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Libby Webb

@docleaves

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Gardener's World March 25 episode 2
Gardens Illustrated Aug 25
Unearthed July 23
7x14m urban garden.
📍Edinburgh
Read how the garden evolved here:

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I absolutely LOVE a before and after, particularly when I haven't had to do the work myself 😂. These pictures are only 15 months apart 🤔🧐. I had to go and check my photo dates as I started wondering if I was a year out, but I'm right, just over a year.
Now I figure in hindsight I should have done something clever with quadrats and transects to sample the biodiversity before and after to show how much it has changed, but I didn't. I have however started the buzzometer where I say things like 'gosh the bees are very loud today'. It's all very technical 😂.
I think of the garden like a rainforest. The forest floor (ground cover) , the understory (shrubs and taller plants), the canopy (trees) and the emergent layer (angelica 😂). The layering is bringing in the wildlife, I promise you it works. Currently the ceanothus, hydrangea petiolaris, solanum glasnevin, cordyline australis and allium are acting as bee magnets (comedy scenes yesterday when I got a bee stuck in my hair 😭).
The buzzometer is off the scale and I'm over the moon about it. As long as they stay out of my hair.... 🐝🐝🐝💚

#mygarden #mygardentoday #garten #jardin #smallgarden #urbanmeadow #cottagegarden #cityoasis #gardensofinstagram #gardening #gardener #gardengram #gardenlove #cottagejungle #landscapedesign #smallgardenideas #gardeninspiration #urbanjungle #beforeandafter #gardenrenovation #biodiversity #wildlife by @docleaves

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3 years ago

There are two seasons in Scotland, June and winter 😂 - Billy Connolly 💚
Welcome to June 😍💚💚💚

#mygarden #mygardentoday #garten #jardin #smallgarden #urbanmeadow #cottagegarden #cityoasis #gardensofinstagram #gardening #gardener #gardengram #gardenlove #cottagejungle #landscapedesign #smallgardenideas #pergola #allium #geum #flowerstagram #cottagestyle by @docleaves

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3 years ago

My lovely dad died 30 years ago today. It simultaneously feels like forever ago but that no time has passed at all. We've all experienced that same feeling at some point in our lives but I think it's worth remembering when it comes to gardening.
There's a saying that the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. Which always makes me laugh. But actually if you haven't done that, or no one has done it for you, then the best time to plant a tree is now. Because in 10 or 20 years time you'll be able to look upon that tree, and remember planting it as a tiny sapling, and it'll feel like forever ago but also like no time has passed at all. And even if you think you might not be there to enjoy it in 20 years time, someone else will, and they will be glad of the fact that the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, by someone who realised that the passage of time is nothing.

#mygarden #mygardentoday #garten #jardin #flowerstagram #gardendesign #smallgarden #urbanmeadow #rewilding #lifenotlawn #nature #gardeninspiration #urbanjungle #gardensofinstagram #gardenlights #gardenarch #gardenpath #pergola #festoonlights #plantatree by @docleaves

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4 years ago

A gardener leaving their garden to go on holiday is brave, but a gardener going away twice in a month?
Not very clever 😂.
But tonight I find myself in beautiful Suffolk having a gorgeous weekend catch-up with my family (@nicwebb1 who you will find featured in Gardens illustrated magazine this month I think, has anyone got it yet?)
I've been flat out packing up the house (again), to leave in capable hands of my lovely son, while we drop the other one at uni later next week to start the next incredible chapter of his life.
I'm going to miss the washing SO much 😂.
The garden has been much further down the list of priorities than usual and I apologise.
I include some photos of the short week I had before leaving and also some of my September favourites.
It has been dominated by dahlias, cosmos, hydrangeas, Dyer's chamomile, anemone and the everlasting foxgloves.
The light has been low and gorgeous, the weather mild, and I've been still trying to get used to chopping all my hair off.
(It turns out you can still wear bunches in your 50s, spread the word 😂).
Happy Sunday to you beautiful people.
We made it 🥳 😂 💚 🌿 💚 by @docleaves

