How does your garden grow?

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Pebble
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by Pebble »

thirdcrank wrote: 26 Jun 2022, 8:02am Doesn't time fly? Here's a view across our back garden in a thread from 2007

viewtopic.php?p=42029#p42029

We live on the skyline to the south of Leeds which means we have a really panoramic view across the city, which has changed over the years with things like the growth of trees and urban developments. We've seen some events like the fires which severely damaged Kirkgate Market and destroyed Moorhouse's jam factory. We could see the Tri-star jet which overran the runway at Leeds/Bradford "International" Airport and we've observed various demolitions of chimneys and tower blocks.

One of the landmarks was the view of Elland Road stadium which disappeared behind neighbours' leylandii which have recently been removed. Here's a rather fuzzy view taken with a handheld x18 zoom on Friday evening when our granddaughter was at the Lionesses game. The stadium is about five miles away

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so one is a zoomed-in image and the other is a wide angle? or is that whole urbanisation in the last 15 years.
thirdcrank
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by thirdcrank »

The first shot was straight out of the window, in response to earlier comments in that thread. The second was a wobbly zoom when I realised Elland Road was visible again.

We've been here since 1975 when the houses were quite new and all there was at the back was a farm field belonging to a working farm. Over the years, all sorts of trees and bushes have been planted changing the view. I think it's also easy to take something for granted which really attracted us to the house all that time ago. Over the years the farm has changed hands several times as there has been speculation that there would be planning permission for houses. The land is now only used for grazing horses. I've other images taken over the years to capture different things but my file arrangements are poor, even with File Explorer.
Pebble
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by Pebble »

Cugel wrote: 24 Jun 2022, 7:23pm That pond is indeed a fine & attractive feature, especially with them battrachoids in it. Perhaps you will consider coming to make me a-one, staying to maintain it also of course? I can pay in home-made booze-based ice cream with garden-grown soft froots and accompanied bike rides (all severely hilly, mind).

Yesterday's weather stopped me going out for my intended 50K bike ride, as just as I'd put the new chain on a great thunderstorm arrived and soaked the place for two hours, followed by that misty rain that gets up even your waterproof trews to make you wet from tip to toe. We're now set for a wet & windy week, which is good for the garden but means it'll have to be gym rather than bike as I'm now a fair-weather bike rider. (Gone soft, see).
if you were not so far away (more than a whole country away) I would love to help you establish a wildlife pond, a little oasis of water are a magnet for wildlife. I helped a near neighbour create one at the bottom of her garden a few years back, it is much more of a boggy area hidden under trees and bushes rather than a formal pond, but it is maintenance free and just looks after itself - full of all sorts of critters.

Our pond seems to require less work the less I interfere with it - I just let the duck weed cover it in the summer and that blocks out the sunlight and the dreaded blanket weed does not form. Water from part of our roof drains into it (potentially 40 ton a year) so this keeps it fresh and topped up.

and it once attracted this wonderful garden visitor.
Image
just to show it really was in my garden
Image - Image
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Mick F
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Location: Tamar Valley, Cornwall

Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by Mick F »

I've just come in from cutting the grass. It hasn't needed much in the way of cutting until a few days ago when the rainy season started! :shock:

Sunny now, so set about the task. Damned hard work as our garden is on a sideways slope. Come in for a sit-down and a cuppa.
Off out again with my second wind, to finish off.

The grass was so long, I had to raise the wheel-setting up a couple of notches, so it'll all need doing again early next week on a lower setting.

Honestly, we've had a dry spring/early summer with only occasional rainy bits, so the grass was dormant. Note the word "was".

This photo is from a few summers ago, taken from the top of our flat roof extension.
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Mick F. Cornwall
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Cugel
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by Cugel »

Pebble wrote: 26 Jun 2022, 10:11am if you were not so far away (more than a whole country away) I would love to help you establish a wildlife pond, a little oasis of water are a magnet for wildlife. I helped a near neighbour create one at the bottom of her garden a few years back, it is much more of a boggy area hidden under trees and bushes rather than a formal pond, but it is maintenance free and just looks after itself - full of all sorts of critters.

Our pond seems to require less work the less I interfere with it - I just let the duck weed cover it in the summer and that blocks out the sunlight and the dreaded blanket weed does not form. Water from part of our roof drains into it (potentially 40 ton a year) so this keeps it fresh and topped up.

and it once attracted this wonderful garden visitor.
Image
just to show it really was in my garden
Image - Image
A bog sounds more my cuppa tea, especially a maintenance free one with critters. It would be possible to make one as the garden's aspect on a slope means it tends to stay watered by the rain running down the hills behind us, through the garden (but in the ground) as it heads for the Teifi flood plain we overlook. Drain water divergence from the roof would also be easy to arrange.

The Teifi does have kingfishers, amongst other birds, generally only glimpsed as the blue flash zooming up or down river. It would be very fine to attract one to a garden perch. The ladywife insists on depleting our pensions by spoiling not only dogs but the 10,000 birds that live around here. Every day, it seems like, another large parcel of bird seed, fat balls or some other top quality bird fodder arrives! She also spends a lot of time scrubbing the posh copper-plated feeders she bought.

The variety of birds is wide, though, including some exotics such as tree creepers and every sort of tit you've heard of and some you haven't. We also get the larger avians, including jays, hoodies, woodpeckers, magpies, various doves, crows and (more rarely) a pair of local ravens. The red kites never land, although several nest in the large trees that run along the border between the Teifi flood plane and the foot of the allt along which our village is strung. There's also nesting buzzards.

