Spot the difference!

Before!

Remember the old shed and the scruffy parking area in front of it? Now there's a new path, a new gate and a new lawn.


After!

Aaaarrgggghhhh!!!!

It got in through the rhododendrons at the back - impossible to put a deer fence there.

Where can I buy a shotgun!

Oh dear - someone didn't read the dress code!

"Blue and white flowers only please."

Don't you just hate it when that happens.

The only thing to do is stand tall, hold your head high and smile. Sunflowers are good at that!

Passion flowers make it the top!

Only seven weeks ago we planted these two passion flowers - one on each side of an arch. They have now met in the middle and entwined tendrils! How romantic.

Fibonacci Rules!

The first of the passion flowers is out! Often quoted as an example of Fibonacci numbers in nature it has:

3 inner dark brown stigmas
5 greenish stamens
2 sets of 5 pale green petals
and (allegedly) 55 purple and white filaments- but I haven't counted those

Borrowed a passing usher ...

... to test drive the parterre. Doesn't he look smart!

Floribunda abundance

This floribunda rose is certainly fullfilling the "many-flowering" promise in its name. Amazing that it can support so many flowers on one stem.

More tree work

James was back this week to trim the oak trees that were threatening the telephone wire. It is a truth universally acknowledged that a small branch becomes an enormous branch once it's on the ground.

Interim ball count

It's five months since I started this blog. Time for a count of all the balls we have found while clearing and creating the garden ...

6 footballs
22 tennis balls
8 golf balls
3 ping pong balls
4 miscellaneous balls

and 2 doggie chew toys that were too disgusting to keep - even as a symbol of how far we have come.

I wonder if that is it?

Two dead trees gone

The tree surgeon removed two dead trees today, opening up the view of next door's rather overgrown garden. The logs, once split, should see us nicely through the winter. 

Before

After

Less than a year to go now!

And it's all looking quite hopeful. The lupins and phlox have arrived to join the party and were positively glowing in the late evening.

Should we have gone for a lower-maintenance garden?

A friend has asked if we have finished the garden, given that there have been no posts for a while. No, definitely not finished! But we have been rather swamped by the on-going maintenance - the watering, weeding, pruning and mowing. Not to mention disposing of the detritus that the last three generate. And  weeding is a bit like hoovering - looks nice when it's done but don't really need to see it happening.

However, things continue to grow. Like the campsis (Chinese trumpet vine) by the front door. From bare sticks in May, it is now up to the gutters and threatening to cover several of the upstairs windows. Lovely to look at though.

And the answer to the question is no! It may be a lot of work, but I love doing it. And who wants a garden that looks exactly the same week after week?

Add 5 tons of pea shingle and spread evenly

A new car park!

The before picture

Take 25 tons of scalpings

Scalpings for the car parking area were delivered today. This time they were lifted over the hedge using a grabber - quite a sight!

Now just need to use that neat little digger to spread them around.

Adding another dimension

Progress on the garden has been a little slow recently. Blame an emigrating brother-in-law, Parish Council stands at local fetes and Wimbledon.  

However we have found time to add some metal arches to the parterre bed and today I planted passion flower, jasmine and climbing roses.

It's a three ball day today! (That's good)

Operation Back Wall resumed today. The blackbird which halted earlier progress has disappeared without producing any chicks. I suspect the jackdaws may have something to do with it - it's a tough world out there. Shame, but it has allowed me to carry on pruning and weeding to expose the wall.

In the process I found no less than three tennis balls - from three different decades by the look of them.

Yeah! It's stopped raining long enough to take some photos.

The roses that were ravaged by the deer last year are making a come back! We moved the poor things - some of them mere sticks - to the back garden once it was deer-proof. It's great to see them flowering again. This "silver wedding" is stealing the show at the moment.

Google is watching you!

I was in Homebase the other day and saw a dining table and six dining chairs in the same range as this. It was lovely, but I decided it was a bit big for what we needed so left without buying it. When I got home I was browsing online for something completely different when this set popped up on the screen - all the things I liked about the ones in Homebase, but smaller and at an really good price. I decided it was meant to be and bought it.

But how spooky is that - I saw something in a shop and Google knew I wanted something like it.

One recycled wall

The wall that was demolished in the back garden has been recreated in the front garden ...

Rain has made it difficult for Orson to complete this - there are still a few stones to fix on the top right - but hopefully it will be finished tomorrow. Looks as if it's always been there!

Narrow escape from deer destruction

First thing this morning there was a deer in the front garden! It looked as if it, and possibly friends, had been there a while. The pheasant bush has been nibbled (see footprints) but thankfully the tastier morsel of the rose beyond the fence was safe.

