Welcome

This first post will try to set the scene and over the next few days I will bring the Blog up to date with where the garden here at Rowan Lea is at.

We moved in December last year, and even though we had rented for a year I had spent a lot of time making that garden nicer for the people that rented it next, but it wasn't the same as having my own garden to create.

One of the things that appealed about this house was that the garden was effectively a blank canvas. The house is in hamlet alongside a main road and the garden isn't huge, but it is a nice size. Behind us there are a few houses and then just fields for miles. We don't have a front garden, but when we look across the road, the fields stretch away up the hill into the distance - crops in the first two fields (with hares) and then trees (the cemetery).

The garden in December was a concrete area outside the back door, a rectangular lawn, a paved path down one side and a narrow border on the other. At the end of the garden an area was 'paved' with large stone sets (very uneven) and offered space for a shed (which turned out to be rotten). There was a small 'rockery' using some stone and mostly concrete.

The first priority was to make space and site dog runs. We decided to put them right by the house on the ugly concrete slab. Dad came over and helped us set out some large (very large) concrete paving stones to extend the area. We put the runs up and the dogloos inside. Next step was to demolish the shed and then get a new one up. I bought a mini shed to stand by the dog runs, useful for storing dog food and tools initially, and a larger shed for the end of the garden.

I wasn't going to do anything else with the garden this year, prioritising the house instead, but I couldn't resist. I bought a few plants and decide to shape the lawn - its now a roughly 6m diameter circle. The rockery was overhauled so it was stone and not concrete and new shrubs went in - they are only tiny but they will grow.

An obelisk went in at the end (next to the gate) with passionfruit to grow up it.

Then I found some strange large grooved bricks buried in the garden - enough to make a curved path across the lawn with the stone sets placed between then and then carried on to make a small 'patio' at the end of the garden - still to be finished when the old shed timber is disposed of).

I had over ordered on the slate for the kitchen floor so there was enough to make a square patio at the top of the garden. There were enough 60cm square concrete slabs unwanted to make a raised hexagonal pond shape (will need lining etc).

I really wanted to take on an allotment BUT with a house to renovate it really wasn't practical so I put in three 1 metre square raised beds for veggies. (see separate post).

I have grown clematis and passion flower from seed as well as buying some in, and they will grow across the trellis fence along the concrete wall at one side of the garden and make a lovely backdrop. I brought some pots of alliums with us and they have flowered, although some kind slug ate the sides of the stems and some of them flopped - never mind they will go in the garden now and may be better next year.

We have a toad and a frog in the garden and loads of birds - see 'Blackies' post later on. We found three flatworms (think they were the NZ ones) and yet we have a huge earthworm population so maybe they do settle into a balance over time.

The soil condition is lovely - the worms have obviously been doing their work and this suggests that 'no-dig' is healthy for a garden.

I have dug so many unused slates out of the ground that I have been able to use them as a decorative mulch on a bed dedicated to ferns, hostas and sedges.