and this half still needs lots of work!
I've been really busy in the front garden ~ so much weeding, tidying and planting to be done out there. I've made really good progress on the dining room/bathroom side but am finding it hard to get going on the living room side. I think I must be suffering garden fatigue LOL
I thought I'd show you the barely-started side first, then the other side will look extra good ~ in theory, anyway!
When we moved to St Abbs the front border had an old, gnarly hedge which was long past its best. The arbour seat spent a whole year laying on the lawn!
Sadly the hedge was beyond saving, so Vernon and Mark cut it back and dug it out.
This was a fuchsia ~ a very large, old fuchsia ~ and growing so close to the wall that in places it was actually popping out through the stones on the other side! The pipe visible on the left is a soil pipe and as we were soon to discover, it was blocked by plant and root debris. Suffice to say, it wasn't a pleasant job for Chris to unblock it but we were mightily pleased when he did!
Lots of work to be done on this side of the garden, but it's so much better now that the old hedge has gone.
The lawn is in very poor condition, it's really taken a battering over this last year. I'm hoping that we will be able to rejuvenate it in due course.
Did I ever mention how much I have come to dislike sycamore trees? I don't know if this one was deliberately planted or if it self-seeded, but either way it was too close to the boundary wall and we had to have it taken down.
This photo shows just how close to the wall it was.
I truly don't like to see trees being destroyed but sycamores are simply too big for a garden of this size, especially planted so close to walls. As an added bonus, now that it has been taken down we have much more light coming in the side window of our living room.
It was all just a tangly, weedy mess here with quite a slope from the path to the lawn.
We got Chris to build a retaining wall with new sleepers. The garden still slopes, with the house being on a hill, albeit more gently now. It is definitely much better having two distinct levels.
We had another sycamore on this side of the garden, again planted too close to the house. We get a lot of strong winds here, and those branches would bash the roof like the whomping willow having a hissy fit in the Harry Potter books!
All three of these windows let in so much more light now that the tree has been taken down.
Another weedy mess. You can see the big crack in the path (beneath the garden chairs), caused by the tree roots.
When the bathroom wall was sorted out we were left with a lot of granite stones. I thought this would make a nice place to sit first thing in the morning (the garden faces east), so asked Vernon and Mark to make use of the stones by building a retaining wall.
We didn't have enough for both sides of the garden, which is why sleepers were used on the other side. Some of that rubble spread over the ground was removed and used to help fill a hole in the porch ~ but that is a tale for another post 😉
Vernon wasn't really convinced about my plan for the wall LOL but I think that it matches up very nicely with the original garden boundary wall.
The section of concrete path running across the house was removed. Chris and Brian then laid membrane and put down chippings. We brought the bench with us from our old garden; it's been lifted off the chippings by a couple of flagstones which had been taken up in the back garden.
Although it isn't that obvious from the angle of this photo, Chris built a small raised bed for me with more of the stones.
This is the garden when we first moved in. Over by the boundary wall is a tangled mess of neglected rosa rugosas.
The old hedge on this side was also beyond saving.....
as was the tree in the corner.
Vernon cut back the rosa rugosas very hard but they bounced back and produced a profusion of lovely flowers.....
and beautiful hips, which the blackbirds greatly enjoy.
The garden looks a little bare at the moment, but I have spent many hours online doing research for suitable shrubs and plants.....
a variety of which (shrubs) have now been planted. I'm hoping that by having more diversity of planting lots of insects will be encouraged into the garden, along with more birds as well. I have used bags and bags of bark chippings to help keep the weeds down!
I asked Vernon to dig out the rosa rugosas. They have been heeled-in temporarily in the back garden and won't go to waste, I promise! In fact I have already planted some in one of the new raised beds in the back garden 😊
The daffodils were already in the garden but had been swamped by the rosas. Last year they came through with rather sickly-looking leaves, but as the rosas had been cut back hard I think the daffodils were able to take in much more nutrition than they had probably done for a very long time. This year they have been absolutely gorgeous with healthy leaves and masses of blooms.
The garden is full of plant labels as aide memoires for me ~ whilst I may remember what a shrub is called, I'll be extremely hard-pressed to recall the actual variety! Admittedly they are rather noticeable at the moment (although being black they do blend in somewhat) but as the shrubs grow larger the labels should hopefully "disappear".
I'm not sure that this flowering currant was planted here deliberately as it's growing at a bit of a strange angle. I suspect it may have self-seeded as our neighbours have a lot of these shrubs in their garden. I've left it where it is as I quite like flowering currants (in moderation!), and of course the bees love it. I cut back some of the stems to help give it a somewhat better shape. I'm sure over time I can make it into a nice-looking shrub, and plants that flower so early in the season are to be treasured.
So, I think I've made a jolly good start with the front garden and I confess that it's very uplifting when our neighbours and passers-by comment on how nice it is looking 😊
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