My neighbor got some trees and shrubs for winterinterest but anything else is just full of wildflowers. Each year she just throws some hand full of new seeds on the ground and waters them only this one time. That's it and let me tell you each year it looks spectacular. Whimsical and full of beautiful color from early sommer until well into fall. It doesn't get more low maintance than that , it's dirt cheap and it's the best you can do for the wildlife/pollinators.
A very useful episode, thank you! As much as it is pleasing to show a well-kept face to the world, it is also a way to be sociable. Too few houses have front porches anymore, and maybe the television and air conditioning lure us inside too. I have most of my interaction with neighbors though as I am pottering in the front garden as they come out to collect their mail or walk their dogs. This can lead to sharing any surplus of plants when they admire anything in particular. In this way the gardening bug spreads and the whole neighborhood becomes a garden - of plants as well as of friends.
I’m so glad you commented on artificial lawns. I do worry for the environment with the current trend of carpeting gardens with green plastic. It also rarely looks good in my opinion. I did wonder what would happen as an artificial lawn reaches the end of its life and yet more plastic going to landfill isn’t great.
I'll quickly add that cities are known to be heat zones because of lack of vegetation. I live in zone 10b--it gets hot--and having a lawn keeps my house just a smidge cooler. It's really nice to walk on real grass on a hot summer day 😁
I am so happy that I discovered Alexandra's videos! My gardening life is just starting and she makes it look realistic and manageble. And when it does not work, she is honest. I like it.
Thank you Alexandra for mentioning the environmental and sustainable side of things. I like to see my garden as a habitat for wildlife that they are welcome to enjoy as much as I do! ☺ Cheers!
Love your videos, I’m at the stage that as I age my garden decisions have to be thought out carefully. Low maintenance is very important, knees aren’t the same as they once were. Thanks for sharing always appreciated 👍❤️😊
I wish I could go back to my 20's knowing what I know now. I had that gardener's disease " one of everything". Over the years I have changed things but I'm hard-pressed to limit ( especially trees ) to 5 or 6 varieties, and I'm thinking you mean 5 or 6 total not 5 or 6 of each. haha Great tips.
Excellent information, thank you very much. This will help as I plan for my new front garden. Previous owners had very little in the front, nearly bare and not welcoming. It will change!!!
I love to listen to the sound of your voice so am always happy when you come out with a new video. This is sometimes a problem for me like today, I have a very high maintenance garden, but here I am still watching.
Gardening Junkie: I have a very high maintenance front garden too. You are not alone. I could write a catalogue with the many plants that are found in it! I am just not a low maintenance gardener.
I've always loved ivy, and said if I moved to britain I'd love a brick house with ivy growing up it, and was devastated when someone said that ivy destroys the brickwork. It's great to know that's not true (unless the brickwork is already damaged). And the same with trees. So fascinating, really.
Thank you. I think the real problem is that with ivy covering the brickwork you might not notice damage. But everything needs supervision and maintenance so I think keeping a careful eye out should prevent any problems.
Thank you for this--good tips all and your front garden is beautiful! My front garden has finally evolved to low maintenance after many years of trial & error. We are in US Zone 6 and deer browse is a huge issue. What I've edited down to are barberry, boxwood, coneflowers, daffodils, a magnolia, and a smoke bush. All untouched by the deer, easy to care for, and simply attractive.
we also have low maintenance trees and shrubs in the front yard. we love our live oaks, magnolias, contorted mulberry, white fringe, and maple trees and the birds love them too! enjoyed the video! those two flowering trees you have in the front are wonderful.
Great have only just seen this posting despite having watched lots of your videos which I enjoy. We're also plant trees in our front garden this autumn but will now take a look at this particular crab apple too. Many thanks
Thank you. I've got a blog post on choosing hedging - I hope that will help. The post is www.themiddlesizedgarden.co.uk/which-hedge-is-right-for-my-garden/ One of the main issues with hedging is that a fast-growing hedge will get to the height you want quickly, but will need more clipping after that. And a slow growing hedge will take years to be the hedge you dream of, but will be low maintenance after that. And instant hedging, planted when it is mature, needs a lot of extra care in its first two years. So there's almost no perfect low maintenance hedge, but I hope the post helps you choose.
Thank you for the reply. Yes l want a fast-ish growing hedge, that's not going to need cutting back from the footpath next to it, very often. Also one that deters people from cutting across my front lawn. Kind regards Debbie
@@debbiemerryweather528 I recommend Luma Apiculata. I have recently planted three (to form a very small hedge) in the front garden right next to the fence (slatted metal) and they began growing immediately, with no trouble at all. The leaves are beautiful mid to dark green and I think this could fit the bill for you. Cheers.
Alexandra, as always, a great video. I totally agree with you that we tend to neglect our front garden. Low maintenance front garden is the best solution. Thank you for your video. I always enjoy watching them.
I appreciate the detailed thoughts you voice in your advice, because there are aspects that I have not been considering, because I did not know about them. So for making decisions what to plant these aspects are pretty important to know before you buy and plant as a hobby gardener. Thank you very much for making this really nice video for all of us.
Another lovely video, Alexandra. My front yard is a cottage garden, quite full and expanding around the sides. It is work but not too high maintenance. I'll spend all day in it just because it makes me happy. Aging has prompted more low maintenance perennials but I do enjoy having become the neighborhood "flower lady" and making friends with the dog walkers. I've noticed fewer are allowing their dogs to potty in my yard these days. Your walkway trees are beautiful! I have a curved walkway and through years of storms and pruning, our crabapple arches over the walk to hold hands with the Fire and Ice Hydrangea. It worked out stunningly.
Great advice! I must have missed this video when it was published. We were on vacation at the time, perhaps explaining why it escaped me. To the point: I can't do low maintenance anything, unfortunately. I love the thrill of seeing an ever-evolving garden vista and seeing new plants unfold their glory. Plants that are moved on to make way for the new are moved to my children's gardens where they (plants) happily continue their existence. As I am getting older, however, I will have to edit the various gardens, but I may let nature choose those that remain - that is, those that can manage with limited attention.
Thank you! I find that I forget the front garden more than the back garden, so I'm very glad my predecessors planted it in such an easy care way. But like you, I don't think I could ever have managed it myself.
Good point! I think it's slightly harder to be very disciplined in a back garden though because you spend more time in it and there'll always be the tempation to tinker.
Dandelions are not weeds, lol. They are a detoxifying plant and you make tea from it and add it to salads, pasta, etc. it’s very beneficial to great health!
One of the best tips for low maintenance garden ever! I need a very low maintenance container garden with autumn to spring interest as I'm away from home often. This video was extremely useful! Thank you!
Hi, regarding your comments about plastic grass-as gardeners we should NEVER see any virtue in it's usage within the garden environment. I personally regard the stuff as the devils work, it effectively dead-zones any area of earth over which it is used. In reality it ought to be banned as a product and should never be promoted as an option for use in any way! I do appreciate that you don't use the stuff, and I would imagine nor would you ever consider doing so. Nevertheless, your suggesting it as an option to your subscribers is very concerning to me and many others. In a time of environmental meltdown and species collapse plastic lawn coverage is the last thing we need! It is a no-brainer! Warm regards and thankyou for your charming videos. :)
Thank you and I don't like fake grass either, but I felt that pointing out its virtues (2 of them) followed by its disadvantages (rather a long list) might discourage more people than just saying 'don't do it because of...!' which can sometimes just be skipped over by someone seeking information. That way, someone who is wanting to install fake grass can make a balanced judgement rather than perhaps just looking at information that confirms what they already think (not sure I've explained that very well, but you know what I mean) ! That's the hope anyway.
Roses in the front beds is a brilliant idea! I have a hedge of boxwood along each side of my front walk with 24” beds in front of them, and have dotty perennials that are hard to keep up with...so low growing landscape roses may be just the thing! Thanks for the great idea.
This is great. You help new gardeners li!e me. A lot of garden programs like to presume that we have a lot of experience but this isn't always the case. You are very informative. Thank you.
I just discovered your channel and adore it, but must confess that this is the first video that I have stopped watching not even two minutes in: 5 or so different plants in a front garden? With a property of 50 by 150 feet, my front garden is THE main garden, the one I adore, and you had better believe I will cram as much as I can into it. I don't have "one of this and one of that" for the most part (even I know that doesn't usually work out very well), but I am determined to have a cottage garden with a riot of color and variety, even in such a small space.
That's great, I love cottage gardens. And I believe it's good to celebrate different gardening styles - both the low maintenance and the gardens of those who love gardening.
I recently experimented with woolly thyme and white thyme, they grow side by side, smell amazing, and because they are in a patch that does not get trampled or walked on, are a good choice. No need for mowing either, they grow very slowly. Personally, I recommend trying them out instead of lawn. Chamomile lawn is another type of lawn I would be curious, but never tried it out. (Roman chamomile, not German)
You are wonderful and thanks for explaining everything in detail but not dragging on.. everything you say is useful and love learning and getting new take on my old ideas. Thank you.
Your front garden is very charming. You have really given me something to think about while I am in the midst of planning a new garden. I am thinking along these lines for the bones of my garden/landscape, but think that including a fenced in smaller area (because I have deer in my woods) would afford me an area "to play in" with perennials and veg beds.
Wonderful observations, as always. Have you seen Little Gem magnolias used in the UK? The grow as columns so they fit in smaller spaces, unlike the Grandifloras. Thanks for all your videos. I rely on your principles though I have to translate particular plants to Texas alternatives.
Thank you. I don't think I have seen the Little Gem magnolias, they sound interesting. And translating principles is always a good idea, that's what I hope people can do
This is wonderful - I am new to my house and have been mulling over what I’m doing. I’m in eastern North Carolina in the States, and I’ve put in azaleas, camellias, and a dogwood tree. But I’m looking for ways to hide the daffodil foliage from bulbs that were already there. I’m a rosarian, so I’ll be adding roses. But I’m allowing my lawn to become a meadow, much to my neighbors dismay! It’s a bit of a mess. So, your principles have given me a good template to follow.
Love this, thank you! I’m moving house soon and will have front and back gardens so all these tips are wonderful. Could you please add a list of plants as sometimes I can’t catch what they’re called? Liked and subscribed🤗
Good idea, I've just corrected the captions so if you click on CC, you'll get captions that will tell you the names (plant names do get mangled on the automatic captioning!). The trees are Malus hupensis (crab apples), the pink bulbs are Nerine Bowdennii, the pink winter flower is Viburnum Bodnantense and the roses are 'Bonica'.
I have large Pink & Red Roses in the front, two Red Robins, a Canary Palm, Solanum, American Wisteria, Montana, Cordyline, Jasmine, Ivy, 3/4 Evergreen shrubs & two other shrubs - one flowers White, the other Red. Honeysuckle. Forsythia. Weigela. Alliums, Daffodils & other Bulbs. Two new Rose cuttings I done around Oct last year. A Perennial Geranium. Cosmos plants & seedlings in the ground & in three container pots. Trailing Geraniums in hanging pots. Oh dear guess I have too much. I find the Montana needs regulat attention, with trimming.
Hello from the southern tip of the U.S. So happy to have found your channel. Your content is thoroughly informative & entertaining with lots of visual eye candy. Thank you for covering topics like low maintenance, dry, & meditteranean gardens. Watched a few of your videos & was instantly compelled to subscribe! Love the quality & content of your channel. You are a fabulous host!
I guess we'd have to call my front yard "scruffy"! My neighbor insists on perfection, and is furious when "weeds" intrude - by "weeds", she means clover! I plant clover seeds whenever I have a bare spot.
There are lawn alternatives like dwarf mondo grass , dymondia, and sedges . I’ve used a variety of ground covers like ajuga , sedums, etc. even lippia is a native plant that supports pollinators and insects. Plant selection is important and narrowing down to just 5 is hard. A rule I’ve read is to keep landscape 80% evergreen plants and with drought prevailing now more people are going to native plants. Color palette can also be 4 colors like pinks , white, lavender, grays, shades of green. Grey is a neutral color and also adds contrast . I truly doubt now days people want only one color in the garden . Interesting points made though and I agree with limiting perennials and annuals especially as I age.
Great video. What was the name of the pink flowering bulb? I have seen them flowering here in late fall and early winter and never knew what they were. Thanks.
I live in zone 9b and the previous owners planted 3 queen palm trees. When we moved in I thought, "how lovely!" Six years later, I'm ready to take them out because of the maintenance. The fronds grow too long, die, and have to be cut off. And each tree produces huge quantities of seed pods which make a terrible mess. They either drop to the ground on their own or, when you cut them down, they scatter, even if you've laid down a tarp to catch them, and it's impossible to rake up all of the seeds. I'm getting too old to deal with them, so they are coming out and I'll be planting something far less demanding. And then I'll once again be able to say, "how lovely!"
I've read that palms really take off after 8 years. I delayed taking two out of my garden and sure enough after eight years they were monsters and I was lucky enough to have a husband who was an expert tree lopper and he cut them down. (he'd asked me to do it two years earlier) I'd say get rid of them sooner then later.
I don't have any experience of palm trees, except when I lived in South America in my childhood, but I think I remember them often looking tatty and a bit sad. It's interesting to see the other comments replying to yours, also saying that palm trees can be tricky to keep looking good.
I absolutely love that you brought up the downfalls of plastic lawn. Not enough people are talking about how bad they are for local wildlife and ecosystems.
