Progress

You may remember that for the last four years, I've been begging for a new garden? Well, we have progress!

This is what we started with:

This is our garden in 2006 when we first moved in - predominantly an old out house and coal shed, lots of huge badly laid slabs and soil which was 95% old lumps of coal and chips of stone from when the house was first built in 1860.

This was about the prettiest it ever got:

In 2009, this happened (from bad to worse!):

So, this year, for it's 140th birthday, we decided to give the garden a long over due face lift! It has taken some time and we are still a long way from finishing, but we have progress!

At the start of 2010 - a lot of bricks and not much else!

We started by re building the brick wall, smashing this big ugly bit of concrete up and murdering the ivy (see challenge point number 24 and 25). June:

We replaced that with this (using the original York paving which was scattered around the garden and recycling bricks from the old out house). July:

Then we made a lovely square area of paving at the bottom of the garden - again, recycling bits of the out house. We put it on an angle like that to create a visual illusion of length and width (our garden has neither!) August:

We then laid the pattern for a winding path down the middle. We start and end the path quite wide but it narrows in the middle to fool the eye into thinking the space is much longer than it actually is.

Maddie seems to like it!

All we need now is to finish the path with some gravel (and set the bricks in), LOTS of planting to fill in the gaps all around the sides. That's where I come in. 

So, my plans for the planting.... climbing roses up the walls, lots of lavender and other nice fragrant (butterfly friendly) plants and herbs which will spread well and fall over the edges of the path and patio, chocolate cosmos up against the wall - the contrast of the dark red almost black against the red brick is lovely, hydrangea, I might sprinkle poppy seeds here and there as well. Can't wait to see it this time next year in full bloom!

You may have guessed, but the "we" throughout this post actually refers to the Royal We, meaning anyone other than me! Mainly Paul, Paul's Dad and our next door neighbour! Thanks boys! We were also lucky enough to have this garden designed for us by a lecturer in Landscape Architecture who Paul works with - and a fine job he did too! I love it. It makes the garden look so much bigger and I actually feel excited to sit out there now! I never thought there was much you could do with our garden, but it just shows, that with a bit of know how, you can achieve anything!

I also have an apology to make. I never did the draw for my gardening giveaway! I have been so busy with work over the last couple of months, my little blog has fallen well onto the back burner so my giveaway just completely went out of my head so for that, I am most sorry! Thank you for continuing to read me despite that! I will do something to make up for it soon - I promise!

Thank you all for being my cyber buddies and sticking around even when I didn't!

Kat xxx

The Lavender Wedding

I'll start by saying: I AM NEVER, EVER, DRINKING AGAIN!!! Far too much champagne and table wine. At least I'm a happy drunk, it just makes me giggle a lot so thankfully, no embarrassing behaviour... at least not until we got back to Paul's parents and I fell asleep (mid conversation) on their settee. Paul had to carry me to bed (and I'm pretty sure he whacked my head against the door frame on his way as I've got a banging head ache today and can't think of any other possible explanation for it!)

The wedding was beautiful, everyone was really happy and the bride was most pleased with her bunting and my little painting. I even got given a gorgeous bouquet as a thank you!

Everyone seemed to have a lovely time and it was nice for me and Paul to be back at the church where we got married (two years ago later this month). I do love a good wedding and can't wait for the next one at the end of this month!

Me and my P in his parents back garden before the wedding.

The bride and groom.

The bouquet and some detail on the dress.

The hair.

The head table and my Lavender bunting.

A house full of wedding cake

3 Tiers....

200 Cupcakes....

And 1 sulky puppy...

Remember the "Lavender" bunting I was busy sewing the other day? Well, the Lavender wedding has finally arrived... tomorrow morning, I'll be setting up the hall - hanging bunting, decorating tables, arranging cakes.... I can't wait!

My friend asked me over a year ago if I would help organise her wedding, I was feeling a bit blue and unsure what to do with myself after my own wedding so it was a great thing for me to start thinking about!

Today she came round with all of her cakes, 2 high chairs and her guest book for me to take down to the hall tomorrow. 

Seeing the guest book gave me an idea. Instead of just leaving a note, I wanted to do something a bit more personal, so I pulled out my sketchbook and started doodling.

