Project Garden Update – 10th April 2014

We’ve been pretty busy out in the garden these past few weeks, so I thought it was about time that I shared what’s been happening.

Regular readers will know that I started taking an interest in my garden last summer, and have steadily been adding things and changing it. You can read back over the updates here, along with my original post. I’ve actually just re-read that one again myself, to refresh myself on my initial ideas and I spotted that I’d given myself a deadline of the start of summer to have it all sorted – best get a move on then! Looking at it, and all the hard work we’ve put in recently, I think the end is in sight. It’s also interesting looking back at the photos of the garden last summer, as it all looks so full, whereas now it’s looking more ‘twiggy’ and bare!

On the list last year were:

Alliums. I fell in love with them and decided I needed some. Well, they’re in and they’re shooting up, with a few buds already! Hopefully I’ll have them blooming soon.

Fruit and Vegetable Patch. The strawberries from last year are all looking healthy and ready to bear fruit again, and I’ve ordered my blueberry bush and raspberries, so just waiting for those to arrive. The patch will all go on the sit of the old, destroyed shed, behind my cut-flower patch – see further down.

Herb Garden. I planted this one up last year, and it’s looking great.

Wildlife Garden. We’ve just started to build this, and it’s in an area right next to a buddleia which always attracts the butterflies. I’ve ordered my little trendy pond, though, stacked up bricks ready and will share all on this in a separate post soon.

More Climbers. Oh, yes. Over the past few months, I’ve added a couple more clematis, a honeysuckle, a jasmine and 3 roses – you know I love my roses! My aunt bought me a David Austin voucher for Christmas, so I now have a Sombreuil planted up, ready to train across the left-hand fence.

And then as the project progressed, I added:

Remove one of the Sheds. Done! It was kicked and shoved down by the Husband and my brother a few weekends back, and they then had fun burning it all, much to Boo’s delight!

This is what we were then left with..

Lots of clearing away of rubble, and now we can see the other shed behind, I see A LOT of ivy on that roof! Pulling it off, the roof felt and some timber came away with it, so clearing it all off and re-felting it was added to the job-list..! That was one we did a few days ago..

The roof is pretty rotten, really, but buying a new shed is just not on the list this year, so we did the best we could with it and added a little timber on top to keep that roof on!

Cut the Laburnum Tree Down. It was blocking out a lot of light, and I know the sap and leaves aren’t great and can be poisonous. A man with a chainsaw came a couple of weeks ago and got rid of it – hooray! In fact, if you’re Midlands-based, I’d definitely recommend using Elms Tree Services – they were great.

Flatten the Rockery. Done! The plants have been relocated, the soil has been redistributed all over the garden (Oh, how I ached the day after we did this!) and I laid a little path through it.

A Cut-Flower Patch. The old rockery is now my cut flower patch. I’ve a few perennials coming that I’ll plant in here, too, to give it some all year round life, and my flower seeds have been sown this week. I cannot wait to see those start to come up. I’ve been out there watering every evening, and will continue to eagerly look for any small signs of germination! These seeds..

are all now in here…

Create a Potted Area. I want clusters of pots gathered around by my buddleia, that I’ll use to plant up lots of bulbs and add flashes of colour. It can easily be seen from the kitchen window, so creating a nice view. I’ve bulbs and seeds in a few of them, and I’m waiting for more to arrive within the next fortnight so that they’ll all be full. I’ve also a few hanging pots that I plan to pop some trailing fuchsias in, again waiting for them to get here!

Kids Play Area. For this year, this will be on the deck, as Little Man’s still quite small so I want him near to the house! Next year, it’ll probably move up to the patio area by the shed at the back of the garden. This one’s done, and they have a playhouse, trampoline and the ultimate mudpie kitchen out there. We also have various ride-ons, their own gardening equipment as they love to help and tend their own mini-gardens, and the sand and water table will be out soon!

Where we’ve bare patches of grass, seed has been scattered, and the site of the shed bonfire is starting to improve with regular raking. Mowing has recommenced again, so I’ll keep mowing, sowing and raking until I have a nice lawn again! I’ve a fairly big order of bulbs, plants, shrubs and fruit coming soon, and I cannot wait for that to arrive! We’ve been out there a lot lately, and it’s nice to now be at the planting stage, with pretty much all of the landscaping and hard labour done. I’m continuing to keep track of ideas and inspiration over on my Project Garden Pinterest board, so when a flower or plan inspires me, I pin it! Planting the fruit and veg patch and building the wildlife garden will be next, along with planting up my delivery. I’ll bring you another update soon, as it feels like progress!

To give you an idea, this was the back of the garden last year..

and this is it today…

How’s your garden growing?

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