Complete revamp ?

[Deleted]

Probably won't take any pictures or start a new thread 'til next weekend now.

Mrs FA made a foray into the garden this afternoon. We were having a lovely chat about what I was doing with the border right up until she said "I think our garden lacks character".

When I asked what she meant, she couldn't really describe it to me. I admit that it's a bit bare at the moment (which was why I asked for suggestions on evergreens and winter interest a while back) but after all the work I've done on it, I was quite miffed to say the least It'll look good in another 6 - 8 weeks or so when the herbaceous stuff starts showing properly.

Anyway, the upshot of it is that we're going to work together on the current revamp of the pear tree border and then, if and when we get our extension sorted out, we're going to work together on redoing the garden afterwards. Until we have a row and I tell her to **** off out my garden, anyway ;D ;D ;D ;D

FA x

[Chuckles]

How's the working together on the revamp going

[Deleted]

Ooooh yes FA keep us posted on progress....i'm intrigued by what you plan to do.

[Deleted]

We've made a start but plans have had to be put on hold as we may be extending the house (we had already planned to do this but not to the extent that we are now considering), which will mean we have to move the garage, which will also mean we have to move the shed. This in turn will affect the border so I may just bung a few cheap shrubs in for now and wait and see what happens with regard to the other stuff.

FA

[Spruance]

Thinking in terms of cheap shrubs FA. By all accounts Wilkinsons have some quite decent bargains at the moment.

It looks like it's a toss up between Ipswich and Colchester for your nearest store.

[madonplants]

fatandy said:

We've made a start but plans have had to be put on hold as we may be extending the house (we had already planned to do this but not to the extent that we are now considering), which will mean we have to move the garage, which will also mean we have to move the shed. This in turn will affect the border so I may just bung a few cheap shrubs in for now and wait and see what happens with regard to the other stuff.

FA

Sounds like quite a project there, Andy!! Keep us posted.

Keith

[Deleted]

Here are some "before" & "after" pictures for what we've done so far, which is to simply remove all of the crap we don't want and dig over the ground. I've also trimmed the philadelphus quite severely and given the viburnum a bit of a chop but that's still a work in progress. As I said earlier, there's no point in doing anything more substantial at the moment because the plans we are now having may involve moving the garage and the shed.

Before



After - Flowering currant removed



Before



After



Before



After



Before



After



And just so you get some idea, the garage is actually hidden by the shed in this picture. The plan is to do a 2 storey extension to the back of the house, incorporating a dining room downstairs, an extension to our bedroom (the window above the double doors), change one of the bedrooms to a bathroom and build another bedroom as well. The only way we can do that is if we incorporate a new garage adjoining the new extension, which means moving the garage from it's current position about 8ft further forward towards the house. If we move the garage, we'll move the shed too and that will give us a bit more space to work with.

It's going to be chaos in the garden for a while



FA

[Chuckles]

Thanks for sharing your revamp pics FA, that looks so much better already. If you don't mind me saying, I'd probably take a couple of the middle bits of the philadelphus out as well while your at it, as low as you can just to open it up a bit. I need to do mine which has been left for quite a few years and it is one mass of branches all rubbing together

You look like you have the same problems with extending as my sister had with her last house, the garage being set back from the house is a pain. They actually moved instead, she didn't want all the hassle of the work

[owainglyndwr]

Hi FA - Great pictures of Before and After.

Thanks mate ... you've given me the inspiration to be brutal ;D

[Chuckles]

How's the border looking after its trim up, bet you're glad you did it now

[Deleted]

Hiya Chuckles

Yes, I am glad that I did it. It's stalled a bit because we're unsure about what's happening with regard to our extension. I could be about to lose my job so we're just biding our time until we know more. Even though it's empty, the border still looks much nicer than it did !!

FA x

[Deleted]

You have been busy looks good.

[MamIDdau]

oooooh it's like a spot the difference competition hehe