Our untidy bits of our gardens.

Very well done Jen,I know its very hard work,But its looking great,best of luck with the rest of it.

Thanks Callie, I would say that 95% of the garden is under control now so I can get on with those bits over the next few months. :-) looking forward to choosing some plants to fill in all the space I now have lol.

The corner of your drive looks so spacious now! Good on you for clearing it Jen! And you also did the green house/compost piles too!! Very efficient there I must say!!
It's really horrible clearing things but on the plus side it's very satisfying looking at it all nice and tidy after it done! Just the chicken coupe left now Jen ?. But am sure you will have that done soon too! ?X

Thanks Maggie, the corner is big enough for my daughters car lol. Had someone come around to price replacing the fence down the side of chicken coop and all along as it is falling down today and they want £2000! Think it will have to wait for a bit so I will only be able to take part of it down or Shadow would be able to get out. Ben doesn't go around there but Shadow is into everything!!!!

Jen, your untidy bits are tidier than ours! It's a great improvement and you must have worked hard.

We have several untidy sections: lots of piled up pots etc and dumped containers.

Actually asked for a skip delivery for last year's birthday but no one took me seriously. I meant it. The shed is full of "essentials" for the garden: weed killers, fertilizers etc. I would love to dump them all. (Is it legal?)

Anyone here have one of those waterproof "boxes" somewhere in the garden? I thought a couple could prove useful.

£2000? Oh dear! Next door are having a "house and garden make-over" and the present fence might have to come down. Better lay claim to the good sections now.

Eirlys: If, by waterproof boxes, you mean those large storage things that are only about 4 feet high, don't waste your money, they're a right pain in the proverbial; what happens is, you just pile everything in there and then can't get at anything. But if you mean the much smaller storage box that will only take smaller stuff like bottles and small tools, they're fine. As for dumping your old chemicals, I'm afraid they have to be taken to the tip and put in the correct area, not allowed to put them in the rubbish nor in a skip...

Great job Jen, the drive looks so much better and so much larger... and you might find you get a cheaper quote for fencing in winter, believe it or not, when its quieter for them. But if that figure includes for taking away what's there, supplying good quality fencing and erecting it, that's not too extortionate, that price.

Thanks Eirlys, I'm sure that once I've lived here for a while, I will have piles of plant pots. With the moved, I threw anything that did move and had a good clear out, only to find they hadn't and left what they didn't want here for me to clear :-). Sorry I haven't got one of those plastic storage things so can't say. Only reason fence will cost so much is it will be made and not panels and we want it 6ft with new concrete posts. They will have to dig out the old 4ft posts. Over the winter, a haulage yard applied for planning permission to move their business to the land the other side of our neighbours. Couple of weeks ago the permission was granted so we want the fence higher and very solid. We want to try and block some of the noise as part of the permission was to allow the working hours to be from 4am till 10pm, 6 days a week. You can imagine we tried to fight it but no luck. The company is going to sell aggregate, saw dust, mushroom compose and garden manure with hoppers on site loading it into bags. After trying so hard to stop it, I don't think I will be buying anything from him. The council agreed as they are trying to encourage rural businesses and there is only really 3 houses it will effect. Mine being one of them :-(.

Sorry, Bamboo, crossover. Yes it does include all that but as I have just paid to have a 6ft high, 25ft long trellis to be put up as old one had heavy Ivy growing up it and storm Doris knocked it down. Then paid for 2 trees cut down and stumps dig out I've got to wait a little while to get the money put aside :-). Finally talked hubby into getting rid of Mountain Ash as Shadow so stupid, he eat the berries and ended up at the vets. It was also about 20ft and only about 4ft from side of neighbours house which I didn't think was a good idea.Also had Cherry tree taken out as it had really bad Canker. Yes,the drive does look and feel so much better. Seeing it was getting me down. Hubby didn't want to take it in his car so kept saying we would hire a van but I got fed up waiting.

Money money money ah jen.......where's that winning lottery ticket when you need it! Lol. ?

I don't know how much space you could make where you want the fencing, but fencing does nothing to insulate against noise, although it gives privacy. Taller, evergreen hedging (something like Thuja plicata) is much more useful for insulating noise, although to be fair, you're gonna hear the racket whatever you put there, being its so close, but it should soften it more.

True bamboo. Only trouble is that it's all concrete along the side so they are going to break up where post go. It's for equivalent of 8 panels, then the 8ft wall starts that goes around the front. Hubby then wants to put a roof from fence to workshop and then he has seen some stuff to line inside of panels to help with noise. One of the sheds was placed straight onto the concrete so the bottom half has rotted over years so will get rid of shed and store some things under that. By getting rid of that shed, it also opens up greenhouse to more light. We did the same sort of lean to at our last house. Can't even see it from house as we have a conifer hedge between back garden and greenhouse shed area. Shadow, being his naughty self, crawls under the hedge when he thinks I'm not looking.

Maggie, maybe I should start buying a ticket :-).

