Friday open thread: back to the garden

[dolorosa_12]

It's the morning of the first day of a four-day weekend, I'm spending the holiday at home, and from tomorrow, the weather is supposed to be very nice. We've just had landscaping work done on our back garden, leaving us with six large vegetable patches, a slightly tidier herb garden (partly filled already with sage, rosemary and a massive bay tree), and a huge raised flower bed. The front garden, on which we had landscaping work done last year, now consists mainly of a large, L-shaped raised flower bed, partially filled with flowering bulbs, but still with lots more space to plant.

In other words, the perfect conditions to do some gardening this long weekend.

My question for you all, therefore, is what should I plant in my garden?

I already have seeds for peas, corn, parsnip, beetroot, zucchini, butternut pumpkin, radishes, tomatoes, rocket, lettuce, and spring onions, all of which I've grown in this garden before with varying levels of success. I'm also very keen to add to the herb garden, and need to fill the flowerbeds with something — so I'm open to suggestions!

If you don't want to suggest anything, feel free to use this prompt to talk about your own current gardening adventures.

Comments

[el_staplador]

Runner beans are pretty and then tasty. Thyme is a very useful herb. Don't plant lemon balm; I learned too late that it is a relative of mint and it gets everywhere. As far as flowers go, I'm really liking cosmos at the moment.

I keep walking down Chapel Street hoping that the house that usually has the huge plant stall will have set it up again, but no luck so far. I hope they're all right.

[morbane]

I recently planted lemon balm and as someone with a black thumb, I'm taking heart from this: it might survive my terrible skills. (I have also killed mint and rosemary before.)

[dolorosa_12]

That is some solid advice! I've grown thyme with success in the past, and I agree that it's a good (and hardy) addition to any herb garden.

I keep walking down Chapel Street hoping that the house that usually has the huge plant stall will have set it up again, but no luck so far. I hope they're all right.

I wasn't aware of this at all — and now I hope they're all right, too.

[conuly]

What flowers are native to where you are? A nice patch of wildflowers is always nice, and beneficial to pollinators.

[dolorosa_12]

A friend did give me a pack of mixed wildflower seeds, so that could be a good thing to include — thanks for the suggestion!

[morbane]

Your gardening skills and projects far surpass mine! I will just share what I'm excited to have planted in the herb garden my mother recently helped me re-do: rosemary, lemongrass, lemon balm, lemon thyme, lemon verbena, bergamot, tarragon, catnip. You may sense a theme. I'd grow parsley and basil if I had any confidence I could keep them alive. My biggest hopes rest in the lemongrass and lemon verbena; I'm so very fond of both, and having my own source of lemon verbena is something I'm really excited about!

Maybe marigolds? Again this is my own bias talking, since for appearance they're one of my favourite flowers, but they have an excellent reputation as a companion plant and have edible petals.

To go along with other bulbs, I'm personally very fond of dahlias.

If and only if you have time, I'd be interested to hear about your experiences in arranging for landscaping work.

[dolorosa_12]

That's a really cool collection of herbs, and I wish you every success in growing them!

I had some unkillable parsley and basil plants that would die every winter and pop back up again each spring, but unfortunately the landscapers seem to have dug them out without being told to do so! But the point I'm making is that they die and come back, so you may have more success with them than you think.

Marigolds is a good idea, and dahlias — I love dahlias!

If and only if you have time, I'd be interested to hear about your experiences in arranging for landscaping work.

So I should point out upfront that this kind of work is not cheap — a four-figure sum, rather than a three-figure sum, depending on the scale of the work. We hired the landscapers last year to do the front garden, with the idea that if we liked them and were happy with the work, we would hire them again this year to do the back garden (since it would be a more complicated and expensive job).

My husband is on a couple of local area Facebook groups, and he searched back through them until he found a post where someone had asked for recommendations for landscapers, and we then dug through the comments and found details of four or five different landscaping businesses. I called them all and organised to meet them, described the work, got a quote, and so on. All of them were quoting about the same amount of money, so I made the decision based on how I felt about the people — the company we went with replied swiftly to emails (all the others needed to be chased up on the phone all the time) and were friendly, professional and easy to get along with — basically I felt good vibes about them. They did a good job, in the timeframe specified, and had listened to what we wanted and offerred suggestions when they felt what we wanted wasn't going to work. I was really happy with them, so we hired them again to do the back garden landscaping, and again everything worked out well.

My advice here:

Speak to multiple businesses and see which one makes the best impression; local Facebook groups are better than online reviews since recommendations are more likely to be genuine and based on recent experiences.

