Beginning a new Garden

When we took possession of Blackbird Cottage the garden was sparse to say the least. One thing we knew had to begin straight away was the creation of a garden. Not only does a new garden take time to become established but we had a number of plants we had brought with us from the farm. They needed new homes as soon as possible.

The garden had a few overgrown fruit trees. It also had a metal panel fence that completely blocked what we knew would be a lovely view over the bay. Our first job was to get rid of that fence. Ok, we didn’t get rid of it ourselves. We advertised it on Marketplace and a couple paid us for the privilege of removing it. (At a fraction of the cost of buying a new fence, of course)

Below is the cottage with the fence, and how it looks now. Such a difference already.

We saw the space opened up for the first time after the fence was removed. So, we decided against reinstating a picket fence. Our original plan was to put a picket fence back, in the style of a photo we have from 1900 but after we saw the house for the first time we thought a low box hedge would look prettier and show the cottage in her best light.

Gavin started to create a new garden fence to the side with a gate in the middle. The plan is for this to have climbers growing to cover it and beds in front for our bulbs. We have already planted crab apples on each side of the gate and intend ot put a gravel path from the house to the gate. This will keep Bonnie safe.

We’ll put gates on the driveway side of the cottage too. They will be in line with the new side fence to keep the symmetry of the house.

Removing the back fence has given us a view! It’s not like our paddock view at the farm but we back onto the rivulet so there are swans and other waterfowl. We can also see the bay and the pretty reserve on the other side of the rivulet.

To make the most of this we had the old trees removed and a load of soil brought in. This leveled the land a bit, improved our view, and in the event that there is winter flooding the level will need to rise significantly before it enters our yard. We planted a pittosporum hedge in the new garden. (One of our favourite farmhouse plants) The plan is to grow it to gate height so we can see over it, then put another gate in that leads to the water. We’ll add a chicken wire along the back of the hedge. The hedge will grow through the wire so we do not see it. Again, Bonnie will be safe. And so will the water birds!