Conifer screening

[tobydog]

Thanks Joce. You're only seeing about one quarter of it and the rest is the same!!. We did inherit a lovely garden but it was badly overgrown. It's a labour of love and it takes up many hours each week. What you see around the seat area is what we reclaimed last year. It was a dead zone under the conifers so we used sleepers to bring it all forward and create a patio area and raised the canopy considerably.

Next job - tackling the Yew hedge. One end is now over 20ft high so keep control of yours :shock:

 

[LadyArowana]

Tobydog, that's a beautiful garden, and the fluffies look just as pampered as Joce's.

 

[Schoolmarm]

I like the bin store and the bins. Would the bins fit in the shed?

 

[tobydog]

Lady A - no fluffs are as pampered as those living in the Joce residence :roll: . Ours are pampered to the extent that they get full board and lodging, and free run of the garden, even though for some reason the eggs have dried up :? . And as for Jim (the speckled leghorn and something to do with pigeons in Blackadder apparently), she's even started trying to crow at sunrise :shock: . I have to look at the ground in shame whenever I walk by our neighbours house.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Eh Toby? What's going on with Jim? I did have a little lady develop male plumage and cease laying, it's a sign of damaged ovaries apparently (she was a terribly diseased little thing, sadly, and we had to cull). As for chicken care, I'm not holding myself up as lily white - you just have to do your best with the creatures. Over three years we've had Mareks, Cocci, bumblefoot, Chronic Respiratory Disorder, red mite, scaly leg mite, 8 lost to dogs, and who knows what else. At the moment, though, my 24 are in fine form. Toby you need to decide if they aren't laying due to the summer moult, which is highly normal, or due to anaemia from the evil silent killer red mite. Go in at dusk with a bright torch and a white tissue, red mite are minuscule dots and hide in the daytime but streak the tissue red with their tiny blood-filled bodies when you rub under the perches. Once you've found their homes - in the crevices nearest to where the birds sleep - it's very easy to drown them in Vaseline. I Vaseline the cracks weekly. :wink:

This chart is a must for all chickeneerers
http://www.flytesofancy.co.uk/uploads/Chicken_Checkup.pdf

Anyway, lucky, lovely garden, Tobydog, can we have some more piccies please? Your girls really do look happy there.

I like the bin store and the bins. Would the bins fit in the shed?

Nice to see you back on here Schoolmarm - wotcha bin up to? Bless you for liking it, it's rustic and old-fashioned looking I suppose. We aren't allowed Rob's problematic wheelies here. No, I don't think the bins would fit in the shed, inside that shed is what looks suspiciously like a boarded up bench style toilet - never dared take the boarding off but I do wonder if this was a pre1920s loo-shed when there was no toilet in the house.

 

[Juju]

Hi Joce
I've got a potato vine growing in partial shade that has grown very quickly - I think it's partial evergreen, has small purple flowers. Not sure if it would be poisonous for your hens though? I love Hydrangea petiolaris but yes it will drop its leaves. I've got a Clematis armandii that's doing really well now but it is in a sunny spot. I like your little shed - but then I love all old sheds! I think paint it and grow some shade loving plants in front of it? Hazel screens also sound like a good idea - we're off to buy some soon to cover up the ugly falling apart fence which is next door's responsibility.

Another option - ready grown and shaped box plants as a feature? Expensive but nice and instant. Langley Boxwood Nursery has a great selection (where I did my topiary course).

Another obvious option is to buy well established and bigger plants. Yes they're much more expensive but if you want an instant garden, it'#s the only way. I wish I'd done that last year when I revamped my garden.
Juju

 

[tobydog]

Thanks Joce. I do keep an eye out for red mites especially when I clean them out. Mel, the Rhode Island, has had slightly scaly legs since we got her but it hasn't got any worse and doesn't seem to bother her. I had heard about the damaged overies and the surge of testosterone, hence the crowing. The trouble is that Mel joins in with Jim!. I'll try the tissue trick tonight. Our dog is totally okay with them now. He even had to bark at one of them the other day so they would get off the back door step so he could get in. He barked in her face once, she fluffed herself up in an aggressive manner and he legged it. Bless!!. Having said that, he killed a pigeon last night.

I'll try and dig up some more photos.

