Introduction

I am starting my garden grow blog rather late in the season 26th June 2010 so I have a lot of info and pics yet to find. The following blog entry is how things are at the moment. I will go back and fill in as much as I can so you can go on the full journey. I have not done a blog before so bear with me while I find my feet. This is my 4th year that I have grown anything edible and am thoroughly enjoying the rewards. It is a love hate relationship that I have with my garden as there is so much to do.
Later on you will see that I have been doing a lot more than growing fruit and veg, I have been growing muscles landscaping my garden with female sized tools and lots of string. :)

Some of the entries are likely to be slightly in the wrong order but i am trying.


I have been in this house in Hertfordshire for around 20 years but it has only been recently that i have really got stuck into my garden. My boys have left home and its now just me and my 9 year old daughter here, oh, and not forgetting my two tiny chihuahuas. My garden is about 90ft long and the width of the house plus the drive. I have never known the width. I also have a big front garden. The house was built after the war on old prisoner camps i have been told. The end of the garden has always been home to damn Maple trees and have been the scourge of my life.The garden has always been mostly lawn and a patio but it served a purpose at that time.

There is a lot of privacy from all directions as the gardens are big enough not to be over looked by other houses. The houses are staggered in two's so that gives extra privacy which i really value, more so as i have got older.

I lost my mum nearly 4 years ago with only a 6 month warning and i lost myself i think a bit too. I mentally closed down and withdrew and my garden became very important to me. I wanted to grow sunflowers for my mum as they were her favorite flower. I wanted then to grow behind the place she was laid to rest. It is a lovely setting as there are open fields all around her. My mum loved the summer, she lived for it. :)

So, i started out by buying a plastic greenhouse. It looked like the plastic covers you get for prams. The sunflowers had got me thinking about growing other stuff. Anyway, i attached it to the side of my house. By the following morning it was a twisted flapping mad thing! The wind had ripped and twisted it into a mess.

I then went more upmarket and bought myself a very flimsy 6x4 greenhouse with a sliding door. Everything was green plastic and ohhh, wait for it............double insulated windows!!! I felt posh when i stepped inside for the first time. I had visions of grandeur i can tell you! This was MY space. It wasn't part of the house, it was mine. I spent 2 days putting it up in damp freezing cold conditions. My nose ran so much i had a shiny sleeve lol. I forgot to mention that i did have some help from my son and his girlfriend. He wasn't much use but Katie was great. We(girls) wanted to lay it all out first in order on the grass, he wanted to just put it together. Lots of counting to ten that day. ;)

Long story short....One day i found the wind had beaten up my new greenhouse just like it did to the first. :( And before you think it, it was put up correctly. :o

I now have a better greenhouse and its a bit bigger, 6x8 i think.

My back garden slopes towards the house, you know the sort, the kids pool is full at one end and empty the other. Well i had a relationship with someone for 2 years and in that time we managed to level out a couple of areas, terraces i think and turfed it. My daughter suffers from some disabilities, vision being one of them so getting the garden ship shape has been a mission. The soil is clay and very stones so lots of very hard work.

I have now had the greenhouse for about 3 years and its still going strong, sort of :) This picture was taken nearly 3 years ago. There is a lot of mess as things were being moved about for the start of the redesign. I have a concrete garage on the left that had 4ft conifers growing along the side. They were removed a couple of weeks earlier. I had painted the garage to make it look better. I had the idea that i could make it look more like a log cabin with the brown paint.




Just in front of the greenhouse is what used to be my fish pond but i used it to plant my beautiful palm in. Its not so beautiful now, the snow we had this winter have made it all straw colour, i am watching closley...


I have just added this pic as it shows a view from above my garden in the winter. You can also the the conifers in front of the garage on the left before they got the chop.