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a day ago

I don't, as a rule, take photos in the morning, as the garden faces West, but Neil Diamond selfishly didn't write a song about September afternoon so here we are.
I can barely work in these conditions 😂.
Returning home from a week away my washing basket was full, my diary was full, my notebook was full (scratch, scratch, scratch), the garden bucket was full, the cupboard under the sink was full (of hot water after a joint exploded this morning 😤😬), and my phone photo gallery was completely empty.
So I bring you a round up of my Sunday. The bits that don't include work and trips to Screwfix anyway (pipe cutters, who knew?).
The garden is mainly hanging on despite 40mph winds, and I only swore seven times when a huge pot blew over and decimated a dahlia.
Very restrained.
I did manage to deadhead the cosmos, cut back some enthusiastic plant growth, tie in the (completely out of control) clematis and train and prune the eucalyptus (still no koalas). Fortunately the pot deadheaded the dahlias for me 😤😂.
Crumble continues to make the sofa like the comfiest seat in the world, and Rudy and Noodle continue their various games. I don't know what the neck turning one is called but I think we can all agree it looks a lot of fun.
And not only do I still have foxgloves, I have foxglove BUDS.
We are going to get them to October I tell you (built different).
Happy Sunday to you wonderful people.
We made it 🥳💚😂💪🌿🌳 by @docleaves

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8 days ago

Brave is an excellent word, but only when used to mean the exact opposite.
In completely unrelated news I went on holiday for a week and left my garden to its own devices.
Brave 😬😂.
(No doubt this week I'll manage a good 17 hours of pruning and path clearing and by the end of that I might even be able to walk to the bottom of it 🥳).
Apologies for the inexcusable tardiness in posting my Sunday round up, but I've been at a concert watching my littlest (6'7") singing Carmina Burana. It was superb and don't worry if you didn't make it because it is being broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on October 14th.
Highly recommend.
The garden, as you can see, is abundant (read overgrown). I have one moth eaten Koko loko (no idea what happened, I wasn't here, keep up 😂), September foxgloves (no idea how that happened) and the albizia has thrown all it's flower buds on the ground WITHOUT flowering (no idea how that happened 😂)
I have hydrangeas, Japanese anemone, dahlia café au lait, erigeron, cosmos, aster, thalictrum (still) and some astrantia that are very confused about what month it is.
The light is low and gorgeous and it is a joy to be back amongst it.
I leave you with the final photo which is Noodle singing Carmina Burana. I've tried to tell her it's not O For tuna, but she's having none of it 😂.
Happy Sunday you wonderful people, I have missed you.
We made it 🥳 💚 🌿 😂💪 by @docleaves

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15 days ago

The roundup of my week is missing in action because I am not at home.
I know. It's a shock.
Mainly to me.
So in its stead I bring you the best of August. She was a good month in Scotland with some warm days and a decent amount of rain, and flowers (even if they are a little swamped by greenery 🧐😂).
The eucryphia nymansay flowered for the bees, the pelargonium sidoides did its magenta gorgeousness. Rosa Koko loko has continued to show off (who can blame her) and I cleaned the house in readiness for my first trip abroad in 7 years.
Partly because I'm not a huge fan of holidays (I feel 'trip' is a better term ie would you like everything to be quite a lot more inconvenient than your home in a different country??😂), partly because I have difficult conversations with myself about my carbon footprint, and partly because if I'm not with Crumble (which has basically never happened) she tends to go on hunger strike 😬.
So the trip to Spain has been a risk, but so far so excellent. I have left the house, Crumble, Rudy, Noodle, the fish, the garden and the indoor plants with the completely brilliant Georgina @thehappyh0usesitter.
She has been amazing with us, the house and dogface who is EATING actual food.
Highly recommend both eating (and Georgina).
The Costa brava is just beautiful. You can take the girl out of the garden but you can't take the garden out of the girl (or something 😂). I'm surrounded by stunning albizia, tipa and pinus pinea which lines the coast here. I feel like I need the latter somewhere. What a tree.
If anyone asks me what the rose is (Koko loko), I shall bring a sea urchin home and put it under your duvet.
You have been warned 😂
Happy Sunday to you all.
We made it 🥳💚🌿💪 by @docleaves

