new garden - deciding how to start!

Ashamed that I haven't been on the forum for so long!

A combination of busyness, working in the garden (of course!), and the general battle / slog of being a non-integrated expat abroad.

I will take some photos this afternoon, hopefully the sun will come out for the event, trying to do similar shots as before, so we can all (including me!) see if there has been any progress....

 

Oh Freddy, you were so right!
Things grew ok-ish for a year, and then everything just stopped. In the case of the runner beans, it was definitely an emergency, fatal, stop!
so, last autumn, I took the plunge, and have dug out the veg bed. Three spade-depths of sand have been dug out of the bed, and are being re-filled with the last compost from the compost pile. Just 2/3 of a spade's depth to be wheelbarrowed up the length of the garden to the veg-bed, and then we are back up to the top the the boards again.
It has been a slow old slog getting this done - I will just be in time for the first of the spring sowings, I think!

 

lets see if I've resized these photos correctly...



not much change on the first two shots, apart from the compost has managed to rot its way through the internal doors, and I think the grass has got even worse!!

 

and a few more photos....
the eye bed, or herb bed, is looking good!




the re-filled (nearly!) raised vegetable bed. Now filled with 2-3 foot of good compost!

the strange bed next to the garage (in the summer I often refer to it as the pink bed, as it is full of hardy geraniums, but that name doesn't make sense this time of the year!)

 

All drying out nicely Sian. Good to see you back here BTW. Soon be time to think about plants to bring life and colour back. Any significant plans for design impact this Season?
Jenny

 

There are quite a few herbaceous plants in, and also twiggy-looking roses, etc, that don't show up in these photos.
I think the main plan is to find some good homes for the 20+ chilli seedlings that we have growing indoors (yup - we're definitely hooked!), and make good use of all the back-breaking work getting the veg bed sorted.
I'm also hoping to develop this bed this summer - it has the Philadelphus in, along with a some roses, day-lillies, and various herbaceous plants...
There will hopefully be lots of colourful bedding plants going in around the place as well.
Then there are the fruit trees to prune, and keep an eye on, and the soft fruit bushes...

...eek - what am I doing indoors during daylight hours?!!

 

You are forming plans Sian. All good stuff....plenty of time ... months and months,
enjoy,
Jenny

 

Sian, your eye bed has come on really well since you started to develop it.

 

Hopefully, here's a photo of the eye bed looking lush last May

...and again at the end of July

 

And finally, when the salvia was in full flower!

 

Isn't it good to look back at the pics, it reminds us that the sun and flowers will be there again later in the year. Everything still looks sad and quite bare at the moment.

 

Hiya Sian

I've been giving this a bit of thought. I'm a bit concerned that you say you're filling with compost? My gut feeling tells me that you will also need something 'solid'. For example topsoil or loam. Compost is great stuff, but I just feel you need a bit more 'body' for your veggies. Hopefully that makes sense?

 

reading though this. you certainly have been very busy. In your first entry you said you had 1/2 acre of land, seems like more to me. I have 3 acres of gardens BTW.