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Big Changes To Our Garden.

August 31, 2016 By Jill Anderson 6 Comments

I do like growing things & pottering around in our garden, but it’s been a bit tricky since we moved here 18 months ago.

The garden was a big reason for choosing this place, it’s flat, which makes it very useable, there’s a lovely old, brick wall along one side, a few David Austin roses & a magnificent Magnolia tree.

garden-magnolia tree

garden-rose

This is all tempered by lots of grass but not much space for growing stuff, a cement-block garage wall with its’ plywood door & a patch of tarmac, (yes tarmac!), smack outside the living room doors.

In short it has yet to reach its’ potential, so gardening, apart from growing herbs & a few vegetables in pots, has been on hold since we moved in. Eventually I drew up a design & organised someone to build it it for us, because underground drainage & paving are way beyond our level of skill.

The garden is in 2 sections, the smallest bit you can see in the pictures below, with steps that lead down to the main part of the garden where we’ll have a little summer-house, a small lawn & raised vegetable beds.

Tom & his men started work on the top bit 2 weeks ago, stripping out the grass & replacing it with paving, so we won’t have to lug the lawn-mower up the steps anymore & there’s lots more space for plants.

garden-top-1

garden-half paved

garden-top-bin screen

this little fence hides the various dust-bins

There’s a bit more to be done up here & plants to buy, as luck would have it September is a good month for planting. 

Big Changes To Our Garden.-garden paving

you can just see through to the lower area of the garden.

A big reason for moving here was to have a simpler life-style, & the garden is a big part of that, it’ll be easier to look after & I’m so looking forward to growing vegetables again after saying goodbye to the allotment at the end of last year. I’ll keep you posted as things progress.

How is your garden doing, is it a nice space to spend time in?, because no matter what size it is or where you live, that’s what really matters.

Jill

all photos: Jill Anderson

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Fabulous Front Gardens Prunus serrula, Tibetan cherry,Trees for small gardens nettles, nettle fertiliserHow to make nettle fertiliser What to do in the vegetable garden in June
Filed Under: Blog, Garden Design, Gardening, Growing Food, Recycling & Sustainability Tagged With: designing a town garden

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Comments

  1. Amanda says

    August 31, 2016 at 5:38 pm

    How exciting, I will enjoy watching your garden develop! 🙂 xxx

    Reply
    • Jill Anderson says

      September 6, 2016 at 9:24 am

      Today it looks like a building site, but it is exciting & I can just about see past all the mud! I’ll post again soon to let you see how it’s going! x

      Reply
  2. rusty duck says

    September 1, 2016 at 5:53 pm

    How exciting to be getting started! It’s good to have somewhere nice to look out on in winter as well as summer, so September is an excellent time to be doing the work.

    Reply
    • Jill Anderson says

      September 6, 2016 at 9:26 am

      You’re so right about nice views all year round. Luckily the timing just happened to be right, & we’ve been fortunate to have good weather with little rain so they’re getting on well!

      Reply
  3. J-P Stacey says

    September 11, 2016 at 4:44 pm

    That paving looks marvellous, really professional and neat. It must feel great to have these things finally moving, the key “outside help” task that unlocks a load of things you can do yourself.

    In contrast, we’re thinking we might be able to do some much more *informal* paving (e.g. large setts arranged in pea shingle) ourselves. Unlike yours, a bit of intentional messiness can hide a multitude of sins while we put it all down!

    However, our paving bodge is blocked by a different task. We know we don’t have the skills or tools to tackle the privet removal and fencing that needs to be done at the boundary first. But! we now have a date. October 24, give or take a day either way, we’ll get new boundaries. And then we get cracking on the rest!

    Best of luck with the planting: and, most fun of all, the choosing 🙂

    Reply
    • Jill Anderson says

      September 12, 2016 at 12:00 pm

      Thank you! You’re right, it takes ages to plan so it’s great to finally have it done.
      I’m glad you’ve got a plan & that you’re getting your fencing done, how nice to have all that to look forward to!

      Reply

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Hello, I’m Jill Anderson.
This is where you’ll find good, solid information about gardening, growing fruit & vegetables and how to keep it all looking good.
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Have a great Sunday.
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Hope you’re keeping well, & managing to smile some of the time. x
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Enjoy the rest of your Sunday x
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I’ve thought long & hard about how to view the tumult in the world we’re living in now. 
The only thing that works for me, is to choose hope.

It’s a tall order, but avoiding mainstream news & speculation helps avoid the anxiety, that’s often waiting in the wings.

One day soon there’ll be grandchildren clambering over this again.
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