My second garden in France.

Hi everyone, I'm back.
This time with my current garden project.
Garden number 2, the barn garden. It measures about 21x26 meters.
We're renovating the barn at the moment into what will be our house. So this garden will probably be seen the most.
When we bought the property there was a large hanger to the right.
This is what it looked like after the hanger was removed.



The ground all around it has very compacted from years of tractor comings and goings. So pretty bad soil.
The hanger came in handy at the start, as the touring caravan we lived in for the first 9 months was pitched under it. A few years later we had it dismantled and we gave it to a local farmer.
This was our first experience of the French winter. We were snowed in for 5 weeks.:usr:



We retained some of the old timbers from the hanger to build a pergola from.
Having learnt from the first garden, we got in a man and a digger to roughly level the area first. Note the rescued asparagus in the forefront.



Well... it looks flat on the photo.



It still needed to be leveled again by hand.




My husband sowed the new lawn. I was forbidden to dig whilst it took hold.
It has taken me weeks to dig the new beds to the left and centre. My husband constantly made jokes about â??time teamâ?, and have I found a body yet? No but I found more rocks for the rockery.



In fact the soil is so bad over the rest of the garden that I'll have to make raised beds if I want to grow anything. Hence the mostly gravel and paved areas on my plan.
The new plants have been put in. All hopefully capable of growing in the poor soil. Though I have dug out any compacted clay and replaced with decent soil, sand and manure.





This is looking west,towards the house.



We'd been dumping stones/boulders on the ridge, as we cleared the land.
This got me thinking that it would be an idea to place a rockery there using some of the boulders.
This is the area I'm thinking of. Notice the pile of rocks has gone. That took me another couple of weeks. :(



I'm hoping to bridge the gap between the two levels. From what will be the terrace out side the house, and the garden.
I've never built a rockery before, but what I'm after is a natural stone fall look. I suspect it's going to be more difficult than the books say it is.:skp:
This is my Photoshop rendition of what I hope the garden might look like when it's finished.



From the right side of the garden, where the pergola will be, we have lovely views down the valley.
In the future we hope to put a small lake there.
This is a plan of the land.



Looking at it just reminds me that we haven't made that much of an impression on it yet. :( 0)

 

It's going to look fabulous when its done. Apart from hiring digger man for the initial levelling off, am I right in thinking the whole lot is being done by hand by you and your husband? Looks like a lot of hard graft, but very rewarding though. If garden 2 comes out half as nice as garden 1 it will still be stunning.

 

Thanks for the lovely remarks Clueless1, and yes, we are doing all the work ourselves.
It's taking a while as we are also renovating the barn by ourselves as well.
I have great designs for my kitchen.

 

Enjoyed looking at Garden No 2 Mandy. Gosh, you guys like hard graft .... but you're still young.

Don't think I'd fancy that snow .... or living in such accommodation ....

Your Photoshop visionary picture is superb and I'm sure you'll achieve that .... and I love the layout plan. What is that huge tree that dominates the garden? .. it's fantastic.

 

Hi, Victoria,
The tree is a very old native Oak. When me bought the place,there were three in that position. It was a bit dark. A tree surgeon recommended that we remove the other two, which were either side of this one. As much as I hate removing trees. They gave us a lot of fire wood.

 

I LOVE the space that you have Mandy......oh my gosh, its going to be beautiful when its done.

Keep the pics coming too.,

 

After Freddy's prompt, I thought I'd better do an update on my progress.

After a harsh winter, sadly losing a few plants :(, I've been busy dressing my new "half moon" shaped bed with slate. (the one I was digging over in the earlier picture.) This I've been excavating from another part of the land and bashing up with my handy club hammer. About 10 wheelbarrow loads.
I don't think even prisoners have to do that any more.


After that I've made the start of the rockery. It has taken me a solid week to do. No mean feat for one woman a fork and a sack trolley! I've been pinching large rocks from all over the land even though we have loads out side the barn that we dug up already.
I might have got a bit picky in the end. :hehe:
It measures 32ftx9ft.
This is my first time making a rockery, it was quite fun though back breaking.
Now for the really fun bit, buying the plants. I don't know exactly what yet.
My husbands been away this week so he hasn't seen it yet. I'm hoping he'll be suitably impressed so he won't mind the plant bill! :thumb:

This is what it looks like so far:



You'll notice the grass has suffered over the winter. Luckily that's my husband's responsibility.:hehe:

 

Wow! Sorry but I missed this thread....You certainly have made a great place there:gnthb:...I was gardening in the Morvan area of Burgundy last year...not on that scale it has to be said:D...Well done you!

 

Hi Mandy.
Looking good :thumb: I like the rockery, looks very natural. It'll look superb when it's planted up and established. Thanks for sharing.
Cheers...freddy.

 

Time for an update. This is the rockery now the plants have settled. Lots of filling out needed yet but it's looking good so far.



You'll notice we've also put in the steps, made from old granite lintels.



We've taken a rest from this garden to work on the entrance to our "animal area."
Did I mention that we have lots of stone here?:hehe:


The wall (swimming pool being built on the other side) will be rendered then I'll plant some climbers against it. I'll also put some plants in to the area that's presently covered with the black plastic. It's far too hot at the moment, so late September it will have to be.:(
What looks like a weed in the rocks is some bamboo. It's planted in a well hidden, but large water tub with the bottom removed. I'm not planting any other plants on the stones. So not another rockery.
Opposite this is an area we are preparing for our chickens and ducks. The chickens are totally free range at the moment so there will be some sulking I'm sure.:hehe:
When "the man with his digger" gets organized the pond can be dug out. It should be a nice view from the bench.
This is what the "stone mountain" looked like before it was "stone".

The goat shed on the right has been moved.
The slope is very slippery in the winter, especially when you're carrying buckets of water.
It really needed to be sorted before the weather gets bad.

Same view after:

Not content with digging up my rockery, we now have another mole having a go across the steps and terraces on "stone mountain"! Where are the cats when you need them?

 

Nothing comes easy Mandy, and wow, what a lot of work the 2 of you have done.
It looks great and will be fabulous when it's finished. Congratulations to you.
Keep us posted. Wherabouts in France are you. Centre is a big area.

 

It's beginning to look really lovely, Mandy. I am infernally jealous.

 

Hi Alice, I'm right at the bottom of Indre on the border with Creuse.

 

Good morning Mandy your garden project is so impressive and is stunning.

Well done Mandy .

 

Spring has finally sprung, and thankfully everything on the newly planted rockery managed to survive the winter. We've tided up both the gardens and chopped down two trees. I'm looking forward to developing the barn garden further this year and my thoughts are now drifting to ideas for the lavoir area. I may post some photos to get your feedback later.:WINK1: