Serious work in the garden started in autumn 2002 with the planting of the spinney (front garden), the orchard, soft fruit beds and the hedging for the herbaceous border. Work also started on the rose and clematis patio. This area was a horse box 'park' surfaced with quarry waste! The surrounding sleepers were repurposed as surrounds for the vegetable (raised) beds. Quantities of conifer shreddings formed a thick mulch for the spinney trees. The soil in this area was thick yellow clay subsoil from previous building works.
The hot garden, with it's feature fountain and conservatory were next to be built. A solar potting shed and 2 greenhouses had also appeared. By now we were well into five years of intensive building works. As Steve built the new beds Maggie was busy planting them. Frequent visits to other gardens met the need for an endless stream of design ideas. The construction of a new garage resulted in a massive pile of spoil which formed the bank that now retains the wild pond water. Wild flowers loved the subsoil surface that this bank provided.
As the wild pond was completed the reservoir under the Summerhouse (to be), was dug out. Completion of the new garage provided an ideal hidden spot for four 350 gallon rain water tanks. A further two 440 gallon tanks were added in 2022. We started opening the garden for Wymeswold Garden Walkabout in 2005 and visitors returned each year to view the progress on the various projects in hand.
The circular fish pond came next, based on a group of interlocking circular flower beds that we saw at one of the gardens we visited. The new summer house now took pride of place over the reservoir and we started opening for the NGS. Last to be build was Rose's garden. We looked at the garden and were very happy with it but there was a definite lack of 'pergola'. Rose's garden is a bit of a curve so we had to make do with two arches and another 'plantfest' for Maggie!
Most of our current work is to maintain hard landscaping and planting, which is probably just as well as we are getting a bit old and cronky for major projects.
