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New garden
Lou12
Posts: 1,149
It's taken a few years to dig up three massive rockeries, get rid of sheds and clear the mass of ivy, bindweed and 20 years worth of neglect that the last owners left behind but I've finally got the garden tidied up and I'm now waiting for new plants to mature and live with it a bit to see if flowers beds needs widening, changing shape etc. My husband made me a lovely insulated summerhouse 12x12 feet with a woodburner which he lined and painted on a very small budget. It has a stencilled golden stars ceiling. here are some before and after pics.
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The garden is in the shade for most of the day, about 70-80% but I have managed to find plants that do really well even if they are not specifically shade plants.
Very nice and 10/10 for effort! Is that a fox in the first image? It doesn't look well to me!
I was hoping to see an image of the "stencilled golden stars ceiling"!
How is the grass doing with all of that shade?
Yes I kept all the snowdrops they are now under the lawn which I reseeded. Poor old mange ridden fox was taken away bu local wildlife charity but sadly had to be put down as he was too old and ill to fix
I planted two pyracantha against the fence on the right, I am training them up the fence, I've planted loads of clematis and also winter flowering jasmine which should cover the fence in a couple of years.
A mulberry is frowing in a pot ready to go in when the bay root is dug out.
Bed on the left is very shady, I have put in aquilegia, lots of geraniums, euphorbia, monkshood and tiarella but they are all quite small at the moment.
Two very large camellias are going in on the left and will be trained up and along the fence for height and to break up the expanse of wood.
Decking all around the summer house and there will be a large area of decking outside the back door with a hot tub up there too (inflatable hot tub).
No pond but I leave buckets of water out for wildlife, I may have a circular bed in the middle but maybe not as we often have friends over with tents or a gazebo in summer.
There will be rose poles, a big rose arch and maybe a pergola but it all costs so we'll do over a couple of years.
Thanks Paul, yes enormous shame about the fox but I'm glad he isn't suffering any more.
The grass is a bit iffy at the end on the left near the summer house - it's ok if a bit of a diva everywhere else so I thought I would remove the grass in that area and create a nice curved bed stumpery with ferns.
Ferns aren't cheap though but Longacres shade nursery online often has really good special offers.
Heres a pic of the summer house:
We often sleep out there when it's really hot and it's lovely looking at the ceiling in the moonlight, the moons rays light up the stars.
Sorry about the fox, but I love the ceiling artwork - it reminds me of the Star Chamber room ceiling at Bolsover Castle in Derbyshire.
Funnily enough we got the idea for the stars and the colour from a lovely old church in Beverley in Yorkshire.