I've a corner west-facing lot in an older downtown residential neighborhood in eastern Canada. It had virtually no plantings when I bought it 26 years ago- and yes, I wanted to deter cutting across. About 20 years ago, we put in Japanese hybrid Rose Glow Barbary. It was theoretically to grow to about 5 feet - approximately right, on the shorter side, where an immense maple partly shades it, and steals some of its water. The longer side has settled for 7 feet - with the odd spike needing to be trimmed. Maintenance: When the snow is gone, and leaves are considering opening, I cut out the dead wood. (My goal has never been a manicured hedge. No panic when an area is damaged - the plants will fill it in.) 1 1/2 months later, I again look for & cut out dead wood. (25 bushes, maximum 1 hour. It has a bizarre habit: some - small- branches will start to leaf out, & suddenly, they're dead! The shrub & I move on.) After another 1 1/2 months, an hour or so of trimming excessive new growth on the sidewalk side protects the eyes of bypassers. Spikes trimmed as needed. Guaranteed- no one cuts across.
Love your videos. Lot’s of good advice, great ideas & video footage, interesting people & gorgeous gardens. Would love it if you could add in written names of plants you mention & show, like in this video, that I am unfamiliar with or cannot make out well enough to look up. You do that in many of your videos, thank you. We are in the mountains of North Carolina, but you show many plants that are cold hardy enough for us, & though our mountainside lot is not conducive to any formal style, we do have a couple of areas in front for a smallish bed of trees, shrubs & flowers that this video had wonderful ideas to try. Also, we have a long, slightly shady area that is difficult for much maintenance, but I was able to find many ideas for trees, shrubs & low maintenance plants that would work for here as well. This was our vacation home that we recently retired to & are just now working to re-do & finish out. Really do love all of your videos I’ve seen so far & look forward to hours of old & new videos when time allows. We all love the UK, & have been a few times as a family & will be in England & Scotland this coming summer. My husband was a golf professional & has been there over 80 times with members, has many members from the UK & is a member of a couple of clubs there. Wish my daughter & I could go as much as has & will in future! We love it there as much as he does. Thanks for all the time you spend making these excellent videos! All the best to you & yours, Lynda
Thank you so much, and for reminding me about plant names. Sometimes they're not available - someone has forgotten, for example, but where it's practical I try to include a few.
I recently found your channel. Your videos are lovely and so so helpful for me! I moved to a Victorian home and am going all out on an English garden. I have found your videos amazingly educational :D
Find what grows naturally in your region and it will tolerate most changes and grow hardier. There are some shrubs that need a more acid soil and love morning sun. There are some that overtake a garden, they will require more maintenance to keep controlled. Know about your plants/shrubs/trees before you put them in the ground. In my region there is great information from a local university and it is free online.
love watching your vids Alexandra. i love the look of crab apple trees but im worried about planting one as i heard that the crab apples are poisonous to dogs and i have dogs. i have a small bungalow that i have just moved into there is hardly any back garden but there is a fairly large front garden which i am waiting to see what a previous tenant has planted...at the top of the front garden that faces a street is a low chain link fence with a low hedge on the outside and just odd biuts of ivy growing over the fence, it doesnt look very pleasant and doesnt give any privacy from pedestrians..im wondering what evergreen shrubs i can plant along there to make a screen?...also i love the evergreen lonicera halliana and would like this in my garden but ive heard it can be very invasive? id love to have you do a vid on the different types of Lonicera?
Interesting - I think with the lonicera, it's just a question of clipping it back and it should stay under control. There were some lovely honeysuckle hedges in front gardens where I lived in London, and I don't think the owners had too much trouble with them (I think it can be more of a problem if you let it get too tall, so that cutting back becomes a chore). Re the crab apples, the advice seems to be mixed, with some people saying they're safe for dogs and others saying they're not. I think the question is whether your dogs would eat them? My dog never bothered, but perhaps puppies might want to chew them? The main problem would be in autumn when the fruit drops, so if you're happy to clear up the fruit and/or your dogs aren't interested, you should be OK. But if your dog tries to eat everything it sees, that's more of a problem.
My front garden is on a slope downwards from the house - have you any tips for low growing shrubs that will go in the lower part? Thanks for your videos they are an inspiration! 😊😊
We do not get heatwaves here in Wales ! When south-east England is hot and sunny, we get cloudy, cool weather with rain, rain., rain ... Thank you for your videos.
Every time I mention a heatwave, people from around the world think it's very funny, I don't think what we get in South East England is considered a heatwave anywhere else. I do envy your rain, though, it is so dry here, we are desperate for a bit more rain.
Hi Alexandra, I have just joined your channel and loving it already. I need lots of help and advice as I am very novice in gardening but want to learn. I shall watch all your videos. I find them very relatable. Thank you Anna/ Surrey
Gravel is a such a weed attractor. I wouldn't recommend it. Mulch is easier to maintain. In a drought ridden area like mine, gravel heats the surrounding area even more. In the summer, that's awful.
We are in a tremendous drought area in the western us and gravelling the front yard is an idea many here have done and that we considered and decided against. I agree with you that gravel increases heat and it seems a bit of a catch-22. The best remedy does seem to be planting trees that shade everything else. Trees cool everything else down
I am building a house next month and have already spent hrs and hrs dreaming of the front and back yard I want. I will be working with a bare canvas, except my right side rare will gently slope to a small stream bed full of youngish trees, pines. I’m moving from a near tropical zone in South Carolina to a zone 7a or b so maybe now I can grow a Gertrude Jekyll antique rose with success. I have 2 cuttings ready to go! Finally, what I envision for my front yard is four small pots and one large of perennials like coneflower, white impatiens and white geranium; a smattering of boxwood by the house; a Gertrude Jekyll and/or Graham Thomas rose off the small sidewalk; a lawn, and perhaps a birch halfway to the front door, which will be yellow. The house will be a craftsman with hearthstone-coloured siding and stone accents under the white columns. At 67, I’ll be joining my first garden club too to make sure I buy plants for my secluded small backyard that will thrive in my new area close to mountains.
You said it right way: low maintenance and not no maintenance. Yew, Beeche, any shrub, Ivy (small narrow, varieties) and other groundcover plants are good to replace lawn. Bergenias, Germanium and so on. Why not a knotgarden/cloudpruning . Or special grasses like miscanthus, mixed with bulbs. Nice to a wildflower madow. Only cut once with a sycthe. For pots: sempervivum, bergenias. Your frontgarden is the first impression. Look for easy plants that suits your climate and condotions.
Sending you warmest regards from upper NY. I'm glad that you have been safe in this tumultuous year and I hope you've had an opportunity to be vaccinated. Here is to a happy healthy 2021 full of friends and gardens. Yours Jennie
Thank you! We're hoping to be vaccinated, if all goes well, by about mid- Feb to early March as we're in the fourth cohort, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it all goes well - all over the world. Happy New Year to you!
