I am so proud of what we've achieved. This is the first thing you see when you arrive at our house so it was really getting me down that it was full of rubbish. However I didn't just want it tidied up - I wanted a garden instead of the broken concrete and rubble that just seemed to act like a magnet to mess.
In case you've forgotten this is what we are talking about.....
This was the view from my front door taken on the 15th May 2015. You can see the bags of compost on the area to the right which are the remains of a raised bed which ran along the wall. A few inches below the compost was a really thick layer of loft insulation. Never come across this before. Perhaps it was to keep the roots warm! The area under the bags was a mix of broken slabs and concrete with our coal bunket sat on top. Not the nicest of views from your kitchen window. The wall along the back had been repaired using expanding foam to fill the gaps which was then painted white. The area to left of the image is a collection of salvage materials, rubbish and a large pile of logs. Looking ahead into the parking area is the remains of a terraced garden I put together when we moved in with an assortment of building materials and tools. Lovely!
First job was repairing the terraced area behind the carpark or "back of the top" as we refer to it.....
I also repaired the damaged area around the window using lime render....
Then it was time to graft! We started to dig out the concrete.....
This.... became this.......
But left us with this......
So rather than keep taking endless bags of rubble to the tip we decided to use it more creatively and do a bit of landscaping....
Although it doesn't look promising we ordered 2 tons of top soil which we then had to barrow down the lane. By 10.30 we'd moved the first ton.....
After a lunch break of course.......
And by tea-time we had created this......
The following day we sorted out the remaining rubbish in the parking area and created a fire pit in front of the "back of the top". This area sits at the bottom end of the lane so we are hoping it will draw in some of our neighbours for sociable evenings round the fire....
The area on the left will become a tumbling cottage garden which rises towards the wall meaning we can now look over the battlements and is more interesting than a flat garden. On the right we have planted a herb garden with a bird feeder station that sits outside the window (much better than a coal bunker). The grotty wall has a new lime render to cover the expanding foam which I did my best to dig out. A narrow bed runs below the wall which will have peas and sunflowers underplanted with salad.
Finally we were ready for the inaugural lighting up ceremony!
We are now just awaiting the arrival of a table and chairs and a rose arch to sit at the end of the pathway and the "top garden" will be complete. Grow palnts grow! I think this is a much better first impression for our home :)
