My Tiny Plot

The concrete has been laid and the retaining wall at the end of the garden is nearly finished. Where you see the concrete - that will be filled with York stone blocks. The large square in the middle will be the brick seating area.

Day two of the garden landscaping and things are starting to take shape pretty quickly. The trenches that you can see will be filled with concrete and York Stone blocks lowered into them. Then the spaces in between will be laid with bricks to create the seating area. More from mtp - as it happens!

The landscapers have arrived! Yey! There are four of them so progress has been very quick and they have been working hard digging these trenches. The concrete bases are being poured tomorrow with the special ‘handmade’ bricks going in soon after that. You can really start to get a feel for how large the beds will be compared to the seating area in the middle. I decided to readjust the size of the seating area in order to make the beds large. I just felt that the seating was making too much of a statement and was too large. Now the beds are much bigger - which means more veg! Sorry it’s such an uninspiring photo but that’s where we’re at at the moment.

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Here’s the latest from the Hell Garden. Basically, my beloved little green space has been well and truly JACKED UP by a crazed under-gardener. James, our landscaper is due to arrive tomorrow for a quick inspection. And, assuming all is okay, work on the beds and pathways will start next week. I can’t wait! I’m so sick of scrubbing out dirty little paw prints from my light-beige carpet!

As the pond’s days are numbered we decided it was time for Mr Toad (the frog) to be moved. Little did Mr Toad know it but he was soon to be swimming around with the hoity-toity posh frogs up at the big house. He may just be a lowly garden frog but he was about to make one heck of a social leap. However, when it came to catching Mr Toad we found that he wasn’t alone in his murky and overgrown ditch. He had a friend - who suspiciously enough looked just like Mr Toad. Ah well - we’ll upgrade them both, we thought, and carted them happy away.

Then we found another frog, and another, and then another. In total there were five, identical frogs in our tiny one metre by metre pond. Cramped conditions indeed. Of course we relocated all of them to the posh pond up the road and they all seemed very happy.

But then I realised the gravity of the situation. Let me recap. There were five frogs living in my garden for the whole of last summer and my seedlings STILL managed to get munched away time and time again by the plague of slugs that infested my beds? Unbelievable! And they say that frogs are a gardener’s best friend. More like, lazy little beggers who live rent free in your pond, I’d say!

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The garden is slowly being cleared ready for the landscapers to start on Feb 14th. As you can see we have lifted the patio and all the brick pathways within the beds. We’ve also taken up all the Bath stone that surrounded the pathways, scraped up all the gravel from the larger pathways and removed the wood that made up the major beds. The frog is in shock.

It’s been a lot of hard work and it’s not done yet since we still have to remove all the tree stumps. A task for which we have bought quite possibly the coolest tool ever - a wrecking bar! Not only does it have a super crazy name but is also about 6 feet in length. It makes you want to hold it in a Karate stance while singing ‘Everybody was Kung-Fu Fighting’. And I would - if I could lift the thing! I suspect it might be a boy-only tool. Damn it.

But what’s it for? Well it’s the tool of choice for all discerning stump-removalists (apparently) so with at least 5 very averagely sized stumps to remove what else could we do but kit ourselves out with the best that Travis Perkins could offer? No really, we even bought some steel toe-capped boots and everything! Stumps - your days are numbered.

And… just a quick shout out to Freecycle - the best way to remove heavy stuff from your garden without actually lifting a finger. If you don’t have a group for your city then make one. Since clearing the garden we have advertised the stone slabs, concrete slabs, bricks, Bath stone and the bench. All have been claimed and most have been removed. Freecycle rocks!

A quick update on the plans for the garden. We had a quote from a couple of different landscapers and we decided to go with the nice chap who runs Littlescapes. We were very impressed with his work ethic, friendliness and all round dedication to the job. Plus he insisted on coming over to meet us face to face before he would give us a quote. Which made us feel special!

