Round & Round The Garden: A Year Later

Last year I shared my garden project, Round & Round The Garden where Mr H and I tackled our empty, muddy space into the garden we could be proud of. It was a labour of love and over the summer it was transformed. Of course, a garden is an ongoing project, so I thought I would share an update on how it is doing, a year later.

Round & Round The Garden: A Winter's Update

Winter is well and truly upon us, despite the lack of snow we have supposedly been forecast. The house is all decked out in tinsel and twinkly lights and we are  excitedly awaiting the arrival of Santa. With all this preparation it occurred to me how little of this is transferred over to the garden. Apart from setting some Christmas boxes outside the front door, my poor garden which I spent hours transforming over the summer, has had very little attention.

If you followed my Round & Round The Garden series over the summer, you will know my back yard went from this:

...to this:

We were all so thrilled with the results as we worked so hard making it an area our children could really enjoy as they grew.

So a couple of weekends ago I decided to tackle the garden a little and give it some much needed TLC. I also took some updated photos of how things are growing since we finished the project in September.

Considering the time of year we still have flowers in the tyres, and they look fantastic. I am so pleased with how that project turned out. All the little touches that we have added just finish it off beautifully and I'm sure will be added to over the years. In Springtime I plan on planting some blossom trees at the back of the play area and am considering putting a hedge down the left fence to block out the road next to us.

As I tackled the much-needed maintenance, I knew a lot of the bushes needed trimming back ready for their winter hibernation, so I focused on the Buddleja and Honeysuckle. It is important to trim the straggly ends back so when the plants have stored all their energy over winter, they can grow afresh from the new shoots, making your shrubs look healthier and creating a better shape for the next season. I also pinned back the new stems of the Honeysuckle around the bottom of the pergola, which will encourage them to grow up it and eventually surround the whole frame in a beautiful, scented delight.

I then dead-headed any flowers that were left, so plants weren't wasting any energy on keeping hold of them, as well as cutting off the dead heads of the Buddleja as these can easily go to seed and spread.

Finally I weeded the whole garden, clearing it of any unsightly plants. Winter is a great time for this as the weeds are dormant and so you can really get into to the root and get rid of them.

Making sure your garden is tended to at a time of year you may not really want to be venturing out into the cold, does make sure you have less to do in the Spring time, when everything comes alive with vigour, so I would really advise you to get out there and put in a little work. You can make it a lovely afternoon with the children, and teach them a little about gardening too.

I am so thrilled with the way our project turned out in the end, it really was a labour of love and I think it will be a space we will cherish in the years to come. It is not often you are given a blank canvas to create what you want with, some I am so thankful for our opportunity.

*This is a featured post

Round & Round The Garden #7

I am very excited about this week's Round & Round The Garden. Yes, you guessed it, the tyres are done!!

Round & Round The Garden #6

In my last Round & Round The Garden post a lot had happened. Since then progress has been slow and steady as we only really have the finishing touches to make. The tyres are still plant-less as I am yet to get to a garden centre to get what I need, however I think that really is the final thing to do.

This week I'm going to show you how easy it is to make your own personal paving stones.

I first saw the idea on Pinterest (of course) and after some searching around found a couple that I liked and knew I could adapt to exactly what I wanted.

I also loved this idea of making them glow in the dark so thought I would give that a try too.

What you will need:

Cement

Large plant saucers

Paint, if you wish to colour them

Glow in the dark spray paint

How we did it:

First of all my husband made up the cement and poured it into the saucers. We left it for about an hour to set a little, otherwise the imprints would have just disappeared.

After waiting we tested it to make sure it was the right consistency - when we dipped a finger in there was a indentation. Then, one by one, we all pressed our foot into a saucer each. Doing this with the children was a challenge as H wasn't keen on the consistency under her foot, and it was quite cold. Baby J obviously didn't understand to keep his foot still, so it took a couple of tries to get it right. 

