I am so glad that Danielle introduced her audience to your channel! I have really been enjoying your videos. I have watched many of your older videos now as well. But may I suggest that you turn your audio volume up quite a bit more. I have to really turn my volume up to max in order to hear you and then when an advert pops on, it about blasts me out of the room lol. Would be much appreciated!
Thank you and thank you for the feedback. I will sort out the audio, I have just invested in a better mic and it’s so much better and easier to control. Was the last one too quiet too? I will have a fiddle and turn it up for the next one! Thanks for watching Jenny
@@MurphysGarden unfortunately it was really low as well. But I definitely like the content you're putting forward. And greatly enjoy good field trips to gardens lol.
Thank you for sharing your 12 Top Tips gathered from the Garden you recently visited. I love your gardening enthusiasm and am looking forward to watching & learning this process in action as you redesign your borders. Please show us as much of your work as possible as you create this beauty as you go. I am also looking forward to you sharing the beauty of upcoming Garden tours & your interviews with the expert gardeners who create them. Thanks again for the inspiration & enthusiasm. (Incidentally, I love your garden design at your home!)
They say “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” This beholder thinks your borders are beautiful presently. So, anything you create in addition will be “right”! Keep up the good work! ❤
Thank you so much for putting this together, Jenny. This was one of the most informative, interesting and useful gardening videos I have ever watched. I am guilty of planting “blobby” garden beds, mainly because I tend to buy only one or two of an individual plant. Plants are just so expensive and are becoming more so. To achieve good repetition, I propagate a lot of existing plants in the garden or when I buy something, I choose plants that have enough bulk so that they can be divided or propagated by cuttings. This require time and patience, but is extremely rewarding and a lot of fun. I have read that drifts of plants look best and more natural when the drifts are not all the same size. Also drifts that are tadpole-shaped (thin at one end and wider at the other end) and weaving in and out of one another so that plants finish flowering or need cutting back are somewhat hidden by those in front. My winter interest/ anchor plants are box, pittosporum and westringia spheres. I find that lots of ephemeral, airy plants need a more solid-looking weighty presence for contrast. My rural Australian garden is surrounded by paddocks of (usually) brown grasses so the fashion for ornamental grasses has been one I have yet to embrace, because it looks like paddock weeds have invaded! I need to find some pretty grasses that aren’t brown! Bravo for sharing your problem areas. We all have them. It will be exciting to see how you change things. Thanks again for such wonderful tips.😊❤ from Gippsland, Australia
Thank you for your comments and for your really good tips especially planting in tadpole like shapes, that’s a great point to avoid problems when things go over. Thank you for your help Jenny
So much great information ! Whenever I go on a garden tour I always want to come home and rip out my gardens and start over . Can’t wait to see how you revamp your garden,we always look at our own gardens with a critical eye .💐
Yes, absolutely feel the same! I must try and be happy in the moment more instead of striving for something better - just out of reach! We’ve had such wet weather that I’m half tempted to start now but I guess august could be hot so I will resist and wait a bit longer! Thanks for watching Jenny
New follower; so glad Danielle led me to this site! This is a great video. Thanks for being so honest about garden design fails and insight on how to improve a border. Learned a lot.
This was an excellent video, I have not been able to put into thoughts/words what is missing from my beds and this hit the nail on the head. Gorgeous images...thank you!!
I got rid of a 10-year-old stand of coneflowers two weeks ago and feel much better for it. I have such a small garden and they were beginning to take over odd places, obscuring their neighbors. I worried at first because the goldfinches adore the seeds but I decided to plant zinnias for them. We all need a change! Thank you for the wonderful videos. I learn so much! You keep things real.
Yes, they do start to take over if you don’t watch them! Some seem to have stronger stems than others, I’m finding my large clump seems to collapse but others are strong and upright, must depend on the variety! Thanks for watching Jenny
We joyed the way you view a public garden and then try to implement what you see in your own garden. I did it after viewing the Chicago Botanic garden, and am glad to see you doing that too.
