Happy memories,

I was just looking through some of the photos of the old garden, I know I've probably shown them to you  before but it's nice for me to remind myself what the summer will bring in terms of plants. Sadly, I won't be able to see this garden again - I've been told by my old neighbours that it's very overgrown now even though I had pruned everything hard back before we sold the house as the couple buying it had no interest in gardening. When you've poured as much love into a garden as we did you don't want to see it go too wild and I'd have happily offered to go back to keep it healthy and in check but there you go, I have my memories - and the aching knees from laying that cobbled courtyard for eleven days on the trot.

Some photos from the old garden.

Enough of the flowers. here are the chickens coming to investigate what I have for them.

Seriously, more snow on it's way?

Having just read that there is more snow on it's way next week, although fortunately not in Wales I wonder if the children will be digging out their sledges again just in time for their half term holidays. We'll need to ensure the birds are still well fed (they are currently eating their way through two bird feeders' full of nuts a day). I've been working long hours at work so don't get to see much of the garden right now but in a way that's quite interesting because I see the difference when I walk around it. The new buds on the rose bushes are looking healthy and it's just a matter of weeks before the green tips of spring bulbs will frame a gorgeous flowerhead; it's such an exicting time, just knowing what is around the corner. By April we should be enjoying blossom and primulas again (these pics are from my old garden)

My second garden 2004 - 2009

Take a walk through our garden, it's quicker than having to read all my descriptive waffle.



If you can't access the video then here are some pics to give you an idea of what we started with and how we progressed.







Luke getting in some r & r before the hard work starts - he doesn't know it yet but he will end up cutting down a massive oak tree in the neighbour's garden, digging up old roots, concreted-in posts, dismantle a dangerous brick wall, design and build a fence, raised pathway and decking area and provide a house and run for chickens. Phew!





The work begins..,










When we first moved in we had a huge oak tree next door which starved the garden of light. The old boy who had planted it as a youngster, just a few feet from his back door, still lived in the house but was ready for it to be taken down so we did just that for him although we made the mistake of cutting all the branches off it first and then had nowhere to stand whilst cutting it down from the top. In the end we had to hire scaffolding which cost us £70 so it was an expensive lesson learned. However, this opened up the garden and offered us the opportunity to plant lots of things which needed full sun instead of a few bluebells which seemed to be the only things growing there before.




















We knocked down a rickety shed and then Luke slaved over a raised wooden walkway I'd designed in a curvy shape, crossing the little pond I had made and then stepping up to a higher deck area in a kidney shape. We softened the edges with planting and lined the walkway with lavender. Our favourite plant was a small standard olive we bought for a tenner which absolutely thrived. I read that olives should be pruned to allow a small bird to fly through it's branches and it seemed to enjoy it's 'haircut', shooting out new growth almost immediately. The year before we left it had three lovely looking olives on it.




Here we have made some leeway, having put up the fence and deck but still have to put in the raised curving pathway and taking up the small patch of grass to make two wide borders each side of the path. At this stage we haven't even thought about chickens or a courtyard yet.






























The same year I spent over £1000 on cobbles so I could lay my own courtyard design which I started by drawing a design on graph paper after skimming through a pebble mosiac book. I began the design very diligently using a half metre square frame I'd knocked up but soon gave up on that and ended up doing my usual 'freestyle', working by eye (which is why it was so wonky).

I spent 11 days on my knees for 10 hours a day to complete the courtyard - a real labour of love. The cat hated having to walk over it and I had to pressure wash it every other month to dislodge the fallen leaves and suchlike which settled in between the cobbles but I loved looking down at it from the upstairs window. When it comes to fashion for me it's always comfort before looks but I turn that around in my garden and try to make it look as beautiful as possible with little thought to how it will function. With practise I am getting better but it's been another learning curve.




Shakira checks it out for me.

My first garden 1996 - 2004

This was my first attempt, in 1996, to create a garden from scratch. I kept the leggy herb garden although it never amounted to anything apart from a clipped bay I had planted slightly too close to the house and I found homes for the old Hebe my neighbour unceremoniously threw over our garden fence with the instruction that I needed to plant it up quickly before it's roots baked in the sun!
I pretentiously wanted a Vita Sackville-West all white garden (as you will see from my monochrome border in my current garden I haven't lost the fascination for white plants – the way they glow in the dimming light when everything has faded into the night is glorious) and I stayed true to that until my Grandfather passed away, starting what has become my tradition now – I bought a rose to remind me of him. It was deep orange and stood out like a sore thumb in it's peaceful surroundings but it was reminiscent of him. He had grown flowers in the sixties and seventies for my Grandmother who loved dahlias & chrysanthemums in bright, garish colours. They were all the rage then and I'm glad to see, that like fashion, if you wait long enough they come back into favour. It's wonderful that “anything goes” in a garden. I also made sure I had some of his original Zantedeschia .... (calla lily) which had always drawn admiring comments from the family and graced many family member's gardens. Both my Mum and my Auntie Shir still have it in their gardens. Sadly, when I last moved the bit I dug up didn't survive so I have bought a new one (half price as it's already flowered) from the local garden centre. A little patience will reward me when next Spring it raises triumphantly from the soil to shoot up great tall flowers which are commonly used at weddings and funerals.

