My goodness - everyone has worked so hard! Mine seems so tiny in comparaison !! @BenCotto@pitter-patter@Valley Gardener What a wonderful transformation. I know it takes years - but how long did it take you. Amazing!!! I love to see the difference. How satisfied you must be. Tui
Thank you @edhelka, you’re very kind. For a while the ‘before’ garden was very nice, the highlight being a 30 yard long, 3 yard deep herbaceous bed. But then work and caring for my wife through multiple bouts of cancer meant the garden was neglected and the beds were soon riddled with ground elder.
On retirement we decided it needed a thorough overhaul, a challenge way beyond my capabilities though I did have quite a lot of input into the landscaper’s designs and was mostly responsible for the planting schemes.
Much more hard landscaping and a quite extensive lawn means it is now much easier to manage. Once a garden is reasonably orderly it is not so hard to keep it that way.
I've not got an impressive garden but have done what I can without being able to do any landscaping. It was really bare to begin with then I painted the old shed and planted some things. The shed had to go as it was about to fall down...next year hopefully I can get some nice garden furniture!
@WillDB I also have a long narrow garden and have been going back and forth on what colour to paint the wall/fence. After seeing your garden it looks like the black actually makes your garden look wider.
@WillDB I also have a long narrow garden and have been going back and forth on what colour to paint the wall/fence. After seeing your garden it looks like the black actually makes your garden look wider.
It certainly improves on the royal blue!
"What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour".
Pic on viewing the house before buying July 2012. Very low maintenance. But - oh no. Spacious and easy? Pfft! Let's pull all that out and put in difficult, temperamental stuff that needs lots of attention and endless bloody watering. 😖
July 2019
There's no structural change apart from adding an arch. I covered the gravel in woodchip (instead of taking the gravel up) and this has worked very well. The chip is full of worms and other life. The light coloured gravel made it feel too much like a car park.
You'll notice the tiny size of the golden privet on the left in 2012. 😆 Now I leave it to grow its hair out until it has flowered (for the bees) and then give it a long 4 all over.
Both fences on either side came down last spring, so it's feeling a bit more bare since the last pics, with new boards. And about 15 new roses have gone in. I have swapped ivy for roses. I am missing the high wall of green. I have also learnt this year that you need to water plants. Really water them. Properly. So my garden is finally paying attention.
Posts
@BenCotto @pitter-patter @Valley Gardener What a wonderful transformation. I know it takes years - but how long did it take you. Amazing!!! I love to see the difference. How satisfied you must be. Tui
On retirement we decided it needed a thorough overhaul, a challenge way beyond my capabilities though I did have quite a lot of input into the landscaper’s designs and was mostly responsible for the planting schemes.
Much more hard landscaping and a quite extensive lawn means it is now much easier to manage. Once a garden is reasonably orderly it is not so hard to keep it that way.
It was really bare to begin with then I painted the old shed and planted some things.
The shed had to go as it was about to fall down...next year hopefully I can get some nice garden furniture!