How Does Your Garden Grow?

[LadyCG]

Our garden is currently a work in progress but I am looking at things I want to buy for the garden including trees, etc., but also nesting boxes and bug houses such as this:

CADOCA® XXL Insect Hotel | 48x31x10cm | Wooden Pitched Roof Garden Bee Hotel | Natural Wood Weatherproof Hanging Bug House Nest Box Nesting Habitat Bees Butterflies Ladybugs Gardening Home : Amazon.co.uk: Garden

It got me thinking... people's tastes vary when it comes to gardens.  Some like the mature look or that fairytale secret garden style, some like ultra modern with snazzy water features and fire pits, some like their hot tubs and al fresco dining or "man caves" complete with pool table and 62" TV.  

What is your garden like?

[LadyCG]

Links don't seem to work...

 

CADOCA® XXL Insect Hotel | 48x31x10cm | Wooden Pitched Roof Garden Bee Hotel | Natural Wood Weatherproof Hanging Bug House Nest Box Nesting Habitat Bees Butterflies Ladybugs Gardening Home : Amazon.co.uk: Garden

[vulcan42]

When I retired I decided to change my mundane garden and transferred it into a Japanese one. As we gardeners know, a garden is never finished but it's 99% there.

[LadyCG]

Oh well never mind.  It's a bug house anyway.

[LadyCG]

Japanese Gardens are lovely.  Do you have flowing water in the garden?

[roopower]

Front garden nicely kept, thanks to the gardener. Back garden a bit of a jungle for birds and insects though the bushes do need pruning. Grass is kept fairly tidy but not too bothered about the rest.

[vulcan42]

LadyCG, I don't have a stream but have two ponds, one with a small fountain.

Off topic, yes you did start a theme on true or false a few years ago.

[THECORBYLOON]

This is the Amazon.com User Recommendation

[LadyCG]

I thought so, Vulcan.

Your garden sounds enchanting.  I look forward to being able to sit in my own one day and enjoying the beauty of it.  I want lots of wildlife to visit, hence the bug house, etc.

[LadyCG]

Sounds lovely, Roo.  The birds still visit our mess of a garden because I always put food out for them.

Thanks TCL.

[LadyCG]

This question is open too to those who have patios or balconies.  I am interested in how you engage with the outdoors, do you grow your own vegetables, herbs, etc., do you have bird feeders and what sort of critters you attract.

[Barmaid]

Our garden is absolutely lovely.  We cannot take the credit for it because we have only been here almost 3 years so we have stuck to improving what we had to start with.  Although next year, we have some big plans to change things round a bit.  The house is an old farmhouse.  We have gardens (extending to approx. 2 acres) around 3 sides and the old farmyard is our drive on the other side.  This huge expanse of gravel has been prettied up by Mr BM who has something like 60 pots out there.  The front garden is very formal – laid to lawn with an established herbaceous border along one edge and a new herbaceous border opposite which we put in.  One side is bordered by a lavender hedge with alliums that come up in the spring.  In the middle there is a knot garden with box hedging and ivory roses.  That is called “ASBO’s garden” because it is where he liked to snooze and where he is buried.  There are lots of mature trees in the garden (several are a couple of hundred years old) and so we are limited to what we can do because of the trees (they take a huge amount of moisture and nutrients and all have TPOs) – but provide wonderful dappled shade.  It is a haven for birds and other wildlife.  We’ve got a herbaceous garden out the back which merges into a woodland garden.  Further back there is an orchard and a large pond. It is not really a pond, it is the pit from where the clay was dug out to clad the house and it dries up in the summer – but no matter because the other side of the boundary past the rose garden is the village pond with ducks and moorhen on.  I have a herb and fruit garden by the back door and Mr BM maintains a very productive vegetable garden (although I am now sick of tomatoes and cucumbers).  I will sit outside from dawn til dusk and work out there.  I’ve got a gazebo in case it rains and also, some clever soul put in external power sockets all round the house so I can sit pretty much anywhere I like.  We have bird feeders, watering stations and lost count of the different species of bird at around 50.  However, it is a real battle getting the hazelnuts and walnuts before the squirrels do.  We also work hard on maintaining a proper compost heap so that we can keep putting nutrients back into the garden.  The house can go to hell in a handcart – as long as the garden looks nice!!

[LadyCG]

That sounds just lovely, BM, and so nice that ASBO is resting eternally in his favourite spot.  

The dream for me is a house in the country eventually, with a good portion of land.  LordMG will take some convincing though - especially after all the graft he's done around this house.

[Chipchopper]

Firstly, welcome to the wonderful word of gardening, you are on a fascinating voyage of discovery.

I manage my garden largely for wildlife and i find it a never ending source of interest and wonderment year round.

The fish pond is the most fascinating, just sitting and feeding the fish is so rewarding and stress relieving

my mini wild flower meadow is ten times better than the boring monoculture that it used to be.

Feeding the birds that come and go is a pleasure to watch too.

[LadyCG]

Oh how lovely, Chip.  You must be in seventh heaven feeding your fish and just soaking up the beauty of it all.  The wildflower meadow sounds absolutely beautiful.  

I might take the little one out in the garden in a bit and do some frog-hunting.  OH found five last week in one day.

[pastafreak]

I've not got a garden, but if I did it would be lush and rather random with hidden nooks. Lots of old fashioned rambling roses, clematis and lilacs and honeysuckle bushes. Arbours and trellises for the climbing plants. Shady spots with ferns, and possibly a pond for frogs and toads. A veg patch also.

Instead I have an indoor jungle with plants on every window sill...they are therapeutic.