Tag Archives: Garden make-over

Up the Garden Path 15

by thehistoryinterpreter

There’s been quite a bit going on garden wise. First was the plan to cover the unsightly tarmac in front of the back gate by the new water butt, which leads to the ‘not actually a garage anymore’. This involved creating a barrier to stop any chippings escaping through the back gate. That was the easy bit. Next, to order chippings. The received wisdom was that online would be cheapest. After some research, I discovered a website that indicated how much stone you needed to cover an area of particular dimensions. I measured carefully, more than once. This was not as easy as it sounds as the area to be covered is wedge-shaped. I was reasonably good at geometry and I over estimated, which led to a figure of 362kg. I ordered 450kg, confident that that would be plenty. There’s a huge but coming; I did not order from the same website as the one that provided this figure, as I preferred a slightly different stone.

Next, the non-delivery of said chippings on the day they were due. In the end they were delayed long enough to arrive on a day when I was back from my weekend away. Unfortunately though, it was my birthday and a day out was planned. My kind neighbour signed for the large bag of chippings and all seemed well. Next some shovelling and raking, which actually didn’t take as long as I thought it would. In theory, there should have been chippings to spare but no. I can only presume that the chippings on the measuring website were a different weight to those I actually ordered. There were not enough. We raked them a little thinner, still not enough.

A trip round local builders’ merchants armed with a sample of the stones ensued. Absolutely nothing that looked vaguely similar. I could have ordered more from the original supplier but the delivery charge was punishing and supposing I still didn’t have enough? I wondered if I could put a few raised beds on the area to eke out the stone, as they would not need stones underneath. I decided to think about the best course of action. We then realised that walking on said stones coated the soles of our shoes with a chalky residue. Clearly the adults who were likely to be walking in my garden are perfectly capable of efficiently using a door mat, the three imminently arriving small people, not so much and one of those small people sleeps in the ‘not a garage’.

From the outset, I had considered putting stepping stones on the chippings, this now seemed like an essential requirement. Ideally, I wanted to match the rope-like stones in another part of the garden. I looked online for a nearby supplier. Good news, a large retailer near me sold what I wanted but only if I purchased twenty-five stepping stones at about £350, not an option. The small people were due the next day, it was already close to closing time. Cue a hasty trip to a nearby, normally expensive, garden centre, where lo and behold, I could get the nine stepping stones that I required for a much more reasonable figure and as a bonus, the postman had delivered a 25% off voucher for said garden centre, which I had not only saved but found and remembered to take with me. Nine stepping stones purchased for a seventh of the price of twenty-five. Next to lay the stepping stones. Lining them up was not without incident but moving chippings from underneath the stepping stones meant the chippings covered the whole area – result.

Then there was the birthday visit to a large and economical garden centre to splash quite a lot of cash. The haul included a wisteria, a standard azalea, that I regretted not buying last year, a lupin, a replacement alchemilla mollis, the previous one having drowned as I accidentally planted it in a pot with no drainage hole, a lemon tree, an evergreen clematis, which I hope will grow to cover the tiny gap, which is the only place where the garden is overlooked, some bedding plants and probably more that I am not going to admit to.

Spring has certainly sprung and the recent sunny weather has set many things in bloom. Bluebells are showing colour, the wall flowers are glorious and the clematis are in bloom. There is plenty of blossom on my two apple trees, the olive and the pear are looking healthy. I also have two new trees in pots. These started as bare twigs about nine inches long and were free from the Woodland Trust. To be honest, I didn’t hold out much hope of them ever becoming tree like, especially as the resident magpie was eyeing them up for their nest but they too are shooting. One is a dogwood and I’ve forgotten what the other one is going to be so watch this space.

Up the Garden Path 12

by thehistoryinterpreter

It has been a while since the last gardening update but that probably reflects the time of year and the fact that I was away for the whole of September. As I hadn’t asked anyone to water the garden while I was away, with much of the garden being in pots, I was wondering what would survive a month of neglect. Every pot was moved to the shadiest part of the garden and stood in an old paddling pool and other similar, water-filled receptacles, as my fingers remained firmly crossed. I think I must have done too good a rain dance, as Devon was deluged in September, which was good for my plants, as everything survived but less good for my local friends and neighbours. By contrast, I had lovely weather in the north.

