GBBD March 2014

Lupins starting to flower early.  This time last year these Lupins were just seeds in a pack. Now they are thriving!

Holiday post

Its been a while simce my last post. Life has been hectic recently, with a very busy time at work and the handful which are the children.

It is currently early in the morning on our holiday.  The wife is having a well earned lie in, the twins are sat with me having their early morning milk and Jos is sleeping at his Nanna and Grandads...so I am sat relaxing before watching my gorgeous toddlers.

Well its that time of year when trees are turning res and bronze, leaves are falling and as we saw yesterday,  geese are getting ready to find a warmer climate.  We are currently on holiday in Northumberland,  a very much unspoilt and beautiful part of England.  Our base up here is surrounded by trees and bushes all putting on a glorious autumn display.  At some point over our final days up here, we will be visiting Holy Island, an island not far from the coast but which for hours of the day is connected to the mainland by a Causeway as the tide goes out.  We will also be visiting Alnwick Castle and gardens.   We did visit in April,  so will be interesting to see how the gardens have changed in the space of half a year.  The nature and attractions of my native land have much to offer.

Yesterday we visited Ford and Etal and enjoyed a ride on the small gauge railway.  It was heartwarming to see my young sons face as he saw the 'choo choo'.

On the gardening front back at home, recent weeks have seen the  coldframe completed and now housing small tender plants, ghe judas tree is now planted and seeds have been collected from several plants ready for next year.  In the vegetable plot we are still harvesting potatoes and will have more in the coming weeks.  Beetroot and brassicas are all growing strongly.   And finally, in the greenhouses, tomatoes,  cucumbers and peppers are all still growing and giving fruit.   The autumn maybe here but the garden isn't quite finished yet!!       

Trimming the conifer hedge

The conifer hedge in the back garden is still looking at me. Half trimmed before it claimed its victim in the shape of me falling off the ladder.  It needs doing.

Discussions have been had between me and the wife and a plan has been formulated. I shall trim the sides as I was doing, but the height, of which there is approximately 12 feet of it, needs to be tackled.  For this, we are going to invest in the one off use of a 'tree surgeon'.

Currently the hedge is approximately 20 foot long, 10 foot high and 4-5 foot wide, with an archway cut in the middle.

We are going to get a couple of feet cut off the top, probably to bring it to the level of the top of the current arch.  We will then possible train it for a new arch afterwards.

Trimming it to this sort of height, will mean in the future I will be able to manage it much easier, as currently, I don't have ladders tall enough and only have a basic hedge trimmer.  It will also let a bit more light over into the vegetable patch and garden, without losing the wind break it gives us.

So, at some point in the next few days, I need to think about trimming the sides and getting a quote for a price for taking the top off.  It'll will ultimately depend on the quote, as we are not in the position of being able to pay too much.  It maybe, if not, that the top is left to grow a little longer.

Lets see what happens.

Great Bloggers Bloom Day

Ok, so I'm a day late.   Seen this about before but only just realised what it is, so here's my effort for Septembers GBBD!!

I've just had a walk around our garden to see what I can find, and sadly because we're still at an early stage with our garden, theres not much to see this year.What we do have is:

Fuchsias

 

Sweet Peas still flowering, although we have left them to go to seed now, so that we can collect for next year

Hydrangeas

 

And a couple of terracotta pots with Dianthus and Cineraria

 

Hopefully next year I'll be able to show off more plants.

Miserable Sunday Weather

The weather outside is looking very autumnal.  Its grey, its cold, its rainy and its miserable.

I'm still getting over last weeks accident and so have not done a great deal in the past week.  The stitches are out tomorrow and I think I will be off work a couple more days until its at a more manageable stage, though I am feeling a lot better than earlier in the week.

Due to these circumstances and a family bereavement, progress in the garden has almost come to a standstill.  This week, the usual daily routine with the chickens has continued and a couple of vegetable plants have been put in to fill a few gaps, but even after that easy work, I have needed a rest.

In the garden we now have lots of potato plants at various stages of growth, carrots coming through nicely, broccoli and cauliflower plants starting to establish, beetroot plants looking very healthy and sprouts still struggling on.

The sweet potatoes have been dug up, as they haven't really done anything this year.  More reading up on their care is needed for next year, before I try again.  The fennel took a beating with a particularly heavy downpour a few days ago.  Whether they will recover on not, I don't know yet, I do know they can be very temperamental though.  The courgettes seem to be slowing down in they final few weeks, although we have still got a few this week.

