When we lived in Harrogate, a garden was a luxury beyond our means, a tiny back yard with a little raised bed and loads of pots was all we could manage. Here, however, we have more than a hundred times the amount of land, so it’s been a steep learning curve.
Once mowed, the park looks quite respectable; the front garden, beautifully planted by the previous owners, is a bit overgrown and in need of some TLC; but the field behind the house is horrendous, not deserving the name garden; at the far end is the soil mountain, in the middle is a huge pile of assorted building materials and junk, largely grown over with nettles and brambles, and the rest of it is so lumpy that mowing has to be done slowly to avoid being thrown off the mower. Even the bits we use as veg plots are mostly knee high with weeds at the moment.
Over the winter we’ve been thinking about how to tackle this patch of land. The easiest, and some would say, most sensible, option, would be to level it and throw some grass seed down; but when did we ever choose either the simplest or most sensible path? Gradually a plan is emerging, with areas for fruit and veg, a garden where I hope to grow a profusion of colour and perfume, a Japanese garden for Nick’s bonsai trees, a pergola with climbers growing over it and a curved bank to screen the house across the road. Oh, yes, and I had this idea that I’d like a piece of old-looking, broken down wall with a gate in it, so that’s got to be incorporated somewhere too; it will be quite useful, actually, as it’ll use up some of the lumps of concrete for the foundations and bricks, rocks and old roof tiles in the wall itself.
Over the past couple of weeks we’ve started work; Nick’s reshaped the soil mountain, henceforth to be called the banking and we’ve barrowed masses of home made compost to spread over it. We’ve bought planters to put on the access points to the septic tank, which I’ve treated with wood preserver, ready to plant up after the Fources flower show this weekend, Nick’s started to rehouse stuff from the heap in the middle and has marked out where the wall will go. I’m trying to spend some time every day weeding the veg plots, though you wouldn’t notice yet.
Work on the house has come to a standstill, but that can be done when it rains and, as will happen soon enough, when it’s too hot to work outside after 10 am. If we’re having a party this summer, it needs at least to look tidy.
Quand on habitait en Angleterre, on n’avais pas le moyen d’avoir un jardin, donc notre grand jardin ici représente un rêve accompli, mais aussi, beaucoup à apprendre.
Le jardin derrière la maison est honteux, avec son tas de terre et un tas énorme de matériels de bricolage, presque enterré par des ronces et des orties.
Pendant l’hiver, on a beaucoup réfléchi et lentement un plan émerge, avec des lieux pour des fruits et des légumes, de la place pour un jardin anglais, un jardin japonais pour les arbres bonsaïs de Nick et un pergola pour quelques plantes grimpantes. On pourrait dire qu’il serait beaucoup plus facile de le nettoyer, niveler et semer de l’herbe, mais nous ne suivons jamais le chemin le plus facile.
Donc, on travaille au jardin lorsqu’il ne fait pas trop chaud et les travaux à la maison doivent attendre un peu.