Many feed on the ground under the feeders, which have seed strewn by the smaller birds as they sway the feeders about. This also enriches the soil under the turf thereabouts, providing good grub, worm & beetle hunting. The moles have taken up residence there too, presumably because the soil is worm-rich. A river rat and a squirrel visit but the magpie tends to chase them off, as it will also attempt to do with a gang of 10 hoodies!

My own favourite is always the blackbird, because of the evening songs. Also, it's very amusing to watch an increasingly frazzled male blackbird digging for the grubs for yet another nestful of chicks in the hedge. On the other hand, the clouds of young spuggies are also a hoot, squabbly little rascals.

****************

I wonder if a bog-bit would attract tewits, curlews or other waders? I suppose it would have to be a larger area. Eirian's pond, just below our garden in the flood plain, gets swans, geese, herons and a variety of ducks, but only to eat the weed and fish, not nest. Periodically that pond disappears under Teifi flood water. Perhaps the avians know this somehow?

Cugel, favourite dream: that I can & am flying.
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thirdcrank
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by thirdcrank »

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This is a "rear window" image I took because the apparently sudden appearance of the orange glow intrigued me. It's more prominent to the naked eye but I had not noticed it. It turned out to be a recently-built building clad in red tiles as part of the Carnegie campus in Headingley but which only caught the sunlight at dawn in winter - the angle has to be just right, The long low building in the middle distance is some sort of newish pig unit and its wind turbine can just be seen through my bushes in the foreground
francovendee
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by francovendee »

I would love to see a Kingfisher in my garden. We occasionally see them by the river, about 400 metres away as the crow flies.
Plenty of red squirrels, deer and a very occasional wild boar.
For the last couple of years we've had a Hoopoe visit. Sadly one of our cats caught a fledgling and killed it early this year. We haven't seen them in the garden since but you can hear them close by.
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al_yrpal
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by al_yrpal »

Our pond is the wildlife hub. Birds, bugs, dragonflies, and for 8 weeks in the spring a pair of mallards which became very tame. If we didnt feed them at the pond they would waddle up 100 yards to the house and wait outside the door. Saw a Slow worm swim across and nestle in the reeds. Had lots in our Devon Georgian House garden too.

Huge variety of birds including a frequent Heron after the fish. Thought I saw a Hopoe once but after seeing it more frequently realised it was probably a Jay. Pigeons are a pest eating my veg.

Al
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Tangled Metal
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by Tangled Metal »

Moved into a 70s house last year. We're still trying to get it tidy. The trouble is plants grow. If only they'd stay at the growth level we cut them back to! 😂

Seriously, everything cut back or down has to be carried downhill to the driveway to be got rid of. With narrow paths, gates and steps you can't carry too much which means you spend twice as long tidying up than you did cutting back. Plus a steep slope gardens result in a day's work giving you not so much the ascent of everest but at least a couple of Ben Nevises!

We're novice gardeners and finding it all hard to know what's best to do. Some weekends we look back at what we've done and with complete disappointment, that it didn't look like we've done much. Days like that we wonder how much concrete we'd need to cover everything. Demoralising how it's never ending.

However, we'd never change it. We have a sanctuary full of birds. Near the top we can look right across the valley. You know which is our garden from afar because of an absolutely fabulous copper beech. The flagpole can not be seen so far away which is good. Might get rid of that.

We have three large leylandii trees in the top garden. No risk of them being blown over into the house but we want rid. The copper beech shades a lot but it's a dappled shade. The leylandii are complete cover and nothing can grow underneath. They need to go but we've had over a year of trying to get any tree surgeon in to do a tree survey and take out today two thuggish trees. Locally they're all too busy. I heard Lancashire CC had three people who's job was to drive around looking for Ash trees suffering from die back near roads and paths to mark for cutting down. Then they give that work to local tree surgeons. This council work is good money so they don't bother with small, domestic jobs anymore. Most annoying!
francovendee
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by francovendee »

Talk of garden ponds makes me envious, I'd love another fishpond.

I had a very large one back in the 70's and kept Koi Carp. None were valuable and were always a treat to watch. They grew quite large and managed to breed. My usual weekend mornings started with a cup of tea sitting by the pond watching the fish. We had a very long period of sub zero temperatures and nothing I could do stopped the pond from freezing and they all died. After that I filled the pond in as I didn't want to feel that loss again.

It's just too hot and dry to attempt to establish a pond here.
This is our latest fatality.
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Sorry about the sideways photo!
Jdsk
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by Jdsk »

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francovendee
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by francovendee »

Jdsk wrote: 27 Jun 2022, 8:55am IMG_20220627_085534.jpg
Thanks;
ossie
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by ossie »

Small but perfectly formed. Actually its not that small just small compared to the 'acres' posted on here :wink: which look lovely btw.....the chap on the bench would love a bigger garden. Now the kids have flown the nest that's high on our agenda.


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Paulatic
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by Paulatic »

I’m not sure you could call my curtilage a garden or just an extension of the countryside.
From the front
From the front
Complete with its own ruin
ruin
ruin
I have a perch of veg garden this end
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A bit by the house
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Some manicured areas
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Paulatic
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by Paulatic »

The back is just as big
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Bike shed is under that flowering sedum. Complete with hen paddock
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Our garden is a bird and wildlife paradise and walking past some very manicured properties in the village reminds me I wouldn’t want it any other way.
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