WAB Members' Garden Photos

[jennyb]

Colin, what a lovely set of photos. Since I started taking "Macro" (I hesitate to use that word after the "macro" thread!) photos of flowers I have realised how exquisite some of our flowers are. Each is a work of art in itself and some so tiny that you can hardly see them with the naked eye. By taking "macro" shots, it is possible to really study the intricacies.

Your garden must be a mass of colour at this time of year - any photos of the garden itself?

Jenny

[kshotton45]

Here’s how to grow a housebrick! It must be the type that has 3 holes through it.
Fill the holes with soil and plant them with Houseleeks or Sedums and dot them around the garden.
Here’s some I made earlier …( about 6 years ago) . I’ve given scores away, always with the instructions “ Ignore the plants but look after the brick” !
They really do look after themselves. In drought they shrivel, in winter they change colour, but they always survive.
The Housleeks are ‘Sempervivum’, choose a small variety. I think the Sedum is Sedum obtusatum .
When established, they’ll even flower.

Keith.

[agrumpycow]

What a great idea! The look is really effective. If I can hunt out a housebrick I'm going to give it a go, it'd make a interesting sight on the retaining wall in my garden.

[Dan Salter]

Originally Posted by kshotton45

Here’s how to grow a housebrick! It must be the type that has 3 holes through it.
Fill the holes with soil and plant them with Houseleeks or Sedums and dot them around the garden.
Here’s some I made earlier …( about 6 years ago) . I’ve given scores away, always with the instructions “ Ignore the plants but look after the brick” !
They really do look after themselves. In drought they shrivel, in winter they change colour, but they always survive.
The Housleeks are ‘Sempervivum’, choose a small variety. I think the Sedum is Sedum obtusatum .
When established, they’ll even flower.

Keith.

Excellent Keith ! the members of WAB are genius ! first we had the "woolwells"..great , simple idea...then ( ok it wasnt our idea but hey) the Wildlife Tower ( stack of pallets thing) and now growing house bricks !....splendid.
I am lucky enough to have around 20 or more of these type of bricks kicking around...i think they are called engineering bricks? either way...they have 3 holes in like you said. I shall give it a go. ( have a large wildlife garden / pond project planned for next year)

[kshotton45]

Re- Housebricks.

Glad you like them! Here's a few planting tips..........
Don't try to start them off with too many rosettes, let them establish slowly - 2 or 3 per hole.
Don't let them bake in the sun for the first year ( what sun ???). Keep them in relative shade and water them .
From late autumn they can be put out and ignored.
Make many more than you need - your friends will want some.
A £2 pot of them from the garden centre ought to fill about 15 -20 bricks.

Good luck Keith.

[smartie]

I love these too. Haven't got any of the right kind of brick, though, I'll have to go scavenging. I wonder if it would work in the spare ones I do have, with a depression in the top I could fill with soil? I suspect the plants wouldn't get as secure a hold on the brick, but I might give it a try. I've got plenty of sempervivums and sedum.

[jennyb]

My spare bricks don't have holes in them, either
It's a great idea Keith.

Jenny

[kshotton45]

Originally Posted by smartie

I love these too. Haven't got any of the right kind of brick, though, I'll have to go scavenging. I wonder if it would work in the spare ones I do have, with a depression in the top I could fill with soil? I suspect the plants wouldn't get as secure a hold on the brick, but I might give it a try. I've got plenty of sempervivums and sedum.

It may be worth a try. In theory, Houseleeks grow on themselves! They grow on the dead 'leaf litter' that they produce. They can be found on slate roofs ( barns etc) literaly growing on nothing. When established I believe they are called 'colonies'. A few years ago I started a colony on the roof of my shed. The roof is some kind of plastic material; I noticed that there was some leaf litter acumulating around one of the fixing bolts, so I planted a couple of Housleeks in this! Storms washed them off a couple of times but they survived for about two years before a mega storm wiped them out!
'Keen' types build a section of roof in their gardens and plant several varieties on it.

Try this ...........

Introduction

Keith.

[naturelover]

Originally Posted by Lords and Ladies

I've been thinking it would be nice to have, perhaps, an on-going stickied thread in the Wildlife Gardening forum where people can post pictures of their gardens. Of ponds and bogs, flower borders, meadows, log piles, hedges, newt caves and toad holes. Whatever they may be doing or whatever may be happening at the moment.

The kind of thing that doesn't really merit starting a new thread but could still be very interesting/educational for most of us to see. I love seeing what other people are doing with their gardens and nicking their ideas.

It would be great to have more idea of what people are doing (see goosey) and be able to see things develop. A chance too for the truly hopeless WAB photographer to show off their skills.

All in favour say chrysanthemum.

hi i would like to put some pictures of my garden on here,but for the life of me i cant work out how,i have lots of photoes in nero photoe show exspress, how do i get them from there to here please.

[kshotton45]

Hi, naturelover. I'll have a go at guiding you through the process. It's one of those things that's hard until you've done it the once!
At the top of the screen select 'Gallery'
select 'Upload'
Select 'Browse'
now you can search your own hard drive to find and select the file you need.
Then scroll down and find 'Image title' and give your photo a name.
Scroll down further to the 'Category' and scroll that down to near the bottom of the list and select 'Forum Image'
At the very bottom click on 'Submit' - then wait for your image to load.
Scroll to ' Forum Image Code' now copy this code , go back to your message and paste it in the message.
You should have a photo to show us !
I look forwards to it !!

Keith.