What’s your garden story?

[BarrelOfOtters2]

Inspired by another rather lovely thread.

Mine was a collection of pots with as much as I could crammed into them on the hard standing that didn’t belong to me outside my front door. The neighbours were so patient, though would have to say every so often that they couldn’t actually get their garage door open.

Then a move to a house with a back yard that I packed full of trees in pots, veg in pots….husband had to edge round to his precious bbq and lightly complain about the herb fennel ticking his neck.

Then an allotment That a slightly disapproving committee said was more like a garden. Planted 2 against the rules plum trees that are now tall and full of bees and flowers.

Finally in a house with a garden, and trying hard to work out the permanency of now longer planting in pots!

My previous house was a tiny mid terrace garden which was 80% gravel and 1 tiny boarder. There was a massive apple tree on the gravel side. It was a tall as the house but we pollarded it to rejuvenate and get a better crop from it. In the tiny boarder I crammed it with herbs and veg as much as possible. We also had an allotment for a few years at this house got roped into joining the committee because no-one else would which gave me no end of headaches and took precious time away from my own plot. We eventually left when we moved house.

Our new garden isn't too much bigger than our previous but there seems to be much more established flowers like roses, peonies, viburnums so I'm continuing with the flowers theme with some dotted veg in between where I get the space. Its a lot of gravel again but only about 40% so much more planting space. I also have a back yard which is totally patioed so I'm turning it into more of a outside room with a chiminea, rugs, pallet benches, lights and some structural planters like bamboo and an acer. We're in rented so no real major landscaping going on but plenty of pots, seed annuals and cheap perennials are going in. The house is full of houseplants too naturally. We had an entirely separate van to transport the plants/garden stuff when we moved house.

We rented a house for years with a beautiful garden and I saw it as an absolute chore. I could cry when I think of how much I would appreciate that garden now but I wasn't interested in maintaining in and rarely spent any time in it.

I then bought a house with a 'yarden'. Because it was my house, I was more invested in it looking nice but didn't have the confidence to do anything in case it looked shit. So again I didn't really do anything with it. Then a few years ago I found a really basic Instagram account. It was essentially this is how you grow a potato in a grow bag and it was just what I needed. That summer I grew some potatoes and put some lavender in a pot and loved it. Since then I've improved a tiny bit each year and had a few disasters too but my confidence has grown with it.

I moved again into a house with a garden that really needs money that I don't have spent on it to properly sort it out, but in the meantime I'm slowly improving it year upon year and I'm so glad I discovered this hobby. I really do think it's good for your soul.

In London I rented various flats without gardens. The last one had a balcony on which I grew a grape vine in a pot, which moved house with us.
Our first house had a teeny garden which had to be started from scratch. It ended up being quite lovely but never big enough. It was south facing and everything grew in it but had a big slug problem so I never managed lupine or hostas.
We moved last September to a house with a much bigger and somewhat neglected garden which I'm now starting to tame and plan. It's a bit overwhelming but I love it.
I've still got the vine...it's survived 3 house moves and a very over enthusiastic prune by ds2 when he was small. It must be about 22 years old now.

In our first house, I was completely overwhelmed and just chucked in some shrubs around the edge. I did grow some tomatoes in pots though and really enjoyed that.

Our second house had a well thought out and established garden, but it was tiny, and there wasn't much space to do anything more.

Now I have half an acre to play around with. It's surrounded by huge trees on three sides. The front has loads of conifers and shrubs and a big beautiful beech tree which is just budding now and which fills the sitting room with gently moving dappled shade in the summer. It's teaching me patience because I have loads of plans for the whole thing but am constrained by budget and time. I adore every square inch of it.

One thing I've had in every garden has been a rosemary bush. There was a 4 or 5 foot high one in my childhood garden which I loved, though I didn't realise it was edible till I was about 20! I have two at the moment and 8 cuttings in the nursery, though some of those will be given away.

