What do you love most about your garden?

[Jason]

Our backyard at the moment is a construction site and we have lost most of our plants and trees. It's a bit of a sad sight but we are looking forward to creating something new in the spring. 

This week I'm keen to hear from you what you most love about your garden.

Is it your lush lawn? Your flourishing vegie garden? A favourite plant or tree? Or perhaps just a sunny corner that you can always use to relax and unwind?

Jason

[Isobel]

Still obsessed. 

[greygardener]

I have some old and precious roses that always make me happy when in bloom. 

[CathD]

It's been a very warm summer so great for hydrangeas. Mine are still flowering and would be a favourite in the garden. 

[bluebec]

Definitely my vegetable beds.  I have a small yard and clay soil that gets so waterlogged in winter that grass dies.  So the raised garden beds with coir mulch around them (must redo) is the best.   Also I get to talk to the plants, and tell them how good they are at growing, and eat fresh strawberries and raspberries when in season.  What is not to like

[snichols]

I love roses as well. Here's a shot of one of mine. The colours are beautiful. 

[RosieW]

The best thing? It's ours, it's quirky, it's edible and fun. 

[Kermit]

Are raspberries reasonably easy to grow @bluebec? I tried a couple of blueberry plants a few years back and they didn't survive. Blueberries are so expensive to buy that I thought it would be worth a try. 

[Kellie]

I have to make the most of small space so my favourites are herbs like mint, parsley, basil, corriander and rosemary.

[bluebec]

Hi @Kermit,

Raspberries aren't too hard to grow.  You need relatively well drained soil (or clay soil like mine that is at a top of a rise so it doesn't completely turn into a bog in that corner of the yard).  They do like being watered, so you can't just ignore them.

They are definitely not as hardy as blackberries, which thrive on neglect.

You can grow them in a BIG pot/tub.  As raspberries send new canes up each year to bear fruit the next season, it's important that if you plant them in a pot/tub that it is really big.  Think 44 gallon drum big, at least.  If you are growing them in a corner of your yard, you will need to set aside around a metre in diametre (mine is probably closer to 2 metres) for them to occupy.  They grow where they will.

Raspberries don't climb in the sense that many vines do, but when they're heavy with fruit, then the canes start to droop.  It's probably easier to tie them to sticks or corral them with some mesh.