Doing up the garden

I’m on a garden regeneration kick. This is what it looked like at the start of the year:

It wasn’t horrible, by any means, but it could be nicer.

• The fence on the left is on the point of the collapse, (so’s the fence on the right, but that’s not the fence we’re responsible for).
• The flags look like they were designed using Minecraft, in big clunky blocks.
• The lavender piled up on the right was dug up from the bed on the left. A fungus had rotted the roots.
• The summerhouse needs care and attention. The felt came away, so the rain is getting in, and the weather-proof paint is flaking. Plus we’re using it to store tools, paint and chairs that we don’t want in the house, so we can’t sit within it to enjoy the last of the evening’s sun.
• The flowers I planted ten years ago are looking shabbier ever year.

Overall, it needs some time and attention. I’d given it a massive overhaul ten years ago, pulling up tons of flags and concrete, and a breeze block pen at the far end, which the infirmed lady who owned the house before us had had constructed so she could do a little bit of gardening without distressing her legs. I’d planted grapevines, an apple tree, two olive trees, a plum tree, bamboo, a pear tree, nectarine, jasmine, clematis, honeysuckle, and hydrangea. Practically everything I planted grew. But since the boy came along, I haven’t had chance to get out there and do much more than weed and lop off a few stray switches. It’s gotten a bit raggedy.

Chatting with the neighbours on the left, (we have nice neighbours both sides, which is a relief), they were concerned about the way the fence was sagging into their garden. They’d installed a new fence on side away from us, which looked nice, and the price they’d paid for materials wasn’t completely out of my price range. So we came to an arrangement where I would pay for a new fence and he (Roger) would help me build it.

There were lots of things I didn’t like about the garden, beyond the bits that were falling down.

• The trees sequester carbon, but the flags don’t.
• I want to look out of my back window and see GREEN!
• I’ve never really loved the flags. Tolerated, but not loved.
• We’re not really doing much for pollinators except at the height of summer.
• The garden isn’t really somewhere I want to sit of an evening.

Once the idea of putting time and effort into the garden got lodged in my brain, I started thinking about the ways I’d like to change it. Primarily, I want to lay down a meadow to allow bees and butterflies to feed from Spring to Autumn.

So that’s the plan.