 

[MatthewC]

I'm also wondering about a stone wall as I have plenty of stone to make a high longish one but lack the skill...

That's not a thing to be taken on lightly. It is hard work and mine is taking ages (see blog).

Does your stone have good faces? Do the faces have square ends? Are the thicknesses consistent? If so, then the only skill you really need is three dimensional awareness - the sort of thing that means you can pack a car to go camping and have space to see out of the back window - plus a bit of strength to keep lifting the damn things up and down. [Don't tell me that old one about not putting a stone down until it's in the right place - it's not true!]

Stick with the hurdles and plant some yew for the future

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Apart from the willow screening option, which I do like, have you considered Taxus Baccatta (yew) fast growing, clips into a lovely tight shape but you might need to bear in mind that it is poisonous if consumed in large quantitys, birds love the bright red berries.

 

[worms]

I like the bin store and the bins.

Me too!

...it's rustic and old-fashioned looking I suppose.

My thoughts would be to go with the flow on that. Try to get the three items to merge, perhaps another lean-to over the tank, to sort-of match the bin store. Black wood stain over the lot. Strategically placed chestnut hurdles lent against the openings (easily removed when access is needed). Your eye would then only be drawn to the buildings/hurdles and not what is within them.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Black? Interesting. I agree that to stain that shed would completely transform it, (though I'd imagined it green) and whilst I don't need it now, who knows what creatures may require a house in the future.Whatever I do with the oil tank requires the men to get right up to it and get a big old hose in the top so careful placement and accessis key - but thanks for another vote of "keep it" from you worms.

Hi Joce
I've got a potato vine growing in partial shade that has grown very quickly - I think it's partial evergreen, has small purple flowers. Not sure if it would be poisonous for your hens though? I love Hydrangea petiolaris but yes it will drop its leaves. I've got a Clematis armandii that's doing really well now but it is in a sunny spot. I like your little shed - but then I love all old sheds! I think paint it and grow some shade loving plants in front of it? Hazel screens also sound like a good idea - we're off to buy some soon to cover up the ugly falling apart fence which is next door's responsibility.

Another option - ready grown and shaped box plants as a feature? Expensive but nice and instant. Langley Boxwood Nursery has a great selection (where I did my topiary course).

Another obvious option is to buy well established and bigger plants. Yes they're much more expensive but if you want an instant garden, it'#s the only way. I wish I'd done that last year when I revamped my garden.
Juju

never seen a potato vine before,that looks very pretty. Poisonous plants isn't something you need to worry about with chickens, they know what to avoid. (the one exception to that being paints and poisonous chemicals you might be using which they will likely peck at) I agree with you about buying big, established plants, I usually do as I have a zero success rate with seedlings. I'll have a look at Langley Boxwood Nursery as I'm collecting pompoms for the house back and front.

I'm also wondering about a stone wall as I have plenty of stone to make a high longish one but lack the skill...

That's not a thing to be taken on lightly. It is hard work and mine is taking ages (see blog).

Does your stone have good faces? Do the faces have square ends? Are the thicknesses consistent? If so, then the only skill you really need is three dimensional awareness - the sort of thing that means you can pack a car to go camping and have space to see out of the back window - plus a bit of strength to keep lifting the damn things up and down. [Don't tell me that old one about not putting a stone down until it's in the right place - it's not true!]

Stick with the hurdles and plant some yew for the future

Interesting Matthew - will check your blog, thanks. It's a real shame not to use my stone as there are heaps and heaps of it, all sorts but clearly from a building as there are a number of mullions and steps. Possibly, it's the remnants of Garner's Barn that stood here before Beacon Cottage - and that went to make up the cottage. Maybe too nice to waste on a bin screen and I should get a decent builder to come a build a folly.

Thanks Joce. I do keep an eye out for red mites especially when I clean them out. Mel, the Rhode Island, has had slightly scaly legs since we got her but it hasn't got any worse and doesn't seem to bother her. I had heard about the damaged overies and the surge of testosterone, hence the crowing. The trouble is that Mel joins in with Jim!. I'll try the tissue trick tonight. Our dog is totally okay with them now. He even had to bark at one of them the other day so they would get off the back door step so he could get in. He barked in her face once, she fluffed herself up in an aggressive manner and he legged it. Bless!!. Having said that, he killed a pigeon last night.

