General Chat

Although I have a fairly small garden its is quite a designed garden and has won first place in the local garden competitions over the past years. Last year we decided not to enter anymore of these as they really can be time consuming and hard work.

This year I have suggested may be its time to take the pond back out of the garden and extend that area more into a seating area, we tend to have the family round in the summer for the odd bar b que and with the garden designed the way it is they are forever watching that someone dont go in the pond also.

This is now where the OH thinks I may have lost the plot a little. I used to have an allottment and enjoyed growing some of my own salad and veggies etc. I suggested that we use the smaller half of the garden into something I can grow a few salad things again.

Its a big turn around from competition gardening.

Heres is a link to the garden as it was in the garden comps.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=14157&l=0d4cb&id=618961788

I think that would be good,nothing better than fresh fruit & veg.

i would go for it
i too enter garden competitions and last year i won gold for my front garden

am off to look at the facebook stuff

julia x

I typed a really long reply saying how good it would be and its gone. If any other thread has a message from me saying how wonderful it is to grow your own fruit and veg spec for bbqs it was meant to go here - no idea where it has gone.

Grow your own veg again Colin........nothing tastes better does it.

Competition is all well and good but did you find that you missed out on this or that plant just being beautiful in itself ?

Good luck with what ever you choose to do.
Amanda xx

Hi BM :):)

I used to love the taste of the fresh produce we used to grow from the allotment, I dont think you can beat it. I dont think I could handle a whole allotment plot now but it would be nice to have some fresh onions, maybe a few potatoes and nice fresh salad straight from the garden :)

Hope you don't mind but i had a peep at the garden pics, what a beautiful little garden, so colourful, you must be very proud of it.

Hi Julie, Maddie and Amanda :):)

Its good to see some feedback on this from keen gardeners. I wish I had a really large garden, one I could do much with, im pretty restricted with this one really :)

Hi Moonshine :):)

You are very welcome and Thank You :):)

Colin,,,,I would be lost without my pond ,

cant you grow veg some on big pots,,,,,,
Your garden is lovlery I saw it before on your other site,,,no wonder you won prizes,,,,

My Dad was known locally as the tomato man Colin, because his tomatoes actually tasted of something, not like they sell in the supermarkets.......he had a small octagonal greenhouse and grew peppers and cucumbers too.......and a vegetable plot,....

Maddie's idea of growing them for use in your barbecue's is great......and when my Dad had his own allotment we never had shop bought veg.......and they used to taste of something.....

Rest on your laurels Colin......go for something different...you could always put your produce into veg shows......

Colin, I just looked at your garden.....it is absolutely beautiful......no wonder you won competitions for it.....you clever, clever man.....

In my humble opinion I don't think that any garden is ever "finished" as such..........it changes as "we" the gardeners do...........as my kids have grown up I've been able to add the longed for pond and green house.
We have an allottment also and grow various Heritage veg types ( some I have to grow in the garden to stop cross pollination ).
Have you tried growning some veg in tubs Colin ?
That way you might avoid such a radical change if you not quite sue which way to go.
Amanda xx

Hiya Colin very pretty garden
You do what you feel. You can't beat fresh stuff and Oh I miss our allotment too.
A little peaceful haven it was.

I'm thinking of getting OH to plant potatoes in the redundant black dustbins.

Tricia xx

Hi All :)

Julia :):) Congratulations on winning Gold last year, it is a lovely achievement and feeling when you know all the hard work has finally paid off, it really can be hard work with competitions.

Maddie :) That is a great idea and one I hadnt given any thought to, I love the idea of growing things for a bar b que :):)

Amanda :):) You are very right of course :) There are so many plants that I missed out on just because of the competitons themselves, Judges seem to have their own favourites as we learned over the years so it meant sacrificing space and plants we liked sometimes just to make space for those particular things.

Kay :):) I love the sound of running water and the pond itself, we have a couple of smaller features in the garden now also, Hayley my other half says I am not allowed to tocuh her little chinese garden which has its own little water feature. When I built the pond I made quite a big mistake and placed it in a very awkward position, something I now have learned to my cost.

Sally :):) You and Maddie have just given me a lovely idea, I now have ideas of growing little cherry tomatoes just for the bar be ques.

Hi Von , Hi Tricia :):)

Von :):) Amanda :):) and Tricia :):)

It is an excellent idea to grow some things in tubs and bags as this would certainly save some much needed space. For those who have seen the pictures I want to try and keep as much of the left hand side of the garden for floral, its the area behind the shed that I am hoping to use, as you can see that area is not that large either.

I haven't managed to view your garden photos Colin.
We have a new p.c. and I'm struggerling to get to grips with it.............lol

I grew climbing french beans (Cherokee trail of tears) in the space behind my green house last year,
in grow bags......and spring onions in a plastic trough.

Do you get sunshine behind your shed ?

Amanda

That's a beautiful garden.

You could grow salad stuff and strawberries in hanging baskets. I have also seen strawberries being grown in growbags which have been hung up by one end. You can get quite a lot of plants in a growbag like that.

Sue

Hi Amanda :):)

I love the taste of freshly pulled spring onions :):) There is nothing like it on a cheese sandwich :) My mouths watering :)

The back garden is situated in partial sun only as it is never in full sun in the later afternoon, we see sunshine up till about two oclock then it disapears behind the shadow. The area behind the shed has always been a little harder to grow flowers and things and has a few ferns and more established plants there, annuals and other smaller plants just dont like the area there.