I have now almost seen the seasons round in this garden and the winter jasmine is starting to bloom again. The robin has returned to the garden and I have had solitary glimpses of a great tit and a wren. The potato crop has been harvested. ‘Minimal’ is the word that springs to mind. The geraniums have been moved into the summerhouse for the winter and the garden chair has been dismantled and squeezed into the shed.

The three large chrysanthemums in pots, that I mentioned last time, have flowered. They were sold as being white, yellow and rust coloured. I guess one out of three isn’t bad, as I have rust, paler orange and dusky pink. They are past their best now but have been glorious. A piece broke off the rust coloured one and we shoved it in a pot. It has rooted and is now flowering! I also have yellow and white chrysanthemums in a hanging basket. Other additions include a Capsicum, a Hosta and a Michaelmas daisy, which I brought back from holiday, along with some rue. The Michaelmas daisy isn’t looking too healthy but maybe it will revive.

There’s been some more moving. One of the many sheds is an unsightly plastic affair that houses the bins. It was on view from the conservatory, so we moved it to the other side of the tarmacked area. It is now on view from the converted garage room but you win some you lose some. Fortunately, this was a great deal less effort than other shed moving escapades. In the place where it once stood is a new plant trough. This was bought especially for a climbing Josephine Bruce rose. In truth, I am not generally a great roses fan, well only the chocolate sort but I particularly wanted this as it was my father’s favourite flower and it climbed all over an arch in my childhood garden. I had been told that it was also the rose in my mother’s wedding bouquet but it seems that it wasn’t bred and introduced until three years after they married, so maybe it was just a similar rose and they thought it was the same. Said rose arrived in the post as a ‘bare root’ specimen. This basically means that it has to be planted straight away. ‘Straight away’ turned out to be the coldest day of the year, when much of Devon was under several inches of snow. Fortunately my little corner had escaped with just rain, although it was pretty jolly chilly and not ideal for any kind of gardening. Now I just have to work out how to keep it alive.

Up until a few weeks ago, my garden was 100% not overlooked. Then an over the back neighbour dug up a large buddleia, giving me just a tiny corner view of their conservatory and vice versa. Just at this time, the fisherman of my acquaintance acquired an eight foot high evergreen tree thing, species unknown, in a pot, that was surplus to someone else’s requirements. ‘We could stand it in that corner’, he says. Not really my choice of plant but I thought it might serve a purpose at least for now. I particularly wanted to keep it in the pot, partly because it may be a temporary acquisition and also to stop it growing much more. The corner in question in on the raised bed. We then had to get a very heavy, eight foot high tree up on to a two foot high raised bed. Undaunted, scaffold boards were arranged to provide a slope up to the raised bed. The plan was to lay the tree down and roll the pot along and up the boards. The trouble was that the pot was not cylindrical but was noticeably wider at the top than the bottom. This, of course, means that, when rolled, it went round in circles and not in a straight line. By dint of ‘roll a little, straighten, repeat’ the tree was elevated into position. It doesn’t completely block the gap left by the buddleia but it helps. I am a fair weather gardener so it may be spring before the next gardening update.

Up the Garden Path 9

by thehistoryinterpreter

I am pleased to report that the summerhouse now has a roof. It was a tad concerning watching my trusty assistant climb on a wooden roof whose strength was an unknown quantity but this passed without incident. Now if I could find a way of getting baked on masking tape glue off the windows all would be well (I’ve tried white spirit).

The pond/sink is causing a few issues as sinks by definition have a plug hole. This isn’t the sort that you could just put a plug in, (supposing I had one) as it is flush with the bottom of the sink. First attempt was fibre glass, which didn’t work, strange this as this is how the fisherman of my acquaintance fixes holes in his boat. I can only hope, for his sake, it works better on boats. Next attempt was to try to seal some spare shed roofing felt over the hole. I was never very convinced by that one and it failed miserably. Now we’ve emptied half a tube of the sealant you put round baths into what remains unsealed of the fibre-glassed plug hole. We are waiting to see if that works.

