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Liz ran the Potters Arf to raise money for Douglas Macmillan Hospice. Thank you to all sponsors!
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Race Pictures here.

In this release
07/09/2008

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Creating The Pond

In the Garden


Have you ever watched those TV programmes in which a relative has invited a team of experts to come in and do up your untidy overgrown garden in two days while you are away having a relaxing time with friends. Well it has never happened to us and it has taken 10 years rather than 2 days to transform our garden into something that is not just an over grown mess. Well, at least that was the idea. Doing the projects was the easy bit... keeping up the maintenance has proved more difficult, especially when the weather is bad. The weeds love the warm, rainy conditions. Our latest major project was renovating the gravel garden and turning it into a memorial to Andy.
	The Pond The latest feature added to our garden (May and June 1999) was a pond and rock garden. See us (or rather Mum and Dad) building the pond.
	One year on the pond is home to numerous insects, fish and frogs. The water plants and rockery plants are established and the pond is of great interest for both adults and kids. Keeping the blanket weed under control is a constant challenge!
	In 1999 we also redesigned the vegetable garden in an attempt to overcome the weeds that had defeated us year in and year out
	In 1996 we replaced the tarmac drive with a block paved drive. We reduced the width of the drive and edged it with neat kirb stones replacing the uneven stones. The plants in the containers have now grown and a number of wind seeded plants have begun to colonise the gravel. As the gravel is all laid over membrane it is easy to keep it weed free and only allow welcome plants to stay. To the left edge of the drive is a border of alpines.
	After severely pruning the holly tree there was plenty of room to plant a sack of naturalising daffodils. The picture shows them seven years after planting. By now we had also replaced the old tarmac drive way with block pavers bedded on sand and we had "softened" the edges with gravel laid on top of weed resistant membrane. Half a dozen small budlea form a back ground to the gravel and they come into their own when the daffodils have faded. It makes a wonderful buterfly garden in the Summer.
	For several years we grew excellent crops of potatoes in the top plot and a variety of peas, beans, carrots and salad crops in the smaller beds. Perpetual spinnach grew well and lived up to its name. Unfortunately the plot was too ambitious and it would have been a full time job to keep the weeds at bay. Evenings and weekends were not enough and two or three wet weekends in a row could turn the whole thing into a wilderness again, flame gun nothwithstanding. We had to rethink the whole design and came up with raised beds with blankets!
	In 2002 we built a greenhouse. We have successfully grown tomatoes, chillies, cucumbers and various other salad crops but unfortunately we do not have the time to get the most out of it. But we have plans.
	In the same year we also made an orchard which we sewed with meadow flowers. Unfortunately the very wet winter and the poor drainage of water from the nearby roads means all the surface water is delivered through our land damaging the fields and the orchard, even killing one of the trees. We have now put in new drainage, but we need to start again with the seeds.

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This page was last modified: September 10 2007 09:56:22.