Out with the old and in with the new year....

Hello All.

Once again a massive thank you and hello to all of you regular readers of Higgy's mad cap gardening project. Our audience just keeps growing and growing with new followers logging in on a daily basis. We currently have regular visitors from eleven different countries which is very flattering especially as many of you are logging in on a regular basis to see what happens next!!....

This post is really a turning point for this blog and for Higgy's garden as we will finally be saying goodbye to last year (2010) and embracing the start of my garden in 2011....

So here we go, our last visit back in time to October 2010 and the start of my last project before work ground to halt for the winter.

As you will have noticed my garden project so far has been about hard landscaping with the introduction of a little planting of shrubs, perennials and flowers. This has been in an attempt to get most of the basic design in place ready for some heavy planting this year (2011). You may have also noticed that the planting so far hasn't involved any vegetables or edibles at all. You might find this strange but I struggle to find the interest in this sort of gardening. Luckily my wife who has never shown any interest in gardening before announced recently that she would like to have a go at growing vegetables and get our three year old daughter involved also (hooray!)

Now not being one to turn down an opportunity to encourage potential gardeners I set about building some raised beds for Mrs Higgy's new found interest (oh and the potential for some good home grown food to eat also of course!!)

I chose to use raised beds as the ground here is very low lying and gets quite wet at certain times, also we have a terrible problem with horse tail weed which is an absolute nightmare and almost impossible to get rid of. (It has been said that apparently it can be dated back to prehistoric times and is one of the oldest known plants) I think this demonstrates it's persistence to survive whatever you do to try and eradicate it!

My plan for the raised beds started by digging down by about 30cm, I then laid a strong weed membrane (I actually used a good quality pond underlay/membrane which is guaranteed for 20yrs as I figure that this has to stay in place for quite some time enduring the damp conditions and attack by the dreaded Horse Tail weed!). Once this membrane was in place I back filled with chippings and gravel which basically makes a nice base for the raised beds to sit on and will also aid with drainage. The site is now ready for construction of the beds and as with other posts I will demonstrate this build using photographs of the beds themselves....

Here you can see the two raised beds in situ, in true 'Higgy recycling fashion' they were constructed using old reclaimed decking boards and timber which had been saved from other projects or rescued from friends who were throwing them away! The thick weed membrane can be seen in this photograph at the base of the bed before being trimmed back.

I then lined the inside of the beds using old compost bags which I stapled into place. The idea of this is to protect the boards from the damp soil which will hopefully extend the life span of the beds. You can now also see that a path was built around the beds to ensure easy and clean access at any time of the year. These paths also help to tie the beds into the rest of the garden.

To further lengthen the life span of the beds I stained them with green exterior wood preservative, this colour will also blend them into the garden as the plants and shrubs begin to grow making their appearance less obtrusive. 

Now how do you fill big raised beds like these?..... Easy, 10 bags of topsoil recycled from behind a work colleagues garden shed and two pallets of soil based compost! I know that this sounds very expensive but I researched compost supplies on the internet and came up with Dandy's compost supplies which proved the cheapest by far with each bag working out just over £2 each and free delivery! I have to say that my experience buying from this supplier was very positive indeed!

http://www.dandystopsoil.co.uk/

So here are the beds in place, filled with compost and part planted with peas, carrots and spring onions so far. The smaller boxes at the front of the beds are designed for growing herbs in and one has now been given to my 3yr old daughter who already has pink Ostreospermum,  two lettuce plants and two sunflowers planted in hers!!!!

This final photo (below) shows the path which now runs behind the raised beds and alongside the dry stream bed tying the two projects together and into the rest of the landscaping

So there we are 2010 has gone and we are now firmly in 2011. Jobs so far in 2011 have included the conclusion of the dry river bed and the raised vegetable beds alongside a few other jobs which I will tell you about in my next post.

I almost forgot to mention the beloved wildlife which we have been trying to encourage and which has been visiting our little patch of Somerset, so here's a few pictures of our recent spring visitors....

I've 'BEEn' waiting for a nest in this box!!....one of at least two bees nests in the garden this year!

 We also have this blackbird and his partner nesting in our honeysuckle bush.....

.....And this pigeon and it's mate nesting in the top of a fur tree (right above the seed feeder!!!)

 I hope this visitor isn't after Mrs Higgy's newly planted lettuce plants, he he!!!

We are really fortunate to have an abundance of birds of prey and we often see buzzards circling overhead.....maybe he's spied the bunny......

