Sue's garden

Heya,

Today I made a start in our back garden - I'd been wanting to for ages, but we've had really dodgy weather lately.

Shortly before my mother in law past away (5 days after I married Paul) back in August last year, me and my mum promised Sue we'd do the back garden up - she'd never got round to it and then was diagnosed with cancer in October 07, so things got pushed back.

Here's some pics of the garden before (Tilly, the dog, has the run of it at the moment, hence why the lawn is a bit patchy in areas...)









Today i cleared all the leaves up (filled 4 large potato sacks and 2 big black bags) - the area looks bigger already



.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to dig out all the weeds along the back fence and dig out the dead plants. I'd like to plant some new flowers, but in some big planters (which I'm yet to buy as i can't find any I like or are big enough...).

I'm off work all this week and I'm planning on being out in the garden every day, so will post photo's of tomorrow's progress in the evening sometime

Jen
-x-

 

Day 2:

Spent 3 and a half hours getting rid of of all the weeds by the tree, managed to save a load of bluebell plants aswell, so will pot them up tomorrow





The little robin came to see what I was doing - I think coz I was finding so many worms and little bugs - when I had finished (just before it started raining) I went inside and he was poking about on the new found soil for things to eat

My back was aching something awful after though!

Jen
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Hi Jen,
I share your backache! (Spent yesterday digging up turf and stones from new garden)
You've got a lovely space to work with - great to have all that fencing to grow climbers up. You could make a lovely bed of spring flowering plants and bulbs under the tree.
Maybe you and Paul could make some wooden planters, the size you want?
Robins are great company in the garden and good pest-eaters too.
Keep up the good work. I would say mind your back, but probably won't even take my own advice!
Sylvia

 

Day 3:

Couldn't do much outside this morning as our gardener came round to do both the front and back lawns (and made a very nice job of it :D) but this afternoon I set about clearing the small area by the shed and garage (I very kindly volunteered Paul to dig up the dead plant there and the one in the far corner late last night) and this is how the garden looks now:









That last pic was the back-breaker - I'm not what you would describe as being 'strong' (I'm only little), and I turned over the whole of the outside, as you can see, on my own in about 2-3 hours - jeeez, it was tiring!!!

Just the lumps on the lawn to sort tomorrow with the weeds in, and I think thats all the prep work I can do - i have run out of money, and the credit card is maxxed out (blame mine and Paul's car insurances and everything coming at once for that), so I can't go out and buy a bench, some gravel, wood for the planters, plants and whatever else I need.

The robin came to help as I was doing the digging by the back fence, he landed on the fence not far from me and jumped down and was searching for bugs (found another loads of worms for him).

Tilly, my dog, I think is a tad confused as to why i'm digging up her garden, so I don't think she'll be a happy bunny when we fence off part of the garden for her :hehe:

Jen
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Hi Jen,

it is always hardest in the first year of setting about a garden, but you have been working hard and it will show and repay your efforts.


I found gardening to be the gamechanger in my life after my Mum died, until that point there really didn't seem to be any point, but slowly it had "fixed" me.

 

Day 4:

Got to work at taking all the weeds out the clumps of soil I dumped on the lawn yesterday (should have found some tarpaulin from somewhere as now, the poor lawn has excess soil on the top and it isn't half difficult to rake it all off...)

Silly me, i thought today's job would be the quickest, but it took me a good 3-4 hours to sort the weeds out and everything. I had the little robin back to help me, and the female blackbird visited once or twice, and after I'd finished, another robin appeared and so did a small bluetit, which were nice to see

I've decided I'd like a birdtable for them, but is it cruel to get one with also having a dog?







Just the weeds to sweep up off the raised patio and finish off raking the soil into the beds and sort out the last few weeds from the far fence section tomorrow - hopefully it won't take long as I need to clean the house before my father in law returns from his holidays (he has no idea what I've got planned for the garden).

