Garden

What a joy to finally have a garden! And a one with a stunning view as well. This is what has been missing from my life for a long time and I really felt it in the baking heat of the south, staring at the wall of the neighbour's house with dreams of a fresher climate, potatoes and green fields around me, wondering when it would become a reality. And here we are, even better than I could have imagined!

 Here was the starting situation; a former occupant had a vegetable garden here once upon a time and I decided to dig out all the weeds and grass and benefit from the work already done. It was hard work anyway but I enjoyed it; knowing the end result would be well worth it. People back at home laugh at me now because when I was a wee girl, I absolutely hated gardening and weeding, having to be dragged to the veggie field kicking and screaming.  A lot has changed since.

And so the digging starts. A little bit every day, a lot in a week, as my mother would say. There was already a couple of permaculture-type of beds which looked like a good growing medium and the soil itself is great too, so we should have no problems producing a good crop. I found some existing strawberries among the grass which I re-planted in a row. That'll be the first things we'll eat!

Voila! Starting to look like a garden to me.

And a bit later when I had put on a support system for the green beans and planted the courgette seedlings that had been pre-grown inside.

The land rises behind the house, forming two 'terraces', where I have planned to extend the garden to, if possible. The view down from the first terrace.

Back to the main garden; there's clearly a flower bed here somewhere and I intend to find it!

Back-breaking job with only some hand tools; an old sickle and a fork.

It was already tough going with lifting the grass and all the stones in there, but one of the former tenants had also stuck a pile of sticks and bramble branches for good measure. I just didn't see them until the long grass was removed. I'll deserve a big glass of rose after this!

Looking better, nearly finished. Lili the Cat is inspecting my work. Or perhaps looking for a new toilet...

Here we are, all clean and planted with wildflower seeds. As you can see, we have also received our trimmer and got to grips with the wild grass and dandelions in the garden.

I dug out another little flower bed by the wall.

Another wall-side flower bed where I found mint, rhubarb and mangetout already growing. I planted some more herbs and flower seeds for colour.

Aah! And now I'll put my feet up and have that glass of wine as promised and admire the work I've done.