The Wades Garden

Patio

2011-10-27T01:39:00.001-07:00

Just a quick post today. I am off to see a show tonight, and need to do some prep. Despite the weather the patio is almost completely down. Need to lay near house, then pointing needs doing. But wow is it looking good, I can see how the garden will look around it now. I'm excited.

Rain?

2011-10-26T02:08:00.001-07:00

Just after this picture the heavens opened. Alot of rain, but seems to have stopped now. Popped out last night to get a new whirlygig, and look at pots, plants and fence ideas (for the veg garden, I have little doggies and I want to keep them out.) Very excited about these steps, but they are gonna cost quite abit obviously, so let's get this patio out of the way.

Marking out and prep for main part.

2011-10-25T02:33:00.001-07:00

(Sorry photos are sideways, they come from my XOOM tablet, and blogger has no way to turn them.)
So we have began. My hubby and brother (who is a very skilled bricky) have been busy with spades and pick axes. And we have the first lot of patio space marked out. The space down the right, with the tree parts, is going to be pickett fenced off, to be our veg. I get to plant the rest. The back we haven't decided on yet. It may be pathed at another date and a small lean to green house or budge avery (or what ever I can fit) put there. Might just be a relaxing seating area?

Time for change.

2011-10-15T03:03:00.001-07:00

We let the garden grow for a few years and have discovered its not as great as first impressions, even putting a few of my own plants in has not helped. When i first glanced at the garden I called it a mature garden. I can now add to that, it is an over matured garden. There was an old lady in this house before us, and i think perhaps her sons came over now and then, mowed lawn, cleared up, pulled up 'everything' not a shrub and hacked back everything else in winter. Touching on some of the problems with the garden due to this. What i though was uneven grass turned out to be uneven ground, dips and hills everywhere, enough to pull your hair out, and to top it up the whole garden is gently sloped, so all rain takes garden towards house. A few days rain means all pathing slabs are covered in mud and need excavating! Not much grows apart from the years weeds. Some nice hostas, londons pride, a few aqualegias but not as much as you would expect from a mature garden. But what makes it worse is all the growing plants have been hacked back badly for so many years that they are nothing much than a huge ball of dead bits that throw up a few weedy shoots a year. Sadly I hate to say it but most the fuchsias (and other scrubs) need to be put to rest. Not much is worth saving, 2 trees ( magnolia and lilac ) and some icelants are about it.
So we could either live with a garden we were having trouble loving and try bit by bit to make it smile. Or blow a lot of money making it just so. After a year of ignoring the garden ( blush ) we have gone with mostly the latter idea.
Firstly there was the hugest conifer ever right next to both our house and the neighbours, which is now mostly down. So we can begin. In a week, a digger is going to destroy the place to fix the place. Then the grass area is going to be replaced with slabs. Down one side will have a small veg patch for me and the kids, and the edges will be free for me to plant. It's going to take a couple of years with our busy lives to get looking as amazing as I in vision, but the start is here....

Changes so far

2008-05-07T01:52:00.000-07:00

End of April

End of March

End of Feburary

time for some photos

2008-03-30T15:43:00.000-07:00

News for the future

2008-02-12T13:53:00.000-08:00

We are getting a new garden to play with....

We are due to move house in the next few weeks. This is the garden we will be gaining with it. It's another small one, but with four children I really can't be spending much time gardening.
It needs alot of love to clean it up, but is quite mature, i can't wait to see what grows up. I am going to tempt to leave it for the first year, and add nothing, only tidy. I want to see what a year brings before i play with it. So the first photos will be mainly what arrives.

This is a beautiful huge camelia. It has hundreds of buds, so the first burst of colour as we move in.
Do i dare try to dig up some of my plants to come with me????

I love fuchsias

2007-06-11T06:58:00.000-07:00

We haven't done anything radical in the garden this year, but i have been trying to get a few things flowering. I love fuchsia and rose and lucky they like my garden, so geting on well with those.

This is my favourite, hardy bush fushsia called Tom Thumb. Below is a hanging basket just taking off.

My hydrangea has fully established into the garden this year, as if has gone from the blue we bought it to a pink

Vivienne has some courgettes and runner beans planted and they are growing nicely along with some wildflower seeds i set in, i shall get pictures of those this week.

sighs all round

2007-03-07T16:08:00.000-08:00

well after going away during the hotest 2 weeks last year, we decided to give up!! Everything dried to a crisp except the beautiful vine weed!
So new year, new start. IF only it was not for all this bloody rain we have had so far this year. On looking back at blog last year i see we was pottering in the garden in feb, it's almost mid march now and we still can't even get near the bog of dead weed and grass.
A few plants survived the heat last year and have started sprouting and such. My budleja got huge, as soon as i can get outside to chop it back i'll take a pic of it's size. My hebe produced the most beautiful flowers at the end of the year which surprized me. And it seems my hydrangea lived through it's cripsy period and is sprouting out fresh new growth for the year ahead.
I wonder what else survived? Pleeeease let me have a few dry days so i can get out to clear up and see what the spring is bringing me.

