Garden Update No 4: A Change of Plans

I've been thinking! (I've started with those word as a bit of a warning, so feel free to abandon this post if you want).

Forget the list of plants I said I'd be ordering in yesterday's post ... it's all changed ... again. I've been struggling to come up with a combination of plants that I was completely happy with for the bed behind the garage, so last night I looked back at my original lists of plants/ideas, played around with a few minor changes and then went back to the drawing board. I have now made a significant change from the ideas I posted about previously but am confident that this change is right. There are no lingering doubts at all. 

Only one corner of the bed behind the garage is visible from the dining room and I can't see it at all from the living room so I'd only see any flowering shrubs when I use the wheelie bins. I've settled on a more practical use of the space and will use the bed to grow a selection of fruits.

I'll stick to the columnar fruit trees and will buy a 'collection' offer from my chosen supplier, which is five trees giving a saving of £15. The collection is one each of Concorde pear, Victoria plum, Sunburst cherry, Scrumptious apple and Cox's apple. With the space available one may have to be grown in a pot but that was always the case before I made this change so I'm okay with that. These will all go in the half of the bed farthest from the garage and the end of the bed nearest the garage will be the home of a Di Giffoni cob nut bush. There is only just enough space for this so it's a bit of a gamble and will have to be kept slightly smaller than the recommended size. I know I could make better use of the space but I've wanted a cob nut bush for years, so it is worth having a try ... it's now or never!

I'll also buy their collection of two blueberry bushes (another small cash saving buying them this way). I'm expecting that these will be grown in pots as they are fussy about their growing conditions so will probably end up against the other end of the garage wall. 

I like to have some raspberries but won't think about buying them until everything is planted and I can see the space. Strawberries and blackberries will be grown in hanging baskets, which will probably be set up on the garage wall above where the blueberries will live but they will wait until next year. The hanging basket approach may be the way to grow raspberries if there isn't room for the traditional canes.

I've emailed Danielle to see how long she'll need to prepare the bed and then will place the order for delivery in whatever week we agree on for the planting.

Now I'm happy with that side of the garden I can start thinking about the planting for the centre flower bed.