Just looked up the Chicago Botanic garden, it looks amazing. It’s makes sense to take ideas when you see something done well! Thanks for watching Jenny
New subscriber from Danielle’s blog. I’ve spent 2 days catching up with your channel, due to lots of time because of being on crutches for a couple of months. Love the variety of your videos covering your own garden and visiting other gardens! Educational and inspirational! I garden in US zone 7b near Atlanta.
Hi Kathleen, welcome to our channel and I’m so glad your are enjoying it. Wishing you a speedy recovery and that you will be back gardening again soon! Jenny
I loved your video-you are so right it is more fun learning from each other rather than showing only perfection. Thanks for the honesty it’s another gem of wisdom. On one of your other videos you recommended naming your garden rooms. You changed my gardening concept completely! Now when I’m planting the thought process is more organized to the space. Thanks for your gems and God bless you.
Also cuttings save heaps of money. I seed save every summer and find most perenials take well. We dont have the variety you have....like the grasses. They are beautiful in the breeze. Ive planted dwarf fruit trees with delpiniums, salvias, cat mint, dahlia, dwarf peach knipfofia and strawberries over the edge. I agree with planting in repetition and drifts to make an impact. Gardens are always changing us and them.😊 Jo (New Zealand)
I now have two garden related things to look forward to in the autumn. Getting five new acer palmatums in my garden and seeing your redesigned borders. :)
No pressure then!!!🤣I can hardly wait for autumn and to get started. As it’s so wet in the Uk at the moment, I was really tempted to start now but that may be a bit risky if we get a hot august! Thanks for watching Jenny
I have unwavering faith in your abilities. 👍You mentioned that you welcome input. I have a few ideas that may or may not work. Abiding by your principle of having focal points in the border, perhaps a Cotinus coggygria Royal Purple could fit the bill? You already have a specimen elsewhere in the garden so it should be easy for you to evaluate if it might work. Staying with the colour palette, you could also experiment if Aquilegia vulgaris scattered among the two dainty types of grass which seem to have caught your affection is a good combination. At this time in the summer Aquilegia vulgaris is adorning my garden with a multitude of leaf colours ranging from bright purple, over burgundy to pale pink.
Thank you for your wonderful suggestions , I love the Continus idea, definitely something that is purple leaved would look good against the vivid green of the beech. I have a lot of self seeding aquilegia and if I do add more grasses they would look pretty. Many thanks For watching and sharing your ideas- love it!!! Jenny
This is HUGELY helpful! I suffer from some of your same challenges (don’t we all?). I noticed in some of your close-ups that you have a variety of staking/support systems throughout your garden. Would you consider doing a video all about plant supports (different types, which ones are best for certain plants, sizes of supports, make your own, and when to put in the supports). I know that part of what has my borders looking messy is that I don’t seem to have mastered plant supports and trellising. Many thanks, and keep these great videos coming! Amy in Minnesota.
Hi Amy I did one earlier in the year called ‘everything you need to know about staking’. The key is to put in support before the plants need it. It’s working really well in my quadrant area and we have had a lot of rain and wind but the plants have survived very well Hope that helps Jenny
What a great video…I’ll need to watch it over and over. I really enjoyed Chelsea autumnal show. I wish they would alternate between spring and autumn shows.
New follower from Danielle here! I've been watching some of your previous videos and love your channel! For my fall planning I plan to do more 'clumping' and also picked up some grasses. A grass named Muhlenbergia capillaris grows well here. It also comes in pink😊
Many thanks for sharing your knowledge, it really helps to understand how to create a space which has a pleasing over-all balance, clusters of structural and/or colour beauty whilst keeping the idea of pleasing pollinators, using drought tolerant plants and all of this with the added challenge of not breaking the bank is not easy. I find that taking cuttings from shrubs and starting perennial from seed and splitting all helps. I love dahlias and these can be propagated quite easily. So now it's just a question of placing it all.....not so easy. So many thanks again, we need all the help we can get 😊
In theory I know what needs to be done but whether or not I can pull it off remains to be seen!! The more I learn the harder I realise it is to get it right. I never considered getting in a landscape architect or garden designer but in the long run it may have been more cost effective and less painful than getting it wrong!🤣I guess I am enjoying the learning process (or at least that’s what I tell myself) and I definitely learn from all my mistakes!! Thanks for watching Jenny
So many interesting points to learn from. Excellent. It seems your intentions for the back borders fit into the “new perennial movement” and the designs of Piet Oudolf. Is that correct?
