West of Scotland Garden, Progress

FumblingGracefully

My Girlfriend and I bought our Victorian converted flat a year past on April 12th. The property has a relatively large overgrown walled garden to the rear of the property which we have slowly but surely been clearing. 

With heavy heart we elected to remove an enormous conifer which blocked out light for much of the day. There was also a number of dead trees and some choked with very thick vines and ivy.

Being novices we have no doubt committed gardeners sacrilege in removing so much but we will be keeping the larger trees and are stripping it right back to provide a blank canvas. 

The plan is to keep the right side as a shady border garden, deck a small area of the top of the garden, lawn in the centre and patio the bottom.

I will shortly be conditioning the soil once I have finished turning it and the chip all of the clippings into the bed as mulch.

I was hoping to get some ideas from yourselves or what we should maybe consider plants wise and I look forward to updating this thread with our progress.

My not so artistic draft of what I’d like to work towards:

I plan to trellis the top of the wall and encourage climbing plants to grow up to provide some screening, structural plants to the rear and shrubs and flowers flowing down to the path.

I hope you are all doing well during these uncertain times and look forward to hearing any suggestions you have.

All the best,

Andrew

Latimer

Look forward to seeing the progress, looks like a lovely plot!

FumblingGracefully

moiz.ak said:

Look forward to seeing the progress, looks like a lovely plot!

Thank you, It has lots of potential to be a lovely garden with a bit of TLC, has been hard work so far but we are really enjoying seeing it develop. It’s getting easier as we pick up hand tools and equipment 

StillLearning

Amazing plot and view, looking forward to seeing the on-going results of your hard work.  

Hostafan1

Might I ask where , roughly you are, and what's the water in the view. I was brought up in Greenock and it looks familiar.

FumblingGracefully

StillLearning said:

Amazing plot and view, looking forward to seeing the on-going results of your hard work.  

Thank you, hopefully lots of updates to come with this nice weather we are having.

Hostafan1 said:

Might I ask where , roughly you are, and what's the water in the view. I was brought up in Greenock and it looks familiar.

@Hostafan1 Those hills will be embedded in your mind no doubt! It is indeed our beloved River Clyde, we are in Gourock.

Bee witched

Hello @FumblingGracefully,

Great potential there ...

I guess the border you are planning (where the silver birches are) could end up being quite dry and shady what with the tree roots and the wall. So you might want to have a look at epimediums .... and also ferns. Not all ferns need moisture retentive soil.
Some ideas here
https://www.plantsforshade.co.uk/acatalog/Ferns_Suitable_for_Dry_Shade.html

I also garden in Scotland (Borders).

Good luck and keep us posted with your progress.
Bee x

Fairygirl

I've only quickly skimmed  @FumblingGracefully - [looks lovely!] - but one thing that stood out for me was - you have a deck, and a camellia next to it, in your plan.
One of those won't be suitable. As you have a greenhouse at the other end, I'm assuming it's the sunny end, and the camellia is therefore in the right spot. A deck in that situation will be lethal, even in summer. I'd rethink that 

I'm a bit further inland, and I don't travel as far as Gourock when I'm out [I'm usually heading up the Loch Lomond road] but every time I hear Gourock mentioned, I'm reminded of a phrase my Mum trotted out quite frequently - 'it's away to the side, like Gourock' 

Can you see the Luss hills from there? 

Hostafan1

FumblingGracefully said:

@Hostafan1 Those hills will be embedded in your mind no doubt! It is indeed our beloved River Clyde, we are in Gourock.

You're in the posh end. I lived in Braeside. Dead common me. 

Hostafan1

FumblingGracefully said:

My Girlfriend and I bought our Victorian converted flat a year past on April 12th. The property has a relatively large overgrown walled garden to the rear of the property which we have slowly but surely been clearing. 

I remember someone n the Forum saying no view is improved by the removal of trees: I suggest this might be EVEN lovelier with some of those trees gone.

FumblingGracefully

Fairygirl said:

I've only quickly skimmed  @FumblingGracefully - [looks lovely!] - but one thing that stood out for me was - you have a deck, and a camellia next to it, in your plan.
One of those won't be suitable. As you have a greenhouse at the other end, I'm assuming it's the sunny end, and the camellia is therefore in the right spot. A deck in that situation will be lethal, even in summer. I'd rethink that 

I'm a bit further inland, and I don't travel as far as Gourock when I'm out [I'm usually heading up the Loch Lomond road] but every time I hear Gourock mentioned, I'm reminded of a phrase my Mum trotted out quite frequently - 'it's away to the side, like Gourock' 

Can you see the Luss hills from there? 

Thank you so much for the advice in regards to the camellia, the leaves on it are a bit yellow at the moment, heard that might be down to the soil not being acidic enough?

i like your Mum’s expression I hadn’t heard it before.

We can make out the distant trossachs to the north beyond Helensburgh and look directly across the Loch Long, The Holy Loch and Dunoon.