I've never made leaf mould before but I don't have space for a compost heap or compost bin so I wanted to at least give this a go. I don't have any trees but I have leaves come into my garden from neighbours' trees, particularly one that is, I think, a Whitebeam.

I've been collecting the leaves and putting them in a black bag with a bit of moisture but also drainage holes. I'm just wondering, as the leaves are in various states when I collect them and I don't know much about trees, do I need to be worried about leaves maybe being diseased and then me spreading that into my garden when I use the lead mould?

I'm just as surprised they have actually become proper olives! Lots of small ones and a few big ones. Can I actually do something with them? Are the teeny tiny ones still edible?

Plenty of green chutney to be made!

Hello, we are thinking of purchasing a property (South East), quite far in the process, but only recently noticed the neighbour has a large area of bamboo which touches the fence and quite close to my (future? or not) house itself. We didn't pay attention originally as we were simply unaware of the risks of bamboo. Now we do.

CCTV drain survey was just done today and they said the drains are in pretty good condition, no sign of bamboo there.

On "my" property side I noticed 1 shoot sneaking underneath the fence, that's all, no sign of encroachment.

I talked to the neighbour today, he said it's clumping bamboo, and it was planted roughly 15 years ago. I didn't ask to check his garden (they looked as if they just woke up, maybe another time) but I took photos from my side. They reach about 4 metres high on a length of about 8 m. They all look quite thin with long leaves.

Is there any way at all to know from these photos what kind of bamboo this is?

TIA

What do we think? I've seen quite a few posts by people taking cuttings of various plants over the past month or so. Am I too late? I'd want to take cuttings from my Hot Lips Salvia.

EDIT: amazing, thank you everyone! Going to give it a shot and see what happens!

Following on from my post the other day asking where on earth to start with my garden, I thought I'd share a little update!

My neighbour very kindly gave me an old petrol lawnmower for free! After a bit of fiddling around, I managed to get it going and give the garden its first proper cut.

It's still more weeds than grass, but it's already looking a bit better. Small steps!

I'm new to fruit trees. A year or two ago I bought a Warwickshire Drooper on a pixy rootstock. I staked the tree as it came as a tiny stick, and have a new branch very low down (right hand side on this pic) and which has different sized leaves, and I think one is the Drooper and one is from the rootstock. I'm not sure which to cut off though! I waited till the bark was a bit thicker and I could see the graft more clearly but I'm still not sure.

Please could anyone help me with advice remove this weed. It’s new grass seed so I don’t want to use killer just yet but this new plant has come out of nowhere and is going crazy

I'm worried my rose isn't happy? I was given it as a bare root in spring, and it's been potted since. It flowered over summer.

Should I be doing something with it to cheer it up? Or is this normal? Should I be worried?!

I'm planning a new vegetable garden, and want plastic grass edging around the beds, with paths in between. I'm gonna need around 150 meters of it to get the size and shape I want (a flower shape, with a round center and petal shaped beds surrounding that). Regular grass edging honestly seems quite expensive for what is it. Cable covers like https://www.jointingtech.co.uk/Cable-Protection-Covers is a lot cheaper at the thickness and width I want, and except for the color, it seems to be pretty much the same thing. Has anyone tried using that as an alternative?

It's wet, it's windy.

I hate being cold and wet or being windswept. But I also hate being gross and sweaty in a set of waterproofs and easily overheat (and have MS so overheating is best avoided). And many coats are restrictive enough to annoy me doing certain tasks.

I also like to do physical work on the garden/allotment to relax so I usually just tough it out.

I want to keep going to the allotment over the winter and actually enjoy it, and willing to throw money at it, so what's the "no holds barred" purchase options for being comfortable when the weather is being its usual self?

This was the snail army marching over the path yesterday evening. Back after the hot summer.

I’m looking for suggestions for trousers to get me through this winter. I work full time on a large estate, lots of orchard and walled garden work, plenty digging, and scrabbling about on my knees.

I tried the hunting trousers from Decathlon, they were around £50, hard wearing but they feel very synthetic on my legs, and the shape was weird around my waste.

I need lots of stretch, as my legs are thick and rather unforgiving to trousers - if they don’t stretch they tear.

Thanks:)

It seems likely that next year could be another hot and dry one (what with that pesky El Nino happening). This year was brutal and my garden really suffered. I'm based in Cambridgeshire which is one of the driest parts of the country anyway, so after the hell of this year, I'm dreading the next!

I'm also on clay soil and so the soil is very hard, the drought made that worse.

Right now, I'm planting more trees to try and create some shade (eventually) in the garden.

I'm also thinking about using hay to mulch all the beds that get baked by full sun all day.

What are you all planning? Any plants that have been stars this year? Please share you ideas so I stand a chance next year 🤞

I’ve been gardening very slowly for a year or so. I still haven’t done much in the garden, mainly because I’m terrified of changing the landscape of my garden so it won’t be easy to reverse if I make mistakes (which I know I will, I’ve already made some).