Hi I’m Georgie from Melbourne, I found this video most informative and beneficial to me. Could you please tell me the name of the two front trees on either side of your front gate I couldn’t catch the name.Thanks I really enjoyed this video 😊👍🏼
I always enjoy your opinion but I disagree with you about trees. As someone who loves sun, I dislike the cold shadows that are a constant with trees. Trees that produce beautiful blossoms leave debris that is anything but low maintenance when the faded blooms drop. Deciduous trees require much cleanup when they drop their leaves in autumn. Poop from birds that roost in trees can be a year round problem, especially when trees planted near driveways, car parks or walkways.
Weeding a gravel walk and driveway is tedious and often hot work! In snowy climates, often the gravel ends upon the garden beds which causes time consuming gravel picking of the beds!
Another wonderful video. I am of the opinion that more is better but that opinion has led me down a more work path. Now that I am 85 I can't work as well as I once did and I need to make the front garden less complicated. Thanks for the encouragement. (The Lasagna Gardener)
Very useful tips but in a North facing heavy clay garden which only gets a sliver of sun in the summer, lavender doesn't thrive, so I have some evergreen pheasant grass instead. I also have no grass but put bark chippings around the shrubs every year or two.
I have recently discovered this channel and have found it to be highly educational. Thank you for your insight I've really enjoyed learning so much you. Keep up the good work.
really appreciate all of your thoughtful ideas. could you consider discussing ideas for low zone ( 3-4) gardens and for the alternate tropical gardens?
I will definitely bear that in mind, but it's worth remembering that many tips are not influenced by zone - all garden design tips and ideas can be carried out equally in any zone, as the zone only matters when buying plants if you want them to survive the winter. There's also a sliding scale as to which plants can be used, because there are many plants that will be fine in a lower zone summer, but won't survive the winter so are treated as annuals in that zone. While if they are grown in a higher zone, they can be treated as perennials - so there's lots of zone overlap with plants. Before I started the UA-cam channel I did a blog post on exotic/tropical gardens for a cool climate, but I will definitely do a video on that soon, so thank you for reminding me. Here is the blog post, in case that helps: www.themiddlesizedgarden.co.uk/an-unusual-tropical-garden-in-the-kent-countryside/
Mahonia is good in the shade, and some hydrangeas may be happy - I have hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle' in my north-facing borders. There are even a few roses that will be OK, such as the white climber Madame Alfred Carriere, I don't know if you've seen our plants for shade video, which has more suggestions, but here it is in case you haven't: ua-cam.com/video/kNsRZzW8GaI/v-deo.html
all your ideas are excellent ,I feel very much your passion for gardens and the good will to help and guide us to make a lovely gardens I feel in the way the oral way use is like a teacher talking to me and that is a lot to get use to if only the oral message could come more softer and encouragement and soft it will be music to my ears and I will feel like listening and watching your videos no stop as it is deliver in that way I get tired and unfortunately I have to stop periodically
can give advice on sandy soils and plants. I have a house near the beach and despite adding topsoil, manure, and compost I feel I'm still left with lifeless sand. I don't really like typical gardens around here as they are just beach daisy 's. Help
I did a few posts on beach gardens on the blog - they have some (not much, I'm afraid) planting ideas. But I think the message I got was that they use raised beds and containers to deal with the soil issue. In case it's useful: www.themiddlesizedgarden.co.uk/escape-to-the-beach-with-whitstable-open-gardens/ and www.themiddlesizedgarden.co.uk/how-to-create-a-delightful-seaside-garden/ And I will look for a good sandy soil garden or expert over the summer, thank you for suggesting it.
The trees are Malus hupehensis, which is a kind of crab apple. And I've since sorted out the Closed Captions on the video so if you click on CC you'll get proper captions.
My neighbor got some trees and shrubs for winterinterest but anything else is just full of wildflowers. Each year she just throws some hand full of new seeds on the ground and waters them only this one time. That's it and let me tell you each year it looks spectacular. Whimsical and full of beautiful color from early sommer until well into fall. It doesn't get more low maintance than that , it's dirt cheap and it's the best you can do for the wildlife/pollinators.
A very useful episode, thank you! As much as it is pleasing to show a well-kept face to the world, it is also a way to be sociable. Too few houses have front porches anymore, and maybe the television and air conditioning lure us inside too. I have most of my interaction with neighbors though as I am pottering in the front garden as they come out to collect their mail or walk their dogs. This can lead to sharing any surplus of plants when they admire anything in particular. In this way the gardening bug spreads and the whole neighborhood becomes a garden - of plants as well as of friends.
I’m so glad you commented on artificial lawns. I do worry for the environment with the current trend of carpeting gardens with green plastic. It also rarely looks good in my opinion. I did wonder what would happen as an artificial lawn reaches the end of its life and yet more plastic going to landfill isn’t great.
The landfill issue is a problem, I agree.
I'll quickly add that cities are known to be heat zones because of lack of vegetation. I live in zone 10b--it gets hot--and having a lawn keeps my house just a smidge cooler. It's really nice to walk on real grass on a hot summer day 😁
I am so happy that I discovered Alexandra's videos! My gardening life is just starting and she makes it look realistic and manageble. And when it does not work, she is honest. I like it.
Thank you!
Great video, lots of useful information.
Interestingly, my husband and I are putting in more trees and shrubs to lower maintenance as we age.
Good idea.
Thank you Alexandra for mentioning the environmental and sustainable side of things. I like to see my garden as a habitat for wildlife that they are welcome to enjoy as much as I do! ☺
Cheers!
Love your videos, I’m at the stage that as I age my garden decisions have to be thought out carefully. Low maintenance is very important, knees aren’t the same as they once were. Thanks for sharing always appreciated 👍❤️😊
Thank you!
Roses and lavender are all over my front yard garden as well! Great tips!
They are so amazingly hardy for such beautiful plants, aren't they?
I wish I could go back to my 20's knowing what I know now. I had that gardener's disease " one of everything". Over the years I have changed things but I'm hard-pressed to limit ( especially trees ) to 5 or 6 varieties, and I'm thinking you mean 5 or 6 total not 5 or 6 of each. haha Great tips.
Thank you! I still have 'one of everything' but luckily my predecessors didn't when they were planning the front garden.
Excellent information, thank you very much. This will help as I plan for my new front garden. Previous owners had very little in the front, nearly bare and not welcoming. It will change!!!
Thank you!
I love to listen to the sound of your voice so am always happy when you come out with a new video. This is sometimes a problem for me like today, I have a very high maintenance garden, but here I am still watching.
Thank you!
