What I did this summer..... or will do this summer....

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We moved into our house last October and promptly went on holiday for three weeks – we’d bought the house a year before and had it rented out, so although the garden had been tidy, there hadn’t actually been anything growing in it – other than a large pot of bamboo. By the time we came back in late October, I didn’t feel it was worth it to get stuck into the mess at the back, and as we were reliant on a wood burner for the main part of our heating, inevitably, the garden ended up a bit of a mess. I should have taken photos of it before we cleared it last weekend – it would have made a lovely ‘before’ photo. It was knee deep in wood shavings (my other half had been cutting wood out there with a chain saw), it had the remains of our last bed (most of which we burned on the fire, but we couldn’t burn the springs so they ended up out there for months). The decking was covered in piles of logs retrieved from my mothers garden, ashes from the fire and bits of coal (which we used when we ran out of free wood) and the bit that previously had lovely smooth stones on it was full of leaves from next doors willow and beech trees. Two weeks ago, the wall dividing our garden from next doors, was taken down – they’re doing next door up, gutting it completely and starting from scratch – and the new owner decided he didn’t like the wall and I came home one day to find that when I sat on the loo, I could see straight through to next door! With builders knocking about from 7.30am this can be a bit of a surprise for all concerned. I moved the bamboo to cover the window!

So, last weekend, we cleared it all – a full car’s worth of rubbish down to the tip – sorry – ‘recycling centre’ – and I spent a happy couple of hours down at our local gardening centre asking for advice on what to plant in the many shady corners of our postage stamp plot. Came away with a pyracantha (can’t spell it, but you get the idea), a blue Vinca Minor and some herbs which now adorn the wall outside the kitchen, along with 4 strawberry plants which again, are hanging on the wall in some pretty little containers that were on sale in Homebase for a couple of quid for 6. – Bliss, Bliss, Bliss. I’ll take some photos before the weekend so I have a record of how it all goes. Hopefully, then some GYO’s will give me advice and ideas.