We have done so much more in the back garden than I was even expecting this winter. It was basically a disaster and now it is only half a disaster. We have had waste removers come out THREE TIMES to get rid of all of the junk we had back there. I cleared out all of the buildings out and we have been able to rescue two of them. So now I am working on improving our big shed and greenhouse, while saying bye-bye to the wooden shed.

Big Shed

Our cement shed has been one of our bigger projects so far this year, we replaced the entire roof and are planning on fixing up the door and windows. I also talked to our plasterer about repairing the walls and exterior. There was only a small leak in the old roof so the inside was in decent shape. But the exterior wall that was next to the wooden shed had some water damage that is now drying out.

Greenhouse

I posted my greenhouse clean out here, and over the winter it has just been used as storage. I have now taken everything back out so that I can get the floor in better shape. It’s just decorative gravel over a ton of plastic, but because so many glass panes shattered over the years, mud and other debris has mixed into it, in addition to many annoying bits of plastic, creating a huge mess. The past week or so I have put an effort in to cleaning the stones up but there really isn’t an easy way to do that if you don’t own an industrial gravel facility. So mostly I’ve been putting them in piles and letting the rain do the work. Then I can remove all the plastic underneath and level the ground, so that I can re-lay everything neatly. I’ll also be working to clean what is left of the glass and replace the broken pieces. This has been one of the least enjoyable garden projects because I feel like the mess has no end, especially trying to pick out all of the broken plastic and styrofoam. Garden plastic is quickly overtaking slugs as my #1 garden enemy.

Wooden Shed (RIP)

We have taken away this mess!! I cleaned out the wooden shed and found that one wall was rotting away. Strangely, when they put this shed up they sloped the roof towards the cement shed, which I mentioned had caused water damage on that wall. So we decided to tear it down and move on. As I suspected, underneath this shed, something (most likely a fox who loves tennis balls) dug a den, so all of the slabs underneath had collapsed. With great difficulty I was able to pull the slabs out and I have begun levelling the ground in between the two remaining buildings. Me and Andrew both have tons of ideas for this space. I think it would be perfect to replace the patio and put up galvanized steel vegetable planters. This area probably gets the most sun and is conviently outside of the greenhouse. But we still have to remove the tree trunks that are behind this clearing to replace with a mixed hedge of native shrubs.

There is still a ton of work that needs done back here and it will probably take years to get it where we want it to be, but it’s amazing how much space we have to play with. It’s been a huge labor of love, and I’ve still got piles of branches, gravel, planter pots, bricks, and slabs to deal with. But I’m proud of how much progress we have made over the past few months. And it’s a pretty hardcore workout too. 😉

P.S. I feel like I need a better name than “back garden” and this is something I will be pursuing in further posts xxoxo

P.P.S. Since starting this post we have done a ton more so will be updating that in another post 🙂

Katy