Yes, it is the newest and was built in 2020 and so it’s amazing how it looks so good already. It’s the only one that has been designed from scratch, the previous garden was no longer there and I think the style reflects this, and as you say, it is more contemporary. Thanks for watching Jenny
Great information on a topic I don't see covered much. I tend to like ornamental beds that contain just a few different flowers. Or even just a large mass of 1 flower. Like Rose gardens sometimes have. With all your flowers and lawn, do you have any issues with wasps? In my garden I have lots of them and now at the end of July, the yellowjackets are coming out in full force and they fly low just above the lawn making it next to impossible to work in the garden for any length of time.
That’s one problem we don’t have, that sounds a nightmare! We’ve got ants, rabbits and pigeons which I now think I prefer to your wasps! We’ve got lots of bees 🐝 but just the occasional wasp, more in late summer. There was a garden at Chelsea which bestowed the benefits of wasps - that may be no consolation when they sting you!!! 😢 Re: planting, I think you are right, sometimes simplicity is best. I need to be more restrained and resist the urge to stick things in gaps creating a mish mash of plants!! Thanks for watching Jenny
@MurphysGarden Yes! That's just like the term I use, Mish Mosh. One rose here, 3 coneflowers there. Your garden looks fantastic and is, stylistically, the type of garden that appeals to me. Re: Wasps. I have 5 traps hanging around my fence. One I just put up 2 days ago and it already has trapped 16 wasps, a few of which are larger hornets. Now I have to find an effective trap for the yellowjackets. Looking forward to your next video.
I love formal gardens, but the deer and rabbits here would not allow it. Everything I plant has to have a barrier. We are sandy and dry and even more so because of drought. I also have a hodgepodge of plants, but more so to figure out what will survive here. Love brick/stone paths and walls and cost for hardscaping is a deterrent. If you make things look too good the taxes go up. To save money I like to propagate the plants that are hardy. As one ages we need to consider how it will all be kept up. We are in the country and things are more casual and carefully placed out of reach to wildlife so I will get my fix of formal gardens through videos like yours😊.
Glad you enjoyed watching. I guess we all have to work with what we’ve got and be realistic on what we can grow, as Beth Chattos mantra says ‘right plant, right place’ but sometimes it’s frustrating when we really love a certain look! Thank you for watching Jenny
I am so glad that Danielle introduced her audience to your channel! I have really been enjoying your videos. I have watched many of your older videos now as well. But may I suggest that you turn your audio volume up quite a bit more.
I have to really turn my volume up to max in order to hear you and then when an advert pops on, it about blasts me out of the room lol. Would be much appreciated!
Thank you and thank you for the feedback. I will sort out the audio, I have just invested in a better mic and it’s so much better and easier to control. Was the last one too quiet too? I will have a fiddle and turn it up for the next one!
Thanks for watching
Jenny
@@MurphysGarden unfortunately it was really low as well. But I definitely like the content you're putting forward. And greatly enjoy good field trips to gardens lol.
Thank you for sharing your 12 Top Tips gathered from the Garden you recently visited. I love your gardening enthusiasm and am looking forward to watching & learning this process in action as you redesign your borders. Please show us as much of your work as possible as you create this beauty as you go. I am also looking forward to you sharing the beauty of upcoming Garden tours & your interviews with the expert gardeners who create them. Thanks again for the inspiration & enthusiasm. (Incidentally, I love your garden design at your home!)