The tomatoes in the greenhouse are slowly turning red and what we thought was the final cucumber, is ready for picking, although I did spot yesterday a very small one poking out.  We shall see.
The peppers are still looking good and shouldn't be too much longer.

As outside has been mostly off limits to me, I have been doing some reading up on what I have grown, for tips on why they may not have performed, or if I could increase the crop next year.  Notes have been made and I will refer to these next year.

Sadly, its getting to that time of the year when these sort of miserable days will become the norm.  There are however still things that can be done.

I do also still have a cold frame to build, which looks like it will soon be need for strawberries and fuchsias to live in over winter.

In the garden, time still moves on...

Simple Raised Beds

The wife wanted to have her own herb garden. The constraints were that it needed to be near the house and it because that would mean it would be in 'our' area, it had to look nice.

So, instead of just digging some turf up and planting some herbs, I decided to make her a raised bed herb garden.

It's really basic, just made out of decking boards secured to stakes in the corners and at intervals down the sides.  I did have the original idea of using railway sleepers as I think they look lovely, with the rustic, weathered effect but they are rather expensive.

So all I did was to dig out the measured area, knock in some stakes and then screw the decking boards to the stakes.  I have to say they do look good and are inexpensive.  I did end up putting a small raised area on the end, which this year has had lettuce leaves in.  Next year we may look at extending the other way as we are trying to create seperate areas in the garden.  This one being our 'adults' area.

There has been talk about also making the vegetable area into raised beds, though I haven't decided yet.  Any suggestions?

The other thing I built which was very similar, though not a raised bed, was a large planter.

In our back garden there is a large metal manhole cover on the edge of the grass. It's an eyesore, but we can't do much with it.  I decided to make a planter large enough to cover it.  This was made in a similar way to the raised beds and from the same materials.  Therefore it hasn't cost much to make plus it blends on well.

Raised beds can work really well, though you do need to keep an eye on watering a bit more.  They do how ever look very attractive and provide focal points in the garden.

Thrifty gardener

This post is going to be about what I've done in our garden so far on the cheap.  Things that haven't cost much if anything.

A lot of things in the garden can't be done cheaply, but theres a lot of things that can if your willing to look and do a bit of work.

Plant wise, some of my best bargains have come from two main sources, although there have been others.  Shrubs have been gained for next to nothing from a local DIY superstore.  There is a reduced section for plants that maybe looking a bit sad, are at the end of their flowering period or have maybe got a bit pot bound.  From these sales we have got a few conifers for about £2 each, an Azalea for a couple of pounds, an Euomymus for £3 a hellebore which was just finishing flowering for £1 and a Rhododendron for £3.  All these were good size but needed a bit of care, so I stood them in a bucket of water for a few days and gave them a good soaking, before planting them with some feed.

    The other two real bargains I got were when I used a birthday voucher.  I found a trimmed Bay tree and an Olive tree.  Both trees were rot bound and looking sad.  After asking the cashier for a discount we ended up getting £50 worth of trees for less than £20.  These two trees are now planted, one in the garden and one in a nice, free, terracotta pot and are both looking really good.

It just shows, that with a little care and attention, a lot of plants can come back from the brink, and grow into strong, healthy specimens.

The other good offers we have taken advantage of for plants is from the Gardeners World magazine offers.  Once a month there is a good offer to get plants for free, just paying postage.  All these need are potting up and growing from very small plug plants.
   So far we have had, three clematis plants, forty eight geraniums, forty eight lavenders of different cultivars, forty eight Sweet Peas, which have grown well and provided endless flowers for the house as well as colour in the garden.  We have also got forty eight plants of Salvia, Echinacea, Delephinium and Pestemon which are currently in the greenhouse growing strongly.

We also have a Camellia that was going spare from a friends garden.  It looked like we were losing it at one point.  I think it was because it was getting the early morning dew and then strong sunlight, it leaves looked as though they were almost burning.  I ended up moving to the opposite side of the garden and cutting it right back to almost nothing.  It is now growing again with healthy looking leaves.

