Moving house, new garden!

Last year my mother moved to a nursing-home, leaving her house unoccupied. Since my sister already has a beautiful home of her own, we've decided that rather than selling it, I will be moving into mum's house some time this year.
Mum had been on a waitinglist for some time, still the news that there was room for her at the nursinghome came rather unexpected. I suddenly found myself having to switch from the thought that I would be living in my current rented house for a long time yet, to having to move in the near future

So far we've done the usual clearing out. Lots of very worn & dirty stuff, since mum didn't like anyone touching anything, leave alone clean the place.
Now it's a matter of new flooring, new kitchen, and lots of painting & decorating. We estimate the move will take place no sooner than late spring/early summer.

Of course for me, the most exciting thing is a whole new garden to get my teeth into. Although the design will need lots of tweeking before it's to my liking, the basics are good: there are raised borders, held up by a number of concrete sleepers. The borders themselves need lots of TLC, but the sleepers are pure treasure, perfect for doing some re-designing with. (although moving them will require a lot of muscle power )

Although my priority should be getting the interior of the house in order, my mind makes frequent excursions to all sorts of wild and wonderful things that I could do to the garden
Garden photo's will follow at a later date in the picture gallery

 

Congratulations on your new home and gardens gardenelf!

 

Congrats! I bet you can sleep because of all the ideas running through your head.

 

I'm sorry that your mother had to move out of her house. It's good that you are having the opportunity to have a new place to garden. It will bring much joy into your life, getting it all brought up to date and growing beautiful plants.

dooley

 

Gardenelf, let your mind roam in your garden-to-be! When my mother died, I had to clean out the house, so I know what a sad and tiring job that can be. Gardening is more than putting plants in the ground--it's also putting ease in your mind and body.
Please share pre-during-and after-photos of your new gardens. This is quite an adventure!

 

Thank you all for your good wishes.
Thanks to this little thing called smartphone, it will be much easier for me to take lots of pictures & download them here. Watch this space!

 

Sorry to hear your mother had to move but I guess that is just part and parcel of the life cycle. Almost all the flower pots I have now used to be my mum's.

I started on a new garden just slightly more than a year ago because I moved to a smaller house. It was interesting and challenging. I am still experimenting with new ideas from the challenges that came with the new garden.

Good luck and have fun!

 

My best wishes to your mum, too.

Well, it's great that you're looking to plan. That's the biggest thing missing in yards from my perspective. Of course, I usually see yards when they are a problem, so I guess it means that problem gardens are unplanned gardens.

The biggest problem I see is trees planted where they will cause problems later on. So, it is just common sense to look at the size everything will grow to, and plan accordingly. Also, have respect for roots of trees, they can do enormous damage next to retaining walls or near houses and other structures.

Water is the 'most limiting factor' for gardens where I am, so that's what I'd be looking at. It's a principle I learned in biol, to look for this factor as it makes other factors comparitively irrelevant and simplifies planning. If in your environment it's water, first look at irrigation. If it's light, look at shade-tolerant plants, and so on.

Mentioning species selection brings me to the next most important thing for planning a garden, in my opinion. The homogeneousness of most gardeners appalls me. God created maybe a quarter of a million different species of plants, and many gardeners think they have to choose from the 50 on offer at their local big box store.

It sounds like you think otherwise, considering your wild and wonderful thoughts. I encourage you to go with them. This is a time to have fun researching the most beautiful and delightful trees and plants that will tolerate the environment you can provide for them. Maybe you could even choose some to breed.

 

How exciting for you! Not only a home but a yard too. Especially a yard that has some moveable hardscape that you can re-arrange to fit your own plans and hopefully some plants you can salvage also.

 

Brisbane Trees, sounds like your approach of gardening is exactly like mine: make the garden work for you, work with what you've got, not against it. And your remark about the big box store made me laugh, it's no different here in Holland . Most of the gardens here have a kind of uniform look, mostly because people buy plants they see on the tv-gardening shows.

I've dug about a bit in my mum's garden, so far I've planted a few tulips, just to jazz things up. One thing worries me: didn't find one single earthworm . Looks like the very first thing on my list now is to feed that poor garden.

As for trees: there are 2 of them, both now way too large for their location. One, an Ornamental Cherry Tree, has been pruned at some stage, resulting a "Medusa" look. Although my motto is "No garden without a tree", that one will have to go.

Today is seed-sorting day. Sort out what seeds (the more unusual & challenging, the better!) to grow for what location in the new garden. They'll be planted out in large pots just for this year, because most of my time will be taken up by getting the inside of the house sorted out.