My gardening journey...new build to a family garden..
By dprovan
11 comments
Hi,
I have decided to write a blog to capture our journey transforming what was a rubble site into a family garden.
I have no gardening experience. My style is at best described as adventurous… I am not afraid to plant something and if it doesn’t fit or work I will then remove it…
The journey began in Feb 2008. I have photos somewhere but basically the whole area was just top soil.
First job was to lay a lawn and to plant some hedge in one part of the garden. The pictures below would have been taken in the spring/summer of 2008.
Fair to say it was a blank canvas with potential!
Unfortunately there was no ground force team to get to work, so this journey was going to take time……..
The photos below were taken in the spring 09.
This photo shows that the hedge is taking shape and beginning to grow…
As you will see I have dug something of a border and planted some border plants which will hopefully give some colour in time to come.
By this stage I have pretty much split the rear garden, in my mind at least. The area with the swing will be an area for the kids to play in and the area with the border and plants will be my garden. The area I will focus the plants on. Our Kitchen looks straight out on to this so should be nice…
Here are some pictures of the garden in september 2010 and at last I am feeling as though we are begining to see progress and there is some maturity and interest. Particularly please with the sunflowers…
So from feeling that the garden was developing nicely then I reached February of this year and realised that I had no evergreens or anything of interest for late winter early spring….
So this March it was time to do some more work… I widened the borders and put a bit of shape into them to add interest. Added some evergreen plants and feel quite happy that it is begining to take some shape quickly…
The lawn needs some work, it was not in good shape following the difficult winter. Lots of moss to get out of it and some seed and feed to put on it….
Already the new plants are starting to develop and take shape and there is some really nice colour….
22 Apr, 2011
6 likes
Comments
It's looking great - I'm in the middle of my own wee project ... although as days goes on it's getting bigger and more expensive. I can't wait to sit in the garden with a glass of wine, admiring all my hard work!
Keep the photos coming!
22 Apr, 2011
Well done - what a lovely way of seeing the garden transforming from a bland patch to an actual garden with flowers etc. You must be very pleased with yourself.
22 Apr, 2011
Its a credit to you and you now have lots of colour, you are lucky having a separate part for the children, something I was able to do here, now I have a run for my dogs, lol, pleased you are enjoying your garden and looking out for more pics....
22 Apr, 2011
It's coming along nicely. The children look as if they are proud of that sunflower :o)
23 Apr, 2011
great to see it come to life and well done, also glad you have made more wavy borders rather than just straight, some nice plants to and colour.
23 Apr, 2011
your sunflower is pretty amazing!
23 Apr, 2011
I think it looks great. I do enjoy seeing before-and-after photos. The plants spilling over the wall are especially pretty.
24 Apr, 2011
A lovely blog D. It made me smile....just like my garden journey. I have been in mine for five years now and it started like yours, with some thin borders, now there is about a third of the lawn we started with! Your garden is even shorter and even wider than mine is! It's a tricky shape isn't it....difficult to get a sense of any length. I've tried to do this by breaking it up in to different areas like you, and also by putting in some taller things near to the house, so that they interrupt my eye which no longer goes directly to the bottom fence. I've used dwarf fruit trees for this, so although I don't have winter foliage, I still have some structure in the winter. A couple of dwarf evergreens too though, for winter colour.....I'm going on now.....sorry!
24 Apr, 2011
Hi all thank you so much for the comments... It has taken me this long to reply as I could not work out how I could respond..
karensusan6. You are so correct it is such a difficult shape, I know my curves are not quite correct yet (that seems like a strange comment for a bloke) I thought i might lengthen them a bit to make fewer of them, however I am noticing that as plants are filling the space it looks better... I would love to see photos of your garden, it sounds great. I had planned to bring the middle of this garden much deeper into the border and to shape a path from this up through the space making almost two parts but I need to save up some money for more plants... This gardening is expensive.
Lauram, the plants over the wall are my favourite part also, they are looking better by the day also...
sussexsarah, i too was proud of the sunflowers, it was my first attempt. Beginners luck. I am having another go this year but reckon last year will be hard to beat..
I am completely caught by the gardening bug and am always looking to add something... I have just bought some giant lillies and think these will look great along the back wall....
Also my fight to rescue the lawn is continuing... I suffered with lots of moss this winter so am going to have to think about preparation for the winter to improve drainage...
Anyway thanks again for the encouragement...
27 Apr, 2011
Again, you are in the same boat as me with your lawn drainage issues!! Mine is a right mess just now, I've just started to tackle it, having been a away for a few days....here are the links to some of my garden pics...
http://www.growsonyou.com/karensusan63/blog/14565-ah-such-a-perfect-day
http://www.growsonyou.com/karensusan63/blog/10530-the-beginning-up-to-now-never-the-end-it-s-always-changing-isn-t-it
29 Apr, 2011
Thats quite a big garden for a new build dprovan, great idea to have the kids area at the back and the nice part to look at from the window, its looking great, can't wait to see more pics..Dee..
22 Apr, 2011