Have a clearish idea of what you want (maybe with photos), and ask the landscaper for options when it comes to materials (for example some types of paving are cheaper than others, but may not look as good). Ask them to tell you if what you're requesting seems unrealistic or could cause problems.

Unless you have access to the right kind of transportation, make sure you've requested for all garden waste (whether green waste or stuff like old paving stones and fences) to be removed by the landscapers and disposed of appropriately — this will be an additional cost, but otherwise they will leave it behind for you to deal with.

Get an invoice with full costs in writing.

(This would be my advice when hiring contractors to do any kind of work on your house or garden, not just landscaping.)

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask.

[merit]

Chives, parsley, oregano, thyme, sage - I am big on herbs! Maybe spinach and whatever other leafy greens you like. Nasturtiums are a classic in gardens as well. I am also partial to marigolds but maybe daisies, lavender, dianthus, phlox, sweet pea to help encourage the bees.

[dolorosa_12]

We've already got sage, but the others are good suggestions. We had chives and parsley, but the landscapers accidentally dug them up!

We'll definitely get some flowering plants, although the last time I had nasturtiums, aphids descended and ate every single exposed part of the plant within a few days. Hopefully that won't happen again!

[lirazel]

I love hearing about your garden! How wonderful!

(I have the blackest of thumbs, so gardening will always just be a pipe dream for me. Unless I become wealthy and can hire a gardener, but that seems unlikely.)

[dolorosa_12]

Oh no, I'm sorry to hear about your gardening woes, but happy to be able to provide vicarious gardening for you!

[chestnut_pod]

Oh, how lovely! Good luck with your garden this year!

The Cambridge botanical garden seems to have a list of good flowering plants for pollinators, which I scrolled dreamily through thinking about places where it actually rains :D

[dolorosa_12]

Thanks for that list — it's really helpful!

It doesn't rain all that much in summer here — we're actually in the driest part of the country, although it certainly rains more than where you are.

[luzula]

Have you thought of berry bushes? Currants are nice, and gooseberry, and sea buckthorn, and you could grow (mini)kiwis if you've got anywhere for them to climb (like the bay tree)...and once they're established they're not something you have to tend much.

Ha ha, I have way too many gardening thoughts, but I won't move in to my new place until September...

[dolorosa_12]

Those are some really good suggestions, and hadn't occurred to me at all, although I love sea buckthorn! Thank you!

September is less than ideal if you're wanting to get started in the garden, although I guess it does give you the whole autumn and winter to observe the garden and ponder and plan.

[luzula]

Actually you can plant a lot of perennial plants in the autumn! A couple of years ago we planted gooseberry bushes in the autumn and it worked out fine.

[dolorosa_12]

Oooh, that sounds great!

[rekishi]

Garlic is always a good idea (but takes a year) and we've had garlic for a few years now. If you plant it between your strawberries (if you have same) you'll fewer snails and slugs eating them. Raspberries if you like them but be aware those are basically weeds and getting rid if them is hard.

Broccoli does grow nicely and it's worth it. I love cucumbers because they taste much better home grown. Tomatoes?

[dolorosa_12]

I've never been able to get garlic to grow, although I've tried several times — but I've always wanted to grow my own. We bought a couple of strawberry plants today, so I'll try to get some garlic to plant among them.

Tomatoes are my very favourite of all fruits and vegetables, so I'll definitely be growing some of those, and growing cucumbers seems like a sensible thing to pair with the tomatoes.

I think I'll steer clear of raspberries as we have enough trouble already with blackberries (our previous neighbours had let their entire garden become completely overrun with blackberries and other weeds, to the point that they filled the entire (massive) space and grew under our fence) as it is.

[corvidology]

If the tomatoes are one that had mixed success, be careful of the spot you pick for them. It should be as sunny as possible but also protected - it can't be anywhere like under a tree or a overhang. Honestly, in the UK they do better in at least a cloche (taller ones, natch and the individual ones are good) if not a greenhouse.

If you want to grow mint or lemon balm, grow them in a pot - they will thrive but they won't take over your garden like Triffids. ;D

Oregano will thrive and look nice as will time and basil - purple basil is pretty enough to even put in your flower beds.

I grew up helping my championships winning gardener dad grow all our veg and every year I've overcome with the urge to plant a garden here except I boil in my own skin here for at least 9 months of the year and cannot stand it.

[dolorosa_12]

I had a huge amount of success with tomatoes in our previous house (growing them on the windowsill in the kitchen and then out in containers over the summer — huge healthy plants and lots of fruit), but when I tried to grow them here, the plant got blight.

