planning garden design – The Gardening Blog

back-breaking back garden project

I have finally completed the hard landscaping of my back garden. It has been a gruelling weekend with great weather to help me complete the job! I don’t know where the energy came from, but I was literally in the back garden from sun up to sun down. I think the photos say it all! I was constantly being “assessed” by the chicken brigade! But I did get the final nod by Buffy and the girls!

I am so glad this part of the job is finished. I have a few ideas on the design, but that you will have to wait for in the next installment.

Happy gardening xxx

[one_half]The levelling begins![/one_half]

[one_half_last]The chickens get into everything![/one_half_last]

[one_half]Adding the soil now![/one_half]

[one_half_last]Need a few thousand bags of compost[/one_half_last]

[one_half]Now for the next layer![/one_half]

[one_half_last]Getting tired now, but not giving up![/one_half_last]

[one_half]Job finished and just before the sun set[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Inspection team gives stamp of approval![/one_half_last]

Hi Chris, I wanted to post this pic of my three buckets I bought from a second-hand shop weeks ago. I decided to go for lavender – yes, lavender. I love the old fashioned look of galvanized buckets and you know I love lavender, and I saw this idea in a design magazine and …… well, the rest is obvious. It is so much fun to play around with designs and recycling old stuff. So the course that I will be doing with MyGardenSchool will be just perfect for me!! I have really found the freedom to try out something different and not worry if it matches, or if it’s not trendy, or if it’s not new, or if my kids think it’s kitch. I LOVE it! My garden never worries if it’s fashionable or what the neighbours think. It loves me and what I do to it. So I will be trying new ideas and putting together a garden that won’t be a landscaped, but put together with love and thought and care so that it will one day be sustainable and will feed us and have little pieces of zen and odd places where the chickens can play. I have no plan yet, but I am at work with a list of things I do want my garden to have:
1. A rain water tank
2. A chicken coop
3. A Composting area
4. A covered area where I can propogate plants
5. Retain the swimming pool
6. A red shed (a garden shed as a feature)
7. Fruit and nut trees
8. Vegetable patch (will retain what I have)
9. A Herb spiral
10. A rest area where we can swing in hammocks and read magazines all day in summer.

Thats my idea so I will start off my back garden project with this BEFORE photo! The chickens will have to have their own area where we will build a coop and a chicken run for them next to the fruit trees (behind the pool). They have been working the garden so I expect it to be more fertile and they have stripped the grass. Now it’s time to make it pretty. Let’s see what happens in 6 months time shall we??

Happy gardening xxx