Oh Dear

2006-08-23T10:59:00.000-07:00

This all went pear shaped..this year has been so busy....and we have the most mega of vein weeds...
Shall work out next year......
(but the plants that i planted are still growing well, amonst the vein weed!!)

Slooooowly

2006-03-08T09:17:00.001-08:00

The weather has been terrible, so not much has been done.
We have our allotment, but, we are not paying for it till April, as we are getting the top skimmed off for us by the council then, which hubby is very pleased about. We have been looking through what we will be planting this year to make sure we will not be affected by starting late, and this year we should be fine. I shall be keeping updated with photos.
Monday we had a day of sun, so i got outside to dig over and weed my beds. We planted the 'tesco value' bulbs... It made it look alot better. Since then we have had rain, but hubby did still get outside and cut back the naughbours bushies, it's made the garden look much bigger.

Dug over

2006-02-15T15:03:00.000-08:00

Today (first none raining day this week) i locked hubby out in the garden to finish the digging over he began, so we can start to decide whether we will turf, or pave. We think pave with lots of bedding, it will be more ideal for the kids what with the garden being so tiny ( to read hubbys blog go to www.shadows2k.blogspot.com )

Hubby bought a few little bits and pieces for me this week, a couple of hosta and tricyrtis plants, and (get this) 'tesco value' bulbs of freesia, anemone, gladioli and dutch iris. We'll see if they actually come up this year.

This blog might be taking on an extra content too, as we are going to choose an allotment from a couple of plots next week. I am dead pleased. Will probably mainly be raspberries, blackberries, and some such put in this year, but will be really good. Proper hippy homeschool family we will be then!!!

some plants

2006-02-10T05:50:00.000-08:00

Thought i would add a couple of the plants i have in the garden..that i am hoping will be lovely, beautiful and big this year. The photos of the whole garden didn't really show them.
This one is my budleja (butterfly plant) The dark part right in the middle is the size it was when i bought it, all the soft silvery part is the growth thats been going on all winter. I know these things can get huge, which i am excited about, and i can't wait to see the butterflies arriving.

This one is my dahlia cezanne. When the shoots started coming through i chopped off last years growth (i like to keep it as protection from the frosts) I have just treated it like a hardy plant..but on looking up dahlias they are a bulb or root bulb, and if it gets too cold you can pull it up for winter, but mine has been quite happy up on the patio. I think this is beatuiful, but sadly will have to wait till late summer for the full bloom.

This is the rose i found at the end of the garden, looks like it was a huge plant once upon a time. The growth is lovely and green. It was very weak looking, so i have hacked it right back. Being a rose it should come back good this year. I think it has a light pink flower, looking at the one dead one that was on it when we moved here.

And for Nicki (and cause it is my fav at the moment) Here is a close up of buds on my hydrangea. I kept the blooms on all winter to protect it from frost (and because they go quite beautiful, amost skeleton like) I have now cut off about 1/3 of last years growth, to stop it getting to big, but to make sure some of last years growth is still there, as with hydrangeas thats were most of the flowers will come from. Buds have already started quite nicely on mine, so it helped judge were to chop! I wonder what colour it will be! It stayed true blue all last year, but it is still newly planted for a hydrangea. It has a great spot with good dranage at the moment. I can't wait for flowers.

welcome

2006-02-08T04:16:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my new blog (a branch off from www.thewadesblog.blogspot.com)
I have gained the tinyest little postage stamp sized garden, that was a jungle of weeds. Last year we cut back the weeds to start a 'mini' lawn with a few plants. I grew up with a huge garden in norfolk with my VERY green fingered mum and dad, and feel strange with no flowers. When we got a lawn started we discovered the floor was a little 'bumpy'!! so have decided to re turf this year (notice the starting of dug over garden on right)

Last year i planted a few things...this was my hydrangea, which is nicely budding already now and i have cut it back. we planted lots of violas which are getting quite big, and a couple already have flowers this year. And i have high hopes for my buddleja which was planted tiny last year, and has continued to grow through out the winter (right at end of garden on right) There were no plants left in the garden other than a very sad looking rose which i have cut back very hard, i am going to give it lots of love, i hope it flowers this year, would be nice to tell what type it is.