SMALL GARDEN IDEAS: A SMALL GARDEN OVER THE YEARS

It's nice to look at images showing how my little garden has progressed over the years since I moved into my home in October 2009. There was no garden as such back then, just grass, intrusive shrubs and a bench. Apart from things like patios, shed, fencing, garden room, hose, awning, and fixing hanging basket brackets to walls, everything else is my work. As a disabled gardener with a balance problem of over fifteen years, I can't say it hasn't been challenging but the satisfaction of having done it all myself is worth the scrapes and bruises.

Below, December 2009. Two months after moving in and a new shed has been erected on a concrete base. Neighbouring shrubs (left) have encroached by several feet and will need to be cut back. The other neighbour's shed is shown on the right. There is no fencing at all on the boundaries, no privacy, nothing against which to plant climbers, and that clothes-line pole will have to go.

2009, December

Below, January 2010. Neighbouring shrubs have been cut back and the boundary fenced. It's looking very stark but tidy and clean. The shed looks to be in the wrong place now the fence has gone up and the shrubs hacked back. It is cutting off sunlight to the left of it in the photograph and it seems like a waste of space. The white plastic bags are filled with loamy compost as neighbours or occupiers of the property must have been dumping garden waste into the corner of the garden for years. When the builders came to erect the fence, they had to dig out what they thought was just earth, piled up in the top left corner; but I recognised it for what it was and had them bag it all up. It went onto my borders in time.

2010, January

Below, February 2010. Old narrow and mossy path along the bungalow wall removed and a broad patio area put down which has been very worthwhile. At the top of the garden, the shed has been moved onto a new base, opening up the garden and allowing more sunlight into that top left corner. The old base has been extended into a patio area for table and chairs. But the grass has suffered terribly with builders' feet. The clothes pole had to go. Useful as it might have been, it was in the way. I could have used it to hang baskets from, or grow a climber up, if it hadn't been stuck in such an awkward place.

2010, February

Below, April 2010. A nice spot for my marble table and chairs. Eventually, I had to move them down to the patio close to the bungalow because the neighbouring trees were shedding onto the table and causing problems. Still, a lot of work to be done. Solar lights can be seen at ground level at the base of the fence in narrow borders. The original grass is reviving but still poor. It was soon to be covered with a fine layer of topsoil, reseeded and nurtured.

2010, April

Below, May 2010. The borders, left and right, have been widened and the roses, that I so love, and other climbers planted. The lavender didn't survive the harsh winter. The grass now looks like a lawn and Alfie, my Ragdoll cat who is 11 months old in the photo (now 14) is patrolling his territory.

2010, May

Below, July 2010. What a difference a couple of months can make. The garden area now looks more like a garden with roses flowering in the borders. I bought a mini-greenhouse which is next to the shed, and it comes in very useful for overwintering the more tender herbs and for storing pots over winter. I invested in the hammock/swing which I love so much; it actually drops flat into a double bed! You can see potatoes growing in bags and a tomato plant lapping up the sun in its pot, placed on the lawn temporarily. Stepping stones have been inserted into the lawn to try and spare it from wear and tear.

July 2010

Below, May 2011. A wider border has been dug out next to the top patio area. It was a killer for me to do. A man I hired to dig the borders had simply flicked over the turf and taken the money so I had to do it myself but the soil is full of rocks; no wonder he ripped me off. The hammock/swing and the mini-greenhouse have been moved around as I found it far too hot sitting on the swing when the sun was out, and moving the greenhouse and swing means that I have far more room on the patio for growing things.

2011 - May

Below, July 2011 I'm amazed at the changes between May and July. In fact, so amazed I h ad to double check the dates in the Properties section of the images. Of course, I have to share the credit with Mother Nature who really is Earth's best gardener. The lawn is starting to look good too. Although my garden doesn't have the traditional 'cottage garden' look, it is a mixture of ornamental plants, vegetables, and fruit (raspberries and loganberries planted against the back fence).

2011 - July

Below, August 2011 I cannot believe how wonderful the lawn looks. It's like a mini bowling green. It's great to look back at it all. I gave up on trying to grow vegetables when a Vine Weevil invasion in later years destroyed so much.

2011, August

Below, 2012. Unhappy with the limited space within the south-facing border (left as face the top of the garden) which gets most of the garden's sunlight, it has been widened and curved to facilitate more plants. The soil was heavy with clay and there was a lot of sandstone rock (I think a dry-stone wall must have been levelled at one point in the past and soil spread over it) but spent compost from containers, baskets, etc which contained healthy plants, has been incorporated so it's quite rich now.

2012, widening the borders

Below, 2012 the shadier border still gets plenty of sunshine and the plants in it are tolerant of partial shade. The honeysuckle - Lonicera periclymenum Scentsation - is putting on a fine display and provides red berries in the winter. It became a permanent feature.

2012

Below, 2012. Plants are taking over not just the borders but in hanging baskets and trough on my home's wall. The photo was taken from the comfort of the hammock/swing.

2012

Below, July 2013. An electronic awning worked by remote control has been fitted above the kitchen window to give some shade on the sunniest of days not just to me but eventually to ferns which I planted at a later date. A new storage box fits nicely behind the gate and holds all the pots and bits and bats of gardening stuff leaving space in the small shed for other things. A hosepipe reel and outside tap have also been fitted to make life easier.