I've downsized from having several gardens of upwards of an acre in previous houses, to a large courtyard. I had everything (cheap slabs) taken up and replaced with reclaimed stone and have tried to create an English cottage garden, loads (too many really) of perennials, ferns and hostas and a piece of fake grass in the very shady part. Dwarf trees, weeping crab apple, Italian cypress, bay in huge pots to restrict growth. Fruit trees fan trained on the wall. Herb garden, rose and honeysuckle on a rusty metal arch.

I've just bought a few more dwarf trees as I wanted to create height in one part. Also something that looks like it is a climbing ceanothus. It hasn't got a label as I bought it at the side of the road but I am going to tie it onto a trellis and see what happens.

I use coffee grinds and a weekly garlic water solution on my hostas to keep the slugs off - seems to work.

Rentals meant pots traveled with us for a few years but now I’m in an owned home we bought the house mainly for the garden. It was huge and empty so it meant starting from scratch. I’ve been focusing on the back garden but now the front really needs sorting. Great for the insects but not so great in terms of presentation. So that’s my focus for the summer along with coming up with a way of keeping footballs away from irises!!

Every house I have moved into had an established garden. So I weeded and left it to that. Over the years I have enjoyed sitting on the swing in my garden and reading. But didn’t think much of it.

fast forward to last October we had to move. The house we moved into had a patio, lawn and shed. ( not even a new build ) and I suddenly become slightly depressed. Realised that Everytime I looked into the garden it made me sad at how drab it was.

so I started to read and watch videos and made it a priority. I knew nothing about gardening and has so many years of learning to go. But all my seeds on my window ledge grew! And I have picked up so many plants over the last month. I spend hours in my garden now figuring out the layout etc. Im so excited to be able to sit in the garden and read.
cost me a fortune though 😂
my pergola at the moment. First thing I put up.

I initially lived in a series of central London flats with no/shared/hard to access gardens in which I took very little interest.

Then had first dc 20 years ago and bought a house with an established south facing garden, which we were just too busy with dc and two full time jobs to appreciate - looking back it was beautiful, but I paid a gardener to come in and mow and weed every month and that was about it.

Then bought another house which had belonged to an old lady. Inherited some wonderful clematis, hibiscus, peonies and an ornamental crab tree and started to get interested. Had to do it all myself as DH at that point was not interested at all and couldn’t tell a lavender from a lilac. That garden was small but SW facing and very pretty to look at from the house.

Then bought this house and inherited our largest garden yet (for London) which was a treeless windswept desert with a patch of decking and no planting at all. East facing too, so not that promising initially. DH finally got interested, the dc were older so we had more time, and we’ve spent time together creating what is now a mature garden with trees, seating and varied planting so there’s year round interest. We’ve had some disasters, like honey fungus killing some of the street trees on our road and spreading to a flowering cherry we had planted in the front garden, but overall it’s such a pleasure. DH spends hours out there, which is amazing given his starting point.

I grew up in the city, lived in a succession of houses with gardens and was never allowed to do anything because I’d just mess it up (thanks mum 😂 ).

Moved in with DH almost 20 years ago, decent garden (1/4 acre I think) lots of mature trees, had no interest in changing it from being lawn to the fences, few pots of bedding plants here and there (done by DH). Gradually building up shrub borders in places, added small flower beds which have got deeper over the years. Had a few disasters early on then learned about right plant right place (obvious when you know) and I started to get really interested in the last couple of years. Now at the point of being obsessed with growing from seed, striking cuttings etc. Garden’s not quite where I want it but it’s close. I’ve found I prefer richer, deeper colours, what Sarah Raven calls Venetian colours, but DH likes cooler colours so we have some cool borders and some stronger colour borders- the garden is a sort of squared C round the house so we can easily separate them. Also one big border which is full on cottage garden anything goes where we basically drop in things we loved at the garden centre but they don’t really fit anywhere else. 😂

We’re in our second bought home and I have planted 80% of the previously bare garden

I have preference for David Austin roses, blossom trees, magnolia and acers on the shady side in red, pink, orange and cream plus greenish hydrangea

mix of pots on patio part and a lot of lawn rather than design in main part