Non-Gardener builds an Observatory, Garden Railway and even Dabbles with Plants!

29th May 2021

Spring was well under way by late May and the Laurel had gone crazy. It was over four feet tall and around three feet wide in places. It was time for a major hair cut. With around 300 feet of it in the garden, we weren't going to get it all cut in one go. We started off on the curved hedge dividing the drive and lawn, plus a smaller length by the back door steps.



It was starting to look a bit thinner on the left. The bare end was as a result of cutting one bush flush with the ground. Since I was moving house mostly on my own, using my large trailer and with Lynne working at the other house in Washington, I didn't have anyone to help me disconnect it and turn it around.

Being a dual axle trailer, it's not easy to turn at the best of times. Doing it on a gravel drive, where you can't get a grip to shove it, made it worse. I worked out that by cutting one bush down, I just had enough room to back the trailer into the lawn area, to do a three point turn without needing to disconnect. Having seen how fast the Laurel grew, I knew it would recover quickly.

 

3rd June 2021

More hedge cutting. This time it was the Hawthorn. We bought a shredder and chopped up and bagged all the cuttings, as this significantly saved on volume. We also cleared quite a lot of ground cover. We'd quickly worked out that one garden bin wasn't enough, with one cut of the lawn filling the bin to at least three quarters full.



With the chopped Lavender, Laurel clippings, lawn moss and other stuff, we were quickly getting a huge pile of green stuff. We eventually got a garden clearance company to come and take it away, as we didn't have the time or inclination to make multiple trips to the council tip.

 

12th June 2021

By mid June, the patio was coming to life, with various plants flowering. The slated area in front of the sun room was looking much more tidy with most of the Lavender gone.



The border in front of the kitchen was also full of colour, though there were a number of weeds amongst it all.

 

After a short time admiring the colours, it was back to work. The Hawthorn along the back of the garage was very over-grown, so we did some cutting back to give access for maintenance. It would need a lot more cutting, as it was also growing over the top of the garage roof.



While working down the back of the garage, we found a road sign, which is good. You never know when that might come in useful!!

 

I also discovered the old, partially rotten driveway gate. Now this got me thinking and a plan was forming. I could fix this and make use of it as a garden feature. More of that later in the story.



Down at the bottom of the garden, looking back towards the house. This really was a lot of garden compared to what we'd had before. If you look at the bare earth, former woodland area, from where I'm taking the picture to halfway along the garage; that was the whole size of our original house plot and garden. We now had about five times the original area to look after!

 

A tremendous (tree-mendous?) amount of work there! Great plot to work with if you have the energy and vision, as you do.

 

Great stuff again but, if you're going to be a gardener, you need to think about starting a compost heap or three instead of shipping out all your cuttings and prunings and hackings and rakings. It's invaluable stuff for improving soil texture and fertility. Wood chips make a great mulch too.

 

There's no space ( really ) or plan for a compost heap. Most of the large volume of material being removed was a one off job, to clear the garden and dispose of the woodland material. We've been working for three and a half years now, to reduce the amount of plant waste produced and to make the garden as low maintenance as possible. We're just about there now, but that's still a long way off in this story. Gardening is still more of a necessity rather than a passion, although I have enjoyed growing some stuff from seeds this year.

 

20th June 2021

Following the scarifying, the worst areas were raked again and then re-seeded. Due to this area being almost constantly in shade, it's going to be an ongoing battle to stop the moss and keep it grass.



There were other areas of the lawn that had moss on them, but along the Laurel hedge was the worst area.

 

21st June 2021

The following day, I was inspecting the wall beside the driveway. The wall was built around 1860, using lime mortar. A number of the bricks were crumbling ( spalling I think is the correct term ). The wall is about six feet high and the last section is leaning significantly.



In this view, you can see the lean, which is about 6 inches at the top. The reason is my neighbour's tree, which is growing right up against the wall at its base. I warned my daughter to keep away from it until I got around to a repair.

 

23rd June 2021

By late June, the flowers around the patio were in full bloom. This is the border area in front of the kitchen window.



We had some wooden barrels with flowers on the other patio in front of the workshop and the slated area in front of the sun room was also coming to life.



Amongst all the gardening, we'd also been decorating several rooms in the house including the guest room, office, utility room, washer/dryer room and we'd just started my daughter's bedroom at the beginning of June. That turned out to be a major strip of parts of the walls, pausing in the middle for an asbestos test and then a new ceiling fitted. It was then all re-plastered before the decorating could begin.

 

28th June 2021

After spreading the grass seed, the birds took the opportunity of a free lunch. To stop them and keep moisture on the seed, I ended up bubble-wrapping the lawn, held down with tent pegs. I had plenty of bubble-wrap left over from moving house.



The 28th marked a week and a day since seeding and by then, I had grass of about 1 inch in height.

 

2nd July 2021

Like the Laurel in the back garden, the hedge out the front was over-grown. There were a number of quite thick branches, beyond the ability of the hedge trimmer. We found some cheap loppers to get through the thicker branches and followed it up with the trimmer.



Much better!

 

25th August 2021

One hedge which I felt was not necessary, was the Laurel along the side of the garage. I was also concerned about what the roots could be doing to the single leaf wall. So I began chopping.



I'd taken about three feet off one end and had started on the other, but that's all that was completed that day. I don't recall why, probably rain.

 

7th September 2021

I finished removing the hedge on the 7th and then drilled the stumps and put some root killer inserts into them.



11th September 2021

Four days later, we were back to cutting yet more Laurel! This time, it was the hedge in front of my workshop. We wanted to give it a good chop back, but didn't want it bald over the winter.