The other obvious source of virtually free plants is to grow from seed.  Seeds don't cost much to buy and if you collect them yourself from plants in your garden it can be more satisfying.  Lots of our plants and vegetables have been grown from seed.  I am now also trying to propagate plants by taking cuttings.  So far I haven't had much success, but I have got some Forsythia cuttings looking quite promising.  As mentioned in another post, I have also increased my strawberry plant supply, by planting runners from this years plants.

I would be interested to know if for cuttings, anyone has any thoughts on whether or not rooting powder/ gel is needed.  So far I have used any, but I have recently purchased some organic gel to try.

Well that's my thrifty ways as far as plants are concerned.

Other things that have been free or cheap are the pallets for our compost bins, which cost nothing as many of those came from work when they were being thrown out.  I also have some cut down conservatory roof panels waiting to be made into a cold frame.  These came from a friend who had replaced their old conservatory.

Some of the wood in the garden has come from my Mum's house when she had work done and some of the paving stones where salvaged from my Mother and Father-In-Law's.

Many tools in my shed came from either my Dad or Grandad.  Not many have been bought.  The odd one is also borrowed from my often pestered Father-In-Law.

In our household we are very thrifty.  In today's day and age, it pays to be.  Wages are low and bills are high, and the garden is one place that prices can be kept low with good results.

Well that's all for today, Harvest 2013 is just about to start :-)

Ps, liking the part on Harvest about the organic farmer.

Harvest 2013

Well its Wednesday night and I've just sat down to see whats on television.  BBC2 8pm...Harvest 2013. 

I didn't know anything about this programme, I've just stumbled across it, but I thought I'd take a look.  Tonight's episode, one of three, is 'Vegetables: The Goodness of the Earth'.

The title has got me interested straight away.  Its following different farms growing and harvesting veg on a huge scale.  How they do it, how they time growing and keep veg for the year.

But even for farmers, this can be a problem.  If the weather isn't right planting can go wrong.  The broccoli crop at the moment is an example.  All the plants had to go in at the same time, due to weather, and some ended up being wasted as they were all ready at the same time.  Another farmer, grew carrots in the summer, then covered them over with black plastic and straw to keep them ready to be harvested whenever they were needed.  This is something we can do in our gardens and allotments, on smaller basis, but using natures larder...the earth.  Although, of course, this won't work with all crops.

At the moment on the programme, there is basically a massive warehouse come green house growing tomatoes in the middle of winter.  It looks amazing, tomato plants as far as the eye can see.  One day hopefully I might be able to do a similar thing, growing summer veg and salads in winter, when I have my own heated greenhouse.  Thats a dream, at the moment though I make do with my small plastic ones.  Glass greenhouses are expensive and probably not a great idea with kids kicking footballs.

Watching a programme like this throws up so many thoughts, ideas and insights.  For example, one farm had to spray the entire potato crop as they were suffering from blight.  We at home may have the same thing to do, but on a much smaller scale.  But, will they be using an organic spray?  Probably not, which does make me proud of the vegetables I grow in my garden.  Admittedly, the veg and fruit grown by these farmers may look good and taste good, but can you beat the taste and feeling of eating food you have spent time rearing yourself, knowing exactly how it was grown.

Following the tomato greenhouse, there is what could be almost called a boutique farm.  Down scaling a large farm to concentrate on the quality of veg, most of which is sold to Michelin class restaurants.  In this section, one tip picked up was that for example, the turnips grown are sown much closer together so it restricts the growth size, meaning you can grow more crops and harvest much sooner.  For me in my garden, that might be an idea.  Balancing the need for plenty of food, but also tasty food.
    They are also doing a scientific test on whether coloured light makes a different of growth.  Seemingly it looks possible that some coloured light sources may give more root growth while other give more foliage growth.  Things like this are ideas to consider. 

I have to say one of the most important things to me when it comes to growing vegetables, is to grow organically.  No chemicals, just all natural ways.

I will be watching the next programme in this series.  Whether its how I grow or not, its still interesting.  No doubt, there are some tips I can pick up and change to work in my veggie plot.  Anything I can use to expand my knowledge and experience is always welcome.

Right, I think its time for me to say goodnight :-)

My veggie plot

The most important area in my garden is down at the bottom where I have my vegetable patch.  When we were looking to buy our first house, our first HOME, the garden was something very important for me to look at.  The garden we inherited with this house is ideal.  A blank canvas, but with an old neglected vegetable patch.

This first year was always going to be a trial year.  A year to see what I had to work with.  A year to learn about my garden and plan for the future.