Thank you so much, I will do my best to try and get it right! No pressure 🤣
They say “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” This beholder thinks your borders are beautiful presently. So, anything you create in addition will be “right”! Keep up the good work! ❤
Thank you so much for putting this together, Jenny. This was one of the most informative, interesting and useful gardening videos I have ever watched. I am guilty of planting “blobby” garden beds, mainly because I tend to buy only one or two of an individual plant. Plants are just so expensive and are becoming more so. To achieve good repetition, I propagate a lot of existing plants in the garden or when I buy something, I choose plants that have enough bulk so that they can be divided or propagated by cuttings. This require time and patience, but is extremely rewarding and a lot of fun. I have read that drifts of plants look best and more natural when the drifts are not all the same size. Also drifts that are tadpole-shaped (thin at one end and wider at the other end) and weaving in and out of one another so that plants finish flowering or need cutting back are somewhat hidden by those in front. My winter interest/ anchor plants are box, pittosporum and westringia spheres. I find that lots of ephemeral, airy plants need a more solid-looking weighty presence for contrast. My rural Australian garden is surrounded by paddocks of (usually) brown grasses so the fashion for ornamental grasses has been one I have yet to embrace, because it looks like paddock weeds have invaded! I need to find some pretty grasses that aren’t brown! Bravo for sharing your problem areas. We all have them. It will be exciting to see how you change things. Thanks again for such wonderful tips.😊❤ from Gippsland, Australia
Thank you for your comments and for your really good tips especially planting in tadpole like shapes, that’s a great point to avoid problems when things go over.
Thank you for your help
Jenny
So much great information ! Whenever I go on a garden tour I always want to come home and rip out my gardens and start over . Can’t wait to see how you revamp your garden,we always look at our own gardens with a critical eye .💐
Yes, absolutely feel the same! I must try and be happy in the moment more instead of striving for something better - just out of reach! We’ve had such wet weather that I’m half tempted to start now but I guess august could be hot so I will resist and wait a bit longer!
Thanks for watching
Jenny
New follower; so glad Danielle led me to this site! This is a great video. Thanks for being so honest about garden design fails and insight on how to improve a border. Learned a lot.
Great to have you join us, thank you and thanks for watching
Jenny
This was an excellent video, I have not been able to put into thoughts/words what is missing from my beds and this hit the nail on the head. Gorgeous images...thank you!!
Thank you, so glad you found it helpful
Jenny
Favorite garden channel!!!
Great video, lots of good info, look forward to the next one. Thanks
Thank you
Jenny
I got rid of a 10-year-old stand of coneflowers two weeks ago and feel much better for it. I have such a small garden and they were beginning to take over odd places, obscuring their neighbors. I worried at first because the goldfinches adore the seeds but I decided to plant zinnias for them. We all need a change! Thank you for the wonderful videos. I learn so much! You keep things real.
Yes, they do start to take over if you don’t watch them! Some seem to have stronger stems than others, I’m finding my large clump seems to collapse but others are strong and upright, must depend on the variety!
Thanks for watching
Jenny
I always enjoy your videos , I learn alot . I’ll be designing my garden this autumn,
Thank you for watching and I hope it goes well
Jemny
I’m here from Danielle’s reference. Your gardens are stunning and I’m enjoying your channel. 💗
Thank you so much and welcome to the channel
Jenny
Great video! I also found you through Danielle. I love both of your gardens so much!
Thank you so much
Jenny
We joyed the way you view a public garden and then try to implement what you see in your own garden. I did it after viewing the Chicago Botanic garden, and am glad to see you doing that too.
Just looked up the Chicago Botanic garden, it looks amazing. It’s makes sense to take ideas when you see something done well!
Thanks for watching
Jenny
New subscriber from Danielle’s blog. I’ve spent 2 days catching up with your channel, due to lots of time because of being on crutches for a couple of months. Love the variety of your videos covering your own garden and visiting other gardens! Educational and inspirational! I garden in US zone 7b near Atlanta.