2013

Below, 2014, panoramic view of garden. For a couple of years nothing changed much. The lawn is looking good.

2014

Below, 2015 - panoramic view of garden very similar to the year before. The honeysuckle has taken off and my neighbour tells me she is enjoying the fragrance of the flowers which blows her way due to the direction of the prevailing wind.

2015

Below, April 2016. I am no winter garden and I thought I would share a photo of how different it looks in winter, so bleak, when almost everything is dormant but it is spring now and there are tulips and daffodils, and scatterings of primroses blooming. It was hailing at the time of the photo which is nothing unusual on the Pennines of West Yorkshire at this time of year.

2016 April

Below 2017. Massive changes took place this year. The old fence (which had started to rot and blow down) replaced in March with concrete posts, gravel boards, and fencing panels that slotted in and are easily replaceable. I shouldn't ever need to entirely replace the fence again and the choice of 'shadow panels' where the panels are staggered allow the passage of both air and light while retaining privacy.

2017 March

Below, in June 2017 I designed a custom-made garden room which was exciting to do. It is only 9ft x 7ft, has a fibre-glass roof so that it is resilient against the weather, birds, and anything else which might cause it to perish. Although I never had heating put it, it has insulated walls, double-glazing with UV filtering glass, and is of solid cedar so that I never have to paint or treat it in any way. At the same time, I had built a mini-shed to fit a small space and the old one taken away. I asked the guys permission to take their photos as they assembled the garden room which was made offsite. They kindly protected my lawn while they worked.

2017 June

Ecotherm classing, top quality cedar (I asked them to be carefully selective which cedar they chose), and uPVC window frames holding UV filter glass; hence nothing inside the garden room fades from the sun's rays and I am protected from the rays too.

June 2017

Work on the garden room is almost finished and the protective fibreglass was put on last. We were blessed with fine and dry weather that day.

June 2017

I was left to finish the inside of the garden room. The workers had put up a high shelf all around it for quirky my quirky ornaments and suchlike, then I set to painting the panels and ceiling with a 5 year guarantee bathroom emulsion which protects it from the danger of fungus during colder, wet months. At the back of the garden room is guttering and I arranged for the water to drain off the roof and into a water-butt at the side. The tap on the water butt is left open so that the escaping water actually waters the plants which are in a dry spot at the base of the fence; the wind and drain generally head towards the opposite fence so those plants are well watered by the weather. You can see the dwarf James Grieve apple tree in its pot is providing a good supply of apples.

June 2017

The garden room reminds me of a Japanese Tea House and I love how it looks when the double doors are open although they rarely are. I had special thermal roller blinds made for the windows and doors and I stuck hummingbird stickers onto the glass, not just for aesthetic reasons but to deter birds from flying into the glass when the blinds are up. The pink flowering plant you see is Thalictrum 'aquilegifolium'.

June 2017

Below, 2018. There are no major changes to the garden except the dwarf James Grieve apple tree that was in a pot has now been planted in the border in front of the garden room.

2018

Below, 2019. Again, no major changes except an RSPB bird bath has been added. The birds and squirrels tend to drink from it which is not quite the idea of it but they must use it as they please. However, I do wish the Wood Pigeons would stop pooping in it as I keep having to clean it out. The only bird i have ever seen bath in it is a magpie, just the once.

2020 - Collared Doves on the washing line waiting for me
to throw seed on the grass.

Below 2020. The image was taken from under the awning above the kitchen window, a cool place out of the sun. This is the time when my blog came to a standstill for over two years. Starting with the outbreak of Covid, the world started to go crazy and I became reclusive. My garden became my port in the storm and I had my Ragdoll cat Alfie, and plenty of wildlife to keep me company. It's so peaceful when children are in school and lawnmowers are not to be heard. Then, all I hear, is birdsong. It's so healing.

2020

Below, 2021 and now I pretty much let the garden do as it pleases. As I age, the garden matures. All I do is pull out the occasional weed, mow the lawn, and give a quick prune to anything that it is getting out of control. All healthy trimmings go in the compost bin which provides some excellent garden compost now and then. Otherwise, the garden tends to itself which is how I planned it. Kinda. This is a rather distorted image which makes the small garden room look smaller than it is. The Japanese maple, Acer palmatum 'Katsura', on the left is growing well.

2021

Below, 2022. The dwarf James Grieve apple tree is amazing, yielding several pounds of crisp and sharp apples each late summer; I really look forward to them as you cannot buy this variety in the shops. Unfortunately, it has developed canker on its trunk so I have treated that by chiseling out the canker and coating it with Provanto Arbrex Seal & Heal in the hope it is cured. A couple of years ago I planted an Egremont Russet apple tree opposite to the James Grieve; as yet it has not yielded much but maybe in time it will do better. If it doesn't, it will be removed and replaced.

2022 August

Sadly, a few years ago, I had to get rid of all but two roses as I kept getting injured on them when I lost my balance but now there are the Japanese maples, lilacs, and so many other things taking their place to make up for it and I still have the roses New Dawn and Wild Eve which give me little trouble on the fence alongside the compost bin in the shadier border. Both varieties of rose tolerate some shade.