Kathy & Laurie's Garden in Hampshire

[NightHawk]

This is the start of a new topic for our Hampshire garden.

The first photo is an Estate Agents shot of the garden in summer 2010.

The next few photos are of some of the current shrubs.

We'll add more photos once we see what else pops up as the seasons progress, plus the additional planting of some of our own favourites.



Here's a few photos as the garden appears at the moment, before we do any work on it.

Photo 1 - our first (and only) snowfall to date.  Front garden taken through window on 18 December 2010.


Photo 2 - Front garden.  The bird-bath in the foreground is ours.

The hexagonal flagstones lead to the front gate on the right and our front door to the left.

Photo 3 - Front garden.  Shrubery alongside our front wall.

The yellow/green bush in the foreground is a Choisya ternata SUNDANCE.  (See Photo 3a for close-up.)

Photo 3a - Close-up of Choisya ternata SUNDANCE in above Photo 3.


Photo 4 - same as Photo 3 but from different angle.


Photo 5 - Front garden.  The last of the shrubs alongside the front wall.

The brass wind-spiral is ours, but is temporarily hanging on a pole that had been left behind.

Photo 6 - Front garden - Ivy, Camellia and Hydrangea growing against our garage wall.


Photo 6a - Close-up of Camellia bush in above Photo 6.


Photo 7 - Front garden - 2 unknown plants in border.

Closer view of plants on left side of Photo 6.  Believe the left plant could be a Cyclamen but not sure about the one on the right just yet.  We'll need to await flowering to confirm variety.

Photo 8 - Front garden with Salix caprea 'Kilmarnock' weeping willow tree in lawn.


Photo 8a - Close-up of Salix caprea 'Kilmarnock' weeping willow tree in Photo 8.


Photo 9 - Front garden.


Photo 10 - view of side garden down right side of house.


Photo 11 - Close-up of Choisya ternata in Photo 10 in garden to right of house.
Bush in Photo 10 is just beyond the yellow one.


Photo 12 - view from bottom of garden along right hand side border towards front of house.


Photo 13 - view of bottom end of right hand garden.

Not certain if the unknown brown looking plant is dead or if it's in winter dormancy.  Have to wait on that one.

Photo 14 - different angle from Photo 13 of bottom right corner of garden.


Photo 15 - Bottom garden.  A striking red-stemmed Cotinus Dogwood in foreground will definitely be staying.


Photo 16 - Garden on left side of house.  This view is from the bottom garden towards the patio area at the front end.


Photo 17 - view from patio towards bottom of garden.

The barbecue-style stove on the right is NOT ours.  That will definitely be going.

As you can see from these photos there is a lot of work to be done in all the garden areas.  It's obvious the previous owners weren't real gardeners.

With lots of tidying, digging up and new planting it will be a work in progress for a while.  It will be fun doing it, and we'll get it looking immaculate with our own stamp of authority and personalisation.

There are still loads of plants and shrubs in the garden that we haven't as yet tried to identify, some that will be staying others that will not.  I've just highlighted some of the bigger and best looking shrubs that we will be keeping.

We've already impressed the neighbours with just the little bit of tidying we've managed to do up to now.  They've seen nothing yet 

Also, we've got our bird feeders set up in various places around the gardens and we've had some lovely comments about the several species we've attracted in just this short space of time.  The previous owner/s never really bothered. 

There's a family of 9 Long-tailed Tits who just love our coconut and fat-ball feeders.  Numerous House Sparrows, Chaffinch, Robin, Dunnock, Starling, Wood Pigeon and Collared Doves being the other most regular species.

Some of our other neighbours boasts the visits to or near their gardens from Green Woodpecker, Spotted Woodpecker, Barn Owl and Goldfinches.  Plus foxes, squirrels, Herring Gulls and Lapwings making up some other varieties in the nearby field.

We've got a resident Tawny Owl in the woods at the rear of our house, which we can hear calling each evening but have not as yet seen.

We're excited at the prospect of what we have yet to do in our garden.

Laurie.

[ideasguy]

How are things growing Laurie?

RE:

Closer view of plants on left side of Photo 6.  Believe the left plant could be a Cyclamen but not sure about the one on the right just yet.  We'll need to await flowering to confirm variety.

