Well it's been a hot and humid summer in The Highlands; all our neighbours are telling us it's the worst they've had in years!!!! Great...we move down for fresh air and sunshine but it seems we've brought the humidity from the city with us.
We had had quite a lot of rain but plenty of days of sunshine so there has been no excuse not to get outside and start on our landscaping projects. When groundedGARDENS first started it was all about making the most of the space you live in! This was city living; balconies, courtyard and patios. Now we have quite a bit of space at 'Bird Cottage' and it really is a blank canvas just crying out for a makeover.
While it would be easy to employ landscapers to come in and make the place beautiful, that's really not my style. I like to tackle the tasks myself; coming up with the plan and doing all or as much of the construction work as I can. It's all about finances too....why pay someone to do something when you can give it a go yourself! It's landscaping on a budget that anyone can do.
You might remember that last year we had a large Liquidambar removed from the side of the house. It was right up against the fence we share with our neighbour and had a precarious lean towards the house. In consultation with the tree lopper we decided that it would be best to remove the tree completely. You can see it in the picture below, behind the green fence.
Removing this tree was the best thing we did. It opened up the side of the house to amazing possibilities as a small garden; a space that we had not even though of developing.
The first thing to go was the horrible green painted, corrugated iron fence. It cut the area in half and really served no purpose. As we had installed a water tank connected to the house we would be putting in a new fence. This would be in front of the water tank and more in-keeping with the cottage style of the house.
With the Liquidambar gone it was amazing how much light now filled this space. It seemed like the perfect spot to create a small sitting area with some herb and vegetable gardens. The down side of removing the Liquidambar was that it really opened up the view of our neighbours water tank and shipping container (yes....a shipping container; I think it's his 'man shed' as I hear him tinkering about in there every now and then).
To make the space more private we decided to install a privacy screen. This would block out quite a bit of the unwanted view. To do this I made a frame of timber that would support a couple of fibre cement sheet. These were glued and screwed to the timber framework and patched with an exterior filler. Even though I was trying to block my neighbours tank and container, I didn't want my neighbours to be faced with the unsightly back of my screen. So I made sure it was all painted in the dark 'Monument' colour I have used on the fences to make sure it was neat and didn't look terrible from their side. I plan to grow Star Jasmine [Trachelospermum jasminoides] up the sides and across the top of the screen, trained on wires so this will soften the edges of the screen and will look nice for my neighbours too.
We would also need to put in some new plants that would help with screening but these would need to be evergreen and size-appropriate to the area. They should give us privacy all year round but not grow too tall that they would block out the winter sun into the courtyard and the adjoining dining room.
For this purpose I chose a small-growing evergreen Magnolia called Magnolia grandiflora 'Kay Parris'. These would be planted either side of the screen to create a hedge that will grow to approximately 4m high; each tree spreading to about 2m. A lush, green dense screen of foliage with the added beauty of large creamy-white, perfumed, saucer sized flowers. I've underplanted the magnolias with a lovely red-flowering Camellia japonica 'Ace of Hearts' and clumps of blue-flowering agapanthus which were transplanted from another part of the garden. As ground cover I've planted some herbs such as sage, spearmint and Vietnamese mint (mints can overrun a garden and are usually best planted in containers but here I will confine them to these small garden beds).
On the other side of the space I created a small garden bed. This is just big enough to have a couple of cherry tomato plants and a mini Lebanese eggplant. I've underplanted these with basil, parsley and some different varieties of soft-leaf lettuce. This is my little 'salad garden' until I can start work on the major vegetable gardens planned for the back yard.
It was really important to install a watering system into the garden too. While it's lovely to stand with the hose; gin and tonic in hand, and water the garden on a balmy evening, my plans are for quite a lot of garden beds so having an automated watering system integrated into the design is a must! This is easy to do and really inexpensive. All the components can be bought from you local hardware and the usually just clip together without too much fuss.
An essential part of this intimate courtyard was a water feature. No small space is complete without the gentle sound of tinkling water. Luckily we had been 'bequeathed' a great fountain from our friend Michael; it would be perfect for this space. The fountain was in 3 pieces and was a terracotta colour. I decided I wanted to do a little make-over on the fountain and bought some Porters 'Iron' paint and rusting solution.