The area that was already cleared as a veggie plot has been increased slightly but my plan eventually is to clear all the grass in that area apart from paths through.  Down there we also have the chickens and compost bins.

I started off by clearing the area of weeds and old leeks.  The ground was then dug over.  I started off putting a few seeds in wanting to see how things did, going for foods that we like.

Potatoes were an obvious choice. I started with two varieties, King Edward and Desiree.  Carrot seeds were sown in the form of early Nantes with some onions around the edges as I am a great believer in companion growing as a natural and organic way of pest control.

Next to the carrots I sowed some radish seeds for a quick crop.  The next seeds were something I have never grown before and don't know much about, Kohlrabi.  This is a member of the cabbage family.

Round the back of these I had some areas with turnips and sprouts.

The radish came up quickly as expected and were the first harvested crop of the year.  

These grew very well but we did find that the slugs really enjoyed them too.  The potatoes although sown over a few weeks, all ended up being ready almost together as the weather got better and the last lot came on quicker and caught the first lot up.

The carrots did well and we got a few turnips too. The kohlrabi were very disappointing and we never got to try any, although I am going to have another try at growing them.  The sprouts are still in and are growing, but also seem to have been attracting some interest from some sort of pests.

We have a couple of the small green greenhouses made out of plastic and polyethylene.  In these, seeds of cucumber and courgettes were sown in trays and potted on as and when they were ready.  We also purchased some tomato, pepper and strawberry plants.

The courgettes were eventually planted out down at the bottom the garden.  They attracted slugs in a big way and I seemed to be on slug patrol every night.  At one point I thought we'd lost the plants, ended up cutting off all the eaten leaves and hoping for the best.  All the plants grew back and had no more slug damage.  Of the six plants I had five provided lots of courgettes and two huge ones boarding on marrow size.

The cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers were all potted up or put in grow bags and stayed in the greenhouses.  The cucumbers did well.  Tomatoes were quite disappointing and the peppers are still producing.

We have also had strawberries hanging on the wall and have now taken runners from so we have more plants for next year.  We got a crop from the strawberries, but I think they will be going in the garden next year instead of in the troughs.

Lettuce leaves and herbs have also been abundant.

We have learnt lots about our garden and its visitors.  Plans are in place for next year.

But, to become self sufficient I need to have food growing through out the year.  So, there are more potatoes in, more carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, beetroot and fennel, with lots more to be planted.

This year has been a learning curve.  I hope to have better results next year.  But also feeds haven't been used much this year.  Over winter homemade compost is going the be added to the veggie plot and I'm already planning ahead.

I would love to know your experiences, ideas and tips, so feel free to leave them below or tweet me @jphillipsonlowe whether they be regarding gardening or blogging, still learning this blogging lark and any feedback is always welcome.
Thanks for reading.

Chickens

Having chickens has been one of my dreams for a long time.  When I half mentioned it to my wife as an idea to consider for the new house, I never thought she'd take to it so much.  So much so, the chickens have now become the wife's.

My idea was to get chickens at some point in the future.  My wife's idea was to get them as soon as winter ended.  In the end, we said hello to two new family members in March.  Apart from a couple of occasions, we have had two eggs everyday, which is good because we soon get through them.  If we're not eating them, the wife is baking with them.

Before we could let the chickens move in, however, we needed to get ready for them.  This included reading up a lot and picking the brains of chicken owners, as well as building them a home and buying supplies.

We looked at many different coops and runs for the chickens, not really knowing which would be best.  In the end we found one we liked and sounded the best.  It got delivered flat pack and set us back just over £100.

Once I got it all put together, with help from my 8 year old boy, we saw exactly what we were dealing with.  The built in run and coop is lovely, sturdy and looks great...but we felt they needed more room.  The problem is, we want to have free range chickens, but with some restrictions.  For example, we don't want them roaming everywhere and eating veg.  Also, our neighbours on either side have dogs.  Chickens and dogs don't go.  The dogs on one side had a tendancy to jump over or come under the fence.  The other problem, is foxes.  We live in the country, with fields feet from our door.  We know there are foxes around, and have been told that they have been in the gardens before.  Because of this, protection was needed.