Hi Kathleen, welcome to our channel and I’m so glad your are enjoying it. Wishing you a speedy recovery and that you will be back gardening again soon!
Jenny
That was packed full of good information! Thank you ❤
Thank you
Jenny
I loved your video-you are so right it is more fun learning from each other rather than showing only perfection. Thanks for the honesty it’s another gem of wisdom. On one of your other videos you recommended naming your garden rooms. You changed my gardening concept completely! Now when I’m planting the thought process is more organized to the space. Thanks for your gems and God bless you.
Thank you, it is great fun learning together, now I need to put it into practice!
Jenny
Also cuttings save heaps of money.
I seed save every summer and find most perenials take well.
We dont have the variety you have....like the grasses.
They are beautiful in the breeze.
Ive planted dwarf fruit trees with delpiniums, salvias, cat mint, dahlia, dwarf peach knipfofia and strawberries over the edge.
I agree with planting in repetition and drifts to make an impact.
Gardens are always changing us and them.😊
Jo (New Zealand)
Have you tried heleniums from cuttings or seed? I definitely need more and that would be a cheaper way. Thank you for your advice, I will investigate!
I now have two garden related things to look forward to in the autumn. Getting five new acer palmatums in my garden and seeing your redesigned borders. :)
No pressure then!!!🤣I can hardly wait for autumn and to get started. As it’s so wet in the Uk at the moment, I was really tempted to start now but that may be a bit risky if we get a hot august!
Thanks for watching
Jenny
I have unwavering faith in your abilities. 👍You mentioned that you welcome input. I have a few ideas that may or may not work. Abiding by your principle of having focal points in the border, perhaps a Cotinus coggygria Royal Purple could fit the bill? You already have a specimen elsewhere in the garden so it should be easy for you to evaluate if it might work. Staying with the colour palette, you could also experiment if Aquilegia vulgaris scattered among the two dainty types of grass which seem to have caught your affection is a good combination. At this time in the summer Aquilegia vulgaris is adorning my garden with a multitude of leaf colours ranging from bright purple, over burgundy to pale pink.
Thank you for your wonderful suggestions , I love the Continus idea, definitely something that is purple leaved would look good against the vivid green of the beech. I have a lot of self seeding aquilegia and if I do add more grasses they would look pretty. Many thanks
For watching and sharing your ideas- love it!!!
Jenny
New subscriber here! Loved Loved Loved this...I'm all in! 🌱💚🦠
Thank you so much and welcome to the channel
Jenny
This is HUGELY helpful! I suffer from some of your same challenges (don’t we all?). I noticed in some of your close-ups that you have a variety of staking/support systems throughout your garden. Would you consider doing a video all about plant supports (different types, which ones are best for certain plants, sizes of supports, make your own, and when to put in the supports). I know that part of what has my borders looking messy is that I don’t seem to have mastered plant supports and trellising. Many thanks, and keep these great videos coming!
Amy in Minnesota.
Hi Amy
I did one earlier in the year called ‘everything you need to know about staking’. The key is to put in support before the plants need it. It’s working really well in my quadrant area and we have had a lot of rain and wind but the plants have survived very well
Hope that helps
Jenny
@@MurphysGarden thanks so much, just watched it! Racing to my borders now for corrective action :)
How exciting!!! Looking good. Now the fun stuff starts happening with the build! 👏🏼
Yes, I’m theory I know what I’m need to do and I’m excited to get stuck in
Thanks for watching
Jenny
What a great video…I’ll need to watch it over and over. I really enjoyed Chelsea autumnal show. I wish they would alternate between spring and autumn shows.
Yes, I just loved it too, that would be a great idea!
Thank you so much for your lovely comments
Jenny
Thank you. 🌸💚🙃
Great information 🌼🐝 found your channel from Danielle
Danielle is great isn’t she, it was so fun to feature on her channel. Glad to have you join us - welcome!
