This Ordinary Life

Our garden is finally taking shape.  Like a pheonix from the ashes, something beautiful is emerging.  The garden is almost unrecognisable from where we began 6 weeks ago.  There is still a long way to go, but the transformation is already dramatic.

So what have we achieved thus far?  Well, the decking has been laid creating an extension of the kitchen.  Although we don't have any garden furniture yet, the area is already being used extensively for bbqs and breakfasts.  The space is designed to break up the garden with and will lead out into a working vegetable garden beyond.

With regards to things you can do yourself, it's is well worth looking at building the decking yourself as you can make significantly savings.  A tip is to make sure that you have a car as I had to make 3 journeys on foot to my local DIY store to pick up additional timber when I realised I was short.  I carried two loads on my shoulder and one time had to rig up a make-shift "on foot" trailer to move 3 joists and a bag of cement.  A car would have made life much simpler and saved me a mild case of tendonitis!

Over the course of the next months, I'll share with you the development of our garden and share some tips of how to make the most of what you have on a budget. 

Posted by this ordinary life at 4:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As part of fixing up our flat, we need to "do the garden."  Now I've seen plenty of Alan Titmarsh's Groundforce to know that even a small space can be turned into an oasis. However, we need to first get our garden to Ground Zero before we can even think about creating our own Grand Design.

Part of this involves removing the weeds that have bedded in over the last 2 years. At first I thought this would be a walk in the park as there is a geotextile that covers much of the ground. However, once I began pulling this up, I realised that it is actually undermined by kilometres of tuberous roots.

It's seems a bit like something out of Attack of the Body Snatchers where you pull on the long roots, they keep coming and then eventually break off. I've filled two black bin liners already and there are likely to be 3 to 5 more before I am done. I am concerned that even though I've removed the bulk of the weeds, the fragments will re-establish themselves forcing me into trench warfare.  However, I do have a plan. Basically, I will dig up the first 12 inches of soil and sieve out the fragments. This will be very time consuming, but it looks like this is the only way to win.

By the way, I don't actually know what the weed (a plant out of place) is that I am battling. If you happen to recognise this plant (see picture), please let me know as knowledge is power in the fight against plants out of place!

Posted by this ordinary life at 10:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)