One on the right could be Muscari. If so, you should have nice blue flowers in spring.
Eric knows best about those plants (and Allium) and is the man to make an ID when the flowers appear.
Exciting, isnt it, as you wait in anticipation?

[Palustris]

The cyclamen shown is almost certainly C. hederifolium.

[NightHawk]

Thanks for the Cyclamen ID Eric 

How are things growing Laurie?

Some plants are starting to bloom now.  There's some Snowdrops appearing in the front garden border.

The Camellia shrub in the front garden, against the garage wall, is covered in buds (Photo 1 below) and some have started to flower (Photos 2, 3 and 4 below).

We've tried to identify which variety this particular one is without any success.  The flower-head is 3½ inches in diameter, three sets of petals 'Barbie Pink' at the edges going into a deeper pink towards the middle and bright yellow stamens.

Photo 1 - Camellia shrub showing many unopened buds.  The opened flower at bottom left is the one shown in Photo 2.


Photo 2 - Camellia flower opening on front right side of shrub.


Photo 3 - second amellia flower opening towards rear right side of shrub.


Photo 4 - same Camellia flower as in Photo 3 but taken a day later (today), having filled out more but same diameter.


We have another Camellia shrub down the right hand side of our house which is also full of buds, but no flowers have opened as yet.  We're not sure if it's the same variety yet until we see some blooms.

Any positive ID would be greatly appreciated.

Laurie.

[Lyn and Malcolm]

Hows about Camellia x williamsii Donation , is the flower quite so pink as in your picure? Donation is quite a common one, and a good flowerer so may well be. But I am not an expert.

http://www.hortic.com/ics/product/4778/1

Malcolm

[NightHawk]

Hows about Camellia x williamsii Donation , is the flower quite so pink as in your picure?

The colours I described are true as displayed on my monitor anyway Malcolm.  But, as you know, not all monitors display colours correctly depending on how they've been calibrated, so that's a difficult one for colour ID purposes.

Best to just go on my colour description, so if you're getting a vivid 'Barbie Doll Pink' look then you're seeing it correctly 

Camellia x williamsii Donation looks like a distinct possibility though 

Laurie.

[ideasguy]

Donation is a good suggestion. I have one in my garden, a very impressive specimen, and as Malcolm says, very floriferous and also very reliable.
It blooms early in spring and since you are now in a warmer clime that here in Ireland, I'd say it is a good ID.

[NightHawk]

The cyclamen shown is almost certainly C. hederifolium.

You're absolutely correct with that ID Eric.

Doing some gardening today I came across the label for that plant in the border behind it, which confirmed it 

Laurie.

[ideasguy]

One down, how many to go
Should be fun to watch the mysteries unfold over the growing seasons Laurie. Hope you can share the experience photographically.

[NightHawk]

We're working on it George.

Just in the process of removing some well-established ivy from the side of our adjoining garage.

We don't like ivy at all, and it was starting to grow onto the roof.  It was finding its way into cracks and getting inside the garage, fouling up the opening mechanism.

I've cut it down to the main root system which is as thick as my wrist, and goes down for miles.  We had a similar experience at our old house with an invasive ivy and the best we could do there was to dig down a couple of feet and saw off as much of the root as I could reach.  Will do the same here and then look to planting a nice shrub, clematis, honeysuckle or suchlike to fill the gap and cover the garage wall.

We've had quite a lot of rainy days recently so its put back our gardening.  Just getting out there when we can.

We've been having more work done inside the house, new bathroom, new wardrobe unit in the bedroom, etc., plus we've just acquired a new puppy.  Therefore there's not been much computer time.

As we see what plants start to come into bloom we'll get some photos to share along the way.  We're puppy-proofing the rear garden at the moment for our nine-and-a-half week old Yorkshire Terrier bitch.  As much as we would have liked to get another Labrador, the smaller bungalow would not have been practical.  A smaller breed dog is a much better option, still giving us additional company, but much easier to manage (and cheaper to keep  ).
We've called her Pixie and she has her second injection on 4 March.  Then we'll be able to take her out for walks.  Much quicker nowadays;  it was 17 weeks before we could take our Labrador out for the first time.

Anyway, we're keeping the front garden as our show-piece, so we're not allowing any little 'fairy-rings' to appear from our little doggy.  The front garden has been looked after by a neighbour in the past so it's in very good condition.
We intend to keep on top of that and make sure we do the necessary lawn care.

