Echinaceas starting to flower. I love echinaceas.
Green twister
Big kahuna
Tangerine dream
Funky white
Big kahuna
Tangerine dream
Funky white
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Hi Debs, We watch garden rescue on Together TV and BBC. Of course the labour is free, but it gives a good idea of the process. I always try to gauge the materials and labour for myself and ask the question as to whether a quote is reasonable.
My electrician and plumber charge about ÂŁ30/hour and I canât see any reason for builders/landscapers to charge that much. Materials are very variable and Iâm sure you will choose the paving you like. I have no idea what it can cost now. There are some very nice smooth sandstones these days rather than the riven Indian one we choose about 10 years ago. They do weather and acquire accretions so it may not look the same in 10 years. Sandstone of at about 30mm thickness is very strong. If it is laid on a bed of sand it would stay put. The most difficult process would be cutting to fit.
Phil
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We love them also along with Helianthemums, Rudbeckia etc., but so do the slugs.
How do yo do it?
Phil
All my echinaceas are in pots. Some do have a habit of being being poor the following year, which is frustrating. I think itâs just in their genetics that they donât succeed year after year. They donât like to be fed too much and they donât like soggy soil. Light, sandy, but with constant moisture.
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3 photos of our garden redesign. 1000m2 in total, one veranda (build 6 months ago), a 50m2 garden house (start coming winter), 300m2 tiles & other walking / parking surfaces. Oh and 70 garden lights and a watering system.
Itâs a really beautiful design. It came with a list of hundred+ different plants and flowers all thought thru.
We canât do it all in one go financially, but in a years time the infrastructure should be complete.
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Youâre place looks fantastic, love your garden. Cheers.
The pictures are renderings of the design, but yes it will look like this and slightly better.
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Looks great. That glasshouse looks interesting. Any photos of that?
The glasshouse is a âplaceholderâ in the design.
We like to have a Victorian glasshouse there with a dwarf wall etc. Griffin / Alitex / Janssens or a similar brand. Importing one costs about 40k which is in the grand scheme of things not too much. I rather have that than a Car.
Itâs an explicit requirement though. My late grandparents had glasshouses and I spend a lot of time of my youth in them.
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More echinaceas. Yes, there are even more after these too.
Echinacea purpurea prairie splendor amongst big kahuna.
Prairie splendour, magnus and funky white.
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Wow. Gorgeous colour there.
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Beautiful, especially at this moment.
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Carnivorous plant drosera binata. Itâs produces sticky globules which attract flies. The flies get stuck and the wriggling stimulates the hairs to fold over onto the prey, where it digests it.
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That looks very nice. One question though - why so many lights? My neighbour has powerful ones all over his garden, and leaves them on until well after midnight just about everyday at the moment, a clear case of light pollution.
I enjoy sitting in the dark as night falls - unfortunately next doorâs lights spoil it for me.
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Absolutely correct observation. Weâve given the âgoâ for the cables, but not for the lights themselves, we add that later and Iâm not a fan of permanent lighting. It would be nice for a party though.
At the bottom of my garden is an area Iâve let go, in the Spring it is full of red campion, the cardoons are between 3 and 4 metres tall. I try to encourage wildlife, hedgehogs, frogs & the odd toad - but this guy was a bit special
Thatâs just to explain the background to the shot , the rest is a bit more ordered .
Anyway Iâve put out a bucket of water in case he comes back
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Fantastic!
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While carrying out a survey across farmland (route planning for part of Sustransâ NCN Route 1) some years ago, I noticed a plant I wasnât familiar with. I took a photo back to our Biodiversity Officer. âRed Campionâ she proclaimed but couldnât give me any more info. I needed to know if this was a plant we needed to protect, so I Googled âRed Campionâ on my office desk-top computer. Big mistake! The screen was suddenly filled with endless amounts of pornographic websites.
Iâve never closed down a computer so quickly in my life! 
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So thatâs a roe deer, right? We have muntjac deer that come into our garden at night and cause significant damage by eating buds and leaves of some flowering plants, ripe Tay berries and raspberries, courgette flowers, etc. Iâve had to put fencing and netting up at strategic points. They also bark loudly to one another across the fields adjacent to our garden. I assume this is territorial rather than one telling others where the food is to be found!?
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