Rental Garden in London Town

Good morning Everyone,

I thought I should share pictures of my new garden. What it looks like and where it is heading.

We moved into this rental flat 9 months ago. To our great joy it had a garden.
We had to fight to get the key which had been lost and then bring the garden into a useable state.

We asked for permission and were told that as long as we didn't worsen the situation we could do as we liked.

The garden was overrun with weeds growing knee high. It really could t get any worse.
We ripped put the weed and double dug the soil. In it we found lots of building scrap and Smyth that appeared to be a metal torture chamber. With jagged pieces of metal, metal bars and chains, glass and a bare trap.

We brought in compost and topsoil because our soil is heavy clay that obviously hadn't been used in donkeys years.

We surrounded the garden with bamboo to give us some privacy from next door without being permanent.
Whilst ripping out the weed and digging up the soil, we realised that the front half and a chunk at the back were concerted over. The front half however had a concrete raised bed which wasn't visible to start off with.

I found some palettes and de used to use these to create a vegetable bed. The vegetable bed was the first one we created since I was keen to grow my own although my boyfriend doesn't eat any vegetables at all. I started sowing a couple of plants but being August it was a little to late in the season.

My boyfriend decided to plant tropical plants in the raised bed in the front. We learned our first lesson the hard wau. We never dug our cannas, banana tree, grass up and they died over the winter.

This year I have taken on the garden.
I have created a second bed opposite to the veg patch where I'm planning to grow flowers in pastel colours that are insect friendly. I'm trying to attract as much wildlife as possible.

Inspired by lavender and leeks I also dug a little pond. We have a lot of snails on our garden and I'm hoping to attract some snail eating frogs.

Along the back of this bed I'm hoping to grow climbers that will fill the air with a sweet scent. These include a climbing rose, an evergreen honeysuckle, a Jasmine, a passion flower and lots of sweet peas.

The rest of the bed will be planted with annuals to attract bees and butterflies. Although I used the gardeners world deals to order some perennials. I'm also planning a lavender hedge to the front of the border to keep the cats at bay.

There is a dead tree at the back of our garden, which we cannot remove, so I planted an evergreen clematis and am hoping it will scramble up the tree.
We are hoping to add a shed or glasshouse to the back at some point.
I would also like to have a go at composting or a wormery.

In the veg patch I use one of the palettes for cabbage. I'm planning to plant one Brusselsprout, some Savoy cabbage, some kale and some Swiss chard.
The main patch contains a rasberry cane, a redcurrant cane and a blackcuurant cane at the back.

I will grow some broad beans, borlotto beans, French dwarf beans and peas on the side. Which will partly be replaced with a climbing pumpkin, corvette and cucumber later in the year.

In the centre I'm growing potatoes with a catch crop of lettuce.

The front palette is growing strawberries, carrots, parsnips and Charlottes.

Finally on the front raised bed I'm planning to grow flamboyant jewel coloured flowers in lieu of the tropicals. Such as roses, dhaluas and more annuals.

 

Wow, love your commitment and enthusiasm MissA. All your hard work is paying off and now that the weather's warming up, your plantings will come on in leaps and bounds,
to Gardeners Corner,
Jenny namaste

 

Good work @MissAgapanthus I look forward to seeing how you develop it further

 

Thank you everyone. Thank you for the encouragement.
I believe I might be a little overzealous and have a lot planned. It also seems I want to grow every plant in this universe. But surely that's to be expected from a newbie gardener? I'm sure I'll soon figure out what works for me and what doesn't.
I can't wait for summer and to sit in the garde. I'm sure I will learn a lot along the way. Especially now that I've joined gardeners corner.
And o shall keep posting updates.
Here is to a good year.

 

Well done @Miss Agapanthus, you have obviously worked extremely hard on your project. Your garden is looking great.

 

Well done Miss A, you are doing a cracking job there. You will learn loads over time and change your mind about what you want, it's all part of the fun! We love photos here so keep them coming please :-)

 

My seedling factory. Just spent the evening potting them on

 

All looking lovely and full of promise,
Jenny

 

Thank you

 

Very nice Agapanthus. Love these kinds of stories, especially as they develop. You've clearly done a lot already, but keep those pics coming in. Can't wait to see the outcome

 

See gardening makes people happy - just too much gardening (past 40ish) makes the knees less happy, but that's where a glass of wine in the evening in the garden makes it all go away!