Laurie.

[ideasguy]

Thanks for the update, Laurie. Looks like you are making a few changes down there!

My son has borrowed a big trailer for me to take old stuff to the recycling site, plus branches and old tree roots.
The garden is still very wet, so its a great time for that job. Its actually been dry and some sun each day here, and quite mild!
Daffs, Crocus, snowdrops, Iris and lots of other things are telling me that spring has sprung

[Eric Hardy]

How's it going, Kathy & Laurie? Any more nice surprises?

[NightHawk]

There's been lots of changes going on here since my last entry, with lots of other personal stuff too, so I haven't had chance to keep on top of everything.

Some of the plants/shrubs featured have either been moved or taken out.  The ones taken out have either turned out to be weeds, or had lots of dead branches on them due to neglect by previous owners, so they just had to go.  Plant real estate is too precious to give it over to unproductive 'hangers-on' that have seen better days.  If they don't perform well, they're gone!

Anyway, at the moment we're having our rear patio area re-done and the garden looks like a war zone.  Tarpaulin on the front garden with a cement mixer, bricks and paving stones, bags of sand and cement and a various assortment of shovels and stone cutting machine strewn about.  The existing patio had broken paving stones, very uneven with weeds growing through all the cracks.

We've got a water feature to go in soon too, and a picket fence and gate to divide the patio from the bottom half of the garden.

Needless to say, I'm NOT doing this work myself.  We've got some professionals in to do all the hard grind, and they're doing an excellent job of it too.

They started last Thursday and are due to finish tomorrow.

The upheaval is horrrendous.  Our poor little puppy doesn't know what's going on, but we keep telling ourselves it will be worth it in the end.  The project will give us an 'outdoor room' where we can sit out and enjoy the peace and tranquility of our new home.

Once the building work is completed we'll have a lot of tidying up to do, and need to give lots of T.L.C. to the plants that were subjected to brick dust and dry cement that got blown all over them.  The lawn will also need a bit of recovery work from all the stuff that's been laid on top of it all this time.

I'll probably get around to doing some photos for comparison purposes in due course, which we can share with you.

Laurie.

[ideasguy]

We've had the builders here since beginning of Jan, Laurie, and I know exactly what you mean about disruption.
It will be well worth it in the end. I hope you will enjoy that new outdoor room

[Eric Hardy]

I am sure it will be great when it is finished, Laurie. Tidying up the mess afterwards is always a chore but you will be very happy in the end. The last time we had builders in was 1980 and we haven't had to face it since! You will be looking forward to the work being back to normal gardening.

[roiphil]

that is one topic caught up on, nice looking plants and it will be nice to see before and after shots of your patio, we too shall be having the builders in plans for double glazing, a carport i shall erect that myself, and a big digger to dig out some front garden and stone it and more work in the fields with it, keep us updated on the progress.
Grandad 

[NightHawk]

There's been a lot of enhancements done to our garden since we last posted, but there's been so much going on that I haven't been able to keep up a full report here.

We'll wait until next year now when we can begin a full range of seasons, charting the development of the gardens with the plants we favour.

Our new patio has been finished to our satisfaction and is working great, and we've still got lots of garden space available.

Yesterday I got the grass cut - AGAIN!!!    In our old northerly habitat, come October we'd pretty much tidied the gardens for the last time before winter set in.
I just don't know how much longer this unusually warm climate will continue this year, so I haven't cleaned up the lawn mower yet just in case it's needed again.

Flowers still in bloom are Penstemons and Black-eyed Susan.  Dahlias, Cosmos and roses have pretty much gone over now.

Apart from a minus 1 C overnight temperature last Tuesday, it's been averaging around plus 5 C overnight throughout November.

Watching the final episode of Autumnwatch for this year, Chris Packham mentioned that this is one of the mildest autumns on record, but hasn't beaten the mildest recorded in 2006 yet.

Anyway, it's certainly been a long gardening year so far, and will there be a respite looming on the horizon any time soon? Who really knows 

Ho-hum 

Laurie.

