Before and After

Ive been digging through some old prints of the house and found some photos of the garden that Ive scanned. I know its not really an 'after' as the garden is work in progress but here are a few before and now shots.

This shows the arid bed in the foreground and the med area in the background (and a car that fell apart like a cheap watch)



Heres the arid bed when we just let it grow, after I'd removed the tree. It was pretty neglected as we were doing other house and garden stuff



And its last incarnation



and now



Med area as we moved in



And now (from the other end)



Back of the house before tropicals

(the bay tree in the tub at the far end is now a monster of a tree in the garden)​

Back of the house now



From the other end (excuse the washing line)



Its sometimes worth digging out photos of where you've come from / got to with a project. Seems to make things worthwhile.

Anyone else got before and after shots to share ?

 

Absolutely brilliant @andrews .What a transformation..I love looking at 'old ' pics..my garden has changed many times over the years,I'll have to dig out some pics..

 

Here are some transformational pictures of my Mediterranean style garden. First picture is putting in the drainage system in 2015. What a mess, eh?

A couple of months later.


In May this year.


And the last one taken a couple of weeks ago.

 

@Redwing that's some transformation !

swamp to a great looking space. makes me feel that I need to put more effort in

edit : Thats an impressive lavender. Found this pic and scanned it in. We did lavender around the lawn when we first moved in but a low hedge was a nightmare to maintain so it came out. The smell from a lavender fire was amazing ! Looking at the mistakes we made back then, I now know why I want to live with a space before making a decision on planting

 

@lolimac pictures were the thing that kept us going when we hit a low but could see the transformation in the house. Made us realise that what we were doing was making a difference. get your pics up - its great to see the transformations in gardens

 

The lavender really likes the conditions we made. After putting in the drainage system we added masses of sharp sand and manure so it ended up being about a third each of clay, sharp sand and manure.

 

Love lavender hedges.....got a big one and a smaller one ....what better in summer than a mass of lavendar flowers gushing with fragrance and billowing with blue flowers? Like Redwing, the soil here is warm and well drained.

 

March, complete with doggy defences



This morning

 

We have strategically placed pots to stop our two running through tender plants and to stop the dog cocking his leg up his favourite peeing places

 

I love a before and after pictures
I have been having a look for some old pictures of the back garden , found a couple which kind of gives you a gist of what it were like before.

April 2011 - a few fruit trees and a dumping ground for machinery


2014 I thought I would start messing and plant the garden up.

Building Pergola

Re cut the lawn edge for the borders


In the mean time planted out made mistakes over the years. Redone the lawn last year .

July 2019

 

That's a huge difference. The pergola is giving height and hiding the shed. You could've gone the other way and filled the garden with bikes.

We added this pergola just over a year ago and hope to have it covered with grape vines and clematis over the next few years. Currently have a clematis at the top of a pole and grape vines 2/3 of the way up. Glad I didn't go for a bigger section of steel - this was sooo heavy !

 

Bit awkward building the pergola being triangle shape but I have a thing for wisteria, they is a bench up there under the pergola somewhere. I have a grapevine in the GH I am forever pruning it to keep it under control.

What over plans have you got for the pergola ? are you having a seating area under

 

I saw the triangle shape and liked that and thought I could've done the same in metal but then thought again.

It was built to add a bit of shade to the border behind. I hang a hammock between the back and front sometimes but haven't used it for seating yet. I may do more with it once the vines have added some shade. There are three vines up there - black, white and red grapes. Being outdoor grapes they are slower growing. We bought an indoor variety for father in laws greenhouse at the same time last year. His is across the greenhouse and bearing fruit this year.
Then theres an evergreen clematis (doing really well) and another clematis that is slower growing.

I may change the plants as it is exposed / windy which other plants may tolerate better. Will give these a chance first.

Depending on how it matures I may add a raised deck / pave and add seating but theres no rush for that. The other thought is to bring the border further in to the garden with palms / tree ferns and the likes and have the pergola as part of the border.

Too many ideas..... just lacking time and money to put them into practice.

 

Just found a few more...

This area was sloping when we moved in and a mess (not helped by the 1T of rotting carrots that the previous owner left on the drive for me)



The wall was too high and obscured the view to the top of the garden so I removed two layers of brick (ironic that they used this horrible recon stone but buried the stone from two cottages that were on the site). Scrap yard dog had amazing natural guarding instincts.



Dug out footings (of sorts) and added concrete …



And had Mick the brick spend a day on the tools