Hopefully in September I'll have a digger in the garden for a week or so to do all the big shit - there's no way I could do it with a spade - just clearing the 'berry beds' which I've sort of finished now is hard enough. I just want to give it a good clear up for the summer, so hopefully it won't put TOO much strain on my back!
It's going to take years just to give the whole thing some foundation or framework - and then hopefuly it can kind of look after itself (tho with constant work of course).
When we bought the house, it was a lovely garden, tho it did require a lot of TLC. The previous owners were always in the garden apparantly, but the husband died some years ago now and it became a bit much for her. The house tho was a deathtrap, but the pay off for me, was this garden. Long story, but we had a 4 year old and a 1 year old at the time - and I really didn't want to live in another building site like we had to do for 15+ years in our other house, but weighing everything up - this garden won.
Now that they're older, I've realised more than ever how important it is for me to sort this place out for them. I want them to come home and get out in the garden, instead of coming home, throwing their coats on the floor and looking for a computer. Drives me nuts.
That pic above used to be the allotment area - it was HUGE! It's grassed over naturally now after it became overrun with weeds, but that's going to be the football pitch. One of his good mates lives over the road and he has a small garden with goalposts but is obsessed with football - and I know he'd be over after school as much as he could to play footy with my son who loves a kickabout too, but his mate is obsessed and is driving his dad insane
They could kick a ball up there in perfect safety as much as they like, so that'll be two sets of happy parents. Then they can come round for pizza cooked in my beautiful pizza oven made from bricks we've either knocked down ourselves or taken from the pighut (which was smashed by a tree 'surgeon'), fired by a massive pile of sodden rotting wood you can see in the pic or by the ex-tree - with toppings collected from my Roma tomatoes, basil, asparagus, mushroom and artichoke etc growing in the garden.
Then at about 8 when everything starts to go into meltdown, fuck off home and leave a few of us to have some proper homegrown - a gin, wine made from my own grapes and maybe somehome grown weed if anyone fancies it.
This is a far off dream, but it goes something like that. I've got to start redoing the fences too. One side is all 3ft tall - a height I like. Can't stand high fences. One of the ideas I have is to grow berries mainly down the sides of the garden - that idea may extend to ALL fruits and veg - but I like the idea of neighbours helping themselves too - plus they are a damn sight more interesting than this fucking hedge on the other side with 3" thorns. Jesus fucking christ who planted this fucking thing? The war ended in 1945 you stupid c*nt! I also like the idea that a say 4x1m strip of raspberries would only be 6 foot tall, and therefore acting as a hedge (screen), for only a few months till it gets chopped back to the ground each year, so you can enjoy a time of privacy occassionally, but you're not clocking off from people which is what 6ft fence panels are all about.
Fences down the left are going to be a foot tall (staggered probably as up a slight slope), made from decking somebody was throwing out in a skip - I'll never be able to stop looking in skips - I'm like the two characters in Windowlicker when it comes to skips. On my side it'll be a raised border - but need to post it all first. Shit me. Raised is key though, as with only a 120cm depth of strip, you'll struggle competition wise with grass, and I'm already pushing it. You could get two lines of spuds in tho. I think.
I'm on the look out for more skips of decking which I'm hoping to see this spring. The plan is to scorch the decking (and all other wood) with a blow torch till its charred black, then rubbed down, sanded a bit then oiled. It's an ancient Japanese method of preserving wood. Looks good too. It's not going to last 1,000+ years like it has done in Japan, but it'll look good and it'll be fun to do.
I've spent most evenings these last few months designing it. This is a night off. Up the Reds.