So, before we went ahead and got the chickens, a few things needed doing.  First of all, I took the simple step of blocking up all spaces at the bottom of the fencing.  We spoke to our neighbours about dogs jumping over and suggested some additions to the top of the fencing, which is a shared boundary.  They were really understanding and said as it was they're dogs, they would sort it.  The next weekend, wood and chicken wire went up on top of the full length of fencing.  The final thing I did, was to make a run.  Originally my idea had been to make a run that fitted on to the existing run and coop, but this wouldn't have worked well, as gaining entry wouldn't have been easy, plus we heard about the foxes capabilities, so opted for a large run all round the small coop and run so foxes would have two sets of wire to get through at night.

Few the next two weekends, I built an 8 foot square wooden frame and door, then covered it in chicken wire.  This means the chickens have quite a bit of space, but we know they are safe and not doing any damage.  Inside this run, we have their small run and built in coop, which has much thicker, fox proof wire.

As soon as our runs were ready, our farmer friend brought us our two chickens.  They have become favourites with my family and neighbours, all checking on them to see how they are doing.

My wife is in charge of them and goes down with our twins after dropping of my other son at school in a morning.  She cleans them out and changes any straw if needed, and feeds and waters them.  We read up a lot about their care, about how to check for mites, for example.  So when we found mites last week, we knew straight away what to do.  After about a week of treating them with an organic powder and spray, we seem to have got rid of them.

On an evening, I tend to go down and give them a treat and check they have food and water in the small run, before locking them in to it.  A bit later when it is dusk I go back down, and find they have gone to roost by themselves, and so lock them in the coop for the night.

In a morning on my way out to work, I go down and open the door to let them into the small run, then my wife goes down a little later and does her routine, before letting them into the large run for the day.

We love having chickens.  They seem to be happy, as they supply plenty of eggs.  We've even had a couple of double yolk eggs, or 'double oakers' as my son calls them.  We will be sad when anything happens to them, but no doubt we'll get some more, and think they will be a fixture in our garden for many years to come!!!!!

Composting

Well with yesterdays events putting me out of action, i have time on my hands, so time for another post.

Running with the theme of what we have done in the garden, and catching up with the last 9 months, the next project I did in the garden was to build some compost bins.

With our garden, I try to be a bit of a thrifty gardener not wanting to spend too much money if I can find a way of reusing things. 

The compost bins were always going to be one of the first jobs as I want to be as self sufficient as possible.  I also want our garden to be organic and as friendly to wildlife and nature as possible.

So, with that in mind, I managed to get my hands on some pallets that were basically going in skips before I got my hands on them.  So already I'm helping the environment.  Saving these pallets from pointless disposal and managing the find a use for them.

To start with I made one compost bin by fitting three pallets together by screwing the corners to each other.  I then fitted a small pallet to the front to stop contents spilling out. Since that first one, I managed to get hold of some more pallets and have managed to make three compost bins and a space for turf that has been taken up around the garden.

A couple more pallets are needed to finish them off, but we started composting as soon as the first was made.

Now to the composting.

General thought is that more compost bins that you have the better so you can turn and store, but obviously for a lot of gardens, space affects what you can do.  We are lucky with our space.  I really wanted three bins so that one is working, the second can be turned into and the third is ready to be used.

At the moment we have one bin nicely composting and is already to be used as a mulch, but a bit longer and we will have a good compost.  My plan for this is to spread it around different parts of the garden and especially in the veggie plot as a mulch for some plants and to add some goodness.  It will be put down when the frosts start coming so it will help protect the roots of more tender plants and shrubs.

We have a second bin that we are now filling and the third is empty but will be used when the second bin wants turning.

Turning is very important as it aerates the composts and moves it around and can kick start the composting process.  I tend to find that my compost heats up well, but when it cools down, I turn it and the process starts again.

The other thing I mentioned is about turf.  I don't like to waste anything.  When turf comes up I tend to relay some of it in paths in the veggie plot.  The rest goes into an area I made, where the turf is stacked on top of each other as tight as possible, grass down.  This will make a nice loam which can be used around the garden or added to compost to be used.  This process does take a very long time. I think around 18 months, but nothing needs to be done to it, just leave it piled up up out of the way.

Composting is a lot of trial and error and also a learning curve.  When I first started, I tended to just throw things in, whereas now i try to layer.  I found that before, I used to get ants nests in the compost, whereas now with it being layered, turned and heating up well, not too many ants turn up.

I would really urge people to compost.  It helps your garden, the environment and is a good way of disposing of a lot of your waste.

