My Gardening Year

I have created this blog to provide a focus for my gardening year.  It should follow me and my garden through the four seasons and help me to plan and manage the project that is my new garden.

This is what I am working with at the moment.

My long, bumpy lawned back garden.

My plan is to create a vegetable plot at the bottom of the garden and also a hidden area for the boys to play in.  The is currently an apple tree in the centre of the lawn and a Buddleia bush on the left which has been pruned this year.

The washing line spoils the view for me, but it is necessary - how lovely is the smell of clean washing straight off the line?  I might look into getting a retractable one instead of the permanent line that's there now.

The view from the end of the garden.

I would like to move the playhouse - not sure if I want to keep it or not yet. The ideal would be to build a pergola to screen us from the neighbours and provide some shade.  This would mean we would probably have to extend the patio area on one side to give us a bit more space for a table and chairs.

The water butt needs attention, I'm not sure if it's storing the water it collects or it's draining out of the bottom.  And the tap is broken too.

I enjoy whimsical touches in the garden and have planted flowers in boots, wellies etc in this vein.

Pansies in old boots - how cute?

My starting point is to clear out the sheds and tidy up the garden after leaving it to its own devices at the end of last year.  I think it's good to let the garden get a bit wild in the autumn and not to clean up all the leaves etc. it adds to the soil quality if you leave everything to decay a bit then dig it into the garden in spring.