Tackling the jungle

Mr Robot and I have been on a bit of a house-sorting-out mission since Christmas. In my most recent Vintage Week post I mentioned we were getting new windows put in the back of the house. Well, that means the window fitters need access to the back of the house, and that means we have to tidy the garden so they can get in through the back gate. This weekend our main task was to chop back a load of brambles and tree branches to create a clear route to the house. We didn't think the window fitters would be happy ducking under branches!

As you can see, we had our work cut out for us...

There's a shed and a fence in there somewhere.

Our garden isn't wide, but it is long. I'm not sure why it's so long; our house was built as millworker housing in the Victorian era, though very late on. Comparable homes in the north of England are very similar as far as the house itself goes, but don't have this much garden. Did workers in the south-west, which was still largely agrarian, expect to be able to keep pigs or grow vegetables at home? That's all I can think. I doubt they were throwing garden parties!

I look like Luigi in my overalls...

As we've got it now, there's a patio, which we spend most evenings on during the summer, then a lawn and flower beds (in a classic cottage garden style), then what used to be the veg patch and the shed, which is what you can see in the picture. Last year was pretty awful for my husband, so I was trying to keep everything in order by myself, and didn't manage it very well. I did my best with the two areas closest to the house, but mostly left everything further back. When we got the kittens in October, because they weren't allowed out we just locked the back door and ignored the garden completely.

That break from the garden seems to have done us both good; we're now full of ideas and plans for the garden this summer. I don't think we've been so excited about it in years. We've even talked about growing vegetables in a proper veg patch again. I grow tomatoes every year, just like my granddad McDonald always did, plus plenty of basil and coriander (for pasta sauce and curries respectively), and there are hardy herbs like bay, mint and rosemary out there all year round, though that's all in pots on the patio. If we re-dig the veg patch, we'll be able to grow lots more roots and leafy things, maybe even our own long beans for Burmese-style salads.

Mr Robot making good progress

There are lots of established plants in the flowerbeds, not that that's obvious at this time of year. I'm looking forward to seeing my daylilies, red-hot pokers and scabious reappearing with the warm weather. However, I don't want things to be too tidy. We have a fair bit of wildlife in our garden, including slow worms, and I don't want to drive them out. The two tins in the photo at the top of the page contain seedballs from Meadow in My Garden, colour-themed collections of native wild flowers that will look lovely and appeal to wildlife. After we'd chopped up the brambles, and taken down loads of the tree and creeper hanging over the fence from next door, and tidied up a few other trees, I scattered the seedballs at one end of my larger flowerbed. It's mostly overhung by a magnolia tree and large plants don't take there, but hopefully the wildflower annuals in the seedballs will grow.

While we were clearing the brambles, the urchins were also allowed to come outside. They'd been out a few times before, though this was their first unsupervised exploration. Their behaviour isn't what we originally expected: timid Ziggy will quite cheerfully wander off, but Pippin, who usually has to do everything first before Ziggy will try it, doesn't like going far, though she does love to climb trees.

Anyone else started gardening yet this year? Or are you waiting for spring?