Level lawn

The work has officially begun in the garden. Our chap came and built us a decked area earlier in the year, and I dutifully rescued the plants that were in its path… all forty of them! Last weekend we set about replanting these (happy to report there were no casualties) and levelling the lawn.

Decking area

The lawn has been a bit of a problem since I moved in. It started life as a scrappy bit of grass with a god-awful slab path chucked down the middle. I got rid of the path and created some borders – but the lawn has always been a bit uneven. This was highlighted when lovely chap brought his man-sized petrol mower over. The beast just tore up anything that was slightly on the lumpy side. He’s not happy about this and seems determined to have a bowling green.

So… off we went to buy sand… a lot of sand… to bring the lawn up to the same level ready to turf in a week or so. A better shape was cut into the lawn while we were at it, and I’m pleased with the result and can see that the garden will look amazing when everything starts shooting again.

Levelling the lawn

Next job was to put some horse muck into the raised bed compartments. The veg in there was pretty much an afterthought last year, but we have big plans for this year. A trip to our local farm later, and a bit of shovelling and raking later, and the beds were ready for the first house guests. 50 onions and 25 garlic plants, which were popped in this weekend.

Last up, we fired up the heated propagator and we’ve planted cherry tomato seeds and kale.

Bring on the spring… we’re ready for you!

Deck the halls

In the week running up to Christmas, when most were decking the halls with boughs of holly… we were decking.

Seating area

When I first moved to Chook cottage, my friend helped me build a seating area at the bottom of the garden, as this was a perfect place to soak up the very last rays of sun for the day. Last year, many an afternoon was spent out in the garden, lounging, listening to music, chilling out and enjoying the odd glass of something cold and crisp. It became apparent that although the seating area was lovely and quaint… it was just a tad too small – and they say that size doesn’t matter 😉

So we decided to replace it with a more robust chill out area, which would be great for hosting barbecues and having friends over. So, last weekend we set to work dismantling the old seating area, and I have to say, we worked like troopers. I was chief gravel shoveller, and lovely man was chief gravel redistributor. Not one piece of the old area went to waste… the slabs will be relaid into a small entrance path, and the gravel smartened up the side entrance a treat.

Garden cleared.

I’ve been busily digging up plants to save and replant in the spring – current count I have about 45!

Base for decking laid

This then left the area nice and free for our chap to come and work his magic. Just two days later, and what a transformation. Yes, the garden looks grotty at this time of year, but that’s par for the course.

 

Hang on in, and you watch how lovely this will look later in the year when everything comes back to life!

The finished decking

Happy with that 🙂

So, another job out of the way, and it’s officially time to hang up my trusty trowel until the New Year. Have a fabulous Christmas, everyone 🙂

Operation Autumn

We’ve decided to take on another garden project – and you all know how we love a good project!

At the bottom of the garden is a little seating area… perfect for the last rays of the sun, and planted all around with an assortment of perennials. This little area is lovely, but really needs to be a tad bigger. This year, weekends in the garden have mostly consisted of lounging, laughing, sunbathing and  reading the papers – all to the backdrop of a rather nice glass or two of something yummy. The simple fact is, the little seating area is not quite big enough, so we’re going large. We’re going decking. We’re going now!

Our ‘man who can’ came along, measured up and produced the quote, which we are quite happy with. Only thing is, the area where the new decking will be placed is still chock a block with plants. So this weekend, while my lovely man whizzed up and down with the mower, I set to work in digging some out. Happily it’s the right time of year to move and divide plants, and If I’m careful enough, they should survive quite nicely in pots, to be replanted in the spring.

Still plenty of colour in the garden

Amazingly, when I moved to Chook Cottage a couple of years back, there wasn’t a single plant in the garden… and now I’m at the point of splitting and dividing them! With not a moment to lose, I shot off down the garden with my trusty spade and trowel, plus an assortment of pots, and set to work. Any plants with a good clump could be divided, just by gently teasing the clump apart – making sure that each new clump had a decent rooot system still. These were duly potted up and labelled. In no time at all, from just one tiny bit of garden, I’d amassed 23 new plants. Yes… 23 – and I haven’t even touched the area yet!

Splitting and dividing plants

By spring, I will have more than enough plants to fill the garden around the new decking – plus I’ll be able to make a feature of my tiny front garden. Roll on spring…. gotta love a project!

Red mystery plant

I’m not actually sure what this little mystery plant is, but I’m on a mission to save it for next year… it’s been absolutely gorgeous for a good few months now!

Blooming Marvellous

Today, the hottest day of the year (so far) my social media feeds are full of weather-related comments such as “don’t take your dog out” to “I’m baking to death in my car”, together with pictures of thermometers and friends larking around on beaches. You get the picture… us in the UK just LOVE a good old weather related whinge. We moan when it rains too much, we complain when it’s cold – basically we are a hard nation to please with the antics of Mother Nature. But we have to remember that our seasons are what makes us different… and makes our gardens unique.

