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Message 1.Â
Posted by Claire (U14937042) on Wednesday, 20th July 2011
I have just had a new raised flower bed built which is two sleepers high and now have room to grow something along a large wall also, as i am new to this would appreciate any ideas to help me. Thank you
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Message 2
Posted by kate1123 (U14824475) on Thursday, 21st July 2011
Hello
Do you want low maintenance, flowers or bedding, can you also give us an idea of location as different plants grow better in certain places, so is it a south facing wall and are you NSEW of country.
What is your budget like, cheap and cheerful or one off investment?
Kate -
Message 3
Posted by Kleftiwallah (U13700999) on Thursday, 21st July 2011
Not wishing to be too cynical Claire, I'de rip out the sleepers and replace them with something not impegnated with creosote! You may have to put a physical barrier between them and your soil.
Which way is your wall facing? This will determine what plants will do best. Cheers, Tony. -
Message 4
Posted by As_Iff (U13951957) on Friday, 22nd July 2011
If your new border gets some sun, and if the soil is reasonable, which I assume it will be, being newly made, then you have a big choice of plants to put there.
Clematis and climbing roses can be trained up the wall (provided the flower bed is sitting on earth, and not concrete).
Perennials, or numerous kinds of summer flowers can be planted.
Even lettuce, radish or spring onions could be planted between the flowers, if you wish.
I would go along to the local garden centre, and see what takes my eye. -
Message 5
Posted by Papa Nopsis (U14479902) on Sunday, 24th July 2011
Some sleepers are creosote free.
The more times i hear of raised flower beds the more i think it is a chronic fad of expensive Gardening.
I take the bus in to a nearby town and count the number of plastic underlined raised bed fancy shrub gardens,on which vast sums have been spent.
One or two of them are very pretty indeed but generally they turn in to horizontal brick paradises on which the car attracts no mud because there is none.
I wonder why people want to "BUILD" when all the building they need to do has been done for them already,
It is the complete loss of primitive identity, not just of hunter gatherer or nomad, but of any understanding of the needs of human beings to grow things in an orderly way., for their very survival, which in the long run may cost them very dear indeed. -
Message 6
Posted by PenylanSue (U13901201) on Sunday, 24th July 2011
Gardda, I think you are being too critical.
My garden is on two levels so the bit of soil between the two is a steep slope, not easy to garden.
The answer was to build up from below with sleepers, (brand new, no creosote made of oak), the alternative being blocks or bricks etc.
They now are a lovely grey, easy to step on to to weed the beds, we can sit on the edge and it gives us really useful well drained soil.
I am really glad we did them last year and I am very pleased with them.
I have another tale of sleepers, at the front of the house.
We are built over an old railway station and there never was a lovely brick building, just a wooden hut. The ground is just hard ballast and not workable as a garden. The solution was to either use a JCB to dig out or build raised beds on top. The raised beds were the solution and they also create a boundary from our neighbour's drive. I put a pond in one too.
Don't be so quick to criticise what others choose to do.
Sue -
Message 7
Posted by Papa Nopsis (U14479902) on Monday, 25th July 2011
Penylan,
I am quick at self criticism in the garden, and I'll tell you why.
I did think of dry stone wall, once i have hand dug the back yard out by 6' to lower the level of the garden to that of the house foundations.
Dry stone wall costs money; £2000 for 20mx4m=80sqm
including labour.
Since i have dug it out, the wall does npot need to be doubled up; it is only a retaining wall, so I got to thinking that mortared brick would be better, but even brick over that area would cost £1000.
I should like to do it myself. Who WANTS to pay for labour in one's own small garden?!
Then some old enemy came in and said why not just cover the steep slope with a grass bank? It would save all that money! I am removing turf so I have done just that and, cut with a strimmer, which I bought for the purpose it looks an excellent feature of a natural garden. I have never been a fan of strimmers
but I bought one specially to do that task regularly. £25.
Total cost of walling? A great deal of enjoyable work (in winter) and one strimmer £25.
So I AM being critical of fancy answers to basic gardening problems which resemble building operations! TV gardeners like Mr Swift go round doing up people's gardens in that way, so it is no wonder that it is seen as clever!
I have a similar problem Penylan with the deep ballast concrete in that i have arrived at a concrete covered well, which is in the wrong place! I knew there was a well, and i thought i knew where it was. I Found it BUT, oh! BUT I have now discovered that what i thought was the well, is in fact the foundation and some walling of an old building 6' deep in the ground, and not a well at all!
The concrete well is now drastically in the way Sooooooooooooo..... I have covered it up like your ballast, but without the need to raise any beds.
During all these operations I have been aware of the need to change things randomly, which is surely a general gardening need?
To deal with that I constructed a basic DRY BRICK wall, rather than the Purbeck dry stone wall. I took advice from a long term professional bricklayer on how to lay the bricks DRY. It looks very effective, but it can be changed at will.
Fortunately I have done the same dry brickying round the concrete slab
and round the building foundation, and after considering the implications of "being too critical"(!) I sit and look at the wall and say to myself that if I care to carry on with my hand digging, I may be able to uncover the old building foundation and make a feature of it AND get rid of the concrete covering to the old well, and make the feature of that, which i wanted to do in the first place!!!!!
We are on "Garden Inspiration" Penylan sure and self appraisal has to be part of the game!
The work goes slower and slower and slower... because I discover an interest in the creation of good loam in the garden, by mixing light clay with
topsoil, far more effectively that hitherto.
I also have a creative interest in the apples of one particular tree whose roots i pruned during the hand done excavation, but which is now producing a huge crop of apples which look too small to be good. They are in fact very sweet in November.
Chucking money or easy answers at gardening problems is fine if you are not interested in gardens but want to give the impression of status or cleverness!
I could have brought in an excavator and Skip and got rid of the lot in the first place for £500, but would the garden be better for it, and would my plentiful leisure be so creative?
You say that there is deep ballast below your raised beds.
If there was a railway station there before that is a perfect reason and no excuse whatsoever for having sleepers. I am not so convinced by the non removal of concrete ballast, but it may well have been a further demolition job
had you not decided, in the carpenters' expression," to make good and mend"
with the raised beds.
I think I might, have at least done some sort of bore to find out for the future what potential there would be for its complete removal.
My steep slope for strimming is nearly vertical, and may be filled with drooping plants as time goes by.... would it with sleepers? -
Message 8
Posted by PenylanSue (U13901201) on Monday, 25th July 2011
Gardda, I can picture your steep grass slope instead of my sleeper raised bed and I prefer the picture of my flower filled bed. It has made a big difference to the gardening in this instance.
As for the front raised beds, again there was no competion between hiring a JCB to dig out the ground and building these two raised beds. They have created something far better IMHO. The beds are visible from the house, while sitting down and they also create a good boundary betwen us and the neighbour's drive.
By the way, cost hasn't really come in to any of this. It was the end result that matters and what we wanted. I know that visitors wouldn't criticise them to my face but we've had nothing but praise and requests for where they were purchased and the wherefore etc. Oh, and one bed contains a sunken pond which has been much better than a previous pond we had in the garden. Basically it's a water container bed.
Sue -
Message 9
Posted by Don Kidick (U13987773) on Monday, 25th July 2011
Bit of a ramble there Gardda!!!!!!!!!!
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Message 10
Posted by Papa Nopsis (U14479902) on Monday, 25th July 2011
Penylan
Yes it will be a temptation just to have a grassy bank and no flowers in it, so perhaps layered sleepers and even annual flowers in them are best.
I've got annuals nearby but perrenials will take time to get established.
A dry brick wall nearby has colonised very nicely with things like wild strawberry.
I eradicate weed with a weed killer spray. -
Message 11
Posted by Claire (U14937042) on Tuesday, 26th July 2011
Thank you very much.
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Message 12
Posted by Claire (U14937042) on Tuesday, 26th July 2011
Thank you sue, I am really proud of my garden as the previous owner had left it to turn into an over grown nightmare. Thank you for your message. Claire
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Message 13
Posted by Claire (U14937042) on Tuesday, 26th July 2011
Goodness me! I only wanted advice on my new flower bed and a few ideas, I think this has gone off track a little! Don't think I will be using this site again! Claire.
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Message 14
Posted by PenylanSue (U13901201) on Tuesday, 26th July 2011
Claire, please don't be put off by this experience. There are always some that voice opinions a bit too freely although they wouldn't say it face to face. It's the anonimity of it all really. I just hate it when someone puts someone else's ideas down just like that and I felt in a position to defend your choice of gardening style.
There are a lot of really helpful and nice people on these boards with only a few that like upsetting things.
Incidentally, I have also found the raised beds are really good at providing 'well drained' conditions which is really good for me as most of the lower garden tends to be poorly drained. We are on a flood plain and about 75 metres from the river and all our surface water drains into soakaways.
Hope you do come on again, Sue -
Message 15
Posted by Barney_pl (U13897738) on Tuesday, 26th July 2011
Claire, first, I want to reassure you that most of us are keen gardeners, here to share ideas, problems, knowledge, whatever, without the kind of stuff you've been subjected to here. I'm really sorry you've had such a bad experience, and hope you will come back when we will try to give you some help and ideas for your raised bed.
However, to your question, a few questions, so we know what we can recommend::
How deep is your bed? (I'm sorry, but I can't visualise it in sleepers)
What area do you live? Eg NE, SW, etc.
Which way does the wall face into the flower bed (how much sun does it get)?
What colours do you like?
And any other info you can give us... -
Message 16
Posted by Twiggy (U3854938) on Wednesday, 27th July 2011
Claire
I can't offer you any advice on gardening, although I love my garden, but want to say please do not be put off by your first time on the board. This is not normal. Most of the posters are very knowledgable and friendly. Just the odd one that creates mischief.
Do give it another try. -
Message 17
Posted by Papa Nopsis (U14479902) on Wednesday, 27th July 2011
Claire,
Don't be put off. We are all very friendly, and a great inspiration to each other. Content has to be king. Personality is a No!No! Try another subject heading perhaps!
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