Gardens plans for 2011 (or maybe beyond)

Fer at My Little Garden in Japan is holding another blog carnival. His challenge this time is to write a post about what you plan on doing in your garden this next year. He suggested that a renovation plan will do so I’m going to limit myself to explaining plans for our garden although we have plans for the plot too which will no doubt feature in our blog posts at an appropriate time.

We all have areas of our garden that are not as we would like them to be – some areas are out of sight out of mind, some areas are just reaching the end of their use-by date, some are in need of replanting and for others we just haven’t yet come across that ideal solution. Although our garden isn’t particularly large compared to those of other fellow bloggers we have areas that fit into all of these categories.

1. We just haven’t come across the ideal solution for:

a) The filter system into our pond: the pond itself has been a source of enjoyment and during its lifetime has undergone several transformations but its latest transformation is incomplete due to us not being able to decide how we would like the water to flow from the filter back into the pond. We tried running the outlet pipe through a large bamboo tube but this wasn’t really successful. At the moment the water just flows out of a black plastic pipe which although functional has only really looked somewhat attractive and interesting during the big freeze when it housed an ice sculpture. So far we haven’t come up with an idea that we like maybe this year we will.

b)  A dark space in the middle of one of our borders: this space is shaded from all sides by bamboo, a large crab apple tree and a large camellia. We look straight onto it from two of our house windows and so need some sort of focal point – something that won’t be dominated by plants growing around it. Any type of plant would struggle to compete so we thought maybe some sort of garden ornament or statue. It needs to be a light colour to stand out but something subtle too – any ideas? So far we haven’t seen anything we really like maybe this year we will.

These photos show views from upstairs in spring  and downstairs in winter respectively with the ovals indicating the space to be filled.

2. In need of replanting:

The bed in front of the house: for reasons best kept to ourselves the bed in front of our house had to be cleared completely and is now ready to be replanted. As mentioned in a previous blog post this will be planted with perennials and bulbs to try and give some interest for most of the year. A definite ‘will do’ plan for this year. Any advice on good varieties of hardy geraniums?

4. Passed its use-by date:

a) The patio: the paving slabs are uneven and wobble when we stand on them so the whole patio area needs to be re-laid and in the process we intend to redesign it. The patio although quite small is on three levels which isn’t as practical as we would like so the three will become two to hopefully provide a better sized sitting area. This rates as a ‘hope to do’ plan for next year.

b)  The arbour beside the pond: the arbour was erected to divide up the garden but also to hide the filtration tanks to the pond. Filters have become much smaller over the years and so this area needs a redesign so we can make better use of the area that no longer is needed for filtration tanks. This is probably a long shot for this year!

   

5. Out of sight out of mind:

The area behind the greenhouse: this houses our cold frame and anything we want to dump. The intention is to use the paving slabs from the patio here and buy some new ones for the patio. Then we want to create a tidier, more attractive area but are not too sure what this will be like yet. It will still house the cold frame and is a useful area for hardening off plants and will hopefully evolve as we fiddle about with it! As this is tied up with the patio renovation it also is a ‘hope to do’ plan for next year.

I wonder how much we will actually manage to achieve - to find out you'll just have to keep popping by to visit our blog!

So having shared the worst parts of our garden just to balance the picture we did renovate several areas of our garden last year as shown below to prove it's not all a disaster area. 

Apologies for the length of this post - blame Fer! He shouldn't have started me off.


Visit New Year Gardening Resolutions Blog Carnival at my little garden in Japan