My Garden

Pass the cursor over the images to see the back garden before and after.

The garden facing south The garden facing north

My Garden is a bit of a challenge. The soil is a very heavy, alkaline clay which turns into concrete in the summer and porridge in the winter. It also has a slug population of frightening proportions. I don't like killing animals so I used to collect them by their hundreds into buckets and drive to an area of waste ground and release them. Then I began to suspect they were homing slugs and were getting back before I got home in the car. However, I then become brutal and had 3 beer traps round the runner beans which meant that I actually had a successful crop. (Well getting drunk and drowning in beer can't be THAT bad.). I have now given up and only grow plants which are resistant to slugs. Simon cut out the lawn and built the water feature for me (the urn on its side)

Spring 2006

 

The garden is taking shape, but I'm not happy with the water feature or the Photinia which is growing into a tree at the end of the garden. The fences are a bit bare too. The Primulas and Kerria are looking very pretty though. I've removed the Leylandii at the back.

Summer 2007

I feel that the back garden is more or less finished. I've put a scree garden round the water feature which is now a pump rather than the urn on its side which I wasn't happy with. (All that stuff on the patio below is woodchip which the tree fellers left for me to use as mulch. I'm trying to dry it between downpours).

Birds I've seen in my back garden

Wood pigeon, collared dove, blue tit, great tit, coal tit, green finch, starling, carrion crow, robin, jay, magpie, black cap, dunnock, blackbird, chaffinch, redwing, wren, long tailed tit, siskin, greater spotted woodpecker, pied wagtail, fieldfare, goldfinch, jackdaw, thrush.

Animals I've seen in my garden include a mouse, a hedgehog and next door's dog.

The Front Garden 2007

My next project is my front garden. It's North facing, but is open plan so it receives a lot of light. My side of the lawn is continuous with my neighbour's. It had a silver birch tree at the end which was as tall as my house and I hated it as it ran its roots just below the surface of the lawn, preventing me from planting. I've had it removed and the stump ground down, so I now have a blank canvas. I'll be posting updates as I go.

It has taken me so long to get round to the front garden because the back always took up so much time. Especially in the spring because the borders would grass over and it would take me nearly all summer to remove the weeds. Then last year, I decided to mulch and am kicking myself for not doing it in the past. I got the garden into a reasonable state in one weekend!

The saga of the front garden is being maintained on the Gardener's Corner Forum.

Click HERE for the exciting installments.
 
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