When we moved into this house in March 2009, we knew we had our work cut out.  The house hadn’t been lived in for over two years and had been more than a little neglected even before then.

The garden had obviously been very loved at one time: two greenhouses, cold frames, compost heaps and several fruit trees were all evidence of a keen gardener having loved and nurtured this space.

These photos tell the sad story of how long the garden hadn’t been tended though:

conifer growing in a cold frame

The above pic shows a conifer growing out of a polystyrene planter inside a cold frame - not its intended final position, I’m sure, but it desperately needs felling now.

conifer by greenhouses

The conifer is growing right next to two greenhouses - you get an idea of how tall it is in the above picture: you can just see the tops of the greenhouses.  And this is looking right up into the same tree:

looking up into the conifer

And looking to the right of the greenhouses, in the photo below, you can see there’s a real problem getting sun to the garden:

sun through the trees

But this little fellow kept me company in the garden today

robin

Here he is again:

robin redbreast

The garden is going to be an ongoing project for quite some time yet…but that’s what gardens are like anyway, isn’t it?

I am deteremined that all the wood chopped down will be used in some way.  I’ve already made raised beds from some of it and someone on Freegle has taken a car load for their woodburner.  I do plan to (eventually) have a woodburner in my studio, so will be saving a large amount for that.

If anyone out there would like to take some of my chopped-down trees for creative purposes (woodturning, whatever), they would be more than welcome.  Email wendy@1stuniquegifts.co.uk if you are within striking distance of Warrington (you’d need to collect) and would like more info.