About me
I took up gardening hands-on 25 years ago, and have had three gardens.
I started with a large but shady urban one, in which anything went if I could get it to grow. That was a lot of fun, but I made many mistakes with the plants I tried: too vigorous, not vigorous enough, and just plum out of place...
I then took on a once-beautifully-landscaped country garden a bit past its prime. This was a lot more inhibiting. I didn't have the guts to change much that had been put there by my elders and betters, and ended up letting the 15-metre perpetually-flowering herbaceous border go to rack and ruin because I was too scared to interfere!
Now I have a nice empty building site of a garden in Norfolk, after overseeing an extensive/intensive two-year rebuild. You can imagine what the ground is like, but we've now managed to get most of it to lawn and gravel, so the fun is about to start.
Gardening expertise
Very Keen
Biggest gardening accomplishments
My latest: constructing a 2-metre by 1.5-metre L-shaped planter to fit into a SW-facing corner of our garage wall. It's big enough for two climbing roses (Ena Harkness and Bettina) and a baby fig (San Piero) which is currently in a large pot for overwintering indoors, but which will end up with its roots confined in the corner of the L.
Biggest gardening frustrations
I'm struggling with options for a 13-metre by 1.5-metre NW-facing shrubbery. I've got my list of suspects lined up (shrubs tolerant of mostly-shade), but I haven't the confidence to go ahead and order as I really can't get the knack of thinking through the variables of leaf type/leaf colour/flower colour/size/habit with that extra element of time-of-year always putting the kaibosh on any plans. I need a virtual model: any suggestions?
The gardening project I am currently working on
NW facing shrubbery, 13x1.5m, from scratch
MundyE's forum posts
New shrubbery - Help!
Sat. 15th November 2008 20:20
