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I am Tammy a sahm with 2 kids and another on the way. I am a card maker who also runs two craft groups. I must admit that my love of crafting does "joustle" sometimes with my love of the garden. However I have been gardening ever since I can remember. It was only a couple of years ago that my grandparents had to find a new home for the oak that I grew from an acorn as a toddler (so its over 30 years old now!) It had gone from bigger pot to bigger pot and then I found a man who grew bonsai and he took it on. I keep meaning to get in touch and see if it survivied the bonsai process - I would love to see it but am just soooo busy!
I moved into my first house with a long narrow garden at 21. The garden thrived but I must admit I was obsessed and my relationship failed after just 1 year there. As soon as I got home I would be out there and would only come in either when it was too dark or too wet or dinner was just having to be done. The pond was moved and in the end made larger and stocked with koi carp, the concrete at the bottom was dug up and a veg plot established (I thought it huge at time but its only a 1/5 of what I have now - lol!!!) Two skips of rubbish was removed and in the end my cottage garden was the talk of my family and friends. I still love looking at the photos - many fond memories.
I moved after some 4 years in that house and due to constantly changing circumstances moved virtualy every year after that for several years:
Second house was a rented terraced cottage which was a riot with colour much to my landlords amusement as all I was asked to do was keep grass cut.
Third house we bought on the same road only 10 doors down and I made big changes to again small garden but just packed in as much colour as I could.
Fourth house I moved into had a large garden but was rented and didnt have the same easygoing appreciative landlord so just kept it tended.
Then I moved into a flat - no garden boo hoo.
Then I moved for a couple of months back to my Mum and Dads having become engaged whilst I planned our wedding and spent my time each evening picking flowers from their huge garden and arranging them.
Then hubbie and I settled into his batchelor flat - amazing what you can do on a small balcony!
Finaly we moved to Finedon two years ago. We now have a huge garden and I really am now Fine and Dandy! We have made lots of changes and a great friend. After around 8 months and having been quite ill (diagnosed with underactive thyroid) I sought help from Joe, a retired school teacher who did quite a few gardens down our road. He was shocked at what I was trying to turn around as the garden really was a mess (the lawn had more weed than grass!) He has ever since come for 2 hours a week and although I really struggle to pay him the £7 an hour he charges, I get so much more from his help. He is very encouraging, supportive and often does extra hours without charging for it. We often work together and I look forward to his company - its like having a gardening Grandad. Hubbie works well with him too - they have just built a compost station together. I have alot of knowledge as does Joe and we bouce ideas off of each other frequently. He also takes an interest in my crafting and made some card stands for me for nothing!
The three of us have been working very hard and got lots done in the last two years; We have grassed over several ill placed flower beds and made a large island bed where a huge pampass grass was removed (pampass not good with young children) I have got my favourite cottage garden thing going again and the garden even in October was a mass of colour.
We have dug over a section of the lawn some 40 by 60 for our veggie plot and incorporated the bricks from the ugly fake fireplace in the lounge as a cross over dividing path. We grew some 30 different crops last year, the failiures being tomatoes (tough skins) and butternut squash (didnt develop quickly enough) The successes were in the form of masses of cucumbers (never grown before), carrots, potatoes, french beans, runner beans and leeks, beetroot which we are still eating. The garlic was good too.
We have an established fruit bed of strawberries and raspberries the other end of the garden and having found a raspberry cane in another part, we have planted even more raspberries and a blackberry there - we also found a rubarb on the edge of the bank to which we have added another. The only trouble with the strawberries was as soon as ds found he loved them and that was where he could get them, they never got a chance to ripen - how he never got a tummy ache is beyond me!!!
We have started to give the overgrown hedgerow that borders the whole of our front and back gardens some attention, removing the ivy with stems as thick as tree trunks!! and thinning out the hawthorn. We are the only house left along the original hedgerow not to have removed it and replaced it with a fence. I am hanging on for dear life to keep it but it will need alot of tlc and work to restore it to its former glory. The birds already are thankful as we have lots of residents, inlc our robin, a wren, a song thrush, several blackbirds, starlings, doves, wood pigeon but the green finch who were resident the first Feb we were here have never returned.
