Back in February of this year I moved house and was fortunate enough to be able to buy a place with a reasonable sized garden. Now I'm no expert on the gardening front but love being out there doing my thing! In fact I would say that I'm very much your average person who goes out to work and then enjoys family times. I certainly have no formal training in gardening and can't quote you all the names of the plants but love to have a go. I am particularly interested in the design and hard landscape of the plot which then allows you to get creative with different planting ideas and indeed different types of plants. I have also kept koi and pond fish for the last twenty years, and aspire to create a unique and fun environment for my family and others to enjoy.
Having already landscaped and planted two smaller gardens I felt the need for the challenge of a bigger plot and project. This desire and the requirement of more outside space for tiny feet (both two and four legged) actually inspired my families 'distant' move of 14 doors along the same road as we already lived in! Yes I know this sounds mad but the larger garden and the advantage of owning some land behind the property swayed our daring move! Youv'e heard the quote "If I could pick up my house and move it...." well this was about as near as we could get to this!
The house is located in Somerset and the rear garden is approximately 130' x 45' so a nice "good" size area. The garden is low lying so the soil is very heavy clay which hadn't been worked or enriched for many years. Other than extremely overgrown hedges and brambles it was laid mainly to lawn with a raised patio near to the house, basically a blank canvass!...Oh and I forgot to say absolutely full of the dreaded Horsetail weed!
(Here is a picture of the garden, as you can see basically boring and uninspiring!)
Now the whole point of this blog is to share with you my ideas and hard work to turn this patch of Somerset into a little oasis for my family and I...
Considerations which I had to include in my plans and design were as follows:
- Child friendly and interest
- Dog and pet friendly
- Construct a fish/koi pond
- Make safe and modernise the raised patio area
- Keep the sense of size and openness of the plot
- Create a sense of intimacy and different areas of interest in the garden
- Open up the country side to the rear of the garden
- Encourage wildlife in the garden
- Make it look nice
- My desire to use ALL types of plants from cottage garden to tropical jungle type planting!
- Use recycled material where possible
- Enjoy it!
Now this may sound like an impossible task to tie all these ideas into this size space but in February this year (2010) we moved into our new house and I started my new project!!!...
A good friend of mine having seen my previous gardens asked me to keep a photo diary of this one which has led me to this blog page and hopefully the unfolding of the design and build of my dream garden.
I hope that with my enjoyment of photography and some funny stories you will also be keen to watch my progress and add comments or more importantly advice and ideas as I go along.
Photo of a bumble bee on a dahlia grown in an old wheelbarrow recycled from the hedge!
Welcome to Higgy's blog....the story has just begun!!
Next blog will include a shed, a pond and maybe more........
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