New border at side.

Personally I would get rid of the rampant ivy. Unless your woodwork is in tip top condition with nowhere that the ivy can push in it could ruin your home. if you want an ivy i would keep it well away from boundary fences and buildings. A non invasive alternative would be a climbing hydrangea petiolaris.

I have cut back the ivy where it was climbing up the exterior wall & will keep doing that to keep it under control. I have now removed it off the pergola floor, but have left it running around the side of the concrete floor to cover up the ugly concrete ..... I was thinking I could use a dwarf buxus hedge there instead, but I actually like the mix of dark ivy with roses, & if the rose turns out to be a nice red or burgundy, which I would love it to be, I think a little bit of ivy would look nice in that area. I will have to see how it goes. Obviously, if I have to be incredibly vigilant to prevent it from going where it shouldn't, I will have to think again. Another variety of very rampant ivy around the garage, has virtually destroyed one wall, so I know the damage it is capable of doing, & that is something we will definitely have to work on to eradicate ... much bigger leaves on that one.

I popped an Azalea 'Silver Anniversary' into that side bed this morning, then stood looking at it, & realized that the bed was just too narrow, so David is out there widening it as I type this before heading off to work .... he is wonderful! The azalea is now in a better position with more room to grow.

I had a lovely ivy with a yellow and green heart shaped leaf but it was virtually tearing the garden wall apart. Hence my warning. i put root killer on it eventually to get rid of it.

Mmmm .... I think one of the dwarf buxus hedges might be the way to hide the concrete edge, rather than training the ivy around it. I like them, & I have seen one which is quite low & is a sort of brighter lime green colour rather than the usual green ... might be a French buxus rather than the English one? Will have to check on that. We have a nursery less than two miles from us which has a lot of different buxus, & they can be bought very small in size for a low cost.

It is a good idea to see what you are buying and to discuss the relevant growing speeds of the different varieties. I believe the green one grows fastest 2-3" a year.

Would that be the English buxus? I think when I was on the site of that nursery, it said one of them grew more quickly than the other, & was taller .... think it was the English one. Where it is to be planted around the pergola, I don't mind if it is slow-growing, as long as it isn't too high. I will pay that nursery a visit next weekend .... it's only up the road from me, but because it is privately-owned, I have never visited it. But found it online & was able to see what it had to offer, & had some more unusual things than the commercial garden centres I have been buying from.

This is where knowing the latin name of a plant is very important. English and French box/buxus mean very little to nursery men. They stick to the latin names.
The following link gives interesting information about box/buxus. http://www.boxwoodsociety.org/abs_about.html

Is this the nursery you are talking about http://www.kiwihedge.co.nz/plants.html

I was told to mulch my plants before feeding them as it is easy to burn their roots. To hide the edge you could consider using thyme it comes in different colours green and gold etc. It is evergreen and flowers if left to grow big enough.

Thyme? I haven't ever grown that. I will go online tomorrow to check it out .... just off duty & back home & almost 12.15am so heading off to bed very shortly. Off work for the next three days, so I am looking forward to browsing through more photos on this site & checking some plants out online. When I bought roses, the lady at the garden centre advised me to purchase two large pellets of fertilizer for roses & said to put them into the hole with them when I planted them. Slow-release apparently & suppose to give the roses a very good start to life. With all the other plants I'm putting in, I was just going to sprinkle a bit of the appropriate fertlizer on the topsoil once I have planted them, & then hopefully that should work its way down with watering. That's how the garden-centre lady told me to do it .... what do you think? I haven't done it to any of them yet ... was thinking I would give them all a sprinkling on the ground (not touching the plant), sometime this week.

I'm not familiar with that online nursery Kiwihedge, but must have a look to see what they have. The one near to where we live is the Nikau nursery & they do have a website up, but I don't have the link .... if you called up Nikau nursery NZ on google, I am sure you would easily find it.

All my plants are planted in to holes which are bigger than the bare root or roots in a pot. I mix bone meal in to the soil at the bottomof the hole and sprinkle it lightly round the hole sides and over the soil which is going to be used to fill the hole once I've placed the plant to give me the view of it that I like best. The bone meal helps the plant to make new roots and gives the plant a good start. Itis a slow release fertiliser. I won't feed it again for a year. A knowledgable member advised using Fish, blood and bone and I tried that as a spring dressing on established shrubs with good effect. You will find out by trial and error what works best for you.
I'll have a look at the Nikau web site.

I asked the lady at the garden centre about putting in blood & bone when I planted, & she gave me the slow-release fertilizer to sprinkle on the ground around the plant once its been watered in. It might contain blood & bone, I guess .... I don't have it handy to check. But it sounds like a good idea, to give plants a root-boost when they are planted in. I was just popping in to look at the Nikau web site, I mentioned to you, & saw that there is another Nikau nursery in NZ in Nelson (South Island). The one I am going to visit soon is the Nikau Hill nursery in Marton. I am wanting to get a clematis in along the wall of the new side garden, so going to have a look at what they have.

I had a look at their site. Wow! lucky you to have them so close to home. They do have everything to get your garden looking beautiful.

To Scotsgran ... I spent two hours browsing through their online site today, & my wishlist grew from half a page to five pages!! Heavy downpours of rain all day, so good excuse to sit on the computer after two days of working.At least I don't have to water all my new plants! Nikau Hill do have a great selection & yes, it is wonderful that they are just a five minute drive from where I live. Will be visiting them on Saturday. I have just been putting up some photos from another wonderful nursery nearby, which specializes in delphiniums & creating new hybrid varieties, some of which are just stunning. It's the Dowdeswelle Delphinium nursery in Wanganui NZ, which is just a half hour drive from me. They send seed all over the world, but I will be able to get potted plants, by mail order via courier, as they are not open to the public. However, I saw today, that the Nikau Hill nursery is actually stocking a few of the Dowdeswelle delphiniums, so am hoping to pick up a couple when I visit.

You did say OH was going with you lol, is there a hidden agenda there then. Five pages, hmm I'd think seriously about the bones of the garden first, remember you have to plant them all and the borders are not dug out for them. Or have you been doing some overtime which we have not seen yet. It is very exciting. Good luck with it and we are all looking forward to seeing your progress.

Scotsgran .. with my OH at my side, I won't be coming home with more than four or five plants, I don't think. LOL I will just be working my way through my five page wish list over the next five years. We will get the side fenceline border all dug out & planted up over the next month, as this fickle spring weather permits ... finally stopped raining after two days of heavy downpours. Then I would like to work on getting the beds on either side of the front of the house (beneath windows) dug out & planted up ... that shouldn't take too long. And in-between there will be weeding along the driveway, & that very untidy bit by the garage, & maintaining the new beds we have put in. Hopefully, we will get the front picket fence in during first two weeks in January, as my OH is on annual leave then & he has decided to put the fence up himself ... as just too expensive to get it done ... & he put the lovely big fence in which the hardenbergia is up against.

It sounds like we have very similar talented OH's. It seems a bit mad to have someone do everything for you when you can do it yourself. You sound full of energy and your enthusiasm is infectious. It is much easier to change course half way through a project if you see a better way of doing it, when you are doing it yourself.