Yeh! I’ve got a shed! So – I had a shed before, but this is twice the size and is like a “man shed” – the sort that men go to hide from their wives and children in. There is room for a chair and if I had electricity or a small spirit or camping stove I could brew-up in there.
OK, there are 4 windows facing the house, so not a good place to hide – and no-one to hide from……. And it is much easier to go into the house to brew-up. However there is certainly space for potting up when it is raining or to avoid making a mess on the new patio – I just wish I had a potting bench as good as the one at the Lost Gardens of Heligan!
What this means is that I have had a “garden make-over”. Previously the garden was mostly gravel which was grey and boring to look out on. I had been considering replacing it with lawn for about 2 years, but there was also a rockery under trees where it never got any sun – so that was really a waste of space.
So I had the rockery moved so it can get some sun and the new shed was put under the trees as sheds don’t need sun. I had a trellis put in to grow things up to hide the compost bins.
Then my old uneven patio and path were replaced. The stone is amazing – a variety of colours and it has fossils of plants in. Some of the old patio was used to make a base for the shed.
The gravel was removed, top soil put down and turf put on top so I have a lawn.
The old shed was not waterproof, too small and in the most sunny part of the garden so that was removed and replaced with a (slightly) raised bed where I might be able to grow some vegetables.
Now all I need is plants! Actually, I am watering the lawn so that the turf “takes” and then I can replace the bird bath. The rockery needs time for the stones to settle before I put plants in and the cuttings for the cotoneaster and forsythia need to grow rather bigger before I can put them against the fence, where I have planned for them to go. I hope to grow the present honeysuckle over the trellis, but I may need another climber too – I will wait and see. I have a clematis near the shed and that might be encouraged to grow over the shed, maybe.
Am I pleased with it? Mostly, but there are a couple of things that weren’t quite as I hoped – mostly because the landscaper started work when I was on holiday. I would have preferred the trellis closer to the side fence, for example and a couple of large stones left in place as a feature instead of put on the rockery. But it is OK. I should probably have ordered a slightly smaller shed, too but I expect I will get used to it and the extra space is very useful. It will take several years to get things growing as I want, but gardens need time to establish – I hate these “instant” gardens.