This year, we have an archway to put up and plant with sweet peas then eventualy clematis and roses, stepping stones under and through the new island bed and a rather narrow flower bed to be extended in line with an opposite bed and thats without the 50 or so different crops planned for this year in the veggie plot!
So thats sort of where we are now. Would love to hear from anyone who has been able to relate to any of the above ramble!
Tammy
I moved into my first house with a long narrow garden at 21. The garden thrived but I must admit I was obsessed and my relationship failed after just 1 year there. As soon as I got home I would be out there and would only come in either when it was too dark or too wet or dinner was just having to be done. The pond was moved and in the end made larger and stocked with koi carp, the concrete at the bottom was dug up and a veg plot established (I thought it huge at time but its only a 1/5 of what I have now - lol!!!) Two skips of rubbish was removed and in the end my cottage garden was the talk of my family and friends. I still love looking at the photos - many fond memories.
I moved after some 4 years in that house and due to constantly changing circumstances moved virtualy every year after that for several years:
Second house was a rented terraced cottage which was a riot with colour much to my landlords amusement as all I was asked to do was keep grass cut.
Third house we bought on the same road only 10 doors down and I made big changes to again small garden but just packed in as much colour as I could.
Fourth house I moved into had a large garden but was rented and didnt have the same easygoing appreciative landlord so just kept it tended.
Then I moved into a flat - no garden boo hoo.
Then I moved for a couple of months back to my Mum and Dads having become engaged whilst I planned our wedding and spent my time each evening picking flowers from their huge garden and arranging them.
Then hubbie and I settled into his batchelor flat - amazing what you can do on a small balcony!
Finaly we moved to Finedon two years ago. We now have a huge garden and I really am now Fine and Dandy! We have made lots of changes and a great friend. After around 8 months and having been quite ill (diagnosed with underactive thyroid) I sought help from Joe, a retired school teacher who did quite a few gardens down our road. He was shocked at what I was trying to turn around as the garden really was a mess (the lawn had more weed than grass!) He has ever since come for 2 hours a week and although I really struggle to pay him the £7 an hour he charges, I get so much more from his help. He is very encouraging, supportive and often does extra hours without charging for it. We often work together and I look forward to his company - its like having a gardening Grandad. Hubbie works well with him too - they have just built a compost station together. I have alot of knowledge as does Joe and we bouce ideas off of each other frequently. He also takes an interest in my crafting and made some card stands for me for nothing!
The three of us have been working very hard and got lots done in the last two years; We have grassed over several ill placed flower beds and made a large island bed where a huge pampass grass was removed (pampass not good with young children) I have got my favourite cottage garden thing going again and the garden even in October was a mass of colour.
We have dug over a section of the lawn some 40 by 60 for our veggie plot and incorporated the bricks from the ugly fake fireplace in the lounge as a cross over dividing path. We grew some 30 different crops last year, the failiures being tomatoes (tough skins) and butternut squash (didnt develop quickly enough) The successes were in the form of masses of cucumbers (never grown before), carrots, potatoes, french beans, runner beans and leeks, beetroot which we are still eating. The garlic was good too.
We have an established fruit bed of strawberries and raspberries the other end of the garden and having found a raspberry cane in another part, we have planted even more raspberries and a blackberry there - we also found a rubarb on the edge of the bank to which we have added another. The only trouble with the strawberries was as soon as ds found he loved them and that was where he could get them, they never got a chance to ripen - how he never got a tummy ache is beyond me!!!
We have started to give the overgrown hedgerow that borders the whole of our front and back gardens some attention, removing the ivy with stems as thick as tree trunks!! and thinning out the hawthorn. We are the only house left along the original hedgerow not to have removed it and replaced it with a fence. I am hanging on for dear life to keep it but it will need alot of tlc and work to restore it to its former glory. The birds already are thankful as we have lots of residents, inlc our robin, a wren, a song thrush, several blackbirds, starlings, doves, wood pigeon but the green finch who were resident the first Feb we were here have never returned.
This year, we have an archway to put up and plant with sweet peas then eventualy clematis and roses, stepping stones under and through the new island bed and a rather narrow flower bed to be extended in line with an opposite bed and thats without the 50 or so different crops planned for this year in the veggie plot!
So thats sort of where we are now. Would love to hear from anyone who has been able to relate to any of the above ramble!
Tammy
God made rainy days so gardeners could get the housework done
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