Face Lights Up: Garden work in progress

How clean is your garden?

It was one of those gardens, overgrown, overwrought, cluttered with rubbish and a source of despair to owner and neighbours. But we are doing a serious clean-up, read on for before and after pics.

The first thing we did was hit rock bottom and hire a garden architect, we no longer loved our garden, we hated it, we were overwhelmed and didn't know where to start or what to do.

Reconditioned terrace and pergola,
still need to repaint antique rusty furniture...

First of all she loved our garden, saw its potential, called it the Enchanted Garden, told us of its remarkable energy and wonderful trees, and begged to be allowed to work on it. This was highly therapeutic. She had an eye for structure which I lacked, and many good ideas on how to deal with challenges such as dry shade, over planting, ugly walls and neighbours on all sides.

We modified just about everything she suggested for the following reasons; builder produced a totally different path despite our best efforts, budget, wanting to recycle what we had, sentimental attachement (to plants), practical attachment (to log store and compost near house for example). However, we would never have 'seen' it for ourselves or had the courage to get going on it without the architect.

Now to work. My nails are broken, stained dark oak and painted green, my hands are so rough they catch on my clothes, my back is bent and bowed...after 2 solid weeks of reconstruction. Here are some photos of progress so far...

This area had to be cleared of all vegetation as it was annoying the neighbour. We turned it into a maintainable parking area with new gate, necessary because of local council is building a creche for 60 babies in our small suburban street and will make the roads one-way, reduce parking...drones on.

Horrid wall on complaining neighbour side...

Horrid wall on other side

What's left after massacre of our walnut tree, with unfinished works...

Whitewashed wall and planting under a weed blanket, to be covered with gravel and recycled smashed plant pots

A sign of life and beauty

I'm really pleased with this, an evergreen relatively low growing (2.5 metres) clematis, I hope the white flowers will be scented, to grow over an arch with a young yew tree

A young strawberry tree, has yellow orange and red fruits, you can eat them in jam but they don't taste of anything when raw

Arch, the toujours unfinished works (waiting for electriciy and water point) attempts to hide compost, self-sown elder tree for elderflower cordial

Some of the massacred trees, waiting to be turned into garden furniture, or chopped up in composter to be used as mulch

Walking towards the house, showing some promise

The challenge here....

The enticing view of neighbour's garden, right into living room, and horrid chicken coop fence, all visible once she forced us to remove hedges and trees, so now, how to screen?

The neighbour has eradicated all life forms on the boundary between our gardens, including forcing us to cut down all our trees...so how to screen, without letting a single leaf trespass on her garden, and without losing all the light? We once bought an entire shop display of differing fencing panels (don't ask) and so we recycled the remaining ones, and pulled the whole thing together by painting them all green which took me an age and a half. Fencing options are limited here in France, I drool over British websites in vain...

Attempts at screening, much helped by a Euonymus which has lovely split orange berries/seeds in autumn. Please note HER tree which is jammed up against another neighbour's house and clearly illegal but she says it does not bother those neighbours...so that's alright then.

Waiting for clematis and other plants...and for me to paint the posts green

One of the aforementioned clematis

This is a tricky area, the cherry trees have been cut down and we fenced it, so it is shady. We kept the hawthorn stump as it can class as a bush and escape legal notice as a tree, it's waiting for an owl to sit in it, will re-grow I hope. Planted variegated Euonymous ground cover also variegated perwinkle, St John's Wort, and for height, 2 Japanese quinces, a climbing fuchsia and a fuchsia bush. Row of stones under the fence to make sure no living thing creeps behind it into neighbour's garden.

Hand painted pots, will be on mini raised circular beds, 2 with 'bunches' of tall flowers and and the other with raspberries transplanted from lawn, honeysuckle over the arch, removed some time ago from fence at neighbour's request, and doing a lovely job

Recycled bricks to make a flower path...(not finished yet by builder...)

The next challenge

Our builder (who is also our neighbour) has driven a path through our garden which we affectionately call 'the motorway', we were envisaging and indeed had carefully requested and lovingly described a more informal, porous version - but perhaps it's for the best, as it is main access from the parking area, and for wheelbarrows. The challenge now is to soften the edges with some 'branching' out, giving more horizontal width...AND it's dry shade, lovely in spring with violets, primula, periwinkle and ground ivy, but a dry shade wasteland the rest of the year...

prototype try-out for raised bed using concrete building blocks which we had earlier

Tat and crap, all recycled in building project

I decided to do some raised beds up to the level of the path, and play with geometrical shapes using recycled building blocks - the path also has geometric 'flowers', which you can't see because the builder has still not finished the path. Also garden is covered in a snow of blossom petals from the plum trees above.

I allowed myself one 'formal' bed with camelia, azalia and heathers, the raised bed is filled with 'acid' soil, the rest is replanted primula, violets, periwinkle, yellow and pink deadlnettle, and rustic variety shade lover from the garden centre. The idea is that there will be a concentration of wild and rustic variety shade plants in season, I'll add some bulbs this autumn, but even when the show is over, interesting shapes and leaf cover - the bark chips help our clay soil to retain water, rather than turn grey and cracking, and will allow next year's wild flowers to poke through, and provide walkways for inevitable boundary maintenance. I built one (pentagon) around an annoying metal stake, which I turned into a feature with stacked flowerpots.

I also recycled stones from a heap, partly left by previous owners, partly foraged from neighbours when they did their garden (old limestone buildings probably) and partly 'pebbles' collected on holiday over the years, we go in for BIG pebbles. I had to make sure they were well set into the earth and the cracks filled in with earth, to prevent a snail town developing - I'll encourage mind-your-own business to cover the cracks and holes, don't think it will get out of control in shady forest garden.

Plum blossom from above

Playing with geometrical shapes and using up leftover border

The Swing Seat

I could only find the one I liked in Scotland, a friend drove it over from a delivery point in England, never regretted the effort, this is my joy and my refuge, I've always dreamed of having one, since ogling the orange ones of the 1970s - my parents refused to have one and the longing was never assuaged...