Garden plans updated - A cop out!?

So, it seems, the eternal excuse of not enough free time has meant the back garden has not received any of the attention it has required over the past couple of years. Frankly, it seems, I am not the green-fingered gardener that my father and grandfather both were. Plus, let's face it, I am very lazy.

However, a new plan has been hatched. We're planning to try to create a wild garden space for our back garden. Allowing "weeds" to grow and only pulling those which we feel either aren't aesthetically pleasing enough and/or are in the wrong place. Our garden is blighted with horsetails at the moment, so they need pulling as soon as possible to allow more favourable plants room to grow.

We also plan to invest in a lot of planters, allowing us to grow vegetables and herbs to be used in our kitchen. A wise move, we feel, with food prices being what they are at the moment. That is not to say we won't be planting any traditional garden plants and flowers. I still have a plan to place some rose bushes near to our patio doors and I hope to include several varieties of flowering plants to add such much-needed colours. But the general aesthetic we are aiming for will be a wild and overgrown English garden.

We have a very rough canvas to work with in the beginning (see photo above) and our primary aim is to provide a good habitat for local wildlife. Insects and birds, I hope, will be attracted by the wide variety of plants and plenty of sheltered, private spaces. We also hope to have a nice outdoor space to sit in when the weather allows.

Watch this space for future updates as to what we do to bring this project forward.

Product Review: Kingfisher GHWOOD Wooden Greenhouse

A couple of months ago, I decided I needed a mini greenhouse to protect some of my plants from the worst of the winter frosts. I'd had polythene stretched over metal frame-type "greenhouses" before. While they were good on my urban apartment balcony, which was very sheltered, they had a tendency to be blown all over my much more open suburban garden.

So, as the garden centre was closed due to lockdown, with no small amount of uncertainty, I turned to Amazon.

Kingfisher GHWOOD Wooden Greenhouse, Transparent, One Size

The product arrived in good time, which is a good sign. It was easy to screw together with just a simple phillips screwdriver. Once it had been put together, I was impressed by the sturdiness of the structure. The doors at the front and top, for me, did not close flush with one-another. If that becomes a problem to me, I can see it being a simple matter of affixing some flexible plastic to the inside to block the offending gap when closed. An easy remedy.

The greenhouse is a good size and has ample room, both in the cold-frame at the top and the shelves within the main body. The plastic "windows" are not 100% transparent, but they do let in sufficient light.

The wood is generally good quality and, as I said, the construction is sturdy enough with - judging by the product I received - good quality control. The surface is very porous, though, so for my own peace of mind I have elected to use a wood treatment to try to stave off any weather damage.

All in all, I have no qualms about recommending this product. It is very reasonably priced at 99.95UKP (at time of review).

Neorxnawang rating: 4/5

A disappointed year

You would think the events of 2020 would have improved my chances of getting the garden sorted once and for all. Somehow, though, working from home five days a week kind of brewed a reluctance to tackle the garden, for some reason. I do, however, plan to make a better job of it come 2021. One obstacle, though, is my wife's insistence that we landscape the back garden area to give more lawn space for our daughter. That will take some time, money saving and probably can't be started for a while anyway due to lockdown measures and such. This means that she is reluctant to have me do any major work on the garden because its current layout isn't as she wants. I, however, would rather do some work in the garden now, even if that will then be undone however many years in the future. I also can't help but think we are a bit late to create lawn for our daughter. She is nine years of age now (going on nineteen) and, by the time we get the back garden landscaped, there is probably very little time left in which lawnspace would be important to her. More likely she might want to spent a summer afternoon on a sun lounger on our (already extant) decking. Still, while I can't make large purchases for the garden without my wife's signoff, there is nothing stopping me doing a little work and maybe adding some plants to brighten the place up a bit. Watch this space.

A gardening promise for 2020

Okay, so we have been moved into our humble little semi for around 6 years now. It is well passed time we did something with the garden. Not only to personalise it and make it feel more "ours", but also to provide an outside space of which the whole family enjoy taking advantage.

The grand landscaping dreams we had when we first moved in have been tempered by familiarity and laziness and now we intend to indulge in some heavy duty planting to add colour and depth to our currently very lacklustre back garden.

Already this month, we have tidied the space a little and made some plans for what we want to do. All we wait on now is some better weather.

More attention to the garden required!

Spent much of the bank holiday weekend tidying up the garden. Weeding, pruning, turning over the soil...

Now it looks a little tidier and my body is considerably achier.

We have a guy coming around to value our house for our upcoming remortgage, so a tidy garden could only help improve his opinion of our home sweet home.

We have plans to work our garden into a traditional "english country garden" style, with plants overgrowing all over the place and a laissex-faire attitude to weeding. Our only problem is that the previous owner had exactly the opposite attitude. Leaving shale and gravel everywhere to discourage weeds and rather underwhelming choice of plants.

We have a lot of work ahead getting all the gravel up so we can do a bit of planting.

We're also considering having vegetables growing in planters and baskets to supplement our kitchen stocks.

Watch this space!

Winter doldrums

Garden is deep in winter slumber. Half overgrown with weeds in places. The decking having a coating of grime that I will strive to remove when the weather gets a bit better.

When we have such big plans for the garden, it is frustrating to have to wait out the winter months before we can put any of our plans into action. Frustrating, but probably better for our family bank balance.

As I come from a family of gardeners, I feel pressure to have our back garden transformed into a little patch of paradise as soon as possible. Both my Dad and Granddad were big gardeners, spending a lot of their free time looking after their respective patches. Both of them had large gardens. Mine is smaller, but I hope to mould it into something they both would be proud of and happy to work in.

Big plans

Managed to pay a little overdue attention to the garden this last weekend. Mostly weeding and tidying up. Some pruning, ready for winter. Most markedly of all, though, we measured the dimensions of our garden. Vital task if we are to complete the massive makeover we intend for 2017.

Just a little over 9m by 5m is a fairly modest size for a back garden. Our front garden came already pretty much as we wanted it, so won't be getting much attention from us and isn't included in these plans. We intend to pull up the paving slabs that constitute the upper part of our drive and lay a lawn there. Somewhere for our daughter to play, considering we don't really use our garage or back garden to store our little Vauxhall Corsa.

Then the decking, that we had originally planned to pull up, is being kept. The location is just such a sun trap and so right-feeling that we already dream of lazy summer afternoons and late evening drinkies there.

Well, the plotting and planning are, at least, something to keep our minds busy over winter.