However, his quote was a little bit over and above what we had budgeted for. His quote was nearer to £10,000 and frankly we needed it to be nearer £6000. We did think about postponing the garden work until we could afford it but the thought of one season without anywhere to grow any veg made me feel sick. Plus we had systematically been burning bits of the garden for the last few months in anticipation of the new garden. We had already passed the point of no return. So we decided to knock a few items off the wishlist to bring the cost down. Henceforth, we will be doing without the following: waterfeature (always the first to go), lighting and electricity, cold frame (ouch), compost bins (again ouch), soil preparation plus plants and planting.

What’s left? I hear you ask. Hmm well… obviously the garden still needs clearing and some old stumps need removing. We’ll be doing that ourselves - well when I say we I actually mean Ryan. He’s already started on that - photographic evidence above. Littlescapes will be taking care of leveling the garden which is no small task, preparing the ground for drainage, laying all the pathways, making all the beds, and pruning and shaping plants and shrubs that are left.

Basically, they are doing the hard landscaping which will leave us a framework to work with. We’ll be doing the soil preparation and planting and Ryan will be building the compost bins (that’s my man). I’m still hoping to squeeze my brick-built coldframe in right at the last minute, but only if we can live on Macaroni Cheese between now and then.

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It’s started - the big clearout I mean. As you can see a while ago this was a jungle of matted climbers, trellis and fallen fruit. Now it looks like a garden in a suburb of a war-torn city. It’s not pretty I know but it’s what’s going on in my back yard right now in the name of garden design. I have the final plans and well basically everything is going except the Yew tree (don’t ask me why). We’re trying to clear as much of the greenery as possible before the landscapers arrive to give us their quote. Apparently, it will be cheaper the fewer times they tut and shake their head - so we’re trying to do as much as we can ourselves. Clearly, I’m rubbish at the moment. Tying my shoe laces is a daily challenge and so my part in the clearing is done in little fits and starts, followed by a nice cup of tea and a sit down. Ryan has done the bulk of the clearing - as Chief Neighbour Liaison Officer his job was also to inform next door when we had a bonfire to burn it all. They were very understanding. So this is where we’re up to. No pretty winter scenes for me, just mud and dirt and piles of rotting vegetation. I haven’t seen the frog for months - he’s in his pond thinking, ‘I don’t know what the Hell happened out there but my sorry little ass is staying put’ - he’s a smart doobie.

Change is a-foot at mtp. First, the bad news - I’ve given up my allotment (I know! I spent a week in mourning). But the good news is that I’m pregnant and have decided that growing vegetables in my own back garden will be much easier - at least for the next few years. Fortunately, my garden is pretty big and I have asked a local garden designer (Katherine Roper) to redesign it so that I can get the most out of it vis-a-vis vegetables, fruit and cut flowers. This is the plan that Katherine has come up with. I’m very excited about seeing it come to life.
Down the left hand side of the garden is a 10 foot high garden wall - perfect for training Apple and Peach trees. I will also have two Blueberry bushes in pots at the top of the garden, a Cranberry bush (hopefully) some Pear cordons and a Tayberry bush. I’m planning to have a row of Autumn Raspberries, one Blackcurrant bush and two Redcurrant bushes. Plus the obligatory Strawberry patch. So I think I have the fruit covered.
In the beds will be salad crops, potatoes, onions, garlic, peas, beans, sweetcorn, and pumpkins. All the stuff we like to eat. That leaves some space for cut flowers. These will be Peonies, Asters, Gladioli, Cornflower, Calendula, Tulips and a Rose arch. I have to decide what I want to grow in front of the Apple and Peach trees. We have Iris on the plan but I’m not sure I like Iris enough to have a whole bank of them!
The brown block at the top of the design will become a coldframe and there will be various evergreen plants, box bushes and shrubs dotted around to ensure the garden doesn’t look like a battlefield in winter. And that’s it - all we need to survive a minor world crisis.
So the next step is to create the final plans and get in the landscapers. More pics coming soon!