The story of our garden

This came from another thread where I told Hope that I would (one day) post the story of how my garden got to be like it is today - including pictures. So you will find there are quite a few pictures to go with this - sorry I have tried to keep them small - please let me know if you have a problem loading them.

Well, it began in the winter of 1998/1999. We had spent New Year in the US and when we got back, found that the winter storms had flattened our fences. We had some very old trees at the bottom of the garden, that were there before our house was built and they were dying too. In previous years the garden had been pretty boring, just lawn and borders around the edges (no flowers) and a couple of trees. But the kids grew up being able to do what they wanted to in the garden without being told not to flatten the flowers . Now that the kids were beyond that age - we seized the chance to do something about it.

So here are some pictures of the before/during stage. They were taken after we had started work - it didn't always look like this . They are taken from an upstairs bedroom window and you can see a much younger Tippy in the garden - she has always been my little protector in the garden


As you can see we were already repairing fences and had also taken the dead trees out - we did plant more trees in their place.

You may also notice that our garden was quite a bit smaller than it is now - I'll tell you about that as we progress.

We dug just about everything up - we planned the new garden around the existing trees wherever possible and they determined the shape that the paths and lawns would take.

Here is the work in progress




You can see where our fence is at the bottom of the garden - well the two houses at the back of the garden later asked us if we wanted to buy the bottom of their gardens, which is why our garden is now bigger than it once was.

Good grief Beth it doesn't look like the same garden!!!!. It's gorgeous!

It looks like Alan Titchmarsh and his crews been in!

More work in progress


The Hellebore is in the border under the pink tree now (the pink tree is a Tamarix)






Each of the stones on paths were individually laid by hubby and cemented in between by me. To give you some idea of what the job was like here is the front garden before the stones were cemented:

Wow it looks great! I'm jealous - it's fantastic!

Beth whats that type of tree in the picture above the front door on the right?!

Then we acquired some more land and how to landscape both parts. Both were wilderness/uncultivated areas and it was backbreaking clearing away old chicken shacks, greenhouses, boilers etc. But here is what we did - before our summer house was put in (we were just preparing the base for it here)



and looking the other way



Then the summer house arrived. We got home from work at 3 pm and in five hours had built up all the pieces that were laid on the lawn into this:



It wasn't finished yet - but at least it wouldn't get wet if it rained (we put polythene over the roof overnight).

I bet thats lovely on a summers evening!

Then I had to lay the cobbles around it to make a patio - these were Portuguese granite and had to be individually laid and cemented (excuse my working clothes )


The finished article:


The only thing I had to do was to work on our little corner that gets the late evening sun. It's the corner this photograph is taken from and I did these two jobs together. This little corner now has a terracotta tiled patio and a bench. It's the corner where Addie used to run to and jump over the fence when she was still feral. We think she lived under the old shed on the other side of the fence.

When the weather brightens up I'll take a photo of the finished corner here.

Finally, here are two photos of the finished garden, from the house and through the old fence line into the new garden:





I hope the pictures were ok and not too much. Please let me know if you had a problem with them.

Originally Posted by rosiemac

Beth whats that type of tree in the picture above the front door on the right?!

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In that picture there are two trees. The one at the left of shot is a Christmas tree that hubby brought back from Austria in the early 70s - I keep reminding him I was only about 7 then (not too often though otherwise he wouldn't speak to me). On the right of shot is our Pear Tree - we planted it when the house was built and have had about 2 edible pears from it in 23 years But it's a lovely tree and the birds and squirrels love it.

Bath your gardens so lovely it should be in the "Homes and Gardens" magazine!!.

Theres been a lot of hard work thats went into it you can tell!, but the finished product speaks for itself!

Oh it's a pear tree?!. It looked like some sort of fern tree?!

Originally Posted by rosiemac

I bet thats lovely on a summers evening!

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I'm hoping it will be. I finished it late summer last year and the chairs inside didn't arrive until it was really to late in the season to enjoy it. I'm planning on looonngg evenings with hubby and a bottle of wine in there this year

Ari and Susan - thanks so much . Now here's the real laugh - I can't grow plants!!! I stick em in, if they grow great - if they don't....I dig em up and plant something else

Good for you!, i would as well. At least you can sit back and admire the hard works thats been done!.

I was the same but luckily they were plants that took root easily!. I had a lovely garden when i was still with my husband and i really miss it

Oh my god!
you have such a beautiful garden!

Originally Posted by fwan

Oh my god!
you have such a beautiful garden!

Click to expand...

Thank you

Your garden is absolutely beautiful. WOW!

my pot plant doesnt really compete does it

want to add some cat features to my garden )parents permitting) like catnip, climbing logs, scratcher etc..

your garden is a work of art though beth

Thanks Maverick_kitten and Rita.

A cat garden sounds like a lovely idea. Tippy and Felicity each have their "special spots" in the garden - special places they lie at different times of the day depending whether they want sun, shade or just to terrorize the chickens .

A pot plant is a great place to start - a garden was just a bit of lawn for about 16 years!

Absolutely stunning!! I love it!
You and hubby will sure get a lot of enjoyment out of it after all your hard and fantastic work!
Congratulations on a fantastic job!!!