When I got married in 1984, I didn't have a garden, just a concrete back yard with 8' high walls at the back of my 1876 mill workers' terrace. I used to watch Geoff Hamilton on Gardeners' World and dream of having one, and I had my favourite gardens that I passed on my way to work. My husband built me a raised bed in the yard using bricks reclaimed from an old wall at my parents' house, and I softened the high walls with climbers.
From there I moved to a 1970s semi-detached on an estate. I had gardens back and front and was in my element. My neighbours were surprised that I loved gardening so much. I explained that I'd waited 8 years to get a garden, whereas the gardened semi was their first house. By the time we moved 19 years later, barely a bit of fence was visible due to the planting of trees, shrubs and climbers. We had birds nesting in both front and back gardens, frogs and dragonflies were regular visitors.
When we moved here, the back garden was the best part of the property as it had only 2 fence panels. The rest was high hedges, lots of trees, shrubs, perennials and several David Austin roses. We've made numerous changes over the years, including opening up a disused 400 square feet at the bottom of the garden, and digging up the front garden to grow veg at one point.
The gardens mostly look after themselves now. We just prune back anything that gets too big, and hoe the very small amount of bare soil that we have. I managed to spend 10 minutes pruning today, just to clear the pathway a bit, so I popped some of the astilbe flowers and a bit of foliage into the vase along with the honeysuckle from last week.
I've never forgotten that 8 year wait for a garden, and I still appreciate the ones I have. They're a source of great joy to me. I just wish I had the energy to do what I want and need to in them.
I too have good vision but my issue is poor ability to execute. I've been fortunate that we bought a tiny little house with a nice size yard right before we married in 1987. There were two terrific apple trees and clusters of tulips in different areas. We outgrew it very fast and moved to a blank space house with blank space yards in early 1991. We planted trees, lost trees, had multiple attempts at apple trees...who knew we needed my daughter to plant them 32 years later. They're thriving.
ReplyDeleteI'm pleased to hear that you're finally having luck with your trees. I think we have 14 in this garden and I love them, though some will need a good pruning this year.
DeleteWe moved into our "starter" home when we married in 1976, 49 years later we're still here! For years I wished for a bigger garden, now I'm grateful that its small enough to manage by myself....my husband is disabled.
ReplyDeleteI'd have loved not to have to move house as I found it incredibly stressful both times. I loved both houses we moved from, but we ended up with neighbours from hell in both, aswell as wanting a garden for my elder daughter and a decent school. I'm glad that we've designed our garden to be easy to look after now that I've got multiple health issues.
DeleteWe have just downsized to a smaller home and garden. This garden was a blank canvas, so have enjoyed making it ours. This is the fifth garden of our married life. Xx
ReplyDeleteHow exciting for you to have a blank canvas Gill. I've never had one, but we have made changes in both of the gardens we've had. I prefer plants to grass so we've always put in lots of plants in large borders. We no longer have grass here. We struggled with spongy mossy lawns for a few years, then put in a central patio with huge borders at the back, and after growing veg in the front, it's now pebbles with borders and lots of planting.
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