Gardening stuff
One of the reasons that made us choose to move into our house back in 2021 was the garden. We came from a house with 3 tiers of decking and a driveway at the front, not much greenery and not much space for the kids to play safely. We now have a front and back garden with an abundance of greenery and lots of space for the kids. But with the space comes lots of work.
The back garden has been the most challenging so far. The previous owners had basically neglected the garden once they were in the full throes of the house-sale process so it's been a constant battle with dandelions and nettles.
We had one Spring/Summer in 2022 where we just kept it as tidy as we could but we now have a clear vision for how we want the garden so we've started putting our plans in motion. The first job has been to tackle the weeds in the back garden. Over Spring, I've been picking seed heads off before they could drop seeds and then hacked back any vegetation and this weekend I played what I hope will be an ace card by covering the ground with membrane to deprive wannabe weeds of the light they need.
There's still a bit more membrane to lay down but we've now got about 80% of the problem area covered so by the end of this coming week, it'll all be done.
The eventual plan is to have lawn in the area you can see above. Whether we do it this year will come down to time and money. If we have to wait until next Spring, while not ideal, at least this should keep the garden looking slightly more tidy than it has done.
Was this dull as hell? Maybe but I'll write more in future as we work through the garden. Our plans are such that it can be approached in a fairly modular way, so we can do each bit as its own little project. The next job is to put in some raised beds so Lu can start growing some veggies and herbs.
It's not all a complete mess and a disaster. While there's lots wrong with the garden, we're still getting lots of use and enjoyment out of it so far and this year, I've been particularly enjoying spending my weekend mornings wandering around with a cup of tea and seeing which flowers are starting to bloom. To round this off, I thought I'd share a few photos I've taken over the last few weeks.
