My cottage in a field

[roiphil]

this is from top of drive by road


this area in front we intend to makeinto more drive area and put a fence across from cottage to wall


ths is is past the cottage looking down


the decking at back of house we put up last year, this area was waist high in brambles


from the fence on the decking down to the boundary the big tree is our boundary


half way down looking acrosss to left hand boudary past the fence on right is the rushy section still to be cleared


looking upwards from bottom end of cottage in right of pic


left hand boundary from bottom corner


halfway up again into the cleared area


from top of drive this area we may have to put up a couple of stables here this is to the right of the cottage


this bit will be drive aswell shed and woodshed on left poly tunnel past fence


this area past and on left of cottage i plan to fence of a bit more and put up a poly tunnel


this end of mound is going to put in another gate into stable area to get tractor in when need be


looking across from decking to left hand boundary


as you can see all grass at moment, if any one spots goats in pictures you get a prize

Phil

[NightHawk]

as you can see all grass at moment, if any one spots goats in pictures you get a prize
Phil

Okay Phil - this is a ploy to get us looking closely at your photos isn't it? 

Didn't spot any goats, but I saw a fieldmouse.  Do I get a consolation prize?

You've certainly got your work cut out to do all those things in your garden.  Should keep you amused for a WHILE. 

Anyway, thanks for posting those photos Phil.  It's great to see what our members' gardens look like.

Don't forget to keep us updated as you do 'your stuff'. 

Laurie.

[Palustris]

Been there, done all that. And boy what fun it was, most of the time! I think that is the essence of it, enjoy doing it.
Most of all keep a good photo record of what you do.
Nice to see the beginning of a project.

[ideasguy]

A lovely view of unspoilt South West of Ireland there Phil! You have a wonderful site, and a wonderful location.

Thats how my site was in 1978.
Someone said "Plant shrubs to fill it up"
Mistake! Now they have MATURED, I got fed up trying to find a space for a plant, then having done that, finding I'm hitting roots from nearby trees and shrubs.
Last year and this, I'm digging out shrubs and trees to make way for flowers (which I much prefer)

So, my tip is - do NOT plant in haste!! Better to have "fallow" areas even if they are a little unsightly.
Work out a plan. If you proceed in stages you can adjust the design. Walking around your garden, others may see a wild area, but you'll see your "vision".
May take a few years, but you'll get there!

I'd like to ask some of our members a question, whaich may be interesting Phil.
If you had a chance to start again with your garden, would you make major or minor changes?

[roiphil]

Re goats the day i took the photos i could not find the goats anywhere, they were a couple of fields away, (thinks to one self the ploy worked  ) yes lots of work at the moment we have loads os species of green grass, i intend to plan it all in stages this year drive, and possibly stable area, not to concerned about the amount of grass to cut as i have a ride on and the son always volunteers to cut the grass, i wonder why.

[NightHawk]

I'd like to ask some of our members a question, whaich may be interesting Phil.
If you had a chance to start again with your garden, would you make major or minor changes?

Our reply to that George is probably going to be one of the simplest, so may not be particularly relevant to Phil.

Both our front and rear gardens are quite small, so we don't really have the opportunity to section them off into specific areas, or 'outdoor rooms'. 

The front garden, which only last year we transformed from a low-quality lawn into a lovely 'cottage garden' look, would not be done differently if we had to start over.  Take a look at Kathy & Laurie's Gardens to see the before and after of our front garden (rear garden has not been dealt with much as yet - that's another project.)

The rear garden is still lawned (and I use that term lightly).  Having a pet Labrador is not condusive to keeping the lawn looking immaculate.  So our planting options are three flower beds bounding the lawn.  Again, these are quite narrow - 3 to 5 feet in width, so we're limited to what we can do here.  Basically, just a selection of various flowers giving us spring to winter interest, so there's always something in flower.
The borders are too small for shrubs, or large plants such as Hostas, as they would dominate the borders and leave us little room for other plants.

Now over to the 'big' garden owners to give more relevant info to you Phil. 

Laurie.

[ideasguy]

All replies are entirely relevant, Laurie. You put a lot of thought to come up with your plans and put in a lot of effort to realise them. Gardening is one big learning curve, and you were wise to keep plants in proportion to the allocated area. We all have to do that.
Phil will have some parts of the garden where he may look to your garden for inspiration. From viewing your WPG list, I can see you have a lovely selection of plants (take a bow Kathy!)

[roiphil]

The layout of the grounds/garden is difficult being an animal lover i have 3 goats 2 horses 4 dogs 2 cats, used to have chickens, geese and ducks aswell at my other site where we were/still may build a house



but i need to keep the goats seperate hence the fence across the garden by the decking, i also need to keep the dogs in hence the fence across the front when the new drive is in the dogs can have the run of that section, i have stables at my other site which is only 5 mins away, so if we dont sell that site i wont need to build stables at he cottage



I think most plants will be out the front along side of drive and incorporate hardy fuchsias (which people use as hedging round here) grasses etc in the hedging, at the moment though need to get the major stuff out of the way, drive in extra drainage for the rain water that runs down the road right into my drive  and last time it chucked it down, it was  when newcastle west was flooded, we  were very nearly flooded out aswell, got plans for a flower bed at side of decking will need to fence that off from dogs though

Phil

[roiphil]

have mangaed to get the fence up from front of house to wall



What i plan to do here is make a raised curved bed the whole length of the fence, it shall be from the block pillar at the back of the horse box wide and gradually come down towards the house getting narrower and end at the path, fill it up with soil and horse muck (no shortage there) including a ground cover topped off with gravel to stop weeds coming through, i shall plant up the fence with climbers and then shrubs etc in front



not quite sure yet what to use for the frontage i could use railway sleepers and cut them with the chainsaw to try to get the curves but i think the cureve will be more angular, or i could use that log on a roll stuff that is flexible so making curves will be easier and it is 30cm high which is a nice height, in front of that bed will be the new drive.

The dog in the picture is noodles the escape artist, she escaped over the fence 10 minutes after it was finished, she was dumped at the top off the drive when she was about 6 weeks old she is now about 2, and i felt sorry for her, she has to go everywhere with me when i go to feed the horses she come along aswell, and on the school runs morning and afternoon

[NightHawk]

I'll preempt George here Phil and say that your next assignment is to make up a WPG for your garden project. 

That way we can all follow along with you with everything in the one place for viewing and reading.

(Do I get a brownie point George?  )

Laurie.

[ideasguy]

Yeah, thats worth at least one point, Laurie!

How about natural rocks for the definition of the edges, Phil. What's available locally?

[roiphil]

yes rocks is a good idea, not sure what sort they are though

I'll preempt George here Phil and say that your next assignment is to make up a WPG for your garden project.

yes great idea but i already have 1 wpg on the go is it possible to make a second seperate one

[ideasguy]

Yes, you can have a second one, Phil. Let me know when you are ready.