new garden
By sarahc
9 comments
am trying to get a new garden established at the bottom of my main garden(peice of reclaimed land that was overgrown with brambles at least 4 ft high) have moved my tree hopefully successfully but want to put evergreen and fragrant shrubs in there too any ideas?
26 Jul, 2008
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dont know what type of soil i have soil that grows great brambles lol
26 Jul, 2008
lol
26 Jul, 2008
am new tothis gardening lark only ever grew plants in pots before we moved to this house with its 70ft garden sodont know what typeof soil i have (very wet irish soil) how do i find out
26 Jul, 2008
love the picture of your dog irish whats his name
26 Jul, 2008
im still learning Sarahc, thats why i like this site. b4 you know it you will have loads of suggestions for your garden.
dogs name is meg, her ego is getting bigger by the day cos of comments from folk on GOY lol
26 Jul, 2008
Just to give you an idea I'll tell you two of my favourite evergreen and fragrant shrubs are Lavender and Holly.
Lavender is fragrant. It's scent is wonderfull but it deos need a well drained soil. There are diferent types aswell.
Holly is evergreen and has berries in winter aswell ( as long as you have male and female plants ) and some varieties are variegated etc. It's quite easy to grow too.
Good luck with your garden , and welcome to G O Y .
27 Jul, 2008
Hi Sarah - nice to meet you. Don't let your garden get you down - make an overall plan, then start with a small area nearest the house. After you have made this as you want it, work back to the next section. You will soon have everything under control. Is there anything in there that you'd like to keep or is it too overgrown to find out? Ther may be treasures lurking in the brambles!!!! Good luck!
27 Jul, 2008
There a couple of ways of finding out your soil type.
Firstly, pick up a handful when it is damp and clench your fist to make a ball of soil. When you open your hand, does it fall aprt and feel gritty - if so, your soil is sandy. Does it stay in a ball and feel slimey - if so, you have clay. But if it sort of holds together but is easily broken up, then you have a good loam.
The other thing is to see what your neighbours are growing. If they have rhododendrons growing happily, you have an acid soil; if they don't, then you are probably on an alkaline one.
Once you know these two things, you can start to investigate what will grow on the soil you have.
27 Jul, 2008
hi sarah'c welcome to GOY , you have certainly come to the right place for friendly advice.
do you know what type of soil is in your garden?
26 Jul, 2008