Gardening Junkie: I have a very high maintenance front garden too. You are not alone. I could write a catalogue with the many plants that are found in it! I am just not a low maintenance gardener.
Absolutely love this - thank you Alexandra! Now to find a suitable tree for my tiny front garden.
Thank you
I've always loved ivy, and said if I moved to britain I'd love a brick house with ivy growing up it, and was devastated when someone said that ivy destroys the brickwork. It's great to know that's not true (unless the brickwork is already damaged). And the same with trees. So fascinating, really.
Thank you. I think the real problem is that with ivy covering the brickwork you might not notice damage. But everything needs supervision and maintenance so I think keeping a careful eye out should prevent any problems.
Ivy does cling to bricks or masonry quite aggressively though. Not all climbers are like that.
Great tips and, as usual, great visual inspiration.
Thank you! And Happy New Year!
Very good info. I’ve made so many errors in over complicating with some perennials that I didn’t divide with similar issues you had. Thank you!
Your garden is lovely - especially with the birdsong in the background, such a wonderful sound
Thank you Alexandra another very helpful informative video. You have a beautiful front garden. Natalie 😀
Thank you for this--good tips all and your front garden is beautiful! My front garden has finally evolved to low maintenance after many years of trial & error. We are in US Zone 6 and deer browse is a huge issue. What I've edited down to are barberry, boxwood, coneflowers, daffodils, a magnolia, and a smoke bush. All untouched by the deer, easy to care for, and simply attractive.
I love all those plants - I'm very relieved I don't have to deal with deer though as it seems to be quite a challenge for gardeners.
I would also add to deer resistant list: camellia, nandina, viburnum, ornamental grasses and most hydrangeas.
@@tatyanacrute274 Yes to all except the hydrangeas. I love them but so do our deer!
The gardens are lovely. I particularly like the two trees at the gate.
Thank you, I'm very pleased with them. They also demonstrate how quickly trees grow if they're planted when very young.
What is the name of the trees? Thanks for the great advice.
Positively Lovely 🥰 Thank you for sharing, Chris-Raleigh NC
we also have low maintenance trees and shrubs in the front yard. we love our live oaks, magnolias, contorted mulberry, white fringe, and maple trees and the birds love them too! enjoyed the video! those two flowering trees you have in the front are wonderful.
Thank you - they are crab apples (Malus hupehensis)
Great have only just seen this posting despite having watched lots of your videos which I enjoy. We're also plant trees in our front garden this autumn but will now take a look at this particular crab apple too. Many thanks
Hello there, advice on low maintenance hedging for the front garden please. Really enjoyed this video. Thank you🌿.
Thank you. I've got a blog post on choosing hedging - I hope that will help. The post is www.themiddlesizedgarden.co.uk/which-hedge-is-right-for-my-garden/ One of the main issues with hedging is that a fast-growing hedge will get to the height you want quickly, but will need more clipping after that. And a slow growing hedge will take years to be the hedge you dream of, but will be low maintenance after that. And instant hedging, planted when it is mature, needs a lot of extra care in its first two years. So there's almost no perfect low maintenance hedge, but I hope the post helps you choose.
Thank you for the reply. Yes l want a fast-ish growing hedge, that's not going to need cutting back from the footpath next to it, very often. Also one that deters people from cutting across my front lawn. Kind regards Debbie
@@debbiemerryweather528 I recommend Luma Apiculata. I have recently planted three (to form a very small hedge) in the front garden right next to the fence (slatted metal) and they began growing immediately, with no trouble at all. The leaves are beautiful mid to dark green and I think this could fit the bill for you. Cheers.
Alexandra, as always, a great video. I totally agree with you that we tend to neglect our front garden. Low maintenance front garden is the best solution. Thank you for your video. I always enjoy watching them.
Thank you!
I really enjoyed watching this video, so much here extremely useful, thanks Alexander
Thank you!
I appreciate the detailed thoughts you voice in your advice, because there are aspects that I have not been considering, because I did not know about them.
So for making decisions what to plant these aspects are pretty important to know before you buy and plant as a hobby gardener.
Thank you very much for making this really nice video for all of us.
Glad it was helpful! Thank you so much.
Another lovely video, Alexandra. My front yard is a cottage garden, quite full and expanding around the sides. It is work but not too high maintenance. I'll spend all day in it just because it makes me happy. Aging has prompted more low maintenance perennials but I do enjoy having become the neighborhood "flower lady" and making friends with the dog walkers. I've noticed fewer are allowing their dogs to potty in my yard these days. Your walkway trees are beautiful! I have a curved walkway and through years of storms and pruning, our crabapple arches over the walk to hold hands with the Fire and Ice Hydrangea. It worked out stunningly.
That sounds beautiful
Great advice! I must have missed this video when it was published. We were on vacation at the time, perhaps explaining why it escaped me. To the point: I can't do low maintenance anything, unfortunately. I love the thrill of seeing an ever-evolving garden vista and seeing new plants unfold their glory. Plants that are moved on to make way for the new are moved to my children's gardens where they (plants) happily continue their existence. As I am getting older, however, I will have to edit the various gardens, but I may let nature choose those that remain - that is, those that can manage with limited attention.
Thank you! I find that I forget the front garden more than the back garden, so I'm very glad my predecessors planted it in such an easy care way. But like you, I don't think I could ever have managed it myself.
As usual very good ....My thoughts were that a ll the advice can also be applied to a small low maintenance garden
Good point! I think it's slightly harder to be very disciplined in a back garden though because you spend more time in it and there'll always be the tempation to tinker.
Really enjoyed this! Great ideas 😊
Dandelions are not weeds, lol. They are a detoxifying plant and you make tea from it and add it to salads, pasta, etc. it’s very beneficial to great health!
One of the best tips for low maintenance garden ever! I need a very low maintenance container garden with autumn to spring interest as I'm away from home often. This video was extremely useful! Thank you!
Glad it was helpful!
Hi, regarding your comments about plastic grass-as gardeners we should NEVER see any virtue in it's usage within the garden environment. I personally regard the stuff as the devils work, it effectively dead-zones any area of earth over which it is used. In reality it ought to be banned as a product and should never be promoted as an option for use in any way! I do appreciate that you don't use the stuff, and I would imagine nor would you ever consider doing so. Nevertheless, your suggesting it as an option to your subscribers is very concerning to me and many others. In a time of environmental meltdown and species collapse plastic lawn coverage is the last thing we need! It is a no-brainer! Warm regards and thankyou for your charming videos. :)
Thank you and I don't like fake grass either, but I felt that pointing out its virtues (2 of them) followed by its disadvantages (rather a long list) might discourage more people than just saying 'don't do it because of...!' which can sometimes just be skipped over by someone seeking information. That way, someone who is wanting to install fake grass can make a balanced judgement rather than perhaps just looking at information that confirms what they already think (not sure I've explained that very well, but you know what I mean) ! That's the hope anyway.