I'll try and dig up some more photos.

Looking forward to somemore piccies Toby and well done to your dog. Don't trust him too much though, I know a number of people who lost hens to a dog they'd come to trust. Neither hens nor dogs are predictable. I really hope that never happens to you though, I'm talking of a boxer, a terrier cross and an Alsatian when I think of the friends I have who've lost the occasional hen to their own dogs.

 

[worms]

Black? Interesting.

Perhaps not that interesting or inventive but I'm afraid in my book, if its wooden it gets the traditional creosote look (using old engine oil) and if it is stone it gets white lime-washed. Both are dirt cheap and traditional.

I've got what you are describing as a potato vine (solanum crispum or Chilean potato vine). Having only seen it in the tropics (and bought it on impulse in Morrisons!), I didn't expect it to survive, but it has survived the last few cold winters and hard frosts and needs an annual pruning to keep it from taking over the house. I bought it at the same time as my wisteria and planted it in the same border against the house in full sun. Five or so years on, the solanum is regularly pruned back to six feet, while the wisteria is still to reach six inches! Not sure if the solanum would do in the shade under your trees, though.

 

[angrybird]

Hi all

Want to block hideous view of dilapidated old asbestos bin shelter with adjacent oil tank and rotting shed ( I've thought about remodelling the bin shelter, but even if you put the bins under a pergola of grapes they still wouldn't be nice to look at, and how do you make an oil tank pretty?)

Anyone planted a conifer screen? The thing is, there's not a lot of space there really, and there'll need to be a path behind the conifers for me and the weekly bin-bag carrying. I'm looking for something tall and columnar that will produce branches from near the bottom of trunk. Any ideas? It would be nice if the trees could achieve around 15 /20 feet as this eyesore is an elevated view. Thanks.

Ive just found this site, looks quite interesting
http://www.growsonyou.com/question/show/5419-fast-growing-hedging

 

[tobydog]

Joce - at least the dog can tell the difference between a chicken and a pigeon. I agree though, he is still a dog at heart.

No red mites on the tissue but they're due a good clean out at the weekend so I'll have a better look then.

More pics below. A few more to follow.

 

[tobydog]

Last ones.

 

[angrybird]

you have a beautiful house tobydog and a stunning garden,it looks the perfect place to enjoy a nice G&T .....one day I hope mine looks like that instead of a building site :roll:

 

[FamilyWiggs]

I have thought about yew, a lot

Ah, the girls who've said that to me, Joce.... <sighs>

 

[JoceAndChris]

I can well imagine it Robin :wink:

Oh, just sighing with jealousy and admiration over tobydog's glorious garden, all so neat and well set out. Thanks ever so much for posting the pics, it's given me a lot of ideas. I love the sense of different areas for different purposes there, and the elegant grasses, and the combination of the pink cottage with the lavender, gravel and box. Beautiful.

 

[MatthewC]

Interesting Matthew - will check your blog, thanks. It's a real shame not to use my stone as there are heaps and heaps of it, all sorts but clearly from a building as there are a number of mullions and steps. Possibly, it's the remnants of Garner's Barn that stood here before Beacon Cottage - and that went to make up the cottage. Maybe too nice to waste on a bin screen and I should get a decent builder to come a build a folly.

If your stone is that good, then I'll turn up with a van tomorrow and beg some off you! Mullions and steps? I was so pleased with the steps that I got from the old church floor, and the single piece of mullion which might be from the Priory. The quality of the raw materials a definite plus as far as I am concerned.

 

[tobydog]

Thanks Joce. The garden was fully landscaped several years along with a complete irrigation system through the borders, box garden and even the hedges. I've since taken that out as I only want things in the garden that can normally fend for themselves. We moved in over 3 years ago and it's actually very difficult to change a garden that's been landscaped to this extent because each area has a knock-on effect around the plot. We've taken quite a bit out and replaced it but the key works were around the new extension. I've never dug so much ground out before. I work in London so I only have weekends to keep on top of it. My ambition is to be part of the National Garden Scheme but that will take a few more years of hard work yet to get it as we want it. The big problem is that I use any excuse I can find to keep me in the garden, hence the building renovations take a back seat much to Mrs. T's annoyance!