Across the Pondlife

Slowly, slowly does it.

This weekend we spent at the new house, I wanted to do more work on the garden and get in a few more plants and mum and dad were coming down to do some odd jobs.

I had a list as long as my arm, but as usual, we didn't manage it all.

When we bought the house, we knew that LMB would be taking the smallest room which is not much more than a box room, however, at the time, I was so excited that this house seemed to tick all our boxes that I didn't really put my practical head on and think about where things might fit.

Fortunately my dad saved the day by producing my sister's old cabin bed that he'd dutifully stored in his loft (see there are some benefits of being a hoarder!). He needed to do a few repairs on it and replace the sides which were victims to the flood in his garage back in around 2000, but to cut a long story and day short, she now has an amazing 20 year old cabin bed complete with shelving, cupboards, desk and a small wardrobe underneath, taking away all the issues as to where we'll be putting her furniture! She's in seventh heaven that she has a bunk, my dad is in seventh heaven that his ceiling is no longer bowing with the weight of a cabin bed in the loft and I'm in seventh heaven that i won't have to store her clothing in a wardrobe on the landing, a total win-win!

Here are some pictures of the garden.
What you have to try to imagine is that a month ago, the soil was over grown with herbs that had gone wild, shrubs that were dead and bushes that were rampant. There was garbage and trash all over the place that had blown in and hadn't been cleared away. One of my first reactions on arriving at the house last month was sadness. I was sad that the tenant hadn't loved the house like we hoped, sad that we'd not thought to have a gardener come around to keep on top of the beds and sad that there was so much work to do.

Of course, there still is tons and tons of work to do, however, I do now, have the early rumblings of a proper vegetable patch. In my head, of course, it's complete, I have my beds in and everything is growing hard and strong, there are no weeds and no slugs...hmmm, let's see what it will be like when I return at the end of the month!

 I have potatoes and peas in, strawberries, currants and herbs. Still to go in are the rhubarb, currants and berries that I've planted here in pots, some beans and we'll grow courgettes in pots again as they do take up a lot of space.
There is around a 15ft x 5ft space for my chickens in front of the fence.

 This is my herb garden, with a selection of plants including thyme, comfrey, lovage, chives, rosemary, lavender etc.

This shows the division of the beds a little more clearly along with my CD bird scarers.

This is a front corner of the house. I'm intending to remove the interesting wooden feature to the left of the picture and use the wood to make large trough like planters to go against the trellis fencing. The circle of grass will become my mini orchard. I have a couple of gala apple trees, couple of plums, that's a cherry you can just see with the deer protector around it and I'm getting a greengage for my birthday. Behind the conifer in the far corner of the picture is enough space for my bees when I eventually get around to those.

All in all, it's a work in loooooooong progress, but I'll keep updating the pictures when things change.
Slowly, but surely.