Our new garden project

When we moved into our new house nearly five months ago one of our priorities was to make the back garden look good.  Having a lovely garden is important to us. The garden in our previous house had been my pride and joy and we loved spending time there so we wanted to make this new garden into a space where we could sit and relax, and enjoy.  We still felt that we had enough energy in us to be able to create another garden, although we didn't want as big a garden as our last house had. Over the years we've created two gardens and two allotments so we're not afraid of hard work. Although we're much older now, so we didn't want to tackle anything too adventurous.

The new garden was a blank canvas, just a lawn. We thought it would be easy to dig out some borders and plant them up. A couple of seating areas for different times of the day would be nice, morning coffee in the sunshine on the paved area near the house and later in the day, sitting with a glass of wine over the other side of the garden in the late evening sunshine. I'd love a pergola with climbing plants,  a water feature and of course a shed.  

We thought about our budget which wasn't going to be very much. Being in our late sixties, early seventies we don't want a garden which is going to take years to develop, we want to enjoy it now. It's a bit like those garden makeover programmes on TV which provide instant gardens. The only instant colour and interest was from plants in pots which I had brought  from our old garden. I placed them around the garden where I thought they might eventually get planted and put some on the flagged area to add a bit of colour.

We soon found out that the garden has lots of problem areas. The  garden slopes down south west to the bottom and we noticed a number of  humps in the lawn, we wondered what those were. When we started work on digging out borders we found heavy clay soil. When it rains (and it has done a lot of raining this summer) the garden does not drain well. There were puddles down at the bottom of the garden and the lawn was very squelchy.

We've dealt with clay soil before in our first garden, so we had an idea of what to do. Digging a land drain and trying to break down the soil by incorporating plenty of bulky organic material was important and maybe building raised beds.  I have been making lists of plants which will grow in wet, heavy soils. There are lots of plans going around in my head and I need to put them down on paper.
This garden project is not going to be as easy as we first thought.

Through the garden gate--June

June was a busy month for us as we moved house. No time for gardening, but now I am getting settled in our new house I am gradually starting on the garden.

So maybe you need a tour of our new garden. The front and side gardens are quite pretty and have been well maintained. There are shrubs and a few flowers. In the front garden by the front door is a hydrangea.  There are lots of flower heads yet to open. I am waiting to see what colour they are.

There is a giant scabious in the border which I have been cutting to bring in the house and add to my shop bought flowers. I don't normally buy flowers, I have always had enough to cut from the garden, so I will have to get planting so that next year I will have plants for cutting.

We brought lots of plants from our other house and I have the chance to go back for cuttings as our daughter now lives in our previous house. This could take some time though. I would like to plant up the front garden with more flowers to give it a more cottage garden look. 

One plant I have not been able to identify is this. It smells lovely and I am wondering if it is ginger mint

The back of our new house needs some work doing. It is just a lawn and it slopes. But we have plans, it is a project we will be working on for some time.

Holly the cat is settling into her new home and enjoys sitting at the kitchen door looking out at her new territory.

This monthly 'Through the garden gate' post  is hosted by Sarah at Down by the Sea

Through the garden gate--April

April is such a lovely month in the garden, there is so much fresh bright green foliage about and the borders are starting to fill out with new growth. The colours in my garden at the moment seem to be blue and yellow. Brunnera, forget-me-nots and bluebells contrast well with the lime green euphorbia and primroses. The aquilegia are just starting to flower, the hostas are unfurling their bright green and yellow leaves and the apple tree has blossom. There is so much to look forward to as we move further into Spring.

Hostas

The herb bed which I planted up last year is filling out now

Moving forward is what we are doing ourselves as we prepare to move house, so this may be my last blog about this garden. We are moving at a time when the garden is looking its best, so there is some sadness. Perhaps it would be better to move in the winter when the garden doesn't look as good.

So I am busy now taking cuttings of plants I want to take with me and  decluttering the shed. But as our daughter and family are moving in to our house we will be able to return, take more cuttings, sit in the garden and still enjoy it. We are not moving far, just up the road to a smaller house with a smaller garden. We are at that time in our lives when we need to downsize. Our new garden will be a challenge and it 's a chance to design another garden so we are looking forward to that. I'm not sure how Holly will enjoy moving to another garden.

I am joining with Sarah at 'Down by the sea ' for this monthly post 'Through the garden gate'