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22 days ago

When we built the final bit of the garden about two years ago 'we' installed a little drip irrigation system to help with watering in dry spells. Here in Scotland we have not had to use it much (and I am very aware of the need to save water), but it has been useful.
The best bit was fixing a rain gauge to the top of the pergola. (Little did I know that it wasn't going to be necessary, as when it rains now the car fills up and I can just measure the depth of water in the footwell 😤😬😂)
This morning, for example, when I was sleeping peacefully in my scratcher (read snoring) it apparently rained 8mm in one hour. And I would NEVER have known this.
Until I tried to drive the car anyway 😂.
So for those of you who are interested in the system, we have installed 'hydrosure' tubing and trickle ports, a 'rainpoint' pressure valve timer and rain gauge, and the app that controls it is called 'Homgar'.
If I need to I can water the garden for 20 minutes just by using my phone, which can show me all the rainfall data too.
It's amazing what you can do these days 💪😂.
The round up of my week shows the gorgeous selinum wallichianum doing its best cauliflower impression.
I've tried growing all the umbellifers I love, ammi, orlaya, baltic parsley but unfortunately the slugs always love them more.
So there will be no gently wafting plumes of ammi here, we are going for the vegetable patch look instead.
You do what you have to 😂.
I include the flatlay from yesterday showing everything I have in flower.
The orange bulbine is absolutely furious that I forgot him 😬.
My haircut has gone down very badly with everyone, so I'm having to just style it out.
Happy Sunday you beautiful people.
We made it 🥳 💚 🌿 💪😂 by @docleaves

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a month ago

Well I was sitting looking at the garden thinking it was looking a little green (third photo submitted as evidence for the prosecution), but I decided to go out and see what was in it for a flat lay.
I mean goodness me, flat lays are the absolute best. I'm prescribing them for us all at least once a week.
In the space of fifteen minutes I was moved from thinking the garden was a bit 'meh', to deciding I was a veritable gardening genius and probably needed my own Wikipedia page.
(I checked, it doesn't seem to be there. BIG oversight Wikipedia 😂)
So this is what is growing in my garden today in late summer.
And yes, I will quit my whingeing.
Late summer gardens are still wonderful.
And the music, because well obviously 💚.
Happy Saturday to you wonderful people, (who all need to go and do a flat lay) 😂🥳💚🌿💪 by @docleaves

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a month ago

Much of my gardening journey has been the joy of learning to notice. I know you will know exactly what I mean. You notice the weather, the flight path of the birds, the pollinators, the sounds, the changes and the seasons.
Most of all I notice the light.
Or lack of it 😂.
Rudy, rat and I sat and watched the light swing round and the shadows lengthen, and the sun dip earlier than yesterday, and we both gave each other a knowing look.
Rat didn't say that much if I'm honest.
I can't even say that I mind the foreshadowing (see what I did there?😂) of what is to come. I'm here for all of it.
To celebrate the out with the old and in with the new I went and got my hair cut off for the first time in 40 years.
My son played me this song, he said the lyrics were poignant 😤😂
Git 😂💚🌿 by @docleaves

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a month ago

Well I fully intended to get into the garden this week, but my life turned into a Fighting fantasy book so I've included it for you in case you want to play along 😂.
To shampoo the carpets and tick it off the to do list turn to page 34
To check if any new snacks have arrived in the fridge return to page 12
The dog has gone to investigate a noise upstairs, to ignore this lose 4 stamina points, to sort it out lose 10 productivity.
Roll a dice - if even number, drive teenagers to Paisley, lose one day
If odd number, take delivery of new sports equipment that is too big to fit up the stairs. Dice temporarily lands on 3 then 6.
Do both.
Lose 7 marital harmony points.
For all aspects relating to solar panels consult manual on page 104, lose 4 hours
The window painters arrive earlier than expected and are standing in your bedroom while you are still in bed. Gain 9 mortification points.
Return to page 34 to re-shampoo carpets after the painters have left.
Return to page 12 and add extra coffee.
Suggest to your lunch guests that they might want to help you carry the sports equipment out of the window. Gain 4 mortification points when they refuse.
Decide to order a curry for Friday night turn to page 76.
For all aspects of running a parkrun when you have overeaten consult page 82.
If needing to get a coffee spill out of a freshly shampooed carpet return to page 12 😂.
What can I say? It's tough at the top 😂.
I leave you with some calming photos of my garden that has not had any attention from me this week. Please see above 😂.
Happy Sunday you beautiful people.
We made it 🥳💚😂💪🌿
And I'm really sorry to the lovely painters 😂. by @docleaves

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a month ago

A clever person would have taken photos from the exact same spot for this little medley.
So I present you the months of the year from slightly different spots (just to keep you on your toes).
At least I chose the correct music for the situation, (you can't argue with Boney M) and there is the very person who put all the slightly different photos together modelling September in her only outfit 😂.
One of the most popular questions I get asked is what the garden looks like in winter (if you just scroll down a bit.....😤😂), so this is for all of you that want to know 😂.
Something different for transformation Tuesday 💪🥳💚🌿 by @docleaves

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a month ago