A Little Garden Update

Since moving house nearly 6 months ago, one of the things I’ve talked about a lot has, understandably, been the changes we’ve made and want to make to the inside of our house. So far we’ve been lucky enough to complete our kitchen renovation, as well as decorating everywhere bar the hallway, and gutting the upstairs bathroom and putting a brand new suite in. 

What I haven’t talked about much is our garden!

When we first saw our house advertised online, I loved the inside of it (or at least the potential of it), but I refused to view it because of the garden. And that’s because our garden, whilst over 100ft long, is tiered. The original estate agent photos made it look like the most child-unfriendly garden going, and it was only when Adam persuaded me to go along and have a look, that actually I saw the potential and got quite excited about the sort of garden that we could create that would be suitable for both children and grown ups. 

There is still a HUGE amount of work to do though. 

Let me show you a few photos to explain…

As you can see, the garden is currently in 4 tiers but does need a lot of work and money to get it how we want it. 

Essentially, we want the back half of the garden to be all about the children. We’d like to:

  • Chop down a few biggish trees right at the back of the garden, keeping just one big one, remove the shed, and totally clear the crazy jungle of vegetation that has developed over the years. Tree companies like http://www.treeservicehoustontx.com/memorial/ can help when it comes to tree care and pruning, so if a job is a big one it’s worth contacting a company like them!
  • Once this has been done, level out the soil slightly, lay child-friendly surface down, and build/integrate a climbing frame for the kids within the existing slope.
  • Level out the 3rd tier and move the trampoline and playhouse here.
  • Build a small fence around the 3rd tier for safety, and rebuild the horribly dangerous steps that lead up to here and the rest of the back of the garden. 

When it comes to the front half of the garden, we’d like to:

  • Re-turf the grassy areas, possibly even using artificial grass, as lugging a lawnmower up the garden isn’t ideal!
  • Plant some suitable plants for the garden (it’s east-facing but actually gets a fair bit of sun due to the tiers) and make it into an attractive, adult space to sit and relax in. 
  • Cut back the vines that are currently overflowing from next door’s garden.
  • Replace the fences on both sides of the garden, and paint them.
  • Pot some plants for our patio area- it’s a lovely space but shadier, so needs the right type of plants. 

We’ve just had a tree surgeon in this past week who has removed a whopping eucalyptus that was encroaching on the garage and damaging the foundations with its roots, as well as removing some of those big trees at the back. It’s amazing what a good job the tree surgeons did, and what a difference even having a few trees down makes to the look of the garden! Due to the tiers, they were lucky to get their equipment and grinding machines up the garden, and watching them made me nervous, but I could tell they were pros from the chainsaw jacket and chainsaw boots that they were wearing! Disclaimer: I love trees by the way, but these particular ones really needed to go.

I must admit I was expecting the garden to look a bit ‘neater’ without the trees in, but actually the garden still looks a bit of a mess and it made me realise what a long way we’ve got to go to get the garden exactly as we want it. I see this project actually taking us a good few years. The tiers make it a huge project, but hopefully a satisfying one. We just want the children to have a lovely space to play in before the elder two get too old to really enjoy it. 

Have you ever had a tiered garden? If so, what did you do with it?

I’d love to know and see any pictures/posts etc!

 

*In collaboration

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1 Comment

  1. May 1, 2017 / 8:52 pm

    It has such great potential Becky, our Garden is built on a slope and is tiered. I just love it now we are getting somewhere with it but it has taken years and cost a fortune, we decided to do a bit every year and do it right, there is always something to do. But I really feel like it has been worth it now, I can’t wait to see how you get on x

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