Hi Netty - Bip - Jane - Cheryl. Nothing but praise (again) for all the great gardens/gardening we have seen on this topic - now we have another coming along with Bips. Bip. Love your house and locality, looks a real country property. There's lots of ideas and planning going on with your garden which has masses of scope and different aspects for you to develop as surely you will. Look forward to hearing more of your ideas and seeing pics of your progress as you go along. Have fun. Netty. What a shame about the removal of all the trees and shrubs round about you but full marks to you for remedying this as you go along. The birds are also appreciating it and returning to you which is also great news - they need these trees and hedges so much and all the help they can get. I always saw birds as "flying flowers" in many cases. Sadly that is a thing that has happened here massively over the years and so few hedgerows about now compared to what there used to be. This County of Suffolk is third in the trees league in England - masses of them but very few hedges. We last lived in a village next to a large Town Colchester and had far more and a greater variety of birds in the garden there than here. To my great sadness I have not heard a Song Thrush sing since being here three and a half years - miss also the Goldfinches,Greenfinches,and even the Sparrows and Starlings. Jane. Love that word you used gorgeous-er. Can that lead to georgeous-er-ness and perhaps even georgeous-er-ness-ability. Regards to all. Syd.
Hi all. This comes into more where our gardening "happened" - a few pics of my last garden at Colchester if I may please. Much more room where we are now but one not good thing is that in this plot there's far less in numbers and variety of birds. The last pic - the yellow Hosta is one I referred to in an earlier topic to CM - it appeared as a sport on another variety - I marked it, detached it and grew it on. A few more to send later if you would like. In the first pic notice the tiny blue Hosta in bottom L/H corner - bought it as Tokadamu I think - it did not grow a lot bigger than that. Syd. ( photo / image / picture from Sydney Smith's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from Sydney Smith's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from Sydney Smith's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from Sydney Smith's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from Sydney Smith's Garden )
Lovely gardens Syd! I like the Hosta ... is it a miniature? I remember seeing a sport in one of my Hosta's this summer and made a note to detach it this spring. I guess I will get to give it a name too. Only problem is I forgot to make note of which Hosta it was!
Hi Netty. Hostas reign supreme with me much as I dearly love all my other plants. That tiny blue Hosta was a purchase as a minature but the yellow sport grew up as of medium size. It appeared on a green and yellow one, perhaps aureo marginata and stood out as a total contrast to the rest of the plant. My idea was to tie a piece of coloured wool round the shoot and detach that portion in autumn to grow on. Always so interesting to look out for sports (and perhaps double flowers etc) on any plants. I did once find a variegated stem in a clump of Stinging Nettles, detached that and also grew it on, had it for years in a container. Just for interest another thing I do is to always keep a sharp eye open for seedlings which appear, over the years you do get to recognise quite a few but if they are not known let them get to a size and plant them in a pot to see what happens. Often find/found small seedlings of forest trees and I did have several of them, Oak, Ash, Sycamore, Horse and Sweet Chestnut, Birch in smallish pots to purposely restrict their roots and thus grow not as bonsai but certainly minature'ish trees. Sometimes their stems having grown up to say 12 or 18 inches I taped a stiff wire to them and very carefully bent/shaped them to grow thus, perhaps in a spiral. After a couple of seasons wire was removed and they stayed as shaped - all good fun and pretty little trees. A little story - the small lass who lived next door in first property 1957 - 82 and I planted a conker in a pot and it got to be many years old without getting to any size much, perfect little leaves and a most interesting twist in its stem. Left it (them all) at last address at request of buyer, at a guess it must have been 30+ years old - I have a pic and will post it on this topic later. Nice to talk to you all. Syd.
Your gardens are so tidy and colourful, mine looks a leafy mess in comparison. But here goes: I thought I had a lot of overwiev photos from our garden, but can I find them? NO! Anyways, I'd love to show some bits and pieces. The big water feature: The west border in early spring: The west rock border: The boat border (so called because of its shape) and view to the west: A piece of the south-west Hosta border: What we grandly call our woodland, under re-scaping: Walls of Jericho border, step 3 is still not finished: A piece of the east border: Some of our mini-hostas, from left to right in the back: Pacific Blue Edger, Island Charm, Aristocrat. In front an Astilbe Crispa, then Hosta Geisha Limey Streaks and the tiny one to the far right is Vanilla Cream: I realize I take lots and lots of photos of the single plants and blooms, and very few overviews. I shall have to remedy that!
Droopy, what a beautiful garden, and definitely not a leafy mess. I bet lots of Stewies are drooling over your hostas. That water feature is pretty special, too! Your gardens are charming.
Thanks both. The bamboo pipe goes up to get water from a smaller sprout on top and tips down when it's full. It makes a "splash-click-clock" sound which I find quite relaxing.
Always love to see photos of your garden Droopy, especially your Hosta's. I love 'Geisha Limey Streaks' ... that is one I haven't seen before!
Hi Droopy. Yet another superb garden to add to those already seen on this topic - honestly they all make my efforts seem puny in comparison. The best array of Hosta varieties I think I have ever seen and I looked closely - not a hole in a leaf anywhere. Wonderful show altogether. Netty. Heres a pic of the Horse Chestnut in the pot I mentioned. The pic does not show the spiral in the stem (about one and a half inch diameter) just above the soils surface, this happened naturally when it first appeared, its not one of my efforts. Will have to send the Sweet Chestnut later Syd. ( photo / image / picture from Sydney Smith's Garden )
Droopy, your pictures are great and your gardens are fabulous. All of you put so much work and effort into them. It takes both to make nice beds. I really stick to vegetable gardening so I have not much to share on this topic, but I have enjoyed seeing everyones efforts.
Hi carolyn. Vegetables or flowers its all part of the same thing - a love of plants, gardening and Ma Nature generally. You obviously love flowers as much as your own choice vegetables - always good to hear your comments. Ref my pic of the Horse Chestnut - if you visually follow the stem down with your eyes you may just be able to see that spiral. Heres the Sweet Chestnut - both these incidentally are among my favourite trees - have some beauties round us here. Have attached also for interest a pic of an old Wistaria growing on the Rail Station building in Colchester - our last place of abode. ( photo / image / picture from Sydney Smith's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from Sydney Smith's Garden )
Lovely Chestnut trees Syd. I planted one here about 7 years ago. Every winter the bunnies eat it to the ground. It is still 6 inches tall! What a beautiful Wisteria vine!
Thank you Netty and carolyn. I didn't show my veggie patch since it was a disaster this year. I think I'll stick to the perennials. Netty, the Geisha Limey Streaks is rather small but I think it's very showy. Thanks Sydney, you're too kind. I started counting our hostas this summer, but couldn't quite agree with myself whether we've got 73 or 76 different ones. I'll try again next year. Your chestnut is so cute, Syd. I feel that I have to try to grow a chestnut bonsai some time.
