h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Does anyone else think that garden design at the moment is getting desperately stagnant?

Every gardening TV show seems to be pushing the same thing - cover your garden in planks and put in a few spikies like cordylines and phormiums.

What do people think could be done for a bit of freshness and variety?

A crazy paving patio or two! Those nasty decks will be out of fashion in a few years, and no one will want one!

Less gravel and thinking of it as an 'outside room' for entertaining. We live in Britain! We have summer for 6 weeks, and maybe a week of that it's warm enough to sit outside to maybe 10oclock. After that it's either be drunk, or wear a duffel coat.

More garden stuff like swingball and something interesting you can see from the windows.

So, tell us about your garden.

I have a lovely, long growing season. And many months where I can sit outdoors and enjoy my garden. What I don't have is anyone to help me do the gardening chores any longer. So, my current design decisions are being influenced by that. I'm looking for low maintenance solutions.

Yeah, the "Mediteranean" thing seems to be big at the minute too.

Glad you mentioned the outdoor room bit. That phrase just grates with me
I think we've reached the stage where the new and innovative has become the dull and boring status quo. What would be really innovative these days is a more traditional type of garden, although that seems contradictory!!

I've a part which is all lawn, that I'm putting beds into. So at the minute it's lots of digging -or should be, but I've been a bit remiss...

It's not going to be anything too fancy. Just beds all around the edge of the lawn, and I'll plant up bit by bit.

I never dig anything unless I actually have a plant I want to put in, when I just sort of scrape a hole.

Digging's not that bad. A good workout, good tension reliever, good for the soul! You just need to be in the mood. I'm just pissed off that instead of removing the sods I buried them in and the b*stard grass is coming up again!

Another thing - spades they sell in this country are too damn short! I find it far easier to work with one with a handle that comes up to about chest level, but all you can get are little dinky things. I might invest in a workman's type trench digging one instead.

I think that digging is bad for the garden! You don't see any digging going on in forests and wild areas, and they always look lovely. I cover the garden with whatever is in my compost heap in early spring, followed by some well rotted horse poop if I didn't have enough of my own and let the worms to their business.

That's the way to go a lot of the time. Worms dig better than me - they spend their lives doing it, I do half an hour's worth and get shagged off with it. Getting rid of bits of lawn though, there's no alternative.

Once a bed's made though, I don't bother digging, but the groundwork's pretty important. Especially with sh-t poor drainage and the amount of rain we'll probably get this year

I just read an interesting book called "Weed Free gardening". You lay layers of wet newspaper down to smother the grass and weeds and then put mulch and compost on top of the newspapers and plant directly in the mulch - being careful not to dig into the newspaper. The theory is that when you dog you expose weed and grass seed to the light which causes them to germinate. So digging causes more weeds, not fewer. The you keep adding mulch and compost.

That's the other reason I don't dig much! Although I don't hate weeds as much as most people because I quite like the wildlife that comes with them. I love the tall thistles I get in my front garden - bees when they are in flower, birds when they are in seed - although those little ones that hide in the grass are horrible if you're wandering around with bare feet.

I've heard of lasagne gardening,which I think is something similar - "lasagne" because it is like layers in a lasagne. The other problem with digging is if you do it when the ground is too wet, it just compacts it.

I think I'll throw a bit of grit into mine, since it's pretty clay, but yours sounds like a good idea!

When ever digging in sod, I cut it in a chess board pattern of about 1ftx1ft/12in.x12in./30cmx30cm then flip the offending turf over like a turtle. The grass will not turn and grow up, instead becoming the most rich and loomy topsoil one could wish for.

If I'm digging deep for a planting, I always put the sod cut up side down in the bottom of the hole. I dig about twice the recomended depth, drop my bit of grass, cover wtih the extra soil, add whatever extras like aged manure. With some vigarous shovel chopping, it gets mixed up like eggs in a bowl and is ready for the plant.

I find that plant growth and root structure are greatly enhanced do to ease of penetration (go ahead and snicker, it's not as if a lot of youthful types will be found here). I've pulled seemingly dead plants from trash heaps and resurected them using the above method.

I'm going to flip it over and bung on loads of compost. Which I need to do anyway - it's in a bit of a trough since some rose bushes were taken out ages ago. On top of that the drainage is crap.

Where you from Spynxxx? Climate wise I mean.

(BTW - how old do you think we all are? )

Oh yeah, nearly forgot...

Penetration!

That would be Zone 3, on the North Western border of Wisconsin.

And as to age, I'm 40. Old enough to be consenting, indulge in inuendo and to enjoy a clever turn of phrase. And you sir?

Spynxxx

Sorry Spynxxx,

Didn't notice that reply until now! I'm 25, so don't need to widen garden paths for my zimmer frame just yet, either

Kids, both of you.

And you Hyp? or is that a rude question to ask?

Ahem.....Guess I should fess up. I'm about 2 months away from being 56.

Depressing, isn't it?

Not that bad! You were being so coy I thought it was gonna be a lot higher!