First I just did a couple of weddingy sketches, a couple of bride and groom scribbles. Then I did one of them running for a plane with her suitcase bulging.... Then I thought, they are going on safari for their honeymoon so how about I chuck a lion in there as well? Oh, how about her suitcase has burst open and all her clothes have fallen out but they are too happy to notice? 

And this is what I came up with...

Her bikini top has got hooked over the lions ear!

Cute, yes?

I've attached it with photo corners so that she can take it out and frame it if she wants to. I really enjoy doing these little drawings, I did a couple for my bridesmaids (they were fairies and wearing their bridesmaid dreses) when I got married and one for a friends baby but have not done one since. I think it's nice to have something to remind you of a particular day - I think they make great cards or gifts.

Off now to practice my hair do for tomorrow - my hair is so long these days it takes forever to do! I'm thinking of doing lots of twisty loops all to one side and maybe a few curls hanging down.

Anyway, more on the wedding tomorrow! Everyone pray for nice weather for the lovely bride please?

Garden-spirtation (and there's a prize in it for you!)

(Garden-Inspiration in case you were wondering.)

I've lived in this house for four years now and have been meaning to sort my garden out for three and a half of those years. We're quite limited as to what we can do with it really. Most of it is in shade for the whole day, there is only about six foot at the bottom that gets sunshine till about lunchtime due to the shadow cast by four floors of house plus a dorma extension on the roof. Because it's always shaded, it's very damp and we get a lot of weeds and moss growing. The house is over one hundred years old so back in the days of coal burning fires, the poor garden was used as a dumping ground for all of the charred coal for probably seventy years. If we are going to have a decent garden out there, we need to get a little digger in and dig that crap out and replace it with good soil.

This is what we've got at the moment (before shots with out house and after):

We also need to get rid of that giant bush you can see on the right - the bumble bees love it when it's in flower and the birds love it when it's covered in berries in the winter but it's just too big. It fills about half of the garden and the roots go so deep that you can't grow anything else in the bed with it.

These are a few pictures of gardens that make me smile. Gardens I'd love to have at the back of my house.

I love this idea of having little shelved built into the wall. This garden feels quite jungly to me which I like. I think I'd feel protected and hidden away by the big palms. I don't think they'd like my dark garden though.

I like the little stepping stones in this garden. I like the idea of a fairy tale garden. The coloured pencils are fab as well. I can definitely see something like that in my garden! We are thinking of decking the top half of the garden in covering it with lots of pots so this little area would be great in the bit at the bottom that gets the sun.

This is the same garden as above from another angle. I think the teepee is really cool but don't think I'd have one in my own garden. The little wooden toadstools are cute as well. I adore the little mosaic butterflies on the wall, I'm going to have a go at one of those.

This garden is great, there is no space at all but the owner has been really creative in making the most out of the space. LOVE the toilet planter! I saved the old toilet from our out house so that I could make one of these. This photo was taken in Whitby and I love how they have brought in aspects of the sea and fishing by using the rope up the stairs and can you see in the top right, there is a crab cage used as a hanging basket? Love, love, love it!

These are the kind of flowers I'd like to see in my garden. I like the idea of having lots of wild, meadow type flowers like fox gloves, poppies, thistles, lavender, blue bells... 

I'd also like to try and attract butterflies and bumble bees into my garden. My P bought me a butterfly house for my birthday a couple of years ago and it's been sat in the outhouse ever since!

So dear friends, I call on your gardening knowledge to help me! What kind of plants could I use to achieve something like in the pictures above? Do you have a gorgeous garden that you'd like to share? Send me some pics and I'll put them on here. If you have a clever gardening friend or know any green fingered fellow bloggers, send them over to my blog so they can help out too! I'd love to make some new bloggy friends! Send me your ideas. 

I'm thinking there will be a prize for the best idea! I can't really give away a plant, but how about a couple of my lavender filled hanging hearts and a pack of my lavender shoe scents?

I've got someone coming to give us a quote to re-build the wall on Monday so once that is done, we can get started. I'll post work in progress photos as we go along.

P.S For all of you who have been watching from a far and sat shyly in the shadows, please let me know that you're there and leave me a comment so that I can love you right back! To be in with a chance of winning, please add yourself as a follower and mention it in your comment. For a second chance, send a friend or two my way and mention that in your comment!

Thank you for reading and I love you all dearly!

xxx

P.P.S On Friday 11th of June, I will be going to a Landscape Architecture Exhibition at my P's work so what better date to end this giveaway?