There are many books on this topic so I won't tell you how to do it, I just record my experiences.  I hope I can inspire other people.

Gardening accident

Well yesterday wasn't a good day.

I eventually got round to trimming our conifer hedge. But due to accidentally falling through the platform I was stood on, it didn't get finished. Instead a 6 hour trip to a +e ensued. After time spent waiting, being prodded, poked and other tests, an x-Ray and telephone conversations with a specialist, it was decided among other things, that I had fractured my cheekbone and got a haematoma under my eye and blood in my sinuses.

After threats of being sent miles a way to a larger hospital for treatment, it was eventually decided that I'd be sent home with strong pain killers and antibiotics and a outpatient appointment.

This morning at home I am sat in pain with one eye I can't see out of because of swelling and reflecting on my gardening accident and what could have been.

I am not put of in the least and will be gardening again soon...just out of action for a few while being waited on by my amazing wife. She was to my rock yesterday. Don't know what I'd have done without her. Love you xxx

Wind break

So far this year, we have made some big changes to our originally bare garden.  New fencing, conifers, compost heaps, new plants, bamboo screening, an archway and new shed, not to mention the wife's chickens.  These are the first things we started doing with the blank canvas.  Not all of the above are finished.  Some are works in progress based on time and financial constraints.

I'll touch on all these things in my blogs, i'm sure.

In this post i'll start with the conifers.

Our house is in a small village and set at the end of a cul de sac over looking fields.  The view is beautiful and for our first and hopefully only home, it is more than we could have ever wished for.  In the nine months that we have lived here, we have seen winter, spring and the summer and so have seen the majority of what our garden has to offer. 

One of the very first things we noticed about our garden was that we get no shelter from the weather.  Being the second to last house on our road, and with the neighbours and our fencing both being low, the back garden gets whatever comes over the fields.

So, our project in our garden came in the format of creating some sort of wind break on the left hand side of our garden.

We looked at several options, the first of which was fencing.  We did a bit of research into prices and found that to fence right down to the bottom of our garden would cost us in excess of £400/ £500 as it is a shared boundary and we were looking at £900 for the lot.  This was something we couldn't consider.  Having moved in to a house that needed some modernisation, we couldn't justify this sort of an amount.  Plus the upkeep of staining the wood every year or two.

So we decided on a more natural wind break.  Shrubs were considered, but with many having some sort of berries on and us having small children who would be tempted to eat said berries, we opted for conifers.

As I said in the last post, we have a conifer hedge seperating the garden, but this is a dark green cultivar of conifer.  We decided to go for a brighter colour and fast growing type, so opted for Gold Leylandii 'Castlewallan'.  As we needed so many, we bought in bulk from a garden centre, and chose three foot high ones.  These set us back around £100.  Admittedly this is not an instant windbreak, but there's less care needed, as for several years they will be left to grow, and in the future only a trim will be needed every year to keep them in check.

We would much rather look at plants than fencing or walls and with these conifers we will have some colour in the garden in winter.

When they were first planted, the conifers turned very golden brown.  At first we were worried that we'd lost them all, but by April/May time, the colour improved after a feed of blood fish and bone and now they are a beautiful golden green and looking very healthy.

Over the next few years they will grow and make an excellent wind break and give some privacy to our garden.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog!

For this first post, let me tell you a little bit about myself, family and our lives.

I'm James, husband to my beautiful wife and father to our 8 year old son and 18 months old twins.

We moved into our first home properly last December just before Christmas and it has been a whirlwind ever since.

When we first moved in, the garden was pretty much bare.  At the back of the house we have a long garden with a conifer hedge about two thirds of the way down with an archway shaped in the middle. On the far side the is a small area which was used as a veggie plot and lots of grass around.

Working back to the house the rest of the garden was empty except down one side where the was a bare strip which obviously has some sort of perennial plants, which we found out later in the year, were geraniums.

The front garden has a weeping willow in the centre and a couple of sorry looking roses in the bed against the walls.  There is also some hydrangeas under the front window.

Apart from discovering a couple of peonies when they appeared and a lilac at the very bottom of the garden, this was all that we had when we started. I hope to post regular updates on our progress, of which there has been much already. By the twilight of our first summer, the garden is already unrecognisable from the garden we inherited.  More projects are already being planned, with us looking forward excitedly to the future.

I hope you will enjoy seeing and reading about our progress as much as us.