In its panic to escape it managed to squeeze round the fence into the back garden, but with me on its tail, it didn't pause long enough to eat - just went flying through the back hedge. The gap and the back fence have now been made safe - thank you, Orson!

Narrow escape (for us).

Wonderful colours!

We're begining to see what the parterre beds might look like when they grow up. I took this picture before yesterday's rain - but they have survived pretty well.

And we're done!

Wall by Orson, turf by Bob and pots by me.


And we've found time to sit, briefly, between showers.

Nearly finished!

Just some turf to lay and a drain cover to sort out and the patio will be done. Our table looks a little insignificant in its new home. Think we may need to invest in some new patio furniture.

(The mummy blackbird is still sitting on her nest. Looking a bit soggy after last night's rain (rain!!!!) but determinedly doing her job.)

Blackbird halts Operation Back Wall

So there I was, bent double inside the rhododendron bushes, clearing the undergrowth and chopping back dead branches to expose the lovely wall. I stood up and found myself nose to beak with a blackbird, sitting on her nest. The clearance will have to wait until her eggs have hatched and the chicks have flown.

Step 6: Painstakingly point all the cracks

What a job! Poor Orson has, almost literally, worn his fingers to the bone. (Patio looks great though).

Step 5 (continued)

The 7m x 7m square is now ready for grouting.

Question: Can we fit 100 chairs on a 7m x 7 m square patio (with a central aisle down the middle)?

Answer: Hope so!

Step 5 - lay slabs in a "random" pattern

Looking good so far! Way to go yet though.

Large quantities of Indian sandstone (mint)

Can't wait to see it in two dimensions, rather than three!

Orson has done a great job getting everything prepared and will be starting to lay the stone on Monday. (Bank Holiday Monday, note - that's how hard-working he is!)

Papaver orientale "Perry's White"

Roughly translated as ... lovely white poppy.

The poppies are starting to come out in the parterre beds. Pleasingly to those of us with a mathematical bent, the plant in the first bed has no flowers (stick with me you'll see why it's pleasing in a bit), the plant in second bed has one flower, the plant in the third bed has two flowers and the plant in the fourth bed has three flowers.

f = n - 1

f = n + 1 would have been even nicer, but so be it.

Steps 3 and 4 - build a retaining wall and add scalpings

Many many barrow-loads of scalpings!

Nearly ready for the slabs now.

Another shed is re-housed

Thank you again Freecycle! One woman's eyesore is another man's toolshed.

If we win the lottery the garage is going too!

Fallen Blue Bird!

Owwww! Snapped off at the base by a strong gust of wind. The lesson for today is - support delphiniums in blustery weather.

It is our first major casulty - shame it was such a pretty one.

Getting a tad impatient

Seeing other peoples' plants in full bloom is starting to make me very envious! I know they are probably old established plants, but I do wish ours would get a move on.

But this lovely iceberg floribunda rose is out and is so lovely I really shouldn't be complaining!

Iteration: see Iteration

The blog looks beautiful on our new toy.

Step 2 - lay footings for the retaining wall

Cement mixer has been churning away in the front garden this afternoon and now we have very neat footings for the retaining wall at the side.

Hope this isn't anything important!

We unearthed a pipe which initially looked suspiciously like a sewage pipe. Thankfully it turned out NOT to be that. Looks like it's part of the defunct drainage system, installed to keep the tennis court dry but now so silted up that it doesn't drain anything. Hoping we can manage without it.

One spade

I've been at an excellent bridge seminar all day, but Orson's been doing a great job removing the top layer of grass and soil.

 

Step 1 - remove wall

Look no wall ...

A "before" picture of the patio

Tomorrow we start work on the new patio. The wall is being demolished and the stones used to extend the wall around the front garden. Paving slabs will be laid around the corner of the house to create a large seating area.

Amazing growth in one week

Gunnera 6 May 2011

Gunnera 13 May 2011

Early morning shadows

An early morning shot of the bracken in the wall bed. Love the shadows.

Filling up nicely!

Bit of a gloomy day for the photo (and no more rain!) but the beds are looking quite full now. I'm hoping this will be the "before" picture of a bed bursting with colour in a few months time. Well a girl can dream!

The forward planning challenge

This time last year we were preparing for a big family gathering to celebrate my mother's 80th birthday. We were willing the rhododendrons to bloom as they were just about only colour in the garden, thanks to the deer. In the end, it was at least two weeks after the party that they flowered. These have been out for a couple of weeks already - making them about a month ahead of last year. Planning for a blossom-filled July next year is a tad tricky.

I'm not stuck ...

... I'm just thinking very hard about how to get down from this rather splendid oak tree.