Kitchen Garden Forum

That rain has done a lot of good outside and even the stuff inside seems to have got a wriggle on with a bit of warmth at night.

Lovely pictures, well worth posting.

PS : Don't know what happened there, was answering Richard then when I look back more good photos have slipped in.

Thanks Richard!

The bank looks beautiful! Love the Welsh poppy, what a bright wee plant to cheer you up. I'm sure it time it will self sow & fill the gaps.

My neighbour gave me poppy and aquilegia seeds for years, I tried every year to start them by being kind. Sort of preparing the sandy grit under the chippings by mixing a little compost then spreading seed. It didn't work. Then one year I just scattered the seed and trod/shuffled them into the clippings. I do the same now every year and have a few areas they are established.

I have quite a few plants that seem to hate soil but love the horrible subsoil under the chippings.

This subsoil I refer to is a local material called 'Scalpings'. Scalping are used as an amalgam under chippings or decorative gravel or as a base for outdoor paving. It consolidates very well so it's bizarre that a plant would like it though it does drain very well which I suppose means it doesn't really consolidate.

lovley pics Richard & tigerburnie, thanks for sharing

Look at the lovely lettuce, nice and clean, no slugs. It all looks like a nursery Tiger.

I forgot to show you the aquilegia, this may all sound simple to you but it's taken years to get this to establish itself around the barn whilst at the farmhouse it's regarded as a weed.

My pretty messy garden. I love aquilegia.

I love aquilegia. I started with the long spurred columbine then bought a purple and white one called Magpie. A stray grannies bonnet one arrived from a neighbour's garden and they have all cross pollinated to make this display.

I do grow veg as well.

I do love your 'messy' garden, PP! Ours is very similar - at the moment there are lots of different coloured aquilegias, red campion, white geranium, honesty, vetchling, yellow wood aven, potentilla, alliums of different heights and colours, oxeye daisies, yellow, orange and red poppies ...... It's all very well to grow vegetables in neat rows but flowers should be allowed to mingle of their own accord, I think.

Beautiful - wish mine was like that this year but the Aquilegias aren't flowering properly this year, I don't know if it was the frost but the flowers are small and distorted. This is it in May 2012.

I love this thread & all your beautiful pictures! What an excellent display to show every part of the country can create magic with a bit of patience and determination!

My white lilies of some type look lovely currently & waiting for the orange ones interplanted with them to make a move one! The other side is a bit sad, roses not in bud yet, dog has murdered most of the alliums & Iris's so lots of bare soil. In despair I just threw out every packet of free seed I collected in vain hope they may like the spot, which is currently protected with every cane & garden tool that is not in use on the lawn repairs! Maybe next year I'll share the garden, haven't even planted out the wee veg bit but it's on the 'To Do' list - let's see that's 2 sweetcorn plants, some cut & come salad & some peas & broad beans! Must get a move on at home but too distracted fishing mittens out of wee spaces - or giant big spaces full of risk!

My excuse anyway!

Fabulous, and yes, it's nice to look at other peoples garden though mine looks messier than any of them if I showed the messy parts. I also have different aquilegia but don't know what they are called.

Another photo I think.

In my case it has been gratifying to have so many things growing in the chippings because whilst I have lots of space I don't have many places to grow flowers. I have space for flowers on our westerly aspect though it is partial shade and the weeds still grow so fast and strong that only well established plants that I established in clay pots the previous year are going to survive. I'm working on it.

A few of my messy parts though I never work to create a garden is what my partners says. The bank with the hedging plants has lost a lot of perennials because I had to glyphosate an area about two foot wide before I planted just to stop the competition. Next is a photo of the garden between us and farmhouse, we used to be joined so there is this 50% shaded corridor of poor soil that is getting better and a clump of hedging to hide a dreadful fence between us.

Making things more messy is that I haven't cut or tended to the grass for over a week, it needs feeding, hitting with selective herbicide and cutting and I have to leave the cuttings down so they don't infect the composting.

Im still recovering from a nasty event last Thursday morning, I'm ok now just not a lot of energy so i'm being lazy. For me life is too short to include "Lazy".

More photos coming, i'm on a roll.