What I started with and one year on. (This photo was taken at night time, from above - I have bags of dug up grass (before the green waste scheme) and have just dug out the shape of the lawn.



















Design.
A design was a rather grand description of my little pocket handkerchief sized garden's plan but in the end it was one of the main selling points when we moved. “A truly beautiful garden” is how it was described which impressed me no end. Me? Designing a garden? But I suppose I did design it. Bit by bit it changed until it had a little circular lawn (which only evolved as I kept hacking into it to make more room for yet another plant), a living willow seat and arbour I made after attending a two hour willow planting course. It ended up growing taller than the rooftops and had to be lopped down when a swarm of wasps took a liking to it. I also introduced water to the garden in the form of a teeny pond made out of an old washing up bowl sunk into the ground (it wasn't that bad, honestly and attracted dragonflies and birds who used to drink from it) and an expensive bespoke pergola and decking about eight months before AlanTitchmarsh made it so very popular, situated in the only place left in the garden which wasn't planted up. Luckily for me it was also the last place the sun visited in the evening so I could sit under the wisteria and jasmine which had climbed all over it and enjoy it's scent on a balmy evening from my steamer chair. Around this deck I had cobbles to evoke the beach and even a little sand on the very edges which amazingly never got used as a cat litter by the numerous visiting felines.
On the cat theme, when I first started gardening I didn't use gloves but that changed when I picked up what I thought was a large slug from the branches of the Hebe. It fell apart in my hands, emitting an instant and horrendous smell of cat poo! Lessons to be learned with every experience!



I soon realised the importance of decorative features too; whether it was a little statue of a fairy (very twee) or an old watering can and some metal hoops. Many things can have a place in your garden and whilst they may not have a long life out in the elements they can be enjoyed as they weather and get a little worn around the edges. A favourite old wooden chair only lasted a few years before the legs rotted away but it always looked great in the corner as it promised a secret seating area, tucked behind a big ball of white Spirea. When the Spirea died it was replaced with a Himalyan Honeysuckle which was never really a favourite of mine and led to me always choosing plants that I loved rather than because it was 'useful' planting.

This is how it goes; you learn from your mistakes. If you don't like a plant you can move it or give it away to friends (I'm in the process of doing just that with two bamboo plants that I've inherited yet don't fit in with my idea of a country garden). I don't profess to be a gardener, I just love gardening. I'm sure the knowledgeable gardeners would wince at some of my ideas or practices but what I lack in knowledge I make up for in enthusiasm and hard work. And I'm doing it for myself. I also have an obligation to these little plants to care for them as best as I can so I try my best to give them the closest to their original environment as possible.

Garden 3 Photos only

If you have had enough of me rabbiting on here is a photographic overview of the last four months in our new garden. It has a long long way to go before it's picture perfect, if indeed it ever is but it always seems to be messier before it gets better. Please get in touch if you want additional info.

Garden 2 April 2004 - December 2009

Take a walk through our garden, it's quicker than having to read all my descriptive waffle.


More photos as I was doing the 'courtyard'. Shakira checks it out for me.







If you can't access the video then here are some pics to give you an idea of what we started with and how we progressed.







Luke getting in some r & r before the hard work starts - he doesn't know it yet but he will end up cutting down a massive oak tree in the neighbour's garden, digging up old roots, concreted-in posts, dismantle a dangerous brick wall, design and build a fence, raised pathway and decking area and provide a house and run for chickens. Phew!


The work begins..,










When we first moved in we had a huge oak tree next door which starved the garden of light. The old boy who had planted it as a youngster, just a few feet from his back door, still lived in the house but was ready for it to be taken down so we did just that for him although we made the mistake of cutting all the branches off it first and then had nowhere to stand whilst cutting it down from the top. In the end we had to hire scaffolding which cost us £70 so it was an expensive lesson learned. However, this opened up the garden and offered us the opportunity to plant lots of things which needed full sun instead of a few bluebells which seemed to be the only things growing there before.







We knocked down a rickety shed and then Luke slaved over a raised wooden walkway I'd designed in a curvy shape, crossing the little pond I had made and then stepping up to a higher deck area in a kidney shape. We softened the edges with planting and lined the walkway with lavender. Our favourite plant was a small standard olive we bought for a tenner which absolutely thrived. I read that olives should be pruned to allow a small bird to fly through it's branches and it seemed to enjoy it's 'haircut', shooting out new growth almost immediately. The year before we left it had three lovely looking olives on it.



The same year I spent over £1000 on pebbles so I could lay my own courtyard design which I did by drawing a design on graph paper. I started very diligently using a half metre square frame I had made before doing my usual 'freestyle'.

Here we have made some leeway, having put up the fence and deck but still have to put in the raised curving pathway and taking up the small patch of grass to make two wide borders each side of the path. At this stage we haven't even thought about chickens or a courtyard yet.