Before and after pics, house and garden 3

This is a corner towards the back of the house facing east where once there was a huge camelia. Yes it looks lovely flowering in the photo, but the rest of the year it was covered in sooty mould and looked grotty, blocked the light from the large bathroom window and we had some mould on the inside of the bathroom at the base of that wall, as it is a metre lower down than the soil level. So, with the aid of a neighbour's mini digger, out it came, some damp proofing was put in and the soil put back.

2006

I then had to wait impatiently until the rest of the house was pointed before I could do anything with this corner and around the back of the house. I had flower beds planned and was itching to get started. It also is a fairly shady spot, with part of this area in total shade all day long even in June. Shade without tree roots is a rarity here so I was dying to be able to plant some shade loving plants in a place which would stay moister for longer than the rest of the garden.

March 2008

Having the pointing guys here came in handy for another thing; under the camelia was a large and extremely heavy rectangular lump of granite that I needed moving. I asked them if they could help move it up against the wall where I thought I could put a tub with flowers on top or something. However, when they moved it they turned it over and guess what was revealed? I was over the moon! I've seen these troughs for sale at €150 or more (not that I want to sell it, I hasten to add)!

And so, we landscaped and tidied up the area and removed any spilt limestone mortar and dug in compost, ready for planting. The hose outlet from the boiler had to be rerouted all around the outside of the house to meet up with the nearest drain. The space already looked miles better, even without any plants!

......and then I got to do the bit I love best. Before you ask, that is a duck deterrent fence and has proven invaluable, as whilst chickens do more damage with their scratching, large white ducks are very good at flattening young plants and they like to eat fresh compost!

Spring 2008

The next year it was looking lovely and mature. We also have the morning sun streaming into the bathroom - not to mention a colourful view out over this bed towards the veg patch and the field beyond.

2009

At its peak the following year.

2010

And now it is time to do some major renovation to this bed again, as the large hosta needs dividing, and too many things have self seeded, and the creeping plants have crept just too much and the trough has been taken over by lamium which both self seeds and spreads and is really a bit of a pest. And so it starts all over again. But that is gardening for you!