Looking for ideas for large walled gardens

ttnov77

Fruit orchard as already mentioned and if you want to make veg or flower beds use no dig method. Better for soil and your back :)

https://www.growitbio.com/post/easy-eco-friendly-way-to-start-new-planting-area

RainInSummer

If you're down near Colclough then also pay a visit to Johnstown castle walled garden.

I was going to suggest espaliered fruit trees but the walls aren't high enough really.

highdef

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120384963#Comment_120384963

Will have a proper look when I have time, thank you. And walls in the big walled garden are a bit low for trees. They may work in the smaller 1/2 acre garden.

magicbastarder

most 'modern' orchards use rootstock which keeps the tree height low, makes for easier picking of apples (or pears, etc.); i sometimes pass orchards where the trees are probably 8 foot tall.

Hibernicis

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120386439#Comment_120386439

If you plant and grow apples/pears/other fruits as oblique (45°) cordons rather than espaliers a wall height of 2meters will suffice. And you will have space for a greater selection of varieties. Just ensure that the root stock is M9 or possibly M26 if the soil is poor.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/fruit/apples/growing-and-training-as-cordons

highdef

Justa quick update, as the weather is fine and I'm in the garden.... Due to personal family issues, things took a pause during last summer and autumn. Since then, there's been some changes and an extension is being built at the side of the house which changes things ever so slightly.

I hope to have more updates during the summer as the garden begins to take shape, fingers crossed. For the moment, it's all muck!

highdef

A quick update on this as it's been a long long time. The gardens took a back seat for the past year as higher priority stuff came along so this is the current view. Not pretty, but I'm slowly clearing the area. This week, I will be building a temporary hardcore roadway that will exit to the left of the photos, into the large walled garden. A sewage treatment system will be installed there in a couple of weeks and I need have stable ground for the trucks. Once the tanks are in place, plus the pipes and infrastructure, I will finally be able to begin work on the small walled garden. Not a great time of year to be doing so but first thing that I'll do is create a large pond at the lower end. I'll install a few french drains to the pond. Rainwater goods from the house will also go to the pond.

Once that is complete, planting and landscaping can begin. I now have over 200 plants of every type you can imagine and of various sizes from ground cover to over 2m tall, eagerly waiting to get their toes/roots in the water/soil!

looksee

Good luck with the garden and the pond! Do be aware that french drains will take nutrients into the pond, unless you are putting in a filtration system its best to avoid nutrients.

I know the feeling of having a garden centre of plants waiting to go in…