Peering out of the window at my little patch (it’s a trifle warm to be out there at the mo – and that’s purely an observation – not a grumble!), it’s come on a long way in the last two years… So I thought I’d share a couple of progress pictures…

April 2014 – just a patch of scrappy lawn and a god-awful concrete path…

The patio – work in progress

The new view down the garden. Out with the scrappy path, in with the borders!

The bottom seating area… we can follow the sun to the last drop…

Small but perfectly formed vegetable beds… the first runner beans are almost ready 🙂

The new view up to the house. The planters to the left are pallets, lined and planted with strawberries. The row of bottles to the top right are an assortment of cava bottles filled with solar fairly lights and their corks have been trimmed down so they fit. They look brilliant at nightfall.

All in all I’m mightily chuffed with the results so far – It’s a beautiful place to entertain and relax with friends. Blooming Marvellous, in fact 🙂 🙂 🙂

Decking – part 4

Once all the planks were laid, it was finally time to fix them to the base. LFC (lovely fit chap) and I soon swung into action, measuring, sawing, drilling pilot holes and screwing the sections together. I have to say when we get onto a job, we are like an absolute MACHINE!

After a couple of hours working in the blazing sun, the progress was amazing – the thing was taking shape before our very eyes. By decking on the three levels of the old wonky patio, we’d created a whole new area for seating, which was previously sloping concrete.

With two areas complete, I whizzed off to get some wood stain and happily set to work. The stain went on like a dream, and the final product is about to be unveiled. When we lifted the decking from LFC’s house, two panels also came along. Wanting to waste nothing, I racked my brains on where we could use them. Then it came to me – at the entrance! They would perfectly frame the area, and make the whole thing feel a bit continental. The pics below are what it would look like with and without the panels – We think it looks fab with them, but we’re open to ideas 🙂

Decking – Part 3

This weekend we were on a mission to make headway with the never ending decking project. All the wood was at my Lovely Fit Chap’s (henceforth known as LFC) house, so there was just the ‘small’ task of getting it over to Chook Cottage.

He arranged to borrow a van from work, and duly arrived to pick me up on Friday evening. The van was massive – so maneuvering it around my narrow-ish street was no mean feat – but the boy did good, and we made it through the entire weekend with no mishaps whatsoever.

Just some of the wood to load up

Without further ado we whizzed across to his house and started the mammoth job of getting all the wood loaded up.  We soon had a brilliant system in place where he brought the wood to the van, and I stacked it up in an orderly fashion – so we knew where everything was at the other end. As well as all the decking planks, we had a big pile of rough wood to chop for the fire, and three sections of the old decking base which we planned to turn into raised vegetable beds.

These were first off the van at the other end and we positioned them on the slate garden I laid last year. I set about moving the slate and taking the weed membrane out of each section ready for the topsoil and eventually the plants to go in.

Raised beds in progress

Next off the van was the wood for the decking. As fast as LFC could unload the wood and bring it to the garden, I was busily putting it in place on the base, to make sure we had enough planks to complete the job. In no time at all, it was all down in rough and we can finally start to see how the finished project will look. I know I’m biased, but I think it’s going to look pretty darn good!

Rough decking

Decking – part 2

As I mentioned before, my chap is having his garden decking redone, and the plan is to upcycle this to my house. Last weekend was spent lathering up a sweat, lifting his wood up to make space for his workmen. Said wood is currently stacked in the garden ready to sort and ship across to Chook Cottage. It’s all very exciting…

I can think of worse views…

With the work over there taking care of itself, this weekend we decided to hit my base. No – that’s not some kind of ‘hip DJ speak’… it’s literally to hit the base of the decking.

The chop saw came out and in no time at all, he is pacing the area, measuring up, chopping lengths and laying the base. The boy moves like a demon once he has a plan afoot! My task was to drill primer holes for the brackets at each angle joint, and we whizzed along like a dream team. In no time at all the base was down and just needed to be leveled all round.

Leveling the base involved packing bits of wood underneath the gaps to make a tight fit, so the whole thing doesn’t wobble around when you walk on it. Thinking I was being helpful (and slightly manly) I whizzed over to the chop saw to fashion some wedges to pop underneath. There I was, merrily sawing away, when disaster almost struck…

The killer chop saw

Evidently I was being a tad over ambitious with the size of the wedges, which were getting smaller with each cut. The last one was evidently too small to handle and the saw flicked the wood backwards, trapping my finger momentarily against the saw guide. Now this was a split second of my life… but it hurt like a bugger. And woke me up to the fact that the chop saw was indeed a mighty tool that could do some damage… and hence I kept my distance from it for the rest of the day. Note to self: Lumberjack: not a future career option.

Apart from that, the rest of the afternoon went swimmingly, and the base is now complete and level, and ready for the wood to be laid down. Now it’s taking shape, I think it’s going to look brilliant when it’s finished.