Since we moved into this house eight months ago, I have concentrated only on decorating the inside of our property. My passion is most definitely sourcing interesting furniture and second-hand accessories from the internet and at antique markets.
And while I love gardens, I don't have much knowledge about them. However, in the last few months, I have been reading a lot of gardening books and also speaking to people to get their advice on what we should do with ours.
It has been bugging me for ages that our six, yes six, recycling bins are also at the side of the patio where we normally set up our outdoor dining table and chairs for al fresco meals. I just wasn't sure what where else we could put the bins as that is the only paved area in our back yard.
Moving from left to right, the brown bin is for garden waste. The green is for general household rubbish and the black bin is for cardboard boxes and plastic bottles. The small green bin is for food waste, the green box is for glass and the blue box (which is stacked in the green one) is for white paper. I kid you not.
After getting the advice of one of my colleagues, we decided to put down paving slabs at the back of our shed and move the bins there. Although it is a longer walk down to the end of the garden, at least the patio will look less unsightly. And exercise is good for you, right?! So armed with a shovel, rubber mallet, spirit level and pure elbow grease, P and I spent most of today 'building' a mini recycling centre behind the shed.
Before the hard work started:
Soil removed and a layer of sand on top for stability:
Paved and bordered:
After:
What were the girls doing during this time? Being the spoilt ladies that they are, they sunbathed of course!
And a pretty little robin came down to admire our handywork:
I have also just ordered a really beautiful white wrought iron loveseat. The next two things I want to do are to 1. plant out a seating area in the sunny spot and 2. paint the shed a pale grey and decorate it in a vintage style with potted plants. I intend to make the garden as shabby chic as possible.
While I love the planning, sourcing and starting part of designing a garden, I am not so keen on the actual work of it. :-) It is hard graft and both P and I have really sore muscles now. Just laying that little paved area took us five hours. Our next piece of major work will be to get the seating area dug out (hopefully in the next two weeks) and when the weather is better, paint the shed.
I will then have to think about Phase 2 of the garden but will let inspiration come to me when she is ready. P and I were just saying the other day of how much our lives have changed since we got married and moved to Brrrringland. As I am sure most of you will remember, my blogs used to be about crazy and exciting things like piercings on d*cks and mountain biking adventures with my dad. Now, it's all about stereotypical middle-aged, middle-class Brrringlish activities like browsing at antique markets and gardening! But in spite of this, I hope that you guys still find my blog entertaining. And if not, never mind, it will just leave me more time to work on the garden!
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