I think that is enough from me for now and I'll leave you with this picture to tempt you back for another look at the next part of the ongoing project which is Higgy's garden!....

What ever am I going to do with this mess?.....

......Watch this space to find out if this disaster zone can be saved and turned into a little oasis.....

Also next blog; tidy borders, and another old builders wheelbarrow project!.....

***Please do feel free to leave me comments about this or any of my posts, it would be great to speak with you and get some feed back for this blog! Also do feel free to sign up as a "Follower" of this blog which will enable you to be alerted when a new post has been written. You're feed back is so valuable and will help me to hopefully include information or posts which are of interest to you*** 

Bye bye for now, see you next time.....

Spring has arrived yet the stream bed is dry!.....

Hello All,

I'm absolutely amazed at the amount of people logging on to see what's going to happen next and I'm flattered by your kind comments, thank you very much! From last month our audience has grown even more and we now have regular followers from:- UK, USA, Ireland, Canada, Australia, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Luxemburg, Poland, Czech Republic and Vietnam.....WOW!!! welcome to you all.

As I write this the first day of April has just ended and we are now firmly in spring, this is great as the garden and wildlife are really starting to come alive! I currently have a bees nest in an old bird box and we are just starting to get the first butterflies of the year out fluttering about and basking in the sun!

Unfortunately due to a health issue I have been unable to get out into the garden as much as I would have liked to recently. I have however managed to sow lots of wildflower seeds and plant some summer flowering bulbs so I haven't been completely lazy!

Birds have been such a great source of interest for me over what turned out to be a really hard winter where we had snow and also lots of very wet weather. As mentioned in past posts my pair of Reed Buntings are still with me and have fed on my seed feeders for several months. The female has really filled out and I'm hoping that they will give me the pleasure of watching them bring up their young very soon. Not too much to report in the way of new visitors other than this lovely fellow who came to visit me recently....

Great Spotted Woodpecker taking a drink after a visit to the peanut feeder!

Right then back to the gardening and once again I'm transporting you back to last year and to the month of October. Last post I built the 'old new stone bridge' to add a further feature to the dip in the lawn. As usual I felt that although this looked ok it needed something to link it to the rest of the garden (never happy am I!!) To me this bridge just looked like it had been dropped into the dip and had no real association with other parts of the garden. After scratching my head for a while I came up with the idea of creating a dry riverbed which would wind it's way from the end of the garden and down under the bridge. As mentioned in my last post I had also acquired more rocks from a work colleague which would be 'just the job!'

The area where I planned to run the stream along was overgrown with very old shrubs which had become straggly and out of hand, they also were supporting a good amount of brambles which required clearing before starting the build.

As usual here are some pictures of the stream to show you what it looks like and it's relation to the bridge and rest of the garden.....

This picture shows the area where the shrubs have been cut out. Note the bamboo canes which I have fixed to the fence, these have now been planted with honeysuckles and a few hedging shrubs which will grow up and create a nice natural hedge in time.

The pictures above and below show the addition of a path (using recycled pavers and decking boards!)  A channel was then dug out to follow the line of this path, the channel was lined with weed membrane and then filled with different size Pebbles to give a dry stream effect. At this point holes were dug on the inside of some of the bends lined with polythene and soil and planted with irises and other bog plants such as Marsh Marigolds (Caltha Palustris).

Rocks were then added and soil banked in behind them to create a natural appearance and to add movement to the stream

This picture above was taken stood on top of the bridge, you can see how the stream appears to run down and under the bridge. The picture below shows the relationship between the two features

In this picture above you can see that I have planted some 'sedge' type grasses and irises into the soil near the path which when grown should add a natural feel and soften the lines of the hard path edge.

Well that's about it for now the stream bed has been planted and soon planting in the banks will begin to add some further interest to this area. This steam has taken us up to November 2010 and the only job of 2010 not written about yet is my raised vegetable beds which will feature in my next blog and bring us up to date at last!

If I haven't already bored you enough I want to leave you with a few of pictures taken recently....

  Jackdaws taking a refreshment break in the field at the bottom of the garden 111meters (365foot) away! (shot with a 400mm lens and 2x teleconverter)

A Magpie coming into land at the feeding station

Male House Sparrow eating a seed from one of my feeders

(Next time, raised vegetable beds, a 'lot' of compost and bang up to date!!)

Bye bye for now see you all next time....