Welcome home

It's so good to be home again, we got married on the 4th of September and have had the most amazing week away in Yorkshire for our honeymoon. If you're in need of a treat weekend away check out Swinton Estate Hotel....

It's rather a glorious treat - also huge walled garden... need I say more? We're back home now and both back to work, for better or worse. I for one am excited to be back in the office revisiting designs I've got on the go and starting to muse over some new ones...

The garden has grown so much even in just the week we've been away, despite the warm dry weather... A few snaps of what's looking gorgeous:

I have to confess we haven't watered the newly planted garden any where near as much as I would have hoped (and the plants). Despite this they are all flourishing!

What are your plans for your garden? Are you hoping to spruce your outdoors space up next year? A full garden revamp or just the plant beds that need a refresh to look more cohesive... If you're hoping to have your garden designed & built please do remember that the whole process from initial consultation through concept designs, detailed drawings, getting quotes from contractors to your garden actually being built will take months.... if not longer depending on the scale of your plot. My one tip would be plan well ahead. If you're quick to get in contact with a designer now you'll most likely be booked in to start the design into the New Year, with the potential of having your garden build starting next Autumn ish (realistically autumn absolutely earliest...!!) ... that's a very rough guide.

Having your garden professionally designed and built is a huge investment, both financially and in terms of timescales (they really do take time... time, time, time) - it's also very exciting so don't rush into it in the hope of having a new garden by Spring.

- Research your designer, do you like their style?

- Book an initial consultation to meet them, do you love their personality? This is key as you'll have us on board for a while and there needs to be trust both ways.

- If you like both of the above consider getting us booked in!

If you're based in Norfolk or Suffolk and would like to find out more about having your garden transformed pop me an email or fill in my contacts form on my website.

I'll hop right to it and be in touch as soon as I can.

Hope to speak soon! E

Is it really summer?

Hello! It's been a while since I last wrote anything on the blog. It's been one busy summer, if that's what we can call it?

The house renovation project is getting there, slowly but surely... The garden has made great progress although a huge way to go yet for a finished space & we've been busy planning our upcoming wedding too! And of course continuing to build my garden design business here in Norfolk with the support of you lovely lot. I don't know about you but I'm very much in need of a break soon, it's been one hell of a last year.

I'm going to fast forward a little bit so you don't see every single tedious stage we've gone through with the garden but to show you some more recent progress and triumphs and how we got there.

I don't think I'll ever quite get over this morning view. It really is quite stunning here in #norfolk

Above shows the garden starting to develop a backbone of structure, #Teaselslandscapes helped us to set out the design with mild steel edging which has rusted beautifully.

To the left is the main path running down the length of the garden, turning at an angle and then leading to the end of the garden which is also known as the 'productive garden'.

We built our own timber vegetable beds that are now in situ (and have been extremely full this last year) and relocated the greenhouse and old garage frame:

August 2020 - newly installed veg beds, sparkling clean greenhouse & revamped garage frame

And started to build the garden design office.. (well David the fab builder did.. )

September 2020 - my design office was built using left over bricks from our extension (fabulous)

The garage frame has been transformed into a timber clad large workshop come shed. We're both extremely happy with it.

Anyway they are some behind the scenes photos from last year, I'll fast forward now to show you where we're at now give or take a few weeks:

We have a lawn. This photo was taken late spring as I'd just planted up some of the borders, it's since filled out beautifully!

The office is looking great (bar no doors on the front just yet..) I've sourced a gorgeous galvanised tank that we are going to transform into a simple water feature next to the office. Still waiting to gravel the entire end of the garden but can't quite push that yet. The thornless blackberry is now going crazy with new growth too & the fig has soo many figlets on it now!

The most recent photo of a couple of the borders planted up and romping away, we absolutely adore it. It's out little piece of peace whilst the rest of our house progresses and still lots to do in the garden yet. But it's all coming together rather nicely, don't you think?

Please do let me know your thoughts. I would love to know where you're at with your home and garden? Comment below!

E

Garden progress...

I thought it was about time to share a little more of our garden journey over the past year. Buckle in for the ride (OK it's not thaat exciting). But it will help give you further insight into a gardens' journey, from overgrown conifer jungle to a beautiful garden, one day. Where were we? Ah yes, I had started sharing my initial design ideas for our plot. I will continue with that theme after sharing some more photos of our garden progress along the way. The photos below are from April 2020.

The house as you can see above was a relatively small semi-detached home, we have since extended three metres out to the side as a double storey extension and around three metres out to the back as a single storey 'Orangery' style #extension. The asbestos clad garage, behind the #greenhouse in the photo, couldn't stay with the new extensions and who'd want to keep something that ugly anyway, plus asbestos? Having said that one day I will treat you and show you how we have repurposed the large metal frame in a rather glorious fashion. You can see how there was a straight concrete path running down the centre of the garden, thank goodness it was there if only to make our numerous wheel barrow journeys significantly easier. Anyway as great as it was for clearing the garden it was going as soon as was practical. We actually inherited two mature trees that were worth keeping, one stunning multi-stemmed magnolia and one variegated sweet chestnut. Very happy to have them as buying specimens of their size clearly isn't inexpensive and the house is first and foremost our priority (as important as the garden is to both of us we need a dry comfortable home first).

As you can imagine most of our budget, if not all, has been tied up in the house extension and renovation (still waiting for a kitchen, hot water, soft furnishings...). As much as I would love to crack on with the garden and get it done in one go, it's just not been possible. Knowing it was going to be a long ride we decided to get going with the garden ourselves - on any day off we had spare.

So we cleared all of the major vegetation, the multiple enormous conifers from trees to hedging. Many many shrubs, a huge number of weeds... On this note I would encourage you, if possible, to save to allow a landscaper to come in and do the majority, if not all, of the work in one go - unless of course you are super keen, with a lot of spare time on your hands. It will be far more efficient and far more exciting for you seeing things happen with more pace. We've been quite despondent over the last year in the fact we've not been able to move it to completion, however we also realise just how far we've come in a year too. And parts of the garden are in fact looking great this year!

We did have to ask a Suffolk based landscaper to help us with the next stage in the clearing of the garden, as this was just too mammoth a task for us with so much else going on. So June last year we had #TeaselsLandscapes in with their digger and rotavator... This was just before our #builder started working on the house:

It was one of the most satisfying stages as it went from a weed strewn mess of a garden with a concrete path... to a clear blank canvas ready to set out my design.

#Norfolkgarden #suffolkgarden #norfolklandscaping #suffolklandscaping #gardendesign

Anyway you get the idea (greenhouse and the metal frame from the asbestos garage ready to be moved into their final places). Talking of design, by the time we'd cleared the garden I had tweaked the original design ideas to something more concrete. I'll show you more below, where you'll be able to see the chosen positions of both the greenhouse and garage frame/new shed.

This concept drawing shows the main garden design, you'll notice how a path carries on through at the end of the garden. The drawing below shows the rest of the garden which is basically the productive end, including garden office, shed, greenhouse, raised beds & composters:

Anyway I think that's enough for one day. I will continue and show you our progress soon, with our handmade vegetable beds, composter & wood store, our repurposed metal framed shed & sparkly greenhouse and the beginnings of my garden office. Have a fabulous day ahead & check in soon. E