CDfolia
Member since: Jul 10 | Last seen: May 13 | Years gardening: 17 | Organic gardener
I’m a passionate amateur wildlife and organic gardener.
I mainly garden for my best friend who has more garden space, better soil and a small budget (as opposed to my no budget). On the whole things are grown from seed, divisions and cuttings wherever possible. That said I’m a great one for rescuing sale plants that look like they are ready to die, and my friend is happy to spend money on a few unusual plants each year and on things I can’t grow myself.
Both our gardens are small but I like to pack a LOT in and do my best to ensure that there are areas which will look nice even in the depths of winter. I’m mainly growing shrubs and flowers due to inhospitable conditions for veg but as soil is improved and raised beds built the edible food count increases. I’m obsessed with making compost and I love propagating.
See my growing collection of Plants I Grow (and insects on them) in this Flickr group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/1739398@N23/
Biggest gardening problems are wind, frost, local cats, slugs/snails.
Biggest joys are fruit, herbs, birds, bees, butterflies and scented flowers.
I have a chronic illness that has stopped me climbing hills and seeing friends in recent years but I find that by doing what I can in the garden it has huge benefits to both mind and body and stops my illness from completely taking over. Even when I’m not well enough to garden I get enormous pleasure seeing all the things I’ve grown through the window and watching all the wildlife that it attracts.
NB. I’m not in Loanhead, it just says that on my profile because that’s the nearest place that will register similar temperatures to the ones here. Generally our extremes are a few degrees higher and lower.
Gardens
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Zone 8b One of the areas I do in my best friend’s garden. 3 Seasons of interest but intended to look best in Spring as this is the area seen from the...
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Zone 8b Central small bed in patio with Cherry tree, bulbs, small shrubs and some herbs, grasses and flowers. Sometimes backed by large tubs. Loosely has a...
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Zone 8b Sun in late afternoon/evening. Dogwood and Hebe’s for winter interest, mixed bulbs and flowers for other seasons. Key plants include ferns, J...
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Zone 8b Reasonably sheltered at times, wind tunnel during gales. Mostly pale leaved evergreen shrubs to brighten the shade below tall fence but have grown ...
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Zone 8b Thin ericaceous border. Mostly bulbs and shrubs against a wall with an old Cotoneaster horizontallis trained like a strange windblown standard up t...
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Zone 8b Key plants are Evening Primrose, Allium, Foxglove, Alchemilla Mollis and Lychnis. The Southern corner that I garden for my best friend is one of th...
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Zone 8b Old Magnolia growing on compacted clay soil. Have pruned it to a better shape allowing light below for new flowers to grow. A main walkways for old...
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Zone 8b I do pretty much all the gardening at A’s but I wanted him to get a bit more hands on and starrt to take on some of the work and subsequent r...
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Zone 8b The old Lilac was already here but not much else. The area gets decent sun in summer though not at other times. One trellis holds small flowered ho...
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Zone 8b Two very deep raised beds built* 2008 against South facing wall using discarded wood and old fence posts. The gravel and concrete are couldn’...
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Zone 8b Tiny sliver of soil along the edge of the washing line patio, but often has large tubs of shrubs and flowers in Summer. The wee border has Spring b...
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Zone 8b Main area of my best friend’s garden. The photo show’s 1/3 of the bed. He’d neglected the garden for years and it was full of pe...
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Zone 8b When we get time this would ideally be a raised bed for veg (to avoid the horsetails growing everywhere)
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Zone 8b Small fairly ericaceous bed, morning sun in summer, dappled shade rest of day, shade other seasons.
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Zone 8b Mostly beach hedging to break the wind. Overshadowed by neighbour’s large fence and huge Silver Birch trees so the soil gets almost no moistu...
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Zone 8b Full sun, FULL WIND! Heavy clay, compacted and acid but working it gradually and replaced some of it with new compost (mostly home-made) so that I ...
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Zone 8b Sun in the morning, dappled through to midday then shade. Very windy narrow footpath. Blackberry, strawberry and blueberry dominate with tubs of ot...
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Zone 8b Narrow path between sheds, very little direct sun but pale painted wood on shed and fence keeps it quite bright. Very happy clematis growing with s...
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Zone 8b A reclaimed part of my garden. There used to be a fence there and the previous owner dumped their rubbish in the space between the fence and the sh...
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Zone 8b Fairly well drained dryish spot under a blue toned conifer. Gets a good amount for sun. Quite exposed to winds. Fairly acidic soil.
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Zone 8b Thin border. Dappled shade but bright from reflected light. Very windy narrow pathway. Old established Camellia being kept tight and 5ft after wint...
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Zone 8b The Choisya was already here but struggling. After improving the soil it has become VERY wide. Lots of wildflower and cottage garden type plants ar...
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Zone 8b Has a Deutzia, a Fennel and some Crocosmia (and a much loved cat, rest in peace )but the rest of the plants have been removed to allow workmen in s...
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Zone 8b Decided to rename this the Shade bed since it describes it best regardless of what is growing. It’s a really calm space, a nice place to be a...
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Zone 8b Flowers, grasses, fruit and and Spring bulbs along fence between berberis and conifer. Newly uncovered with 1st plantings all in Summer/Autumn 2010...
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Zone 8b My West facing garden, very windy. Acid clay soil but gradually improving. Reclaimed in 2010 from years of being under plastic and tons of gravel f...
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Zone 8b Name a bit redundant as the weight of snow snapped the old Willow. But until it becomes known for whatever replaces it I will still think of it as ...
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Zone 8b Just realised I have no photo’s of the houseplants! Instead I’ve added plants which spend much of their time inside, though tend to be ...
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Zone 8a This is a wishlist garden to gather ideas and plants for my Mum to think about. She keeps talking about how she won’t be able to garden when ...
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Zone 8b Seeds, cuttings, etc which may be in a coldframe, shed or house or mini propagators at different times of year. The current photo’s show the ...
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Zone 8b Not an area in the garden but a list of weeds throughout both our gardens which are allowed to grow to some degree because they have wildlife, orna...
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Zone 8b Not a specific garden, but a place to keep notes on Birds, Insects and other wildlife in the garden. As our garden areas have been worked on over t...
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