We gained our extra chunk of garden in September 2017 it was a totally abandoned space roughly 3/4acre large veg bed with huge piles of rotting grass clippings, a hedge that had been allowed to grow 3mts in from the boundary, 50 ton of rubble in 1 area, a building that was collapsing and a fence that allowed cattle grazing behind to enter the garden.our 1st bed planted Pergolas being added veiw down the garden Our 1st year seeing 2000 bulbs we planted emerging, the area between the gate and the blue building is now our pond We removed the collapsing building and built this structure Which now is home to our dinning area This is a view from 2018 and from now Our tropical area The 1st beds 3 years on A view from the footpath behind. The boundary hedge on the right side was as deep as the beds we introduced. We were absolute beginners when we started and have learned to grow our own plants by seed, divisions, cuttings etc and produced thousands of plants to fill the space.
Thankyou @DrewMcG for that award😊. I have estate agent pictures with the Leylandii and whole of the decking still up (just) covering a multitude of sins.
The whole truth is an instrument that can only be played by an expert.
Not as impressive as the others on this thread but I've managed to excavate paths and do some planting The before is well documented somewhere on one of the GoS threads😉
Some lovely work people, Lizzy and Wilderbeast some terrific additions to the thread. I have been in a makeover process for nearly 40 years and still do not have a finished photograph. I blame the two cats! Keep up the good work everyone. http://catsandapenninegarden.blogspot.com/
Thank you PenninePj, mine is definately a work in progress too as we seem to make changes every year! We're extending the patio, relocating the steps and adding a pergola in late summer hopefully.
Pretty standard new build garden, had a load of extra clay dumped on it for no real reason boggy, flooded when it rained, zero top soil under the turf!
During:
Put it a gravel ditch to give the water somewhere to go, has working brilliantly so far.
After (first is a couple of years ago, the others are recent):
Sorry it's a bit messy!!
We removed an entire skip of clay (and one newt) kept the height the same along the left and back as our neighbours garden is higher and we didn't want the cost of putting a proper retaining wall in, which is why the flower bed is where it is!
Since the during photo we've extended the patio, I added in a lawn circle (need to fix the slightly flat circle!) there's a raised bed opposite the shed which currently has squash, courgettes, and climbing beans in it. Soon I will have a tree in a pot at the back, and trellis added to the fence, and the climbers you see in the last photo will be trained along the trellis! Pot saucer in pond courtesy of yesterdays gusts!
There's not much in the way of borders I know, I grow as much veg, fruit, tomatoes and chillis as I can in the back, I have a patch roughly half the size of the back garden on the side of the house and that is one big perennial bed, so the majority of my flowers are out there. Still I'm happy with the border I do have, I have kept the clay in all my borders and just mixed in plenty of compost, the soil is lovely now.
So, I've been wanting to post in this thread for a while but was waiting for the latest incarnation of the garden to be finished first 😆
I didn't take any before pictures of the garden when I first started on it so the best I can do is a photo lifted from Right Move.
At the time, I had a Jack Russell and wanted something he could enjoy so turfed it and put in a few ill planned beds and ill planned plants. Those poor phormiums at the back right under the ash tree 😆
Decided that the quirky beds were a nuisance to mow and that I'd be much better off working with the light I had, rather than what I wish I had! Alas, the lawn was just a mess and this being my first garden, I didn't really know what to do to fix it.
I kept it like that for a number of years (although the ash tree had to come down due to heart rot) but when the heatwave of 2018 killed off most of the lawn, I decided it was time for another makeover. I started it last year and finally finished it (for now) this week!
I wish I could say I was happy with it but it needs so much more work. The problem is that when I started it last year, I didn't really have an idea of what theme I wanted. I put in plants that I liked that went with the colour scheme I wanted. Binge watching Love Your Garden and Garden Rescue put ideas in my head and decided I wanted a woodland courtyard style. What I've ended up with is something akin to Felixstowe beach 😆 So, there's much more to be done with rearranging what I have and adding more planting but that's going to have to wait until spring. I am done for this year!
@februarysgirl. Well done! I remember you saying you would have liked curved paths, always hard to marry up with angular raised beds so with the gravel down now it looks lovely. You are probably right there is too much gravel area in the corners but pots and something spreading planted there will soften those areas.
Posts
Pergolas being added
Our 1st year seeing 2000 bulbs we planted emerging, the area between the gate and the blue building is now our pond
We removed the collapsing building and built this structure
Which now is home to our dinning area
This is a view from 2018
and from now
Our tropical area
The 1st beds 3 years on
A view from the footpath behind. The boundary hedge on the right side was as deep as the beds we introduced. We were absolute beginners when we started and have learned to grow our own plants by seed, divisions, cuttings etc and produced thousands of plants to fill the space.
and this is the garden this year
The before is well documented somewhere on one of the GoS threads😉
http://catsandapenninegarden.blogspot.com/
Pretty standard new build garden, had a load of extra clay dumped on it for no real reason boggy, flooded when it rained, zero top soil under the turf!
During:
Put it a gravel ditch to give the water somewhere to go, has working brilliantly so far.
After (first is a couple of years ago, the others are recent):
Sorry it's a bit messy!!
We removed an entire skip of clay (and one newt) kept the height the same along the left and back as our neighbours garden is higher and we didn't want the cost of putting a proper retaining wall in, which is why the flower bed is where it is!
Since the during photo we've extended the patio, I added in a lawn circle (need to fix the slightly flat circle!) there's a raised bed opposite the shed which currently has squash, courgettes, and climbing beans in it. Soon I will have a tree in a pot at the back, and trellis added to the fence, and the climbers you see in the last photo will be trained along the trellis! Pot saucer in pond courtesy of yesterdays gusts!
There's not much in the way of borders I know, I grow as much veg, fruit, tomatoes and chillis as I can in the back, I have a patch roughly half the size of the back garden on the side of the house and that is one big perennial bed, so the majority of my flowers are out there. Still I'm happy with the border I do have, I have kept the clay in all my borders and just mixed in plenty of compost, the soil is lovely now.
I didn't take any before pictures of the garden when I first started on it so the best I can do is a photo lifted from Right Move.
At the time, I had a Jack Russell and wanted something he could enjoy so turfed it and put in a few ill planned beds and ill planned plants. Those poor phormiums at the back right under the ash tree 😆
Decided that the quirky beds were a nuisance to mow and that I'd be much better off working with the light I had, rather than what I wish I had! Alas, the lawn was just a mess and this being my first garden, I didn't really know what to do to fix it.
I kept it like that for a number of years (although the ash tree had to come down due to heart rot) but when the heatwave of 2018 killed off most of the lawn, I decided it was time for another makeover. I started it last year and finally finished it (for now) this week!
I wish I could say I was happy with it but it needs so much more work. The problem is that when I started it last year, I didn't really have an idea of what theme I wanted. I put in plants that I liked that went with the colour scheme I wanted. Binge watching Love Your Garden and Garden Rescue put ideas in my head and decided I wanted a woodland courtyard style. What I've ended up with is something akin to Felixstowe beach 😆 So, there's much more to be done with rearranging what I have and adding more planting but that's going to have to wait until spring. I am done for this year!
We’ve still got ours: