A year later in the front garden.

[Lyn and Malcolm]

You may remember the first picture taken almost to the day a year ago.
The second picture was taken today, it shows first of all the new colour we are using in the front garden, several days of standing still painting that, in the cold, finished about 3 weeks ago.
You can also see the two new obelisks in the centre which I built to match the previous ones I made about 3 years ago.

You can also see how much less growth there is in the garden compared to same time last year, reckon 2 to 3 weeks later this year.

The front lawn is looking a bit sad at the moment, as I scarified it this afternoon, and lightly fed it.





Malcolm

[ideasguy]

Malcolm, you are an inspiration to us all. It proves one thing - to have a brilliant summer garden, you need to start early - and that means getting out on the bitter cold days before spring starts!
I'm more than impressed Judging by those labels, that is extremely high density planting, but it not only works, it works extremely well for you, with the skills you have developed by hard work, trial and error and experience.
I like the colours and the new constructions!
Looking forward to seeing more as the seasons roll around.

[Lyn and Malcolm]

Another 4 weeks and I doubt you will see any of those labels, I don't like them but we wouldn't be able to keep track of their names without.
I have toyed with the idea of making a plan of each bed and the plant position. It is difficult enough keeping track of them on the iGPRO database.

I went round the garden a couple of weeks ago with the printed out database, bed by bed. Checking the plants in the bed against the database. It is a good time to do this as you can see all the labels, But of course there are some labels with plants that haven't shown through the soil yet, so can't be ticked off as being there.
I then recompile manually, each bed with the unticked plants. It is then a matter of every 3 or 4 days going round again to see if those plants have surfaced above the soil or not.

It is complicated even more by finding plants with no label, as a result of (1)The front gardener putting in a plant and forgetting to label it. (2) Accidently covering the label when top dressing the beds. (3) Somebody or something has nicked the label.

Then there is the case of a plant on the database, supposed to be in a particular bed, but there is no sign of it, or its label. Sometimes the plant and it's label can be found in a different bed. You have heard of walking plants, haven't you ?. The front gardener denies any knowledge.

Lastly there can be found a plant and label in a bed, that is not on the database. Thank you to the kind person who came into the garden under cover of darkness and donated that plant. Again the front gardener who shall remain nameless, in case she reads this posting, denies any knowledge.

So as you can see, that despite you making it easy for us to keep that database of the plants we have, and to sort them into garden areas, with the option of printing all the information out. It is not that easy in reality to keep our database, truly accurate.


PS  I forgot to mention the time taken to keep the database fed with pictures of the ever changing plants. I start the year off with another 80 plants still to take pictures of. 

Only another 3 years and 4 months before I may be able to retire.

Malcolm

[ideasguy]

Retiring soon? Then you'll have lots more time for all that record keeping stuff
By that time the new Garden Plan/Designer software will be released (I hope) so that should be even more fun.

Do those "wonders"  only happen in the front garden Malcolm 
What do you use for top dressing?

Keep up the good work Malcolm. I'm looking forward to hearing more about those 80 new plants another 80 photos
I see the plant count currently stands at 1091
http://www.plantguide.lynandmalc.co.uk/

[Lyn and Malcolm]

George

We use a mixture of roughly 1 part horse manure to 3 parts of any multipurpose compost for the top dressing.
We used to spread quite thickly, but as years go by, the soil in the beds has risen, so we are unable to put so much on.

Malcolm

[ideasguy]

That sounds like another secret of your success Thanks for the tip Malcolm!

[roiphil]

certaintly amazing pictures and garden malcolm, you should be proud, i have trouble with labels dissapearing in my front bed but that is the jack russel pup stitch, just loves the taste of plastic, one day i will get round (figure out) how to put the bed into igpro with the plants, do i take a picture of the bed and put that into igpro, i sense a lesson coming along   

Horse muck is great stuff to get a lot of foloiage on plants 

[Lyn and Malcolm]

"Horse muck is great stuff to get a lot of foloiage on plants"

We do feed the plants with a high potash liquid feed as well Phil.

"one day i will get round (figure out) how to put the bed into igpro with the plants"

That is one of the easier lessons Phil, will let you be guided by George 

Malcolm 

[ideasguy]

Yes, its so easy, its lesson 1 here:
http://www.garden-software.co.uk/Bonsai/userguide1/userguide1.html

I blame the birds for scooping out shallow labels. Watch a blackbird at work some time. It can shift a lot of dead leaves and debris looking for unsuspecting grubs. I picked up some crocus bulbs some time ago and planted them just outside our French windows. Next morning they were lying on top of the soil and the path

[roiphil]

"Horse muck is great stuff to get a lot of foloiage on plants"

We do feed the plants with a high potash liquid feed as well Phil.

Malcolm 

no wonder your plants are amazing