Proserpina's Patch

Just in case anyone has missed it, I finally have a garden of my own! After several years container gardening and 16 months of windowsill gardening (plus a brief foray into growing in the ground in a very rubbly rented back garden in summer 2020), I have a garden that is mine to dig (or more likely not dig), plant, and put to work however I see fit. It's very exciting, and I hope to document my progress here. 

Unfortunately, as much as I would just like to now spend all my time in the garden, I'm a bit limited right now by a number of factors:

1) It's very cold!
2) My gardening things haven't moved in with me yet so I don't have my gardening gloves or my own tools just yet
3) There's a whole house that also needs lots of attention (and that's the bit that will fall down in expensive ways!)
4) I broke my finger
5) It's dark when I get home from work, unless I'm on nights
6) If I'm on nights, I'm not doing much except sleep during the day!
7) I have a post-graduate exam coming up

Still, I've spent some time pottering around and generally admiring the garden, and musing about what to do next.

I think I have around 95 square metres of usable space at the back, including the greenhouse and an area for compost. The back of the house faces south, but the garden has a gentle slope towards the house so may not catch quite as much sun as a flat south-facing garden. It has three tiers: there's a concreted/paved patio area right by the house. That's pretty small. Then there's a flat lawned area with a border. It's protected from the wind on all four sides as it's surrounded by the house, a fence, a retaining wall, and the garage but it may also be a bit shaded at the far end by the retaining wall. The retaining wall has a steep slope and is currently being used as a rockery, though it's become rather overgrown with grass as it wouldn't have been safe for my elderly vendor to climb up and down. The top tier is the longest and is the part with the gentle slope towards the house. It's mostly lawn, but there's a path down the middle, ornamental borders either side, a shed, a greenhouse, two gravel-filled raised beds, and a rather wild area behind the greenhouse and shed.

There's also a very damp detached garage that needs lots of work, is being invaded by ivy, and has rotting/broken windows. However, I have hopes that it may one day make a very nice potting shed.

My vendor has moved to a retirement flat without a garden, so very kindly left me lots of gardening equipment and containers. More on these later!

Pictures hopefully to follow shortly.