Martin and Judy’s garden ( part 2 )

If you are wondering where part one is, I would recommend reading – A new garden.

Yesterday , I headed back to check in on how it is all going…

These two images were from the main planting day in September . There has been a surge in germination of all sorts of vegetation in the top soil, and the containerised plants from Martin and Judy’s previous garden have settled in, and are growing away really well. Even though this garden is in its very early stages, it already possesses a real sense of vitality, beauty and health. Where there was emptiness , there is most definitely a sense of a beautiful garden emerging from the earth.

In all seriousness I couldn’t be any happier in how it is looked on Saturday 11th November 2022 . It looked lush, healthy and green , and that really was exciting.

Images from September 2022

This really is an incredibly fascinating and exciting project, and the reason for this is because the growing medium is a mix of imported top soil, and builders rubble , which throws up all sorts of interesting seedlings .

I’m not concerned in the slightest about this vegetative growth from the seed bank from the top soil ( or weeds as some might say …) and I intend to incorporate many of them. The reason for this is because many are nectar and seed rich , and I believe they will provide a brand new garden with a sense of age that generally only comes with a natural and mature garden. Maybe that is a sweeping statement, but all the mature gardens I like best have seedlings like this in them !

Due to this garden’s size, it will be totally manageable to develop this garden, however if this was a large expanse of top soil , I’m not sure it would be quite the same joyous experience. As a gardener I know ( only too well ) that owing to the nature of some of the pernicious weeds in the topsoil, they would very quickly start to swamp out the the long term health and aesthetics of the planting area if they were not selected out of the garden. There really are seedlings all over the place , and they will be left to do their on thing, only being thinned out if they start to congest the newly bought perennials

In addition to this , all the dozens of containers which were part of Martin and Judy’s previous home, also had vast amounts of aquilegia, marjoram, snap dragons, violet, primrose, borage, linaria and geranium seedlings, and these were scattered and planted into the ground in September.

With all of this in mind Saturday was spent going through the topsoil and weeding out docs, thistles and pernicious couch grass , but retaining seedlings such as plantain, herb robert , euphorbias, forget me nots, feverfew, and poppies, all of which are nectar and seed rich.

Copious amounts of bulbs were also planted , a liberal sprinkling of curry powder was included into the growing medium – it really does appear to go some way to keep mice and other rodents away – particularly with crocus and tulips.

The concrete pool edge, is being softened with moss. Once finished it will be just like a giant living picture frame around the pool !

Judy and Martin really like the perennial grass – Oryzopsis, and I happen to have it self seeding all through my garden so I took several pieces to plant, and the seed heads have been scattered through out their entire garden .

The second image is from my garden, Orizopsis is a very elegant perennial grass, that likes to self seed, and it happens to be one of my favourites.

Back at home, my greenhouse is slowly starting to fill up with tender summer flowering plants. I have really enjoyed the colours from begonias this year, and this Abutilon was sown from seed in March.

Chrysanthemums are looking outstanding. This has been my first year for growing them, and they have surpassed all of my expectations.

Hope you you have enjoyed this garden update, there will be another one along in a week or two. Martin and Judy’s garden will shortly be having trees planted, so my next project is to work out which three to choose.