Six Weeks In

The chaos arrives!

Six weeks ago, we moved.

Here's six weeks in my garden, on a Saturday.







1.  Layout.

Our new garden's rectangular, mostly lawn with narrow unkempt borders.  Having a Houdini dog, we were pleased to have escape-proof walls.

In theory, that is.  Mlle DoodleFace has already opened the back gate & gone walkabout.  I won't mention the one time we left the chain off the front door, as it's not in the garden.  Although she did pass through the front garden on her way to Oz.

There's no place like home, DoodleFace.  Remember that.

Anemones & golden rod rule the borders.

Lovely though those walls are, I can't abide a straight line.  My first job was walking the garden, finding sun & shade, then arranging, rearranging, re-rearranging plant positions.

Future shade garden w/a new trellis for my long suffering wisteria.

2.  No-dig gone rogue.

Our new landlord gave us carte blanche in the garden.  Unfortunately, digging up sod is beyond me these days.  Well, I want my corn patch, so enter stage left - no dig gardening with a vengeance.

Fox garden.

The beds are a lasagna of cardboard, sheep fleece (because I have tons of it), & compost.  I've previously found that, over one season, the dirt critturs lower the height of the bed, processing everything into soil.  A bit of edging & no one sees behind the curtain.

They ain't as perty as they will be, but those fleece petticoats bring me joy.


3.  Water.

Both our canines are uber sensitive to heat, & for a long time, we had ponds where we lived.  Latterly, the pooches've had to make do with a hideous dog pool.  I've tried putting it somewhere unobtrusive, but in truth, something that big & ugly doesn't fade into the background.

I've decided to embrace the beast & naturalise it by planting all around it, with a small opening for dog entry.

Embracing the water beast.

The bamboo shaft in the pool is meant to keep wildlife from drowning.  It must work, as I've never found any dead bodies floating in it, not even a precious bee.  Just some very lively frogs from time to time.  I've been mulling how to use the living wall concept to make the bamboo into a horizontal pond planter.

Stay tuned to see how successful that idea is.


4.  Tree stump garden.

In the middle of the lawn sits a tree stump surrounded by a pile of blocks.  A little investigation of the area uncovered a single circle of bricks with planting space in between them & the stump.  At the moment, it's destined to be a lavender, rose & thyme garden.  Since it'll be one of my last projects, that could change.

Stump garden.

5.  Painting.

The move's forced me to catch up with painting projects - tables & chairs & decking, o my!  Currently, the herb pallet has my attention.

Nearly ready.

6.  The vagaries of help.

Our previous neighbours had a handyman come every week, so when we needed some things dismantled for the move, we asked about him.  They gave a glowing report.

I thought those people liked me.  Suffice to say, if Purgatory still existed, I could've emptied the place of poor souls with my suffering.

Mr Handy'd wanted to get all his jobs done before we moved in.  Five weeks after the move, he finished his last project, our temporary deck.

Off kilter deck.

I'm not sure if you can tell from this photo, but our wall doesn't form a right angle there.  Rather, the corner's cut off, starting at the white planter & going to the 2nd pillar.  I'd envisioned the deck centred on that wall, but no.  Every time I look at the deck, I laugh.

Repainted plant table.

That's my Six - I won't say, 'for this week', as it could be another 6 before I return.

Now you, get yourself over to The Propagaor & see this SoS thing done properly.  Check his comments & you'll find links to all the other SoSers as well.

Thanks for stopping by!