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13 hours ago, Jarvinja Ilnow said:

Well, I've almost finished our front garden, after posting about doing it around 3 (?) years ago! We wanted a butterfly and bumblebee friendly garden.

 

It's a raised bed thing. It was all full of builders' rubble and covered with nicer aggregate. We got a tree surgeon to get rid of the massive shrub, and we emptied the aggregate ourselves. Left rubble/ aggregate outside for people to nick but no one did (possible problem with living in quite a nice area, or just the limp-wristed southerners).

 

It's been brilliant for me and my wife to work on this. After the chemo and adrenal failure I'm fucked for energy all the time. This has been a step-by-step thing, and quite a grind, but gradual progress is such an antidote to all the negative feelings that come with this shit.

 

I used to do gardens for friends, or for social services residential projects with the clients, and did the heavy lifting, but my (truly) better half knows how much it meant to do something creative - other than building settlements on Fallout 4. 

 

This is going to sound made up but as we planted the last sedum, a white butterfly showed up. Obviously I killed it - little twat molesting my garden - but it was good to see. Just got to add a bit more weed suppressant and gravel.

 

Will post some photos tomorrow, for Champ's fair but brutal perusal.

 

* Hopefully makes sense.

Great post, Jarv, and, yes, I’d love to see your photos.

It’s become bit of a cliché but there really is something so satisfying in the activity of gardening as well as its restorative value.

 

Lockdown has had a big effect on my gardening and garden. Until very recently the garden was just my thing but over the last little while Mr C has been getting interested too. To be honest, I did not welcome him butting into my space but equally because he wasn’t involved I never felt I could/had the guts to do much more than tinker with the planting but over the past few months we’ve been putting together ideas for changes to the garden that we can make over time which is really exciting.

 

Included in this, and it seems kind of ridiculous that I didn’t think about it more before, is the idea of making the garden with wildlife in mind. It may be coincidence but we do seem to be getting more birds in the garden then I ever remember 

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13 minutes ago, Champ said:

Great post, Jarv, and, yes, I’d love to see your photos.

It’s become bit of a cliché but there really is something so satisfying in the activity of gardening as well as its restorative value.

 

Lockdown has had a big effect on my gardening and garden. Until very recently the garden was just my thing but over the last little while Mr C has been getting interested too. To be honest, I did not welcome him butting into my space but equally because he wasn’t involved I never felt I could/had the guts to do much more than tinker with the planting but over the past few months we’ve been putting together ideas for changes to the garden that we can make over time which is really exciting.

 

Included in this, and it seems kind of ridiculous that I didn’t think about it more before, is the idea of making the garden with wildlife in mind. It may be coincidence but we do seem to be getting more birds in the garden then I ever remember 

What have you done and are you getting different birds or more of the usual?

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11 hours ago, TheBitch said:

What have you done and are you getting different birds or more of the usual?

It’s more of a work in progress but we’ve planted some trees (birch) and am thinking more about growing plants that attract insects and leaving plants to develop seed rather than being too quick to chop things back.

 

I’d say we’ve been getting more birds and more varieties but a lot of people have reported that over the past few months.

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14 hours ago, Champ said:

It’s more of a work in progress but we’ve planted some trees (birch) and am thinking more about growing plants that attract insects and leaving plants to develop seed rather than being too quick to chop things back.

 

I’d say we’ve been getting more birds and more varieties but a lot of people have reported that over the past few months.

Certain birds are attracted by different kinds of seeds etc, my mate had some kind of plant which attracted Bullfinch 's which are boss and great to see in your garden, wish I had one, worth checking out if you like that sort of thing. 

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During lockdown I was putting mealworms out in a double cylinder feeder and every morning about 15-20 birds emptied it in around 20 minutes. I dont know what birds they were. Went on for well over a month. Cost me a fortune.

 

I stopped doing it for about 6 weeks as I had put a load of lawn seed down and didnt want them eating that.

 

Put the feeder back up at the weekend and, excuse the pun, not a dicky bird. 

No loyalty these days. Probably sunning themselves in South Africa somewhere.    

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Very much in the spirit of the OP, I've recently moved and now have a garden. The former owners obviously kept it in good nick and, although we eventually want to make changes, we're going to spend this summer with it as-is to see how it goes.  

 

There are various plants and ferns knocking about, none of which I have a clue what to do with. If anyone could identify anything I'd be really grateful. 

 

 

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6 hours ago, Paulie Dangerously said:

Very much in the spirit of the OP, I've recently moved and now have a garden. The former owners obviously kept it in good nick and, although we eventually want to make changes, we're going to spend this summer with it as-is to see how it goes.  

 

There are various plants and ferns knocking about, none of which I have a clue what to do with. If anyone could identify anything I'd be really grateful. 

 

 

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Looks like one of the types of houses my cousin used to own in West Derby.

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6 hours ago, Paulie Dangerously said:

.. If anyone could identify anything I'd be really grateful. 

 

20210327_103220.jpg

 

 

 

 

That's a hydrangea mate. Looks nice and healthy.

 

It'll grow big colourful flowers on it that'll last all through summer. They'll probably be pink - but if you get some Iron pellets (think its iron anyway) from the garden centre and put them in the soil, they'll go a lovely blue.

 

You could move it from the pot to a sunny part of the garden if you want it to grow big - but they look great in pots too.

 

 

 

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