I've been battling in my rear garden of late, trying to turn the tide of weeds and shape it into an attractive outdoor space to enjoy next summer.
This time, I have pledged to try to do a much more thorough job. I've done a lot of digging, tring to remove as much of the roots of invasive plants and weeds as possible, and turning over the top 6 inches of top soil. Until Sunday, I was using a cheap "value range" spade in my attempts. On sunday, primarily with the aim of buying a fork I went to the local B&Q, and returned with a nice looking wilkinson sword wooden handled digging fork and spade.
For the remainder of the day I worked away with my new toys, and was amazed at the difference in my productivity, not only due to the addition of the fork, but the change of spade made digging a breeze - I was able to move bigger quantities of soil far easier than before, and it cut through roots that previously I would have had to get the pruners onto.
I now have my eyes on a further addition to my toolset - a gardening fork.
Fortunately my father-in-law is a professional grower so we are able to get plants cheap or for free and so have some very nice phormium, ornamental grasses and even some nice Acers, as well as plenty of shrubs.
If you want to add some nice texture to your garden I'd reccomend Phormium and Hostas - they really stand out from the shrubs that most gardens consist of. I really like this ornamental grass as well : Molinia Caerulea Variegata which looks like a tiny bamboo, but when it has grown in for a while adds a unique texture. Festuca Glauca or Sea Urchin also goes really well in blue or metallic containers.
Re:our back garden
TeeJay on 2005-10-11T09:56:00
..also this Hakonechloa is a favourite of mine - another miniture bamboo type grass.
to make this vaguagely ontopic - that website is powered by perl
Re:our back garden
lilstevey on 2005-10-12T07:25:43
Thanks for the pointers.
I am a little unsure of grasses since I hacked back and dug up the pampus grass over the course of the weekend previous. However, I showed the girlfriend your post, and the first thing she said was "Ohh they look nice", so I may have to find room somewhere ( Perhaps filling the void where the pampus used to be ).
A challenge I face with the garden is that the property is rented, so I cannot go to far in my ambitions for fear of running into problems with my tennacy agreement, and it also constrains the amount I am willing to spend improving what is effectivly someone elses property.
Fortunately, in a similar way to yourself, I have a supply of "free" plants through the family - my Mother is a very keen gardener ( of the amateur variety ) and has offered me all manner of cuttings to enrich the garden, so I'm hoping to bring back an acer or something to replace the space currently filled by one or more of the wild roses that could do with having its ambitions constrained.rented gardens
TeeJay on 2005-10-12T08:03:32
with a rented garden, containers and planters are your friend as you can take them with you when you leave and move them from back garden to front step, balcony or patio:)
B & Q had a nice square metallic planter that we put some Festuca Glauca into (blue grass) and it looks great.
Re: Quality Tools
lilstevey on 2005-10-13T12:37:13
Sure agree with that.
The £7 spent on the cheap spade was a waste, as it was inefficeient, and has no resale value. The £20ish quid the replacement cost was an investment that has already payed the dividend saved me hours of work through efficiency savings.