Flowers are flowering bravely, with a rose, a fuchsia and a hydrangea coming to light. The convolvulus is still convoluting away. Annoyingly, much of it is coming from the other side of the fence so can’t be dug up. I’ve harvested the first three tiny tomatoes from my solitary tomato plant. The remaining  tomatoes look like they may be pea sized.

The other ‘big task’ – moving the once moved shed again, is also accomplished. This was necessary because it really was too wobbly. So it was back with the plastic rollers to pull it out of the corner in order to put down some large paving slabs before rolling it back. This all makes it sound remarkably simple. It wasn’t. The shed had to come forward and be shoved/rolled round a corner and back, ideally without one of use getting stuck behind it. While the corner was clear I took the opportunity to cut back whatever is going all along the side fence. This is a bed that is untouched so far. It seems to be something in the honeysuckle family but with much smaller flowers. The ends are leafy and flowery but underneath is a whole load of dead looking bush. Hacking away at it was not easy and my arms are tastefully decorated with scratches. Much as I hate digging up living things, I think the only way to deal with this bed will be to dig it all out. I will wait until the what ever it is has stopped flowering and then hope that it wasn’t holding the fence up. Reinstating the shed in the desired position has meant that I could at last put away things that have been lying around in the garden because it ‘wasn’t worth putting them away as the shed would need to me emptied’.

What’s next on the agenda? Well if the sink holds water, planting the pond. Much as I don’t want to fill the tiny garden with sheds and water butts, I am debating a new water butt; I fancy one of those that double as a planter. I’m sure I’ll find more jobs to add to the list

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Up the Garden Path 8

by thehistoryinterpreter

One month on and the summerhouse roof is still unfixed and the shed is still baseless but in my defence, I have been away. In my absence, things have been growing apace, not least the pesky convolvulus. I am particularly please with the progress of the ‘veg patch’.

I however can relate the saga of the pond. Daughter and son-in-law have recently moved house and inherited an enormous garden. In amongst the weeds wild area was an old butler sink. Having established that it was surplus to requirements, I decided that I would acquire it to create a mini pond. As we were in the area a few weeks ago, with sufficient room in the copious boot, it was time for mission pond to commence. Said sink was a long way down a very long garden. These sinks, although small are dear reader, not light. Never fear, with the aid of son-in-law’s muscle and a wheelbarrow, the soon-to-be-a-pond was stowed neatly in the boot.

Part two of the saga relates to how to get the sink out of the boot minus any muscular assistance and is a clear illustration that I did not think this through. I am actually quite good at lifting and carrying stuff, sheds for example but lifting up and over is not my thing. This is the point at which we became acutely aware that we are pretty much devoid of local friends and acquaintances who are fit enough for heavy lifting. To add to the difficulty, it needed to be done quickly, as we were about to set off on holiday and didn’t want to take a heavy sink with us. Fortunately, inspiration struck and a kind, not quite so local friend, who happened to be in the area helped us and the sink out. It now reclines in roughly the right place waiting to be cleaned and to have its plug hole fibre glassed up. This task is firmly in the queue behind summerhouse roof fixing and shed moving. Cue putting ‘how to create a tiny pond’ in my web browser.

Up the Garden Path 6

by thehistoryinterpreter

We moved the shed into its new position! It was quite a performance involving crashing through undergrowth and nearly getting stuck behind the shed, as we attempted to get it as far back as possible, without knocking next door’s fence down. We had to do a bit of random shoving of bits of wood and stone under the corners to get the doors to open and close. There was plenty of ‘a bit more under this side’, ‘no a bit more under that side’, rather like cutting a fringe and trying to get things level. Getting the pipe we’d rolled the shed into position on out from underneath it was a challenge. It involved my trusty assistant manfully lifting one corner a fraction, me laying on wet gravel and risking life and fingers trying to shove the pipe sideways with a spade until it finally rolled out from under the shed. This is not the last of the shed moving saga, as it really is very wobbly and we should have constructed a better base. When we can face it, it will be emptied, moved a little and have slabs put underneath. It is also just a couple of inches too large to fit, so it does slightly cover the office window but I am going to live with that.

