The garden in March 2024

Every spare minute has been dedicated to gardening just lately. I’ve either had my nose stuck in a book, taking an online class (utilising my Create Academy subscription), reading gardening magazines, sewing seeds or getting the garden spring ready.

I never thought that I’d find a hobby that was more time consuming and more expensive than sewing, gardening is certainly it! It’s a good job that it’s so rewarding.

The outside space was the main reason that we chose the house we live in (2.5 years ago). It’s a standard sized 3 bed semi, but we back onto fields so are not overlooked. The views and sunsets in the summer are to die for.

The garden is quite large at approximately 90ft long x 33ft wide (well large in comparison to the gardens we have had at previous property) but it was totally overgrown when we moved in. You literally could not see the ground for vines, ivy, weeds, nettles. It had been a much loved garden in the past, but the house had been empty for some time and nature had been left to do its thing, pretty wildly.

I tried to find some photos from when we first moved in but can’t place them right now, but I could find a couple of the sunsets.

If I could wind the clock back 2 years I’d have definitely spent more time planning what I wanted the garden to be like in the end. Instead we’ve been changing it bit by bit, changing our mind on things as we go. One thing that I am certain of is that I want the garden to be full of flowers and nature, with lots of little places to sit back and enjoy it.

So far I’ve found that I’ve planted the wrong plants in the wrong places, planted things too close together and later dug up many of the things that I planted thinking they are weeds. This is mainly because I didn’t do enough research and instead just went with what I liked the look of. I didn’t even know the difference between a perennial and annual. But you live and learn and I’m certain that the garden will be an ever evolving project. In addition, I know so much more now than I did 2 years ago so hopefully won’t be making the same mistakes again.

I’ve really enjoyed planting up pots over the past few weeks. I know that I’m probably too early and we may have a few more frosts yet, but I haven’t planted anything too tender and I can always cover the pots with fleece blankets or bring them undercover into the summerhouse (well soon to be craft room).

This weekend we’ve also focussed on the practicalities. Weeding, mulching and feeding. The side borders don’t look so pretty at the moment but I’m sure that the hard work will be worth it. They do say that the most important thing you can do is care for your soil.

We have spent a fortune on David Austin roses which I absolutely love, but last year a few of them had really bad black spot so I’m trying to care so much more for the soil this year as it had probably been many years since it was last conditioned.

I invested in a grow light and a large cold frame. This has enabled me to get ahead of the game planting summer seeds including (so far) cosmos, salvia, marigold, sunflowers, zinnia’s.

Earlier this year we had to have the septic tank and soak away replaced (a huge and very messy job). This is situated at the bottom of the garden. We used this as an excuse to turn this area into a blank canvas. The plan is to turn it into an allotment style set up with veg patches and cut flower beds (I’m imagining a never ending supply of fresh cut flowers in the house). However, things haven’t gone to plan so far as the ground was left extremely boggy and water-logged (not helped by the really wet weather we have been experiencing).

Ultimately, the ground in this area was totally dug up (by a digger) and churned over and over which has damaged the soils structure. I think that it will take a long, long time to recover, so it will definitely be raised beds to start with. For now we are going to use temporary beds until we see what happens with the ground. In the pics below I just placed the beds to get an idea of space, we will be levelling the ground off a little and putting down some weed control membrane and gravel around the beds (just as soon as you don’t sink about a foot when you stand on it!). We are going to have to purchase so much compost!!

I love that working in the garden encourages me to get out and take photos. It will certainly be interesting to see how this project evolves over time.

Last year I added a small fish pond. I really love this feature, it’s so relaxing. I was able to recycle things that were already in the garden rather than buying anything new. The fish were even re-homed fish.

Last spring I planted a couple of magnolia’s. They have blossomed so well this year with the most beautiful flowers. Let’s hope there isn’t a frost.

I look forward to learning more, experimenting more, creating more and most importantly spending more time outside.