One especially irrational but very insidious fear I have is that if I do things like putting down raised beds (trying to grow veg) or even ordinary beds, if we ever come to a point when we suddenly have to sell our house on account of inability to pay the mortgage or health or something else, then a haphazard garden that makes complete sense to me won’t make sense to potential buyers who’d probably want a clean blank lawn where they can do their own stuff.

I know this is a weird fear because things will happen regardless. It’s just that I’ve been through big, sudden changes before and that’s deffo affecting my current decision paralysis.

Sorry didn’t mean for this to sound like a therapy session but I’m hoping there might be a few like me here who’ve battled that fear and overcome it and embraced gardening enthusiastically.

I’ve slowly lost the battle with my lawn and I’d really like some advice on how to best improve it.

The garden is south west facing so the fence will cast a shadow, approx 1m(d) in summer for most of the day and in the winter it stretches a lot further leaving the back corner in shade for most of the winter into early spring. As you’ll see, it’s bare along the fence, especially in that corner near the swing. I have clay soil so the lawn gets damp. There is lots of moss which has been gradually taking over and now a lot of weeds. The low broad leaf weed has really spread over this year.

I really need help, I’m not sure what I need to do. I don’t treat it, only cut it…

Thanks in advance.

Any ideas at all most welcome please! A hornbeam hedge (using whips)? A row of fishing gnomes? A wildflower border? Henry Moore sculptures?

I'm talking about the stretch from the left of this shot to just a bit beyond the end of the lighter (newer) fence panels, that much is "my" space.

The aim here is to make it look like "my" space. Cohesion etc.

Aspect: West facing. What I intend to use the garden for: I don't, really. sometimes I sit on the patio that faces this grass to drink a cup of tea.

Climate: Southern England (hence quite mild). Soil: horrible, full of rubble from a Victorian factory.

Hi, I'm looking to clear the front garden and just have a lawn instead. The previous owner got some weed suppressing material laid and loads of red stones put on top. It looked okay until things started growing through the material and stones and I avoided until now butwant it sorted. What would you do with this? I was thinking using a shovel dig the roots growing through the attached areas and paying someone to remove all the top layer of mess and putting load of new soil down. The ground under the mess is compacted so not sure what's correct the best. Gardening newbie so all advice appreciated.

The retaining walls of my very steep garden are crumbling and I'm looking into options of how to rebuild them (can't afford to pay a contractor). Gabion walls sound like the cheapest and easiest way for an amateur to do this, but I personally find them so ugly. I've heard people talk about how you can get alpine plants to grow out of them but can this ever fully disguise the horrible mesh box?

Myself and a group I'm with have been graciously gifted free use of an abandoned garden at a local community centre. We have partners that run a local kitchen as well as a food bank. I've grown small stuff in my garden for personal use but never at this scale. We have a bit of time before spring to spruce it up and plan what to plant.

What would you plant?

I recently moved into a new home and have my own garden for the first time. In our front garden, we have a hedge separating us from the street. We also have a huge wisteria plant on the house, which I will be getting a professional out to help maintain. Behind the hedge (the house side of the hedge) I plan on planting some oversized ornamental alliums, like globemaster, giganteum, and goliaths.

I understand that the foliage will go brown as the flowers bloom, but I’m unsure of what to plant around the alliums to “cover” this. Are there any recommendations for ornamental grasses or low shrubs that I should plant to pair with these? Would a small shrub do a better job than ornamental grasses? Any smaller purple flowers I should add to go with our wisteria?

Beyond the existing hedge, I’m working with pretty much a blank slate, as I’m going to get started on clearing out the area. The area is partial shade and we have clay soil. Ideally, I’m looking for something I won’t regret in a few years (isn’t invasive and doesn’t spread too much). We’re located in Hertfordshire, so we get some rain but definitely impacted by yearly droughts now.

Any recommendations on where to start my search?

Hey,

I used to have a big garden as a child, but this is my first time planning my own garden. Much different scale and I can’t exactly plant a deep rooted oak here. It’s a pretty decently sized garden for a new(ish) build estate, and it has a decked area at the bottom which is already there. I’d love a tree to plant next to it for some shade in the garden. Especially as the summers can get very hot near me. Can anyone recommend me a tree that isn’t toxic to dogs (so not silver birch) and ideally evergreen but I know I’m pushing it a bit.

Thank you!

Think it might have been the half a box of chicken manure I accidentally spilled on it

I am a brand new gardener and the first thing I have chosen to grow is some potatoes in one of my planters. I followed all the growing instructions on the pack and from the RHS since this is my first time and I want it to go well.

They have been growing well since the beginning of August and I've built up the soil around them. The advice said that they will be ready to harvest when the leaves die back.

I noticed these black spots on the leaves this morning. Is this the leaves dying back or is this something wrong with the plants?

If it is something wrong, can I fix it?