Non-Gardener Buys House on Half Acre Plot - Hello!

Hello.

Thank you for accepting my join request. As you can see from the thread title, gardening wasn't my thing. I lived in Washington in the North East of England, for twenty one years, in a new build house with a 33 x 33ft, three tiered back garden. It was heavy clay soil, always wet and so we put plastic grass down with gravel borders and a few planters. The only real gardening to do was mowing the 26 x 12ft front lawn.

In the middle of Covid, my wife decided she wanted a new kitchen. Within a couple of weeks, we'd gone from wanting a new kitchen to wanting a new house! This is where it got complicated. We wanted at least one guest room, a room for my wife's office, a room for my workshop, driveway parking for two cars plus a large trailer for my R/C aircraft, a large garage for my military vehicle fleet and a south facing garden with a low horizon and a dark sky, so I could build a new observatory - and all on a limited budget.

Almost by accident, within a couple of weeks, we stumbled upon a 1960s bungalow that ticked all the boxes - except budget, but you can't have everything! We got a viewing during the November 2020 lockdown and placed an offer the same day. It was accepted the following day. My daughter only ever saw pictures until a month later.

The only downside to all our requirements, was that it came on a half acre plot. We were going to become gardeners whether we liked it or not! We moved in February 2021, at a time when you still couldn't have visitors indoors, due to the ongoing covid restrictions. Thus began our gardening, and landscaping, and tree felling, and wall building, and path laying, and observatory building, and railway building journey!

A view down the garden shortly after we moved in...


I love story telling, so I'll be starting a thread showing the journey we've been on, which is still ongoing. Along the way, we may even come asking for advice.

OK, I think I've introduced enough for now; must go and check on the seedlings!

Steve

 

Welcome to GC Steve. That's a wonderful story and one which many of us here will love to follow as time goes on.

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner, I hope you're enjoying your new garden, Good luck with it, I shall look out for your thread

 

I'm looking forward to it too. Welcome @ArmyAirForce

 

Thanks for the welcome everyone. I've just started a new thread to show the progress, which is ongoing with no signs of slowing, three and a half years later.

Here's the thread.....
Non-Gardener builds an Observatory, Garden Railway and even Dabbles with Plants!