A year ago our priorities were some major infrastructure work on the garden and restoring the end wall of the old house, the last wall in need of renovation. One year on, in what feels like an oversized version of Groundhog Day, we have the same two items on the top of our to do list. The difference this time – work has actually started, hurrah!
First out of the block is the work on the garden. We are putting in a retaining wall at the rear where a steep bank has been deteriorating over the years with dead elms covered in ivy, a lilac sadly toppled by high winds over a year ago and some overgrown hedging not to mention the mass of weeds. At the same time we want to sort out the parking area which has become a bit of a mud bath after the building work and heavy delivery lorries of the last couple of years.
Last year wasn’t wasted though as there was a lot of prep we could do ourselves. We needed planning permission, even for a retaining wall and a garden shed, as we’re Grade II listed and in a conservation area. We submitted our pre-application advice request in April. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic and it’s affect on our local planning department, we didn’t get a response until the end of June. It was positive so I then went ahead and submitted our full application getting approval in October. We met up with the guys who built our extension to discuss our plans and finally they were able to make a start at the end of January.
Alongside sorting the planning permission we were able to do some ground clearance. We started by bringing down a number of leylandii along the bank that we didn’t want to keep. We had already secured the approval of the Council’s tree officer, a much quicker process than planning. M was brilliant with his chain saw and his technique certainly improved after watching some YouTube videos. With some of the trees up to 10m tall it wasn’t a task for the faint hearted.
To support the bank we’ve decided to go for gabions – metal mesh baskets filled with stone – as we feel this will be less obtrusive and more natural than piles of concrete. Luckily the iron stone we’ve chosen for the facing is very similar in colour to the surrounding earth bank so it really will merge into the background, particularly once we have softened the edges with planting and climbers. At the moment it does look massive and feels as though we might have an over-engineered solution to the problem. After all this is what they use on the sides of motorways!
It’s likely to be a few weeks before they’ve finished the wall and restored the parking area. It’s been strange getting used to having builders around all the time and, however nice they are, it is still intrusive. Still, we have to get used to it as our specialist renovation builders are booked to come and start on 7 April restoring the remaining wall and rebuilding the internal staircase. Before that I have to clear the two rooms they will be working in and get the black paint stripped from the beams – still a lot to do inside and out.
In between heavy rain, snow and frost we are getting on with our other garden tasks which are less scary than cutting down trees. Our previous vegetable patch is now under the new extension so last spring I took over one of the flower beds to plant our veg for the year. The carrots were amazing, the potatoes and dwarf beans good, the onions nice but small and the beetroot and leeks pathetically non-existent. Good practice for this year as we’re making more of a concerted effort at getting our ‘grow your own’ sorted.
We’re also planting some fruit and nut trees in a small field beyond our back garden that we were lucky to buy off a neighbour a few years ago. It’s a fantastic feeling creating an orchard from scratch researching unusual and special varieties. It’ll be a year or two before we can start enjoying the results although the blossom should look good in just a couple of months. M has created a large compost heap, necessary for all the grass cuttings and weeds as it builds up very quickly and it’s not so easy now to get to the tip with COVID restrictions in place.
Another reason for focusing on the garden last year was the biennial village open gardens. When I started this blog in 2018 it was one of the first things I wrote about as thankfully that took place before the building work started wrecking our garden for more than a year. A deadline is a great motivator and we do tend to have two year spurts to time with making things look their best for this event.
Unfortunately, we had to cancel it last year due to the pandemic. As I’m the Gardeners’ Club secretary and I had bit more time stuck at home I decided I would set up a Facebook page and organise a virtual open gardens. Those who know me will be surprised as I’m not one for social media but the pandemic has shown how useful it can be when you can’t get out and about and meet people in more traditional ways. So I organised photos and videos for eight gardens and posted them at the end of June when we were meant to be opening. Not as good as the real thing but certainly better than nothing.
The next open gardens is planned for June 2022 when our garden should have recovered from this year’s building work and we should all be able to get out and about again.
From life at the desk to living the dream 