New follower from Danielle here! I've been watching some of your previous videos and love your channel! For my fall planning I plan to do more 'clumping' and also picked up some grasses. A grass named Muhlenbergia capillaris grows well here. It also comes in pink😊
Welcome to the channel. I’ve never heard of that grass and have just looked it up and it looks amazing, thank you for sharing
Jenny
Thank you
Many thanks for sharing your knowledge, it really helps to understand how to create a space which has a pleasing over-all balance, clusters of structural and/or colour beauty whilst keeping the idea of pleasing pollinators, using drought tolerant plants and all of this with the added challenge of not breaking the bank is not easy. I find that taking cuttings from shrubs and starting perennial from seed and splitting all helps. I love dahlias and these can be propagated quite easily. So now it's just a question of placing it all.....not so easy. So many thanks again, we need all the help we can get 😊
In theory I know what needs to be done but whether or not I can pull it off remains to be seen!! The more I learn the harder I realise it is to get it right. I never considered getting in a landscape architect or garden designer but in the long run it may have been more cost effective and less painful than getting it wrong!🤣I guess I am enjoying the learning process (or at least that’s what I tell myself) and I definitely learn from all my mistakes!!
Thanks for watching
Jenny
So many interesting points to learn from. Excellent. It seems your intentions for the back borders fit into the “new perennial movement” and the designs of Piet Oudolf. Is that correct?
Yes, definitely think that look would be perfect for that area
Thanks for watching
Jenny
Think Bridgewater is the newest of RHS garden. It looks more contemporary in style rather than traditional looking ones (like RHS Wisley).
Yes, it is the newest and was built in 2020 and so
it’s amazing how it looks so good already. It’s the only one that has been designed from scratch, the previous garden was no longer there and I think
the style reflects this, and as you say, it is more contemporary.
Thanks for watching
Jenny
Great information on a topic I don't see covered much. I tend to like ornamental beds that contain just a few different flowers. Or even just a large mass of 1 flower. Like Rose gardens sometimes have.
With all your flowers and lawn, do you have any issues with wasps? In my garden I have lots of them and now at the end of July, the yellowjackets are coming out in full force and they fly low just above the lawn making it next to impossible to work in the garden for any length of time.
That’s one problem we don’t have, that sounds a nightmare! We’ve got ants, rabbits and pigeons which I now think I prefer to your wasps! We’ve got lots of bees 🐝 but just the occasional wasp, more in late summer. There was a garden at Chelsea which bestowed the benefits of wasps - that may be no consolation when they sting you!!! 😢
Re: planting, I think you are right, sometimes simplicity is best. I need to be more restrained and resist the urge to stick things in gaps creating a mish mash of plants!!
Thanks for watching
Jenny
@MurphysGarden Yes! That's just like the term I use, Mish Mosh. One rose here, 3 coneflowers there. Your garden looks fantastic and is, stylistically, the type of garden that appeals to me.
Re: Wasps. I have 5 traps hanging around my fence. One I just put up 2 days ago and it already has trapped 16 wasps, a few of which are larger hornets. Now I have to find an effective trap for the yellowjackets.
Looking forward to your next video.
I love formal gardens, but the deer and rabbits here would not allow it. Everything I plant has to have a barrier. We are sandy and dry and even more so because of drought. I also have a hodgepodge of plants, but more so to figure out what will survive here. Love brick/stone paths and walls and cost for hardscaping is a deterrent. If you make things look too good the taxes go up. To save money I like to propagate the plants that are hardy.
As one ages we need to consider how it will all be kept up. We are in the country and things are more casual and carefully placed out of reach to wildlife so I will get my fix of formal gardens through videos like yours😊.
Glad you enjoyed watching. I guess we all have to work with what we’ve got and be realistic on what we can grow, as Beth Chattos mantra says ‘right plant, right place’ but sometimes it’s frustrating when we really love a certain look!
Thank you for watching
Jenny