think the spot wasn’t quite right for the foxgloves, so I will try again. 

I don’t particularly like mowing, but I think my grass brings a softness, shape and pleasing order to the otherwise disordered borders. Two years ago I invested in a battery powered mower, and it is much easier to use than the petrol mower, and quite light. 

I think you did really well taking a garden design and adapting it. My ultimate goal is to have no grass, we don't have a lawn as such, just rough grazing grass. I dislike lawns, I don't like mowing them, I'd rather have more plants.

I have a big shallow tub that I euphamistically call my Scotish garden, it has lots of different heathers and a small slow growing pine tree and some stones to give it a mountan feel. Like so much else it desperately needs overhauling, the tree needs rehoming and the heathers thining out. So I guess I'll have to do it all again.