The shed is a must. Having just retrieved what I hope is the last lot of things from my old shed, that were being stored in a handy barn, there were a lot of diverse bits and pieces to fit in. Believe it or not, the shed contents was triaged and things were disposed of, before I moved. Nevertheless, I seem to have seven tin of brown fence paint and having just purchased two tins in sage green to repaint things, I won’t have much brown wood left, apart from the back gate. I could probably paint that every year for the rest of my life and not run out of paint.

I was asked where I would like to go to celebrate my birthday. My previous birthday was spent at a funeral, so the bar was pretty low. I opted for Trago Mills, hoping that their garden centre might provide cost effective plant, planter and potential replacement summerhouse buying options. It was Easter Sunday, so I checked online and was informed that it was open. After a forty mile drive we discovered that it wasn’t open. We were also going to walk round Stover Country Park but there was no space in the car park, so some frantic Googling of ‘garden centres near me’ ensued. The first one we tried, about six miles further on, was also shut, despite being advertised as being open. Returning to Stover to see if there was a parking space, we spotted Plants Galore, allegedly open Monday to Friday but with a discrete sign that said ‘Open Easter Sunday’. This was huge, with plants at very reasonable prices. I did go just slightly mad. Amongst the purchases was a wisteria, an apple tree, some hanging basket plants, three herbs, some lavender and tomatoes, peas and beans, because growing veg is always fun. As a bonus, we did manage to park at Stover, though the cold wind made it less pleasant that it might have been.

If you are thinking, surely she won’t have room for all those plants in her tiny garden, you would probably be right. We have investigated the lifting some of the patio option and it does seem particularly well concreted down, so I have ordered a raised bed instead. There is just enough earth beyond the patio, behind where the shed used to be, to plant the wisteria and apple tree. They are still waiting patiently because I want to paint the fence first and there hasn’t been a dry enough day to do that yet. I have also decided to go for the repairing the summerhouse option, as I prefer the shape and size of the one I have to any that are available. I am using the summerhouse as a greenhouse come potting shed. The search for fence paint and liner for the impending raised bed took me to other outlets where a clematis and some heather found their way into my trolley. So, some planting as been going on between showers but there’s still a long way to go.

Up the Garden Path 2

by thehistoryinterpreter

To be honest, it hasn’t really been the weather for fair-weather gardeners like me, or indeed any sort of gardener but yesterday the sun came out and the temperature was in double figures, so I ventured forth. The previous owner of my garden had left me numerous pots containing plants in various stages of liveliness and an eclectic selection of garden ornaments. I decided to triage these into ‘will keep’, ‘will humanely dispose of’ and ‘not sure yet’. Plant wise, there are more exciting finds as the year moves on; today’s included hellebores and miniature daffodils.

We began to trim back the winter jasmine, which is rapidly taking over the one flower bed. Other tasks for the afternoon were to deal with my many troughs of geranium cuttings which have been keeping warm in the summer house. Obviously not warm enough as about half are dead, or covered in what Mr Google tells me is powdery mildew. Sick plants were removed and what remained were rationalised into fewer troughs.

Next came the task of measuring the garden, in preparation for trying to draw up a plan. I decided to go for feet and inches, rather than anything metric as I still have to ‘translate’ metric measurements in my head. This was a test of my mathematical skills as my trusty assistant kept calling out the measurements in feet and inches, rather than just inches, which us what I wanted. Good job I know my twelve times table. The whole measuring thing was definitely not easy as I can’t actually reach some of my boundaries due to shrubbery and the many sheds. Added to that, the plot isn’t even remotely rectangular. Not only are there some funny angles created by the perimeter fencing but the garage and sheds are also not all set square. I have a load of scribbles and numbers but whether I will stand any chance of making it into a coherent drawing whose edges join up remains to be seen.

