It's a Sunday morning and I was just looking at old photographs on my computer hard-drive and came across many photos showing how my little garden has progressed over the years since I moved in, in October 2009. It's interesting to look back and see how things have progressed. I've shown them in reverse order.
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| 2017 |
Above, 2017. A new double-glazed, cedar-clad garden room has been erected and a well-built mini-shed has replaced the old shed which looked as if it was about to keel over!
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| 2017, May 29 |
Above 2017, the old fence (which had started to rot and blow down) replaced with concrete posts, gravel boards, and fencing panels that slotted in and allowed the passage of air and light.
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| 2015 |
Above, 2015 - panoramic view of garden
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| 2014 |
Above, 2014, panoramic view of garden
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| 2012 |
Above, 2012, taken from the hammock/swing.
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| 2012, north facing border, doing well. |
Above, 2012 taken from bungalow.
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| 2012, widening the borders |
Above, 2012. Unhappy with the limited space within the south-facing border (left as you look at the garden from the bungalow) which gets most of the garden's sunlight, it has been widened and curved to facilitate more plants. The soil was heavy with clay and there was a lot of sandstone (I think a drystone wall must have been levelled at one point in the past and soil spread over it) but spent compost from containers, baskets, etc which contained healthy plants, has been incorporated so it's quite rich now.
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| 2011 - July |
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| 2011 - May |
Above, May 2011. A wider border has been dug out next to the top patio area, the hammock/swing and the mini-greenhouse have been moved around. I found it far too hot sitting on the swing when the sun was out and moving the greenhouse and swing means that I have far more room on the patio for growing things.
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| July 2010 |
Above, July 2010. What a difference a couple of months can make. The garden now looks more like a garden with roses flowering in the borders. I bought a mini-greenhouse which is next to the shed, and comes in very useful for overwintering the more tender herbs and for storing pots over winter. I invested in the hammock/swing which I love so much. You can see potatoes growing in bags and a tomato plant lapping up the sun in its pot, placed on the lawn. Stepping stones have been inserted into the lawn to spare it from wear and tear.
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| 2010, May |
Above, May 2010. The borders, left and right, have been widened and the roses, that I so love, and other climbers planted. The lavender didn't survive the harsh winter. The grass now looks like a lawn and Alfie, my Ragdoll cat who is 11 months old in the photo, is patrolling his territory.
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| 2010, April |
Above, April 2010. A nice spot for my marble table and chairs. I had to move them down to the patio next to the bungalow because the neighbouring trees were shedding onto the table and causing problems. Still, a lot of work to be done. Solar lights can be seen at ground level at the base of the fence in narrow borders. The original grass is reviving but still poor. It was soon to be covered with a fine layer of topsoil, reseeded and nurtured.
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| 2010, February |
Above, February 2010. Old narrow and mossy path along the bungalow wall removed and a broad patio area put down which has been very worthwhile. At the top of the garden, the shed has been moved onto a new base, opening up the garden and allowing more sunlight into that top left corner. The old base has been extended into a patio area for table and chairs. But the grass has suffered terribly with builders' feet. The clothes pole had to go. Useful as it might have been, it was in the way. I could have used it to hang baskets from, or grow a climber up, if it hadn't been stuck in such an awkward place.
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| 2010, January |
Above, January 2010. Neighbouring shrubs have been cut back and the boundary fenced. It's looking very stark but tidy and clean. The shed looks to be in the wrong place now the fence has gone up and the shrubs hacked back. It is cutting off sunlight to the left of it in the photograph and it seems like a waste of space. The white plastic bags are filled with loamy compost as neighbours or occupiers of the property must have been dumping garden waste into the corner of the garden for years. When the builders came to erect the fence, they had to dig out what they thought was just earth, piled up in the top left corner. But I recognised it for what it was and had them bag it all up. It went onto my borders in time.
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| 2009, December |
Above, December 2009. Two months after moving in and a new shed has been erected on a concrete base. Neighbouring shrubs (left) have encroached by several feet and will need to be cut back. The other neighbour's shed is shown on the right. There is no fencing at all on the boundaries, no privacy, nothing against which to plant climbers, and that clothes-line pole will have to go.
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