I wouldn't say they are perfect, but we were pleased with how they came out. I can't help but laugh at how big Mr H's foot is compared with the rest of us!

After leaving them for two days until we felt they were totally set, we took them out of the saucers. I felt the colour of the concrete was a bit uneven so i bought some grey spray paint and just gave them one coat to get a more balanced colour.

Leaving the paint to dry for 48 hours, I then added the glow in the dark paint. The tin said to do several light coats, which I did, and then left them to dry once more. Once we were satisfied they were completely dry, they were ready to plant. Mr H used a spade to dig a small circle out of the lawn for each stone to sit in.

We then added four sandstone effect solar lights found at Bents Home & Garden Centre. These are £29.99 for a pack of two, and are really lovely lights. I often find solar lights can be a bit cheap-looking and break very quickly, however these ones with their sandstone effect look of good quality and their white LED lights give off a bright glow to the path.

Unfortunately the glow in the dark paint hasn't quite had the desired effect, so I will be adding more spray to them to try and see if that helps. 

Overall, though, I love the personalised stones that added another element to our garden.

*This post is brought to you in association with Bents Home & Garden Centre, for more information please read my disclaimer.

Round And Round The Garden #5

It has been a couple of weeks since I have managed to do my Round And Round The Garden post, mainly due to bad weather, the three peaks walk I did and my birthday. But this week it is back and with a lot to show you!


You may have noticed that we completed the front garden thanks to the Money Supermarket challenge - as usual I used the good old spray paint on the pots and I think they came up a treat.

Round & Round The Garden #4

It's week four of Round & Round the Garden and we are almost halfway through our project. So much has changed since that first post when all we had was a mudpit outside our back doors, it been so interesting documenting the process. The last week has seen the completion of the painting of the tyres, however they are not quite ready to be revealed as yet. I have finally, however been able to plant up my lovely planters from Next which I have been dying to showcase.

Round & Round The Garden #3

This week's Round & Round The Garden seemed to involve a lot of work for no completed results! We spent all of Sunday painting the undercoat on the decking. It didn't look like it would be a huge job but in the end with the spindles and various nooks and crannies it took us eight hours!

Before & After Basecoat

In between that time I managed to spray paint five of the nine tyres for my recycled flowerbed project and plant up some of the plants I had received from Bents Garden Centre.

Round & Round The Garden #2

What a difference a week makes! When last time I posted our garden looked like this:

It then went to this:

Then this:

 
And it now looks like this!

Our turf has been laid and bedded in and for the last weekend and evenings Mr H and his dad have been slogging away getting the decking up. We bought a 'ready made' set from Screwfix and whilst they haven't needed to do any cutting and sawing, there has still be a lot of work.

I'm looking forward to the finished result, and then brightening it up with some lovely paint from Farrow & Ball. At first we were thinking of a muted green colour, but as several items we have already got for the garden are green, and of course so is the grass we thought it might be a bit of a green overload, so we decided to look at more grey colour. After a lot of umming and erring we opted for this Pavillion Grey, which I think for a large amount of the garden it will blend in nicely.

 

 

We have also been working on my planter idea, inspired by this one I found on Pinterest:

 

We sourced a load of tyres from our local garage and have testing the layout. After Mr H lugging them about and building up a sweat for several minutes, I think we have decided on this:

 

 

It looks a bit like a trailer park at the moment but I'm hoping once they are painted and planted it will be transformed. Watch this space!

 

Next week I'm hoping to have installed a little bit more life into the garden! Mr H will be continuing to finish the decking and then it's onto the children's play area as well as painting up those tyres. Do head back the same time next week to see how we've got on!

Round & Round The Garden

In November of last year we bought a beautiful house. It was in the village we currently lived in, it was up the road from a lovely primary school and it was brand new. After moving house eight times in the nine years we have lived together (two of those being transatlantic moves), this is the house we want to firmly lay roots in.