From Sunflowers to Potatoes…
This little project was all about trying to tart up the ‘bit down the side’ and while it is still a long way from finished, it looks a lot better. The idea of growing sweetpeas to hide it all has been good and it is looking much better (because you can’t actually see a lot of it anymore!)
I still have so much to do to the “bit down the side” but money and time seem to get in the way. I have a place for a plant to grow up the fence but just need to decide what it is to be.
Meanwhile, the sweetpeas are still climbing.
The small bed that I have made for these sweetpeas really is not deep enough I don’t think for sweetpeas and so we are growing by very slowly and I don’t think they will get anywhere near the top - but when they do flower they will flower all the same and look quite nice.
The plan for ‘down the side’ is all coming together, and in a shade of blue. Last night I painted and placed a pallet up against the fence to give it a bit of a bright looking thing and something nicer than an old fence to look at. I put a ledge on the top and now we have a small shelf type thing to put pots on top.
Also for down the side is a small wooden box that I made out of pallet wood and again painted. Here will be the base of some everygreen plant that will climb up onto the fence, something green with red berries.
These are the ones planted at the bottom of the “rustic” divider that I made. They have suddenly shot up, probably helped the by rain in the night and the sun during the day.
These are the last batch of sweetpeas, planted to grow up the side of the new trellis bit down the side.
I have been about it for ages and age, to tart up the bit down the side of the house, the bit that gets no sun and really is just a mess. For years it has just been full of junk but we really need to do something about it. The plan has always been to use one of the many pallets we have in the garden to hide it all off and then make it an area for the wormary and bins and things.
Ages ago I started to sort this bit of garden out, but never really finished it. I suppose winter came and, being the ‘bit down the side’ it turned into a dark damp forgotton part fo garden.
Well thanks for Adur Council, it is time to revisit the plan again. They have decided to give all house holds two wheely bins for our rubbish which means households throughout the area have to find places to put their new bins and of course, looking at bins all day is not that nice.
So the plan now is to house them down the ‘bit down the side’, and hide them (and the wormery) with a wooden wall and trellis, with evergreen climbers climbing up and making it all look pretty.
I started on this the other week, tidy everything up, fixing the garden gate, and getting things ready. I now have put a long bit of wood deep into the ground which everything can fix on. Let’s see how this plan goes, maybe it might go further than last years plan?
There is always a bit in a garden that doesn’t get the sun much, maybe is down the side of the house too, a little bit that is too narrow to really use but too wide to say is an alley way. Without any intervention it can well become a place out of site where you can just dump things.
This is what we have done with our ‘bit down the side’. It currently houses an old wormary which we haven’t used since we moved and I really need to empty and start it again, and of course a number of unwanted pallets and bags of wood and well, lots of rubbish! Project ‘bit down the side’ is underway with a cunning plan to use a number of pallets that we just happen to have laying around (everyone should have pallets laying around handy, they can be used for so many things) as ‘rustic looking decking’.
Just a trial to start with then. I cleared out all the rubbish, talked to a couple of toads who had made their house there, pick-axed some concrete out and had a look how it might look by laying down the two pallets. Not too bad I thought, using my imagination. So work is now underway. At the moment you too will have to use your imagination, but watch this space for the finished ‘bit down the side’.
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