Good garden suggestions please

Tue 1 Jul 2008, 22:03

I've had a friend (just going off to Kenya, everyone I know seems to be leaving the country at an increasing rate, alas) recommend Fukuoka farming, which is in essence very "lazy". Ever heard of it?

Sounds good and I'm wondering how much it could be bent to a lazy decorative and wildlife friendly approach as well as food growing. Our front garden (moderately hidden behind high hedges) is still a bombsite from the messed up building works from idiot builder 3 years ago who broke our bank (and spirits) so we are limping along repairing things inch by inch and penny by penny with another builder, so that front garden is sort of tabula rasa apart from the trees we want to keep as many of as we can. But alas a lot of rot at the trunk roots of many as prior owners piled up about 6 foot of cuttings against them and this weakened most of the hedge trees, its very sad as most will need to be felled for safety. But we've replanted some 300!! as hedging to replace them eventually ... well not all 300 will be allowed to grow out long and spindly like the neglect of the last 25 years! The aim here, once the stuff to be used eventually in the house, and new garden workshop, is cleared eventually and the clutter of sheds goes for that single larger workshop, is to make a wildlife garden with a variety of annual self seeding plants and also perennials, phased through the growing season, and replace some fungus ridden fruit trees with rare breeds. So we are going around making a note of what grows on the calcareous clay soils and what doesn't thrive, too.

It's going to take years and I'm physically disabled hence the attraction of seeing if Fukuoka can be warped to domesticated flower and fruit purposes. Permaculture techniques may also be useful for a lower maintenance approach once set up...

Back garden is mostly sorted since nightmare of foundation underpinning out the back, bar some bits like taking down old fence panels when new hedge is grown a bit more, but its all a bit bare at the moment and open for kids playing area - flat grass, new hedge, raised wooden walled beds for growing veg and flowers in (to protect from kids) and a butchered from horribly overgrown hedge now picking up, but needs more beds for flowers and a better pond than the washing up bowl sunk in the ground (which still has a complement of frogs in it, a pond can be ridiculously small and still have wildlife value).

But it takes years to make a garden, and even a wildlife garden if one plants serious amounts of cover like a wide variety of hedging species native to the region and some exotics for evergreen purposes, costs an arm and a leg, as we discovered. Costwise just the basics put us back basically a year from fixing up the house, knocking the gardens into even basic shape and its still got a long way to go yet to get both tidy and, contradictorily, to also encourage the right sort of species rich untidiness that is so important to wildlife!

Basically a manicured lawn is an ecological desert, we're having to learn the balance, especially once we can clear the stuff earmarked for use out of the way when it is finally used up, and can have a better go at it all. I'm intending, if at all possible, for the new the workshop to be a "living roof" and "living walls" with sunken foundations so it disappears into the hedge behind and to both sides of it - if you have a shed or building it too can become a canvass to make the overall effect three dimensional! Be nice to consolidate and clear the mess of little sheds into a single green and flowering shape using the vertical plane of the walls as well as the usual horizontal plane of the flowerbeds.

I've found a website and mailing list called "inhabitat" (note spelling and can't quite remember exact url) to be a lead to some inspirational living roof and wall ideas.

I'd love to do it on the house too as some people claim that 8"-12" of the right sort of plant on a wall/trellis is the equal of about 4" of rockwool insulation on the outside, but not at all clear which climbers are safe and which will prise apart the masonry! There have been some horror stories where people haven't got the species right for the climate!