[ideasguy]

Let hope this mild weather continues until at least after Christmas Laurie.
We are off to Manchester soon to visit Tara, go a Man City match, Christmas markets and some shopping. Something for everyone! Last year we made that annual journey just before Christmas. We went to a Pogues concert. Going in, it was cold but OK. We came out to 4ins of snow. There was a great Christmas atmosphere on the bus into the city centre - everyone singing merrily.
A few days later, we were stranded at Liverpool airport. We thought we were there for the night, but they managed to get the runways defrosted (just about - as you may recall we were recording minus 12 and even minus 15 around that time!!) and we took off (we later learned that the next flight to Belfast was cancelled). A big relief when we touched down and came to a safe standstill at Belfast International Airport. Our car was covered with 6ins of snow. We had a VERY scary trip home!

[Eric Hardy]

Glad to hear things are progressing, Laurie. It sounds as though. like us, there are still a few blooms unaware that we are almost into December.

Yesterday I got the grass cut - AGAIN!!!

Our grass was cut on Thursday and all the signs are that it won't be the last. Now you are learning what a difference a few degrees latitude makes (and probably being away from the influence of the North Sea too must have an effect).
Good luck.
Eric

[NightHawk]

We've noticed a big difference since getting away from the North Sea winds Eric - and we don't regret it one bit 

You just have to adjust your gardening techniques (and schedules) accordingly, so we're definitely not complaining about the warmer weather 

Our grass was cut on Thursday and all the signs are that it won't be the last.

I'd better not give the lawnmower a thorough cleaning yet then.

Laurie

[NightHawk]

Overnight temperature here dropped to -5° C - coldest so far this year.

Talking to someone in Christchurch this morning said they had snow there at this time last year.  But their idea of snow is a little dusting compared to what we left behind in the northeast during the same period - a foot-and-a-half with 4-inch thick pack-ice below it.  Glad to see the back of that.

We much prefer the southern climate, even with this unusually milder spell.

Laurie

[ideasguy]

Thanks for reminding me - I must get a new Hi-Low thermometer! It was really useful in the greenhouse.
We didn't have that frost here last night Laurie, thanks (I don't believe I'm saying thanks ) to our ever present cloud covering  - it has persisted for AGES

It was a deceiving day today Laurie. I pulled on the woolies and went a-gardening. B&Q were selling off lots of bulbs at half price last week, so I bought a few packs
Once I got out there and got going it was actually quite enjoyable. Had to do a bit of weeding before planting the bulbs, and the soil was quite workable. Planted about 80 bulbs - Tulips, Anemone blanda, Fritillaria meleagris. I'd already planted dozens more in October, so I'm hoping for a good show next year.

Looking forward to following this topic next year Kathy and Laurie - I'm looking forward to seeing what you retained, and what you plant. Its always interesting to see the plants favoured by other gardeners, and even more interesting to me - how they use them.

[NightHawk]

Yes George, those Hi-Low thermometers are very useful, which is what we have.  As long as you remember to reset them at the end of each day 

I'm sure you'll enjoy watching the development of our garden next year George, as hopefully will our other members.

It's nice to be able to really call the garden your own by putting in the plants that you have either nurtured from cuttings or buy and plant the varieties we favour.

The garden's had almost a year now since we moved in  (December 8th) , so we've had a good chance to see what has come up, what we do and don't like, and get some of our own cuttings and bulbs planted and to get established.

We've been able to see how the sun hits various parts of the garden each day throughout all the seasons, so now know what plants will benefit the best in different areas.

The front of our house is south facing, and we get unrestricted sunshine from the east early morning to the front, right through to it setting in the evening to the west, so the rear garden catches it as well.  No tall houses around us casting nasty shadows, just other bungalows which aren't a problem.

Our new patio area is on the west side of the house so it gets the benefit of later morning sun onwards as it moves around.

Should be an exciting time of gardening to look forward to 

Laurie.

[NightHawk]

Just had to show you our Camellia which is flowering its socks off at the moment - and there's still plenty more buds to open yet 



If you compare this photo with the one I took of the same bush in February 2011 (on Page 1 of this thread), back then there were only a couple of flowers opening but there were lots of buds.

This time it's been flowering since just before Christmas.

Had an overnight temperature of -4 deg C last night, so we'll see if that has any effect on it.

Laurie.

[Eric Hardy]

All I can say is WOW!!!!  Marvellous, Laurie.