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