For those who are interested, very roughly, the plot is 35 feet wide by 22 feet deep, minus the space taken up by the conservatory and plus the extra space along the side between the bungalow and the house. One pretty much counteracts the other space wise. Note for some of my overseas readers, in the UK, a bungalow is a single story dwelling not a shack. If my maths is right, I have about 70 square yards, not, of course, at all the same as 70 yards squared! For those of you in foreign, about 58 square metres, which, unbelievably because it seems really tiny to me, is classed as a medium sized garden by the RSPB (Royal Society for Protection of Birds) when you submit your results for their great garden bird watch. By UK standards, particularly with a newer built property (mine was built in 2000), small gardens are the norm. On the subject of birds, I was concerned that this would be one thing I’d lack when I moved but I’ve seen eleven different varieties of bird in the garden (or viewed from the garden on neighbouring roofs or trees) so far in February, a similar number to the old garden, although very different regular visitors. Not bad considering the property had been empty for a fair while before I moved in, so, despite the bird table that was left behind, I doubt the birds had been fed here for over a year. The bird bath, another legacy from the previous owner, is very popular and that will definitely be staying.

This is a long-term project. Don’t expect swift progress!

Up the Garden Path 1

by thehistoryinterpreter

I can’t pretend other than that one of the downsides of the new house is the conglomeration of concrete and sheds that constitute the ‘garden’. In estate agent speak, it is more of a courtyard than a garden, or perhaps we just term it that valuable commodity ‘outside space’. Having left behind what I felt was an attractive cottage garden, a wildlife haven, I was aware that this was a compromise but assured myself that it could be improved. Having gone through some seriously stressful battles with the technology associated with the job I must not mention last year, I steeled myself not to walk away by promising that I would earmark the earnings to be the maximum budget for improvements to the new garden. A lesser known fact about me as that I did complete a garden design course a few years ago, so I am eager to get out the tape measure and graph paper. Caveat – I am not an avid gardener, I like to potter but gardening needs to be your main hobby and it isn’t mine. I do love to be surrounded by plants though, so a garden is a must have. Now the post-plague exhaustion is abating, I can make a start. An added advantage is that, at least today, it is a little warmer and not raining, mind you that’s not set to last.

I thought you might enjoy following along with the garden make-over journey. Here are some pictures of what I am dealing with. A long overgrown shrubbery, an eclectic selection of garden ornaments provided by the previous owner, a lot of concrete, three sheds, a summerhouse in need of tlc and a garage, all set on a very tiny east-facing plot. On the plus side it isn’t overlooked.

You are in at the beginning, as all I have done so far is add a stone seat in a random place (it won’t stay there it is just where the removal men dumped it) and twenty or so pots to those already here; mine mostly contain Mistress Agnes’ herbs. Oh and I’ve planted one white lilac that I bought before Christmas and felt would be happier in the ground.

I have a list of ‘must have’ plants, the challenge will be where to put them. I am also adverse to pulling up existing plants in any great number, although a couple do look seriously deceased and I am aware that I may need to see the seasons round to know what is here already. There does seem to be colour for all seasons, with winter jasmine and three camellias, two of which are coming in to flower. Annoyingly, the sunniest corner of the garden, let’s be honest here, the only bit of garden that gets any sun at all this time of year, is currently occupied by the unsightly tin shed. I am reliably informed it is plastic not tin but it looks like tin and helps me distinguish it from the wooden shed and the blatantly obviously plastic shed. Not wishing to have to sit on the shed roof, the current thinking is that the wooden shed will be humanely disposed of and the ‘tin’ shed moved to take its place. Still not sure how two of us move a six foot square ‘tin’ shed but my unwilling partner in crime is of the opinion that it may come apart. The jury is out on whether or not it will go back together again – watch this space. This could rival the flat-pack furniture building scenario. The other debate is to reinstate some grass, or not to reinstate some grass. I am a fan of grass, both for the smell and the wildlife potential but grass has to be mown. Fine now but going forward this may mean I need help with the garden sooner that I would with a grassless plot. Does this matter? Probably not; decisions decisions.