I first applied a stone sealer to the fountain pieces, then they were undercoated with an all weather sealer/undercoat.
This Porters special paint finish has small particles of iron in the mix; if left to weather naturally they will start to rust and produce a weathered patina on the painted surface. Porters supply a solution that will speed up this process. It's applied randomly over the surface and starts to react straight away. This looked amazing and I was really pleased with the result. I then needed to apply a sealer to the painted surface or it would just continue to rust. I used a satin finish marine varnish. Unfortunately this made the surface quite shiny; not quite the look I was hoping for, and it dulled down the rusty colourings. But once it was all put together and in-place in front of the screen I was pretty happy with the result (although I think Michael was a bit shocked when he saw that his cherubs had turned charcoal!)
I think the end result looks pretty good and I'm really happy that we could incorporate this piece into our garden. The screen has been painted with a 'textured' paint to give the illusion of bagging and a light-weight cement moulding used to frame the edges. It was then painted in Dulux 'Bath Stone' for a neutral backdrop. Once the Star Jasmine grows it will soften the edges and the flowers will perfume the garden with their heady jasmine scent.
The finishing touch was to cover the cleared ground area with decomposed granite. This is granite that has been crushed into pieces that almost resemble chunky crushed biscuits!!! It is available in 3 colours; a red, a yellow and a pink tone. We chose to go with the pink. It's laid quite thick; 50-70mm and raked to form a flat surface. This is then wet down with a hose and compacted to form a solid base. As it dries it becomes extremely solid underfoot and is a great alternative to traditional paving.
We had had quite a lot of rain but plenty of days of sunshine so there has been no excuse not to get outside and start on our landscaping projects. When groundedGARDENS first started it was all about making the most of the space you live in! This was city living; balconies, courtyard and patios. Now we have quite a bit of space at 'Bird Cottage' and it really is a blank canvas just crying out for a makeover.
While it would be easy to employ landscapers to come in and make the place beautiful, that's really not my style. I like to tackle the tasks myself; coming up with the plan and doing all or as much of the construction work as I can. It's all about finances too....why pay someone to do something when you can give it a go yourself! It's landscaping on a budget that anyone can do.
You might remember that last year we had a large Liquidambar removed from the side of the house. It was right up against the fence we share with our neighbour and had a precarious lean towards the house. In consultation with the tree lopper we decided that it would be best to remove the tree completely. You can see it in the picture below, behind the green fence.
Removing this tree was the best thing we did. It opened up the side of the house to amazing possibilities as a small garden; a space that we had not even though of developing.
The first thing to go was the horrible green painted, corrugated iron fence. It cut the area in half and really served no purpose. As we had installed a water tank connected to the house we would be putting in a new fence. This would be in front of the water tank and more in-keeping with the cottage style of the house.With the Liquidambar gone it was amazing how much light now filled this space. It seemed like the perfect spot to create a small sitting area with some herb and vegetable gardens. The down side of removing the Liquidambar was that it really opened up the view of our neighbours water tank and shipping container (yes....a shipping container; I think it's his 'man shed' as I hear him tinkering about in there every now and then).
To make the space more private we decided to install a privacy screen. This would block out quite a bit of the unwanted view. To do this I made a frame of timber that would support a couple of fibre cement sheet. These were glued and screwed to the timber framework and patched with an exterior filler. Even though I was trying to block my neighbours tank and container, I didn't want my neighbours to be faced with the unsightly back of my screen. So I made sure it was all painted in the dark 'Monument' colour I have used on the fences to make sure it was neat and didn't look terrible from their side. I plan to grow Star Jasmine [Trachelospermum jasminoides] up the sides and across the top of the screen, trained on wires so this will soften the edges of the screen and will look nice for my neighbours too.
We would also need to put in some new plants that would help with screening but these would need to be evergreen and size-appropriate to the area. They should give us privacy all year round but not grow too tall that they would block out the winter sun into the courtyard and the adjoining dining room.