Fake lawn os the most ridiculous, sorry better use pavers or pebbles.
Roses in the front beds is a brilliant idea! I have a hedge of boxwood along each side of my front walk with 24” beds in front of them, and have dotty perennials that are hard to keep up with...so low growing landscape roses may be just the thing! Thanks for the great idea.
Thank you!
This is great. You help new gardeners li!e me. A lot of garden programs like to presume that we have a lot of experience but this isn't always the case. You are very informative. Thank you.
Thank you!
Thank you for posting these tips. The longer I garden, the more low maintenance I wish my garden to be so I have more time to create more garden beds.
😆 so true!
I just discovered your channel and adore it, but must confess that this is the first video that I have stopped watching not even two minutes in: 5 or so different plants in a front garden? With a property of 50 by 150 feet, my front garden is THE main garden, the one I adore, and you had better believe I will cram as much as I can into it. I don't have "one of this and one of that" for the most part (even I know that doesn't usually work out very well), but I am determined to have a cottage garden with a riot of color and variety, even in such a small space.
That's great, I love cottage gardens. And I believe it's good to celebrate different gardening styles - both the low maintenance and the gardens of those who love gardening.
I recently experimented with woolly thyme and white thyme, they grow side by side, smell amazing, and because they are in a patch that does not get trampled or walked on, are a good choice. No need for mowing either, they grow very slowly. Personally, I recommend trying them out instead of lawn. Chamomile lawn is another type of lawn I would be curious, but never tried it out. (Roman chamomile, not German)
You are wonderful and thanks for explaining everything in detail but not dragging on.. everything you say is useful and love learning and getting new take on my old ideas. Thank you.
Thank you so much!
Your front garden is very charming. You have really given me something to think about while I am in the midst of planning a new garden. I am thinking along these lines for the bones of my garden/landscape, but think that including a fenced in smaller area (because I have deer in my woods) would afford me an area "to play in" with perennials and veg beds.
Planning a new garden is always a lovely stage, good luck with it.
Hello from hot, sunny Florida. I enjoyed your video very much and hope to see you again soon!
I love the fact that your garden looks like all our gardens. It makes me want to garden. Thank you.
Thank you!
Wonderful observations, as always. Have you seen Little Gem magnolias used in the UK? The grow as columns so they fit in smaller spaces, unlike the Grandifloras. Thanks for all your videos. I rely on your principles though I have to translate particular plants to Texas alternatives.
Thank you. I don't think I have seen the Little Gem magnolias, they sound interesting. And translating principles is always a good idea, that's what I hope people can do
Thanks for some very sensible tips.
I love trees 🌳 ❤️ and lavenders
This is wonderful - I am new to my house and have been mulling over what I’m doing. I’m in eastern North Carolina in the States, and I’ve put in azaleas, camellias, and a dogwood tree. But I’m looking for ways to hide the daffodil foliage from bulbs that were already there. I’m a rosarian, so I’ll be adding roses. But I’m allowing my lawn to become a meadow, much to my neighbors dismay! It’s a bit of a mess. So, your principles have given me a good template to follow.
It sounds good, and I'm moving to a wildflower lawn at the front too.
Love this, thank you! I’m moving house soon and will have front and back gardens so all these tips are wonderful. Could you please add a list of plants as sometimes I can’t catch what they’re called? Liked and subscribed🤗
Good idea, I've just corrected the captions so if you click on CC, you'll get captions that will tell you the names (plant names do get mangled on the automatic captioning!). The trees are Malus hupensis (crab apples), the pink bulbs are Nerine Bowdennii, the pink winter flower is Viburnum Bodnantense and the roses are 'Bonica'.
The Middle-Sized Garden Wonderful! Thank you so much🤗
I have large Pink & Red Roses in the front, two Red Robins, a Canary Palm, Solanum, American Wisteria, Montana, Cordyline, Jasmine, Ivy, 3/4 Evergreen shrubs & two other shrubs - one flowers White, the other Red. Honeysuckle. Forsythia. Weigela. Alliums, Daffodils & other Bulbs. Two new Rose cuttings I done around Oct last year. A Perennial Geranium. Cosmos plants & seedlings in the ground & in three container pots. Trailing Geraniums in hanging pots. Oh dear guess I have too much. I find the Montana needs regulat attention, with trimming.
Hello from the southern tip of the U.S. So happy to have found your channel. Your content is thoroughly informative & entertaining with lots of visual eye candy. Thank you for covering topics like low maintenance, dry, & meditteranean gardens. Watched a few of your videos & was instantly compelled to subscribe! Love the quality & content of your channel. You are a fabulous host!
Thank you so much and welcome to the Middlesized Garden!
I guess we'd have to call my front yard "scruffy"! My neighbor insists on perfection, and is furious when "weeds" intrude - by "weeds", she means clover! I plant clover seeds whenever I have a bare spot.
There are lawn alternatives like dwarf mondo grass , dymondia, and sedges . I’ve used a variety of ground covers like ajuga , sedums, etc. even lippia is a native plant that supports pollinators and insects. Plant selection is important and narrowing down to just 5 is hard. A rule I’ve read is to keep landscape 80% evergreen plants and with drought prevailing now more people are going to native plants. Color palette can also be 4 colors like pinks , white, lavender, grays, shades of green. Grey is a neutral color and also adds contrast . I truly doubt now days people want only one color in the garden . Interesting points made though and I agree with limiting perennials and annuals especially as I age.
🌸🌻🌺🦜🍂🐿SO HELPFUL ‼️
Thank you, I love your videos and inputs!!
Thank you!
I have been looking for low maintenance ideas for my front garden for a long time so this is perfect for me. Thank you!
You are so welcome!
What do you wear around your knees? Might be exactly what I need. Link please!
Great video. What was the name of the pink flowering bulb? I have seen them flowering here in late fall and early winter and never knew what they were. Thanks.
They're called nerines.
@@Neldidellavittoria Thank you!
I think Iris, TB. You can honestly set and forget.
What a delightful video! Came upon this completely by chance!
Thank you!
Five plants - great idea! Tearing up the front now to remake it, just what I needed to know.
Glad it was helpful!
I live in zone 9b and the previous owners planted 3 queen palm trees. When we moved in I thought, "how lovely!" Six years later, I'm ready to take them out because of the maintenance. The fronds grow too long, die, and have to be cut off. And each tree produces huge quantities of seed pods which make a terrible mess. They either drop to the ground on their own or, when you cut them down, they scatter, even if you've laid down a tarp to catch them, and it's impossible to rake up all of the seeds. I'm getting too old to deal with them, so they are coming out and I'll be planting something far less demanding. And then I'll once again be able to say, "how lovely!"
