Category: planning
Creating an easycare perennial border
April 13, 2018
With so much choice when it comes to perennial border plants, choosing the perfect products for your garden can be difficult. If you’ve yet to try splitting your birders into three sections (front, middle and back), it’s an effective and fun way to make choosing your perennials easy. Once you start thinking about your plants by section, it’s just a question of choosing the right sizes and the colours to fit your scheme.
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When dreams become reality
January 13, 2013
Clearing some of the wilderness last week
Whether you are reclaiming ground, starting from scratch or re-planning an existing garden, turning dreams into reality requires a certain amount of foresight and strategy. But where to begin, particularly if you are new to gardening? I looked back at the blog posts and statistics for all I have written on this Dobies blog over the last two years and noticed that the topic that still attracts the most attention is anything to do with layouts and cropping.
Red-White-and-Blue (and Rainbows, too)
January 22, 2012
This weekend’s post as intended focuses on the Ornamental Garden, but is taking a little meander into June 2012 – the red-white-and-blue should give you a clue. The Queen’s Jubilee, of course, and a coincidence. A flyer that arrived by email regarding Dobies plants available by post, coupled with news from our village flower show committee that we are to ‘have a bit of a do’, reminded me of previous royal occasions when villagers hung out flags, organized street parties, and the like. With plants available in such patriotic colours, front gardens should offer a splendid tribute – a joyous celebration all summer; and one that assuredly will be duplicated all over the country.
Planning the Perfect Potager
February 18, 2011
Discussing a secluded area in our Cotswold garden sorely in need of reclamation; almost a total makeover – but I have such plans (though bringing them to fruition will take time, and hours of work).
Rain in the wind, and falling from the sky – and I wonder when I will ever get back to the joys of plunging my hands in the warm soil, and actually sowing and planting anything, let alone harvesting young and succulent salads and vegetables. I return to my series of photographs taken around the garden in early January, and the plans that I was trying to formulate in my head for this year; always more than I can ever accomplish! Last week I blogged about my passion for herbs – but that is as nothing when compared to my PASSION for POTAGERS. Potagers? Best described perhaps as productive yet ornamental kitchen gardens. Not just food, but glorious colour, and the ongoing delights of watching edible plants grow, whilst also accommodating beneficial wildlife, no matter how small the space.
Garden Planning and Crop Rotation
January 6, 2011
out in the garden taking stock: new plans and tasks that need attention (the first in my case must be the shed)
January is such a good time to evaluate your garden. What could be better than stepping out with a clipboard, making sketches and notes and even – an aspect that always thrills me – creating a new plot. In my case, this always means reclaiming, for last year I spent more time writing about the different mini-gardens within our acre plot than actually working in them! Experienced gardeners will no doubt have everything under control (though you can’t plan the weather), but if you are new to the ‘keen and dedicated gardening community’ you may appreciate a few tips.