For this purpose I chose a small-growing evergreen Magnolia called Magnolia grandiflora 'Kay Parris'. These would be planted either side of the screen to create a hedge that will grow to approximately 4m high; each tree spreading to about 2m. A lush, green dense screen of foliage with the added beauty of large creamy-white, perfumed, saucer sized flowers. I've underplanted the magnolias with a lovely red-flowering Camellia japonica 'Ace of Hearts' and clumps of blue-flowering agapanthus which were transplanted from another part of the garden. As ground cover I've planted some herbs such as sage, spearmint and Vietnamese mint (mints can overrun a garden and are usually best planted in containers but here I will confine them to these small garden beds).
On the other side of the space I created a small garden bed. This is just big enough to have a couple of cherry tomato plants and a mini Lebanese eggplant. I've underplanted these with basil, parsley and some different varieties of soft-leaf lettuce. This is my little 'salad garden' until I can start work on the major vegetable gardens planned for the back yard.
It was really important to install a watering system into the garden too. While it's lovely to stand with the hose; gin and tonic in hand, and water the garden on a balmy evening, my plans are for quite a lot of garden beds so having an automated watering system integrated into the design is a must! This is easy to do and really inexpensive. All the components can be bought from you local hardware and the usually just clip together without too much fuss.
An essential part of this intimate courtyard was a water feature. No small space is complete without the gentle sound of tinkling water. Luckily we had been 'bequeathed' a great fountain from our friend Michael; it would be perfect for this space. The fountain was in 3 pieces and was a terracotta colour. I decided I wanted to do a little make-over on the fountain and bought some Porters 'Iron' paint and rusting solution.
I first applied a stone sealer to the fountain pieces, then they were undercoated with an all weather sealer/undercoat.
This Porters special paint finish has small particles of iron in the mix; if left to weather naturally they will start to rust and produce a weathered patina on the painted surface. Porters supply a solution that will speed up this process. It's applied randomly over the surface and starts to react straight away. This looked amazing and I was really pleased with the result. I then needed to apply a sealer to the painted surface or it would just continue to rust. I used a satin finish marine varnish. Unfortunately this made the surface quite shiny; not quite the look I was hoping for, and it dulled down the rusty colourings. But once it was all put together and in-place in front of the screen I was pretty happy with the result (although I think Michael was a bit shocked when he saw that his cherubs had turned charcoal!)I think the end result looks pretty good and I'm really happy that we could incorporate this piece into our garden. The screen has been painted with a 'textured' paint to give the illusion of bagging and a light-weight cement moulding used to frame the edges. It was then painted in Dulux 'Bath Stone' for a neutral backdrop. Once the Star Jasmine grows it will soften the edges and the flowers will perfume the garden with their heady jasmine scent.
The finishing touch was to cover the cleared ground area with decomposed granite. This is granite that has been crushed into pieces that almost resemble chunky crushed biscuits!!! It is available in 3 colours; a red, a yellow and a pink tone. We chose to go with the pink. It's laid quite thick; 50-70mm and raked to form a flat surface. This is then wet down with a hose and compacted to form a solid base. As it dries it becomes extremely solid underfoot and is a great alternative to traditional paving.
To finish off the area I've created a small raised planter which has been planted with another magnolia. This time I chose a deciduous magnolia 'Royal Crown' which is an upright growing tree with masses of pink-red and white flowers. The bright green leaves will turn a sunny gold in autumn before falling in winter. This tree will provide a little shade to the dining room in the height of summer and also some extra screening of our neighbours water tank!
So the tomatoes are going great guns. Although not yet ripe they are forming nicely. And the mini Lebanese eggplants are growing well.
From what was just 'the side of the house' we have created a lovely little garden . A view to enjoy from our dining room window and a place to relax and listen to the sound of running water.
So 2015 has started with a bang at 'Bird Cottage'. There are plenty more projects in store for this year. I'm desperate to plant an orchard of fruit trees in the back yard......and I really need to do a major overhaul of our indoor 'garden wall' which has been a little neglected now that we have outdoor spaces to play in.
Just remember that no matter what outdoor space you have; be it balcony, patio or an acre of land....make the most of the space you have; and get gardening!!!!!!