I've read that palms really take off after 8 years. I delayed taking two out of my garden and sure enough after eight years they were monsters and I was lucky enough to have a husband who was an expert tree lopper and he cut them down. (he'd asked me to do it two years earlier) I'd say get rid of them sooner then later.
I don't have any experience of palm trees, except when I lived in South America in my childhood, but I think I remember them often looking tatty and a bit sad. It's interesting to see the other comments replying to yours, also saying that palm trees can be tricky to keep looking good.
Great tips on low maintenance front garden,just what I was looking for and great tips for windy gardens.
Glad it was helpful!
I absolutely love that you brought up the downfalls of plastic lawn. Not enough people are talking about how bad they are for local wildlife and ecosystems.
I've a corner west-facing lot in an older downtown residential neighborhood in eastern Canada. It had virtually no plantings when I bought it 26 years ago- and yes, I wanted to deter cutting across. About 20 years ago, we put in Japanese hybrid Rose Glow Barbary.
It was theoretically to grow to about 5 feet - approximately right, on the shorter side, where an immense maple partly shades it, and steals some of its water. The longer side has settled for 7 feet - with the odd spike needing to be trimmed.
Maintenance:
When the snow is gone, and leaves are considering opening, I cut out the dead wood. (My goal has never been a manicured hedge. No panic when an area is damaged - the plants will fill it in.)
1 1/2 months later, I again look for & cut out dead wood. (25 bushes, maximum 1 hour. It has a bizarre habit: some - small- branches will start to leaf out, & suddenly, they're dead! The shrub & I move on.)
After another 1 1/2 months, an hour or so of trimming excessive new growth on the sidewalk side protects the eyes of bypassers.
Spikes trimmed as needed.
Guaranteed- no one cuts across.
Thanks for this lovely video👍 but I couldn’t catch the name of your two beautiful trees Xx
I think you're referring to the Crab apples Malus hupehensis on either side of the gate? Thank you.
The Middle-Sized Garden thanks for the reply, love your videos, thanks for mentioning the name on screen in your latest video too “may garden tour”
Love your videos. Lot’s of good advice, great ideas & video footage, interesting people & gorgeous gardens. Would love it if you could add in written names of plants you mention & show, like in this video, that I am unfamiliar with or cannot make out well enough to look up. You do that in many of your videos, thank you. We are in the mountains of North Carolina, but you show many plants that are cold hardy enough for us, & though our mountainside lot is not conducive to any formal style, we do have a couple of areas in front for a smallish bed of trees, shrubs & flowers that this video had wonderful ideas to try. Also, we have a long, slightly shady area that is difficult for much maintenance, but I was able to find many ideas for trees, shrubs & low maintenance plants that would work for here as well. This was our vacation home that we recently retired to & are just now working to re-do & finish out. Really do love all of your videos I’ve seen so far & look forward to hours of old & new videos when time allows. We all love the UK, & have been a few times as a family & will be in England & Scotland this coming summer. My husband was a golf professional & has been there over 80 times with members, has many members from the UK & is a member of a couple of clubs there. Wish my daughter & I could go as much as has & will in future! We love it there as much as he does. Thanks for all the time you spend making these excellent videos! All the best to you & yours, Lynda
Thank you so much, and for reminding me about plant names. Sometimes they're not available - someone has forgotten, for example, but where it's practical I try to include a few.
I recently found your channel. Your videos are lovely and so so helpful for me! I moved to a Victorian home and am going all out on an English garden. I have found your videos amazingly educational :D
Thank you so much!
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden :)
Find what grows naturally in your region and it will tolerate most changes and grow hardier. There are some shrubs that need a more acid soil and love morning sun. There are some that overtake a garden, they will require more maintenance to keep controlled. Know about your plants/shrubs/trees before you put them in the ground. In my region there is great information from a local university and it is free online.
Hi,your video was very useful for me,as I am planning to replant my front garden,can write the name of each planter and when it’s blooming
love watching your vids Alexandra. i love the look of crab apple trees but im worried about planting one as i heard that the crab apples are poisonous to dogs and i have dogs. i have a small bungalow that i have just moved into there is hardly any back garden but there is a fairly large front garden which i am waiting to see what a previous tenant has planted...at the top of the front garden that faces a street is a low chain link fence with a low hedge on the outside and just odd biuts of ivy growing over the fence, it doesnt look very pleasant and doesnt give any privacy from pedestrians..im wondering what evergreen shrubs i can plant along there to make a screen?...also i love the evergreen lonicera halliana and would like this in my garden but ive heard it can be very invasive? id love to have you do a vid on the different types of Lonicera?
Interesting - I think with the lonicera, it's just a question of clipping it back and it should stay under control. There were some lovely honeysuckle hedges in front gardens where I lived in London, and I don't think the owners had too much trouble with them (I think it can be more of a problem if you let it get too tall, so that cutting back becomes a chore). Re the crab apples, the advice seems to be mixed, with some people saying they're safe for dogs and others saying they're not. I think the question is whether your dogs would eat them? My dog never bothered, but perhaps puppies might want to chew them? The main problem would be in autumn when the fruit drops, so if you're happy to clear up the fruit and/or your dogs aren't interested, you should be OK. But if your dog tries to eat everything it sees, that's more of a problem.
My front garden is on a slope downwards from the house - have you any tips for low growing shrubs that will go in the lower part? Thanks for your videos they are an inspiration! 😊😊
We do not get heatwaves here in Wales ! When south-east England is hot and sunny, we get cloudy, cool weather with rain, rain., rain ... Thank you for your videos.
Every time I mention a heatwave, people from around the world think it's very funny, I don't think what we get in South East England is considered a heatwave anywhere else. I do envy your rain, though, it is so dry here, we are desperate for a bit more rain.
Hi Alexandra,
I have just joined your channel and loving it already. I need lots of help and advice as I am very novice in gardening but want to learn. I shall watch all your videos. I find them very relatable.
Thank you
Anna/ Surrey
Gravel is a such a weed attractor. I wouldn't recommend it. Mulch is easier to maintain. In a drought ridden area like mine, gravel heats the surrounding area even more. In the summer, that's awful.
Yes, I agree that gravel can be quite a problematic surface.
Trees are good. Except Eucalyptus! K
Great video thanks. Please can you advise the name of the trees at the front? Mallus something.......
Malus hupehensis, a type of crab apple.
Do you have a planting plan for your front garden?
We are in a tremendous drought area in the western us and gravelling the front yard is an idea many here have done and that we considered and decided against. I agree with you that gravel increases heat and it seems a bit of a catch-22. The best remedy does seem to be planting trees that shade everything else. Trees cool everything else down
I love your voice and accent. It is very comforting.
Thank you so much 🙂
Great tips. Thanks!
