Garden "de-clutter"!

Subject: Garden "de-clutter"! Sun Jun 08, 2008 7:26 am

Whew! [puff] [pant] [gasp]

I have to stop smoking!

I've just moved a stack of logs that were piled up 20 years ago as future firewood and are now the most deluxe residence in the region for all kinds of wildlife, as well as supporting a nursery for slugs and snails... and it's RIGHT NEXT TO the vegetable and salad bed!

It's not now. ;-)

It's now at the other end of the garden with lots of shrubs that can be nibbled without it showing or killing the plants.
The kitchen garden is now one long raised bed and one shorter raised bed, with faded green timber edging and an old muted red-brick path between them. The garage back-wall and door is at one end and the main garden is at the other; the shorter bed runs along the sid eof the house. The whole "kitchen garden" is about fifteen foot long, but we divided the garden up years ago as a joke and it stuck, so our single solitary dwarf apple tree is The Orchard, and the broken, cracked concrete outside the back door is The Terrace and so on ;-)

Now... I've sown those damn peas three times; they've germinated and sprouted and every time they've been eaten up by the wretched slugs and snails - let's see if this fourth sowing does any better!

It's a Brocante kitchen garden though... against the garage wall nothing grows as it's very very dry poor sun and also packed hard as iron from building work 2 years ago when heavy stuff was stacked there... so I've put down some chippings there on the raised-bed and dug out Gran's old deckchair, and am going to Ikea to buy cheerily-striped canvas later today to nail on to make myself a little oasis of peace! It gets the sun all afternoon and evening and if I want breakfast outside I can easily move it to the garden-end of the path!

Hmmm... there used to be an old sun-umbrella in the cellar somewhere....

laura

Subject: Re: Garden "de-clutter"! Sun Jun 08, 2008 8:36 am

You've been busy Laura....and definitely a great idea to settle down on your newly prepared mulched area with the deckchair. Happy musings!

Jacquie x
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Subject: Re: Garden "de-clutter"! Sun Jun 08, 2008 10:46 am

Oh fabulous! I went ot get the fabric from Ikea (dark blue and white stripes - perfect!) and for £4.99 they had big parasols with a clamp to fix onto the sill of the garage window just behind where I'll put the chair! Red and white broad stripes!

And for £7.99 I got a child's chair, white frame with brightly-coloured plastic cord woven round - like a wicker chair but in different colours of cheerful bright plastic, so weatherproof and rotproof - so I'll put that as a little table for my cold drink!

laura

Subject: Re: Garden "de-clutter"! Sun Jun 08, 2008 10:53 am

Boy do I wish I had a gardeners touch...plants run when they see me coming I can almost hear the bugle sound an alert telling all the other plants to take cover....here she comes...

How could most of my family have that proverbial green thumb and it totally bypassed me. I bet I could do something if someone took the time though...

But decluttering I'm good at that...I'm almost sweating with ya Laura just reading what you have done..the finished product sounds really nice made even nicer by all the hard work.

Subject: Re: Garden "de-clutter"! Sun Jun 08, 2008 12:04 pm

When I've got a few other bits finished, I'll post a photo!

What it was: a weed-grown brick path with overgrown (waist-high!) weeds on the right, and a bare veg-bed on the left, then a pile of snail-y rotting logs, with a boring pebble-dashed garage wall at the end with a plain window and a door that's still just in grey primer.

What it is/ will be: a swept brick path with peas aand veg growing on the left and a swept space for wheelbarrow and watering-can beyond; the veg-bed on the right has rhubarb and will have salads; the far end of the right-hand bed has a stripey deck-chair, a brightly-multicoloured wee chair for drinks, and a red, white and blue striped sunshade!

The Ikea one was too short, unfortunately, so when it was fixed to the sill I'd have had to crawl to get under it ;-)
It fits our garden bench perfectly though, and I dug out my Gran's old one which is much taller and the tatty bits are hidden at the back!

I wonder if my parents woudl let me paint the different planks of the vertically-planked garage door in bright beach-hut colours...? I think it would look great and if I just bought those tiny test-pots then it would be cheap too!

Wheeee.... a boring overgrown kitchen garden now has My Very Own Beach!

laura