My Garden's Working Progress

All done. Just need to get some gravel to put at the bottom before I can use it.

 

Fantastic! That plastering looks bob on! I've only ever attempted it once and it resembled a meringue!

 

First coat of paint on. I like the colour but the other half doesn't. Dave now has to put some guts into the inside of it before making the doors from scratch.

Now I've got to attempt making curtains out of a duvet cover and a pair of old curtain linings I salvaged from a horrible pair of curtains that were in the lounge.

 

Back to the garden. Just put the finishing touches to an old rotten bird table that was original Mr Jane's granddad's.

I could have just bought a brand new one but I decided to try my best to restore as much of this one as I could.

Here is how it looked a few weeks back. I had knocked up a slightly better roof when we first got it but this was now not looking brilliant either.



Mr Jane kindly donated some oak to the project to replace the sides and I decided to make the roof slightly more weather resistant. I used something called fake slate which is used for tiling floors I think. Its plastic but looks like slate. The base was also rotten so needed to replace this too. This only left me with the shaft and under supports which were original. Because I wanted to preserve this part as much as I could I then elevated the shaft right off the ground, made new supports for the bottom and replaced the table top itself. The whole thing was now at a much better height.



A friend of ours also knocked up a stainless steel tray so I could pull this out to clean it which I couldn't do before.

All finished now with a coat of paint. All I need to find now is a way to hide the screws at the top of the roof. Flashing if you will.

 

Love it JJ,
Jenny

 

Lazy question (because I can't remember if it has already been mentioned and I am too lazy to read back over the whole thread again ) but, curious mind wishes to know ... what size is your garden? You seem to have packed a lot in, but, it doesn't appear to be particularly large?

I do love this thread and all of your updates

 

The size of my garden is 116ft long by 18ft. I know I've packed a lot in it more than most people but there is still a long way to go.

The next building project for me is to carve out a bench for me to sit and whittle on. Mr Jane isn't happy with me doing it under the pergola when it's built as I will get wood shavings everywhere. I've got two 4ft lengths of ash that were cut down from the local wood (I should add I didn't pinch these and these were given to me by the trust who own the site for free) and a softwood top. I just need to move a few plants around and carve a design into the bench legs and top once I've worked out one.

I need to locate a certain tree at a reasonable price before I can build it too. I'm after a Juneberry tree but it seems to be a rare tree to buy in this country and the only garden centre selling it around her want £50 for one.

 

Thank you I knew it wasn't particularly wide and I'm inspired by how much you have managed to achieve throughout its length.

I have an Amelanchier Lamarckii which I picked up from either Home base or B&Q dirt cheap in their reduced aisle. No way did I pay that much for it. It has flowered beautifully this Spring too. Might be worth a look and a rummage to see what they have?

 

Absolutely amazing! I have just read through the entire post and admire your drive, passion and tenacity through various set backs to create such a wonderful garden.

Not to mention your innumerous wood/building/DIY/gardening skills!!!!

 

I'm sure I've seen it in Homebase in the past too, usually when I haven't been looking for these things.

Are you going to be eating the berries from it too? It's one of the reasons I want to grow it over other small trees/ large shrubs as apparently the berries taste like blueberries and make a good jam.

 

It's definitely on my "To Try" list

 

Let me know how that works out for you

 

Just read this from start to finish and this was absolutley brilliant! What a lot of hard work and imagination you guys have

 

Thanks Snoopy that means a lot and welcome to the forum

Mr Jane took some pictures of the garden and will hopefully remember to post them up here soon.