Jen
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Jen, you both are doing a brilliant job, rather than using a rake to shift the soil from the lawn, use a stiff broom.:thumb:

 

Hi David,

Thanks for that advice, will have to try my broom tomorrow,but I don't know if the bristles are hard enough, but will give it a go

Jen
-x-

 

Looking good. And no it's not unfair to have a bird table with a dog it means less cats to eat the birds lol. I have 2 dogs and a bird table and they sit there and watch the birds. My staffy also likes to come and help me put the food out for them just in case I drop anything nice lol

 

Day 5:

Was in the garden just after 9am, as the sun was shining and I couldn't stay in bed any longer. I spent 2 hours out there just finishing off the prep work, and had a go at sweeping the lawn, it did and didn't work, but I was pleased at the outcome:



Day 6:

My sister and her boyfriend Dan (our Best Man when we got married as he's Paul's best friend) are up here for the weekend, so to be honest I wasn't expecting much to be done out in the garden. The 3 of us (Paul stayed in bed...) went shopping into St Helens, not intending to buy any/much gardening stuff. Anyway, we end up in Wilkinsons, their one has a large garden section, and after about an hour in there, we ended up spending just under £70... :hehe:

On the way home we stopped off at our local Focus DIY shop and brought 2 bags of gravel (which for £1.60 a bag, I didn't think was too bad) - my poor car's suspension didn't know what had hit it and we got to work on the garden as soon as we got back.

After a good few hours, and a very disgruntled Tilly, this is the outcome:





In Wilkinson's, there plant pots are on sale so we got some larger ones and have sunk them into the ground and we've mixed compost in with some of the garden soil to give it some goodness back:





I raked the lawn thoroughly and Paul and Dan fed and reseeded it, so hopefully in a few weeks, the lawn will be nice



We're all off out today for on of our WW2 re-enacting events, and am taking Tilly with us, so not much will get done today...

The little robin came to see what we were doing yesterday and has already tried the archway out for size

Jen
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Excellent job...Very well done :cl-p:
Isn't it exciting,once the hard work is complete,planning your planting and then Shopping for them!:yho:



Any chance of pictures and more info on your WW11 re-enactment?...Please!

 

Day 7:

Didn't do much in the garden as we had to drop Cat & Dan at the train station for 11.30 and then we went straight to our local retail park where we did some shopping in Tesco. I wanted some more bags of gravel, so we nipped into Focus and picked up 4 (well, Paul picked them up and pulled the tendons in his wrists doing so) and I picked up 2 pink Azalea's - they were £7.99 each, but on offer for buy one get one free, but when the lady scanned them, they came up as 49p each and still buy one get one free, so I got 2 Azalea's for 25p each :thmb:



Also went into 'In Store' and I found a wishing well planter (been wanting one for ages but didn't like the one in Argos) and picked this one up for £14.99. We also picked up a larger more sturdy piece of extendable trellis for in the archway so Tilly can't get through.





I wrapped some twine around 2 sections on my archway, so when the Clematis gets that far, they've got something to attach themselves to - I didn't do much else :o

Day 8:

Back in work today, but had nothing to do so spent the day drawing plans for the garden (I was so bored I even coloured it in with wax crayons...) and I made lists of possible ideas and what I need to find out. When I got home, it was still nice and bright outside, so checked on my bulbs I planted weeks ago (I'd almost even up hope as they've been planted for about 3-4 weeks and nothing was happening, even though they are nice and safe in my mini greenhouse), I checked and watered them and I have 3 small shoots appeared, which I was so happy about :yho:

I planted/sowed the rest of the bulbs/seeds I had - the remaining 4 Gladioli bulbs, some freesias, forget me nots and 2 more which have escaped my mind...

Paul watered the lawn and the rest of my plants I'm yet to plant up - I need to nip into a cheap shop and buy a hanging basket liner to put in the bottom of my wishing well planter as there is inch gaps between the slats in the bottom, which my gravel just falls through, so I need to buy that and then I can plant that up

Will try and get out there again tomorrow to do a bit more, but I need to go back to Tesco's and Paul wants us to bake some more fairy cakes... :hehe:

Jen
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PS - for photo's from our WW2 re-enacting events, click here:

http://s114.photobucket.com/albums/n257/gerty-at-number-30/events/

 

Hi Jen, What a great job your doing with your garden,:thumb: Its a bit scarey when you first start but plants are tougher than you think A tip on your wishingwell, line the whole planting area with a black bin bag because the compost/water will come out the gaps, dont forget to put holes in for drainage tho and away you go and just one more thing (hope you dont mind) your fencing would look great painted with a wood treatment, B&Qs own make is really cheap and does'e the job, Dark Brown would look good... Dee..

 

What a lovely albumn:gnthb: You certainly have a brilliant hobby.

 

It's looking really fab you're doing a great job keep it up and certainly keep the pictures coming