The Garden
July 2010
In July 2010 we decided to tackle the garden and, together with a few ideas from my sister-in-law (Kath), came up with a design for the garden (click on diagrams for larger versions). As we also aimed to build a koi pond in the future and, having visited Japan on three occasions, we decided to have a small Japanese-style garden in the top left-hand corner of the main garden. However, as Mike was working full-time and I am limited with the amount of manual labour I can do – due to back problems – we decided that it might make sense to employ the services of a gardener whom Mike already knew. Annette Fobister of AF Garden Solutions came for a site visit and whilst she thought our design was good, she felt that, overall, it was too patchy and that nothing would blend in!
As can be seen from the right-hand diagram the overall plot, including the house, isn't a straight-forward shape. I have calculated the overall size of the garden itself (excluding the garage) to be approximately 2,190 square feet.
Annette's initial thoughts were to attack the lawn and to reshape it to a Yin and Yang shape – even though this is more Chinese philosophy rather than Japanese. She also felt that we should devote the whole garden to Japanese-style and that everything should focus on curves. It was agreed that the existing patio and steps should be replaced and again, should contain curves – however, this area would be concentrated on when everything else had been done.
Work carried on until November that year (2010) when the weather prevented any further work being done until Spring 2011. Unfortunately, Annette was unable to carry on due to family health problems and so, rather than get someone else involved, we decided to carry on the work ourselves – even though we knew it would take longer but we have to admit that we get so much satisfaction of being able to tell visitors that we have done the majority of the garden ourselves.
Like most gardens, it is an ongoing project, although I suspect the bulk of the work will have been completed by summer 2014. The building of the koi pond was brought forward and was completed in June 2012. This, in turn, enabled us to finish certain areas of the garden.
August 2012
Below are some photographs taken on 12th August 2012 showing different angles of the garden.
For progress and full details of the garden from the beginning to May 2012, please have a look at The Garden Album.
As with any project of this size, time just seems to run out – particularly with the short summers in the UK. Although the oriental tea-house had been erected in 2010 we just simply hadn't got round to varnishing it! This job was finally started in April 2012 – look at the before and after photos below:
As we were having the patio cleaned by Cheshire Drive Clean we decided to have the floor of the tea house cleaned as well – as can be seen by the before (left) and after (above) photos below.
April 2014
The following photo was taken on 7th May, 2014. Observant readers will notice that the bamboos in the middle of the two eyes of the Yin & Yang have been replaced by two specimen Acers I although only one can be seen on the photo.
Please click here to see a short video of the garden and pond filmed in May 2014.
June 2016
Work on the
garden has continued over the last 2 years and everything is now maturing - some areas perhaps a little too much so we now really need to get the confidence to start pruning heavily. At the end of June I decided to enter the garden into a competition being organised by the BBC's Gardeners' World Magazine. There are 3 categories - Small Space, Family Plot and Wildlife. Below are the photos I submitted and, in the meantime, watch this space!
The photo immediately below was taken from the bedroom window.
As can be seen work is being undertaken to the koi pond - further details of which will be added to 'The Pond' section in due course!
Back to top |