ANOTHER ROSE BITES THE DUST!!

The dismantling of parts of the garden is continuing! Paul decided that he'd cut down all the rose on the rose arch. So that's what happened and then we made a trip to the recycling centre and this is what the arch looks like bare.

Again it's opened up the area and we did quite like this empty look just showing the shape BUT it's time for a change, so we continued onwards.

We moved two of the arch's over to the two sides considering whether to place them here but that idea is not going to work for what we want to do.

View from other side. We have left the trellis side up for the moment to stop the dogs from just walking into this area although thinking about it , they will probably just go round the other side!!

I'll try to explain what we are after doing. Having just spent the better part of an hour discussing how we hope to achieve it!.

Our aim is to give the large patio by the house the feel of a courtyard. We have considered building a brick wall either side of the end of the patio

Where I have placed the piece of board to show at what point the wall would be built, the middle archway being clear to walk through but either side cutting off the view.
We worked out the cost and the amount of work for this and decided that it would be too expensive especially if once it was up we did not like it!!

So after more discussion and working out, we have decided to go with a different option which we hope will achieve what we want.

I'm using these photo's of the holiday cottage garden to hopefully help you visualise what I mean.
We will use railway sleepers, new clean ones, not old one's like these that have oil etc on them and are not good to have around dogs and children.

We will build ours using them on edge to give us  height and fitting them together with metal rods in holes drilled through the sleepers.

We will have two raised beds either side of the opening  about two foot deep and eight foot long. The back's will be another foot or so higher and will possibly have some trellis above that, these beds will be filled with colourful planting.

Hopefully this will give us the feel of a courtyard without totally losing the garden beyond plus if we are not happy with the trellis or raised back for whatever reason we can just remove it, unlike an expensive brick wall!

So there you have it, the redesign of the patio area by the house.

Removal of the brick outhouse after it's been cleared out, the electric cut off and re positioned and the freezers been found a home indoors.Removal of the fish pond, a shame but there are only four fish left at present, so we will find them a good home or maybe set up a smaller pond somewhere else in the garden.

 Building of two long raised beds with higher backs .Hopefully this will be done over the coming autumn winter months.Then in the new year we will have to decide what paving we want for the patio because the existing paving is well past it's prime and cracking and just plain ugly!!

We will put photo's of our progress on , so that you can follow along with us this redesign.Now we need to buy some sleepers!!

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TODAY'S PROGRESS

Today Paul finished clearing and replanting the second border in the flower garden. Looking at how nice it was to see the edge of the bed , we decided to use some of the blocks we had left from when we redid the front garden

So after disagreeing about whether the blocks should be placed upright or on edge, Paul said he'd dig the trench and I could put them in place and fill in behind them . This was because I wanted the on edge!
Once I'd finished  Paul agreed that it was a good way to put them.

So we carried on and did the same to the other re planted bed.

The second flower bed.

Both edged beds.

This third bed still needs to be cleared of weeds and the plants divided and replanted, then edged like the other two sides.

The forth bed in the flower garden is well ,a shady one and most of the plants here do not need moving , just a little thinning and dividing and then edging.Then this area will be ready to go into the winter months with less work to do next spring.
We are hoping to start replacing some of the fencing on this side to match the new fencing we put up on the other side.

Well another decision was made today......

We have decided to remove our rose arch. It's been up for at least seven years and the roses did used to make a good showing but we have not been happy with it for the last year or so. The area on the left is also
hard to manage due to the fence on one side the arch on the other and a raised bed to one side at the front, so by re designing this area it will open up that side and make it easier to maintain.

I must say that I thought that it was the house that was going to bare the brunt of our clearing out and redesign but it appears that part the garden is going to also get a redesign. And I am feeling quite excited about the plans we have for it.


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