My Garden's Working Progress

Next after my Nan died I decided to make a little area next to the pergola in memory of her. I couldn't attend her funeral because of it being too far for me to travel. My Nan had bought me a fig for Christmas when I was 15 and this sat in a pot and went through the wars during this time. It remained at my parents when I moved out and was neglected, my sister even burnt the leaves off it by having a barbecue next to it. When we got our house and garden we decided to finally move it to its final home in 2011. This required it having to be put in our small car with it being stuck up through our sunroof.

Just before my Nan died it dropped all its leaves again because of the really dry weather we were having. I was watering it constantly and it still wasn't happy. So after my Nan died I decided to finally plant it in the ground. With the roots restricted by paving slabs.



I planted a couple of eurphorbias around it which were one of her favourite plants. Since then its perked up as you can see and the euphoribias have started growing too. There are two water bowls sat underneath the tree as I had a hedgehog arrive and had been feeding off some food I had left out here as a result.

A plaque also hangs behind the tree which I had made up. This is an excerpt of the poem I wrote which was read out at the funeral.

 

Finally my vegetable patch has been changed over to a fruit garden. After the allotment I realised that I simply don't have as much time as I used to to maintain vegetables but still love making jams and chutneys. Fruit doesn't really require as much maintenance as veg and so when I began breaking up the allotment I took several plants back to my garden. Mostly strawberries, blackcurrant canes and my family apple tree which I had only planted a few months beforehand.






The dividing boards were taken out and so the area is just one whole bed now. I put a couple of paving slabs to allow access but eventually these will be full of strawberry plants to act as a ground cover for the area, as well as providing lots of yummy strawberries too.

I also installed some posts in the middle of the bed which I will have a blackberry ramble over. This is currently being culivated from a friend on the allotment so should hopefully be planting this soon.



Some time before hand as well I planted an espalier apple tree that would divide the area up from the main path. Mr Jane hung a little sign on it a month ago to cheer me up, this still hangs on the wires for my own amusement.





I still have some runner beans growing and producing beans so haven't taken these out yet but when they have finished I hope to plant some red desert gooseberry fruit here, as gooseberry jam is my favourite jam at the moment.

 

A very sensible change of productive use of the land! We don't grow many vegetables, as to be honest, they are there in the shops, where we go on a regular basis. Those that we do grow are because we cannot get them commercially, or they are noticably better fresh - herbs, cut-n-come-again lettuce, mangetout peas, etc. At the end of each season, we re-evaluate the effectiveness of each veg - should we grow next year?
Fruit plants are so lovely, and normally encourage insects too...

 

just going through this from start to finish, only on page 3 but wow you have been very busy, and it looks great so far, love the colour scheme, very,very nice, still got 13 pages to go lol

 

I've just spent a very pleasant morning going through your thread @Jungle Jane. What an outstanding transformation. It's beautiful. I have taken lots of lovely inspirational ideas from your garden, you've got a great gift for creativity. It's beautiful. May we see what it looks like now?

 

Just caught up with this thread. Great progress you've made. Given me some inspiration to get on and put my plans into practice.

Rusty

 

Thank you both for the lovely comments. I will try and post up some photos soon of how it looks now.

 

Just wanted to say how inspirational this thread has been for me! Absolutely amazing job you've done!

I've really enjoyed reading it all!

 

Thank you that does mean a lot. I haven't done much to the garden lately, but seeing all these nice comments on a thread I neglected for years has really been a bit of a boost to finally finish it off.

We have one more project to do and Mr Jane and I are busy working on the house so haven't really gotten round to doing it yet.

 

Right finally for the pictures now I've had a bit of time to take them. It's in a bit of a mess still, lots of bits of rubbish here there and everywhere. I have a couple of projects on the go at the moment and I have an awful habit of not clearing up after I've finished one. Also I've probably forgotten about a number of projects so they may be added later on to this thread before I forget completely.



Most of the plants have really filled out, so much so that quite a number are being taken out. I want to now get the garden to a low maintenance one and so plants that don't require much effort have been left as well as those who have really taken over the space, mostly shrubs. It all looks a bit over grown and wild but we like it that way....

















The wildlife in the garden has really exploded since we moved in. Birds would never visit our garden and now they never really leave. Although I still haven't had any nest yet so this is something to aim for in the future. The bee population has grown too.



Our back door step full of bamboo canes really came to life a few months ago when mason bees moved in and where coming to and fro. I have some film of it somewhere on my computer I will have to dig out.

The insect hotel I built last year I also completed earlier this year as well. I can't really get many decent pictures of it because it's so overgrown around but hopefully you get a rough idea of what it looks like.

 

The fruit garden has really started to "bear fruit" I planted an "golden delicious" apple tree as an espalier and started training it in January. I'm surprised how much growth it has put on in such a short space of time.



I also planted black currents, a black berry and red gooseberries in the bed where I once grew my vegetables and the gaps in between the plants I planted up with strawberries. I place 4 slabs in the bed to act as stepping stones. These I sat my runner beans on temporarily but don't think I will bother growing runners any more in pots in the future.



I already had raspberries growing next to the greenhouse and so recently I took apart my cold frame and have started work on replacing this with just a patch of gravel for my potted fruit plants to sit on. Mostly blueberries and apricot tree. I have a lemon tree as well but have decided to keep this in the greenhouse for a bit because of the aphids.



I also built a new compost bin to take all of our rubbish. As the garden as gotten more plant life the waste has also grown. Our local council were thinking of withdrawing our green waste service and so saw this as a good opportunity to accommodate for our waste. The bin in roughly 7' long and 3' wide. Divided into two sections and with two doors/gates either side. I wanted to make airflow as open as possible as I had found while on my old allotment plot my waste was rotting down quicker than my bins at home.



I also bought myself a garden shredder and this has proven most useful as I can now make my own much from my grasses which were taken forever to rot down.



Also the apple tree I had growing next to the greenhouse I moved to my long shrub border. I'm quite glad I did as it seems much happier here than where it was before. I have a couple of cookers coming out on it already, which fills me with delight.

 

Current projects on the go or for the future are the following.

First of all my potting shed has now become my workshop for my carving work and this is currently taken up a vast amount of my time trying to get that fixed up into a better state. Last year I bought yet another small tool shed to stick my gardening tools in so I could then have more space in the old potting shed. I had to remove part of the privet hedge by the house to allow for this. You can see this in the "birds-eye" photo

I've spent the past month or so getting a dust extractor installed, having to build an enclosure outside for it and soundproofing it for my neighbour sanity. Boring stuff to gardeners. But it's in the garden the enclosure so had to take photos of it. It's not finished, still needs a weatherproof door and roof and a vent for the hot air but you get the idea.....





I have a long narrow path that I need access to for trimming the hedge and my extractor and greenhouse too and this is still not finished. I want to just pour a load of gravel onto it but I suspect this may be swept up in the cuttings of the hedge when I next trim it so have been pondering it for many many months on what material to use. I don't really want to use paving again as I'm concerned about water run off and ideally am after something porous.

 

Wow! Your garden has really matured since you started work on it Jane. It's a place of discovery walking down the path with something new to see in every nook and cranny. You've worked hard on it and can be proud of yourself.