Noted about the mint — I had an unkillable mint plant in our previous place that spread to fill the whole garden bed!

Thanks for the other herb suggestions, they're excellent — and glad to be able to benefit from your gardening knowledge, even if you're not able to grow your own (those temperatures sound unbearable!).

[corvidology]

I'm looking at my comment thinking 'I hope Dolorosa knows I can spell Thyme' as well as headdesking at all the other grammar errors there.

[dolorosa_12]

Ha! No worries, my own posts are always riddled with typos as well, so I'm hardly in a position to judge!

[svgurl]

Oh, wow, that's a great variety! I have zero gardening knowledge, though my mom really enjoys it. Do you already grow basil? That can be nice.

Good luck!

[dolorosa_12]

I've grown basil in the past, although the problem is that it dies every winter, so it's not very cost effective (unlike some other herbs, which die in winter and return in the spring).

Good luck!

Thank you!

[mific]

I'm now at the opposite season to you, but last spring I got a lot of pleasure from radishes as they're so easy to grow and germinate fast. Had success with carrots too (cover the watered row with weighted cardboard to keep them moist until they germinate), and with a bed of rocket. Don't be like me and plant entire seed packets in your excitement - I ended up with >10 sage plants and more rocket than I could use before it bolted! Leafy greens are good now, lettuces, chard, spinach etc. Definitely interplant with marigolds to confuse cabbage white butterflies, and I found nasturtiums good as a trap crop but that was in raised beds. You might get more pest damage to them in the ground. Really, everything you have sounds good. Beans - they were the best and have kept on producing even after the main harvest, so make some bamboo teepees or a trellis and grow climbers like blue lake, scarlet runners, etc. Mix sweet peas in with them! You can germinate beans and peas in toilet rolls then plant the whole thing so as not to disturb the roots. Plant corn in a mass as it needs others for pollination, and care with the courgettes/squash - two plants is prob enough or you'll have way too many! Oregano and thyme have both done well for me and the Vietnamese mint is huge (bit invasive, and prob grows best in subtropical places like here, but it's a good coriander alternative, also called laksa leaf). I have lemon balm in a pot to contain it, and chinese chives. For flowers - lots and lots of foxgloves! Some are biennial, but some are annual. Also, big cinerarias have brilliant blue-purple colours and self-seed for the next year - very much recommended. Bee balm (bergamot) is easy to grow and an interesting flower, reds and pinks. And in summer, plant loads of zinnias - very easy to grow, colourful and cheerful, and flower through autumn. Also seconding the cosmos but be aware that they start small and get tall, a metre or more! Oh, salvias are also great. Mint family so read the info as some can be a bit invasive, but lovely blues and purples. Have fun!

[mific]

BTW, I learned to garden almost entirely from internet searching and Youtube - just search for any plant/crop you want advice about, very useful. I also recommend keeping a diary (I have a google spreadsheet) of what you planted and when, to keep track of how long it took to germinate, harvest, and any issues and tips for the next year.

[dolorosa_12]

This is great advice — thank you!

[dolorosa_12]

Thank you so much for these excellent suggestions, both in terms of edible and decorative plants. I've never grown beans, but I have grown peas and I assume it's fairly similar. Everyone warned me corn was difficult, but it worked out really well the last time I grew it, and zucchini and butternut pumpkin almost grow without any effort on my part, so I have high hopes for them.

The herb suggestions in particular are excellent — I want to branch out a bit beyond the standard rosemary, thyme, sage and bay, so it's good to have some idea of what works well.

We've just come back from the market and picked up so many seeds and seedlings, and I'm looking forward to a few hours in the garden getting them all planted.

Don't be like me and plant entire seed packets in your excitement - I ended up with >10 sage plants and more rocket than I could use before it bolted!

Oh no!

[nerakrose]

lemon thyme and oregano smell wonderful and even more wonderful to have fresh for cooking. I also like growing dill and coriander, and love having fresh dill for all the spring/early summer dishes. coriander especially also flowers a lot and is beloved by pollinators.

last time i was able to properly have a herb plot (back in Copenhagen) I seeded most of them in stages so that they would be coming up fresh at different times and going to flower at different times. It was a fun experiment and I had a lot of butterflies and bees hanging out.

[dolorosa_12]

I bought some dill seeds (among a lot of other things) before I even saw your comment, so clearly I took your advice without having even seeing it! Thank you!

last time i was able to properly have a herb plot (back in Copenhagen) I seeded most of them in stages so that they would be coming up fresh at different times and going to flower at different times. It was a fun experiment and I had a lot of butterflies and bees hanging out.

This sounds so lovely!