That may help! Hehe

Bamboo, thanks for the info regarding the "chemicals". Obvious and safer solution; also the storage box advice. I'll save my money!

Well done Jen.....when people sell a house, they sign to agree to take everything with them. Our vendors left quite a lot in the garage , shed and loft and we told the estate agent so they arranged a clearance company to collect it and charged the vendors.

Thank you Paul. How is your lovely Granddaughter doing? As I was clearing it, I wished we had done the same but hubby didn't want to cause any problem since what we do for a living and they only moved about 5 miles down the road and everyone knowing each other. Already since being here, I've had 3 times where people have said to me about being a Southener and Southeners should go back down south. 2 said it in a joke but the other one meant it. Don't get me wrong, most people are very friendly and welcoming, so in end we decided not to rock the boat.

Oh blimey..... no the guy who we bought from wasn't known locally.He lived a long way away.He'd only ever lived in the house for a few months in 2007 and rented it out to various tenants for the next 7 years.
Fleur is changing each time I see her.shes just over five weeks old now. I just have this feeling she's gonna love being with her grandma and grandpa....I certainly hope so. We'll find out next Tuesday as we are having her all day as mummy and daddy have to go to her great granddad's funeral (her mum's granddad)
We are very excited at pushing a pram again. I shall give her a tour of the garden, too.

It will be lovely having her for the whole day, just a shame it's under such sad circumstance but I'm sure there will be plenty of other times over the years.

Don't know if you remember last year I said that my neighbours hadn't cut/topped off their conifer hedge by my greenhouse. Ive now asked them at leased 4 times and everytime they have said yes, well I'm still waiting and it's still getting higher :-(. This year I decided to add more colour any day have got some plug plants arriving but greenhouse is getting more and more in the shade!

neighbours.....who'd 'ave 'em? its very awkward if they've agreedbut still don't do it.
We are also hoping to take Fleur and her mummy to RHS Hyde Hall for a while on Sunday if it all woks out ok.

That will be nice. Hope it works out. Sorry about whinge about hedge. Fingers crossed I finally might have got them to finally do it. As their garden is a lot lower then ours I txt her this morning and said that if it is easier, they can cut it from my side as it has got very tall. She txt back to say she will send hubby around to do it tonight! :-) :-)

Oh, good.....let's hope he's as keen as her!

It didn't turn out well Paul, turns out she wanted it high enough to pretend that she doesn't have any neighbours.so was only taking a foot off what was about 10ft high. I wanted it cut back to around 6 1/2 foot so in the end my hubby had to come out with our long handle chain saw and they only agreed to having the middle bit by greenhouse cut. It looks a right royal mess!!!! She said how stupid previous owners where for putting it there, I think she wanted me to move it. I told her it couldn't be moved as it has a foot brick wall for a base. I'm not a very happy bunny.

Trouble is, it wasn't very good planning by previous owner to put a greenhouse by a large or potentially large hedge. Difficult, isn't it? I suppose you can't force them to cut it down.

Agreed with placing, and not that ive got a lot of time for previous owners but it is a old greenhouse that I would question which came 1st, the hedge or the greenhouse. Last night, as I was not in a happy place, I did some digging and it turns out that I can force them under the 2003, Hedge hight Act inforced by local coucils. They can make them take it down to lower then 2 metres to allow growth between pruning to come to 2 metres. Part of what is protected in this act in light to greenhouses. To use coucil there is a fee of £350. I really don't want to use this and I can understaind her wanting to protect her privacy but she wants to grow it so she can't see the building next door to me which is an old very tall victorian 2 storey industrial building so we are talking very high. I would like it just over 6ft. Think this might be my next blog as I didn't know about the high hedge act lol.

No, I didn't know but I wouldn't think it would be easy to enforce and make them keep it at that height, even using that act.

Oh My Goodness, what a lot of difficulties! I do hope you can all find some happy compromises to make life more enjoyable.

Bad previous owners leaving all that junk! We have 2 bikes left in our garden that no-one knew whose they were but it seems likely that they've been left by previous owners here. The people I bought from had owned 3 of the 5 flats in the house so more than likely them.

What an interestingly shaped wall you have at your driveway, and it looks really good now that you have cleared away the junk :)

Thanks Pamelaane, things haven't got any better with neighbours unfortunately but I have heard that in the next couple of years, they are planning on moving so there is hope. Fingers crossed the next people are better :-).

Did you find a good home for the bikes or were they only good for the tip. I love the front wall around my front garden. It was one of the reasons we bought it. The council built it as they were widening the road and previous owners wouldn't sell them the land, so in the end council came to an agreement that they would build a 8ft wall.

The bikes are chained up, that's why it took so long to realise that no-one here claims ownership. Not sure if they are chained to the property or just unrideable. I can't see anyone wanting them except for spares as the chains/gears have gone rusty, but they're probably good if cleaned up.

Maybe someone with a car can take them to the tip.