Cumbrian Garden Project

Hi Steve, you've made good progress in the few weeks since you started this tread. It's a wonder that you haven't done your back in lugging all of those stones. That's a nice piece of history that you got with the paving stones, thanks for sharing it with us. I wouldn't mind a load of those wonderful wall stones.

It's nice that you have the church wall along one side of the garden, that's saving you a good bit of work.

I would also say that a pond, or whatever water feature you finally decide on, is a MUST. You only have to put some plants in and around it, and the wildlife will appear by itself. There is so much enjoyment to be had, whether you are walking around and looking in it, or just sitting near and dreaming.

Cookie made some very good suggestions as to what would look nice and I agree with her. However, one thing missing - and that is a couple of trees. A small group of two or three would give the garden the height needed to set it apart. It looks like all of your neighbours have just flat gardens, with a few shrubs at the most. You'd need trees that don't grow up to be giants, something perhaps 5-6 meters at the most. I'd put them where you would have some shade in the hottest months, maybe shading part of the patiio?

Looking forward to more updates.

 

Very impressed with the wall Steve, you really are doing a fantastic job.
Thats not to say the rest isn't looking good, but I do like that wall.:thumb:

 

Well done steve, looks like its coming together.

 

I didn't do anything in the garden yesterday. The day before however I laid this zig-zag path at the back, over the top of which a Gazebo will eventualy be erected to make a secret floral walkway.







Yesterday, GC member shiney and his wife (Michael and Hanna) arrived in Cumbria for a holiday with three friends and I went along to meet them all at their lovely hotel. shiney had made a most genorous offer to bring me some plants and between himself and Hanna they put together a box full of promise for me. There are so many plants, its just unbelievable and I am truly staggered and thankfull for their genorosity, its a wonderfull start to our bare bones garden and as they are perrenials will be a constant reminder of this.

We had coffee then went for a little walk down towards Lake Bassenthwaites (the only lake in Cumbria) shoreline and to the tiny St Bega's church for a little look, unfortunately, the weather was not condusive to good photography so here is a pic of the church off the web.



Its a great location and I will be back on a day where the weather is more suitable for some photo's of the area.

The walk down was accompanied with wildflower meadows, Foxgloves in bloom and very old Oak tree's, all with the backdrop of either Skiddaw or other Cumbrian fells, and talk of planting, gardening in general or Photography.

Now I have a lot of planting to do!

Thank you Michael and Hanna for this genorous gift, I'll do my level best to look after them.

Steve...

 

What a lovely post Steve. Mr and Mrs Shiney are truly wonderful folks. Every time you see those plants they have given you - think of them and smile.

That church looks really beautiful - you are making me want to up-sticks and come back to visit the Lake District again. Steve - knowing how incredibly professional your photographs are - I can't wait to see what you do with this church.

The zig zag path is an interesting idea - a secret path through flowers sounds idyllic. I bet you are inspiring your neighbours to take a second look at their gardens too.

Keep up the good work.

Kath

 

I kind of got that idea from the A.Titchmarsh programme "How to be a gardener" where he talked about a "journey" but then cutting off views so you had to move to see all.

I needed somewhere to stand up in that area to plant, dead head and weed etc and thought if from the patio you could from various positions get a different dimension or view into and under the gazebo, then that would be a journey and/or a stopped view.

Thanks for your comments Kath.

Steve...

 

I took these a few days ago after a day's planting. The plants that Mr & Mrs Shiney brought up for us, a few we have bought or already had and a few annuals that I have grown from seed all went in along with some summer flowering bulbs. We are hoping for a riot of colour! Oh...and our new table and chairs arrived the other day too.











This last photo shows the bed next to the church wall, last year I just dug it over and planted a few shrubs here when we moved in, just to get them in the ground. Whilst I have been busy with the landscaping the mares tail and buttercup have been running wild in this bed so out it all comes, just a little bit to do on the left here.

I'm presently building a thingummy whatchamacallit which should be finished later today, I'll hopefully post a few more photo's tonight or tomorrow.

Steve...

 

Coming on lovely Steve - starting to show real form and the patio looks great.

With regards that wall in your last photo - my mum had a bare breezeblock wall similar to that and decided to try and mask it as it was unsightly where she had it right in view of the patio window. She painted it with dark green exterior stone paint and it has transformed it! She has plants growing up by it but the background being green means the eye does not come to an abrupt halt at the wall now - it seems to have opened up the feeling of space and the minds eye just takes the background green as part of the natural greenery. There are pyracanthas and ivy and a climbing rose on it now and the whole effect is tons better than a breezeblock wall. Sadly, the boundary wall belongs to our neighbours so we had no say in what type went up - it wasn't very pretty I'm afraid....:(

Looking forward to your next installment!

 

I have a cunning plan for the bare breezeblock wall that involves another recycled product, watch this space. Hopefully I'll get to that today.

Steve...

 

What an amazing transformation, lovely. The stonework I especially like, is that local stone? Lovely view of the church too I hope you're going to keep the plants low on that side

Keep up the good work.

 

Yup, the stone is all local sandstone, and some of it has a "local history" aspect to it. See the posting earlier in this topic
[post=193959]here[/post] when I was laying the patio.

Steve...

 

Just one month ago today you started this thread showing a more or less bare garden with nothing to put it apart from the others and now it is looking like a showpiece! As biker said, what an amazing transformation.

Very well done Steve. Looking forward to seeing what your newest idea is.

 

Here we go then. 1 "thingummy whatchamacallit" finished and planted up with Sweet Peas, a Jasmin and a Bougonville. Hopefully a Honeysuckle too in the next day or two. BTW, apart from a few screws and some wood preservative, its 100% recycled, I have another ten of those large trellis panels to use in the garden that where destined to go to landfill.



Apologies for my shadow in the above photo, very unprofessional of me.

Whats next?

Not too sure at the moment, but moving a path is on the cards (path existed when we moved in) and its too close to a fence I want to use for planting next too. Making a couple of planters is also on the cards too for on the concrete slab between the French doors and the thingummy whatchamacallit. Also a little longer term is a Gazebo over the "L" shaped, stone surrounded bed.

Down the side of the house I want to build a new shed, not nail a bought one together but build one, same thing for a greenhouse, coldframe and a more efficient composting area. If there is any room left then a small nursery/veg bed will go in too. The side of the house is a longterm plan, although I want/need the greenhouse asap.

From the photo's in the last post you can see a breeze block wall, the big space there will have a water feature added next year consisting of a waterfall/trickle down to a pool, and a seperate still pool for the resident toads we have. There are fields 100yds from our house and a river at the bottom of the hill, half a mile in the other diretction is a reasonable sized lake (about 3 acres) so encouraging wildlife shouldn't be a problem for this willife area in our garden, so hopefully we'll get damsels and dragons too then I can photograph them .

There are 1001 other smaller things I want to do also...make that 1002, just thought of something else..:D

Steve...

 

My goodness Steve you have been real busy you really must take a break and enjoy your wonderful garden. Hel.xxx.