Newbie here!

rachel.knox

Hi everyone

I'm new to gardening since we decided to give ours a makeover last year so still very much learning as I go. 
We have sectioned off half off part of the garden to keep our four legged flower destroyers out lol, so the grass is starting to make a come back too. We cut in a border and began to plant, as well as digging an enormous pond (by hand). 

Unfortunately due to how hot it was last summer the pond took a lot longer than we thought, and still isn't finished. The liner is in and we've put in some of the rockery but still have a long way to go with it. Hoping to have it all sorted by the spring and I can start planting.

My bulbs have started to come up and there are lots of new growth on last years plants coming through so I can't wait for my garden to be full of colour again. Looking forward to seeing how everyone else is getting on this spring/summer and watching your gardens come to life  

I've included some pictures from last year along with a couple of my bulbs popping up today!

Obelixx

Hi Rachel and welcome.  Lovely clematis but I suggest you give them extra supports to grow along as they do tend to gain in vigour each year, especially if well fed and pruned at the right time.   

That pond is huge and should be a great wildlife resource when finished.   Make sure you have a shallow beach end or some sort of ladder/log for any critters to escape again.  Even frogs and toads need to be able to climb out and hedgehogs and dogs too.

rachel.knox

Thanks for the reply Obelixx! 
I'll be sure to add some more support for the clematis thank you. And yes, you can't see from the photos but there is a shallow beach/slope area at one side of the pond. For birds to bathe and for wildlife to get out  

Obelixx

An easy, cheap and unobtrusive support is simply to stretch tensioned wires between vine eyes screwed into the fence and tightened at the ends.  You can buy the vine eyes, tensioners and wires in good DIY centres.   Put them in at 12" intervals up a post and then at 1m intervals along the fence.  makes it easy to train the clems and lets air circulate and no trellis to paint or repair in future years.

rachel.knox

Brilliant thank you

Brexiteer

That is some pond it'll look fantastic filled

Nollie

Think we are all suitably impressed by the size of that pond, Rachel. Hope you have left yourself some room for plants!

rachel.knox

Thanks, I can't take any credit for digging it really as it was mostly done by my OH. He would like to put koi in it eventually but for now I just want to get it up and running, established and see how we manage with it being a wildlife pond. We have tons of frogs in our garden anyway who have already been showing a lot of interest in it. 

Theres still room for my flower beds around the outside and I'm hoping to get some plants within the rocks around it, as well as some lilies and water iris. It fills half of the garden and the other half is lawn with flower beds all around. I'll try and get some better photographs tomorrow although it's looking quite dull at the moment

Kitty 2

Hello Rachel and welcome to the forum 🌻.
I like your idea to grow clematis along the railings of the deck. 

rachel.knox

Thanks Kitty, they are actually a steal from my next door neighbours. They started creeping through and attached themselves to the fairy lights on my decking. They're beautiful so I tied some string to try and persuade them to wrap around. Hopefully they come back this year and I will add something a bit better for them to grip on to

Kitty 2

A plant share... I love it 👍😃. 
The vine eyes and wire method Obelixx suggested above should be really easy to fix onto the outside edge and be almost invisible.

I warn you now... clematis are adictive. I'm only on a beginners level of 9 plants in my hoard, other forum members have many, many more 😆.
Naming no names, but they know who they are 😉.