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I moved in to my house 6 years ago and there was a pretty garden, but mostly grass on a steep north facing slope with some mixed borders around the edge. Not knowing that I would want to show how things have moved on, I didn't have the wit to photograph it from all angles before I started, and it wraps around the house, so is difficult to see all at a glance, but here a couple of it before I got going.
I wanted a pond and I needed to make the slope more user friendly, so I got some nice people in to lay a path, put in the pond and some pretty large rocks to break up the huge drop in levels. I designed it myself, but could do the heavy lifting. Between the rocks I had some pond liner put in to create some bog garden areas.
Now I had the pond, a brick path and a bit of lawn, I decided to build a boardwalk to the shed and a seating area under the silver birch. I used reclaimed french railway sleepers as foundations and bolted to this reclaimed beach groins from Bognor Regis! I did all the wood work myself and was very proud of it! Sadly I didn't photograph it very well, but here goes. It goes right up to the shed.
Some plants have already gone in here, but there were lots more to come!
and more
OK, so that's enough of the boardwalk!! Here's some planting around the new path.
And more plants
This mushroom by the way is a bird bath. The birds don't like it, they prefer the pond, but it looks nice!!
Oh no, how did that happen, the boardwalk again...... But notice the symmetry of those bolts!
This is the view from the boardwalk seating area, across the garden and out onto the fields behind. Just out of sight is the river Medway.
The pond is a joy, filled with frogs, toads, newts (who do their level best to eat all the frog spawn), water snails, pond skaters etc with dozens of dragon flies and even grass snakes. If you sneak out very early on a warm summer morning you can see a grass snake scuttle across the path in front of you and wriggle into a hole in the rocks.
just a few plant pics
a few victorian chairs to add a bit of character
I love my garden now! Till the next project.......
bye for now
What a true labour of love and worthy of a homes and gardens shoot. You have created a wonderful oasis for yourselves and the wildlife, I absolutely love it
Of all creatures, man is the most detestable, he is the only creature that inflicts pain for sport, knowing it to be pain. ~ Mark Twain
Thank you Lolly and JudiM. I have been out of action for a while as my computer battery gave up the ghost a few days ago and have just spent several days locating a replacement. All up and running again now, and lovely to log on and see your very kind words.