I am building a house next month and have already spent hrs and hrs dreaming of the front and back yard I want. I will be working with a bare canvas, except my right side rare will gently slope to a small stream bed full of youngish trees, pines. I’m moving from a near tropical zone in South Carolina to a zone 7a or b so maybe now I can grow a Gertrude Jekyll antique rose with success. I have 2 cuttings ready to go!
Finally, what I envision for my front yard is four small pots and one large of perennials like coneflower, white impatiens and white geranium; a smattering of boxwood by the house; a Gertrude Jekyll and/or Graham Thomas rose off the small sidewalk; a lawn, and perhaps a birch halfway to the front door, which will be yellow. The house will be a craftsman with hearthstone-coloured siding and stone accents under the white columns.
At 67, I’ll be joining my first garden club too to make sure I buy plants for my secluded small backyard that will thrive in my new area close to mountains.
That sounds wonderful - great to start with a blank canvas.
You said it right way: low maintenance and not no maintenance. Yew, Beeche, any shrub, Ivy (small narrow, varieties) and other groundcover plants are good to replace lawn. Bergenias, Germanium and so on. Why not a knotgarden/cloudpruning . Or special grasses like miscanthus, mixed with bulbs. Nice to a wildflower madow. Only cut once with a sycthe. For pots: sempervivum, bergenias. Your frontgarden is the first impression. Look for easy plants that suits your climate and condotions.
Great ideas. Thank you.
Can you repeat what kind of trees those. Are they crabapples ?
In another post she said that they were crabapples.
Sending you warmest regards from upper NY. I'm glad that you have been safe in this tumultuous year and I hope you've had an opportunity to be vaccinated.
Here is to a happy healthy 2021 full of friends and gardens.
Yours Jennie
Thank you! We're hoping to be vaccinated, if all goes well, by about mid- Feb to early March as we're in the fourth cohort, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it all goes well - all over the world. Happy New Year to you!
Hi I’m Georgie from Melbourne, I found this video most informative and beneficial to me. Could you please tell me the name of the two front trees on either side of your front gate I couldn’t catch the name.Thanks I really enjoyed this video 😊👍🏼
They're Malus hupehensis crab apples.
I always enjoy your opinion but I disagree with you about trees. As someone who loves sun, I dislike the cold shadows that are a constant with trees. Trees that produce beautiful blossoms leave debris that is anything but low maintenance when the faded blooms drop. Deciduous trees require much cleanup when they drop their leaves in autumn. Poop from birds that roost in trees can be a year round problem, especially when trees planted near driveways, car parks or walkways.
It's good to disagree and to debate and there is much in what you say. Though I let the leaves drop into borders where they decay. Thank you!
Weeding a gravel walk and driveway is tedious and often hot work! In snowy climates, often the gravel ends upon the garden beds which causes time consuming gravel picking of the beds!
I quite agree!
Another wonderful video. I am of the opinion that more is better but that opinion has led me down a more work path. Now that I am 85 I can't work as well as I once did and I need to make the front garden less complicated. Thanks for the encouragement. (The Lasagna Gardener)
Thank you! I've always thought more was better, but it's definitely more tiring and I always run out of time.
Very useful tips but in a North facing heavy clay garden which only gets a sliver of sun in the summer, lavender doesn't thrive, so I have some evergreen pheasant grass instead. I also have no grass but put bark chippings around the shrubs every year or two.
That sounds like a very good substitute.
I have recently discovered this channel and have found it to be highly educational. Thank you for your insight I've really enjoyed learning so much you. Keep up the good work.
Thank you so much!
Thank you very helpful !
really appreciate all of your thoughtful ideas. could you consider discussing ideas for low zone ( 3-4) gardens and for the alternate tropical gardens?
I will definitely bear that in mind, but it's worth remembering that many tips are not influenced by zone - all garden design tips and ideas can be carried out equally in any zone, as the zone only matters when buying plants if you want them to survive the winter. There's also a sliding scale as to which plants can be used, because there are many plants that will be fine in a lower zone summer, but won't survive the winter so are treated as annuals in that zone. While if they are grown in a higher zone, they can be treated as perennials - so there's lots of zone overlap with plants. Before I started the UA-cam channel I did a blog post on exotic/tropical gardens for a cool climate, but I will definitely do a video on that soon, so thank you for reminding me. Here is the blog post, in case that helps: www.themiddlesizedgarden.co.uk/an-unusual-tropical-garden-in-the-kent-countryside/
My front garden is north facing. Do you have any shrubs that would like this situation?
Mahonia is good in the shade, and some hydrangeas may be happy - I have hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle' in my north-facing borders. There are even a few roses that will be OK, such as the white climber Madame Alfred Carriere, I don't know if you've seen our plants for shade video, which has more suggestions, but here it is in case you haven't: ua-cam.com/video/kNsRZzW8GaI/v-deo.html
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden thank you so much for your ideas, and I have watched the video. Love all your videos 💕
all your ideas are excellent ,I feel very much your passion for gardens and the good will to help and guide us to make a lovely gardens I feel in the way the oral way use is like a teacher talking to me and that is a lot to get use to if only the oral message could come more softer and encouragement and soft it will be music to my ears and I will feel like listening and watching your videos no stop as it is deliver in that way I get tired and unfortunately I have to stop periodically
Thank you, I will bear that in mind.
can give advice on sandy soils and plants. I have a house near the beach and despite adding topsoil, manure, and compost I feel I'm still left with lifeless sand. I don't really like typical gardens around here as they are just beach daisy 's. Help
I did a few posts on beach gardens on the blog - they have some (not much, I'm afraid) planting ideas. But I think the message I got was that they use raised beds and containers to deal with the soil issue. In case it's useful: www.themiddlesizedgarden.co.uk/escape-to-the-beach-with-whitstable-open-gardens/ and www.themiddlesizedgarden.co.uk/how-to-create-a-delightful-seaside-garden/ And I will look for a good sandy soil garden or expert over the summer, thank you for suggesting it.
How about using creeping thyme in smal spaces, instad of gras as a lawn. It can be walked on and the bees love it. It can even be cut with a mower.
That's a lovely idea and one I had considered, but my lawn mower (otherwise known as my husband) is not so keen. But I will keep it in mind.
Very informative video thank you. Could you please provide the information on your trees ... I couldn’t quite catch the name of them.
The trees are Malus hupehensis, which is a kind of crab apple. And I've since sorted out the Closed Captions on the video so if you click on CC you'll get proper captions.
Subscribed! Great practical clear advice. ❤️
Thank you1
Alexandra, thank you for this video! Very useful for my future front garden :) I didn't catch the name of the pink flowers on 1:17. What are they?
Thank you - they were Nerine bowdennii
Thanks for very practical pros and cons.
thank you Alexandra
Do rose shrubs grow well in a west facing garden?
You can find a rose for almost any situation, search rose growers and nurseries near you.