Florilegium : Garden number twelve

Anyone reading this will probably have found me from my previous garden blog - Burygardeners. As we are now living in bonny Scotland it seemed 'wrong' to keep a garden journal going under the banner of Bury in Lancashire.

It is the 26th April and a calendar month since we moved from Bury to Newtongrange in Scotland, so I thought I would try and start a new garden journal (mostly for me) to log the journey from mud to garden.

I am beginning my twelfth garden in my life so am confused with a mix of pleasure at playing gardens again and trepidation at taking on a whole new build one at my age.

The garden is about 14m long and 11m wide and drops about a metre from the house to the bottom. The really bad news is that it is North facing (in Scotland!) so most of the garden is in shade most of the day. Now we are getting into late Spring each side of the garden has sunshine some part of the day but probably not enough for things to flourish. Add to this it is the sort of soil that is beyond clay - you truly could make pots from it.

As always the garden begins on paper - well several pieces of paper. My original (and still wanted design) was a complex three layered structure centered around a brick edged circular lawn with several areas for sitting each part of the day as the sun arrives. It was far too expensive. The dilemma with moving house and even worse into a new build is that there are so many calls on your money that the garden becomes a lower and lower priority. I honed it back to a very basic beginning which I hope I can chop and change as the years go by.

Not sure if you will be able to see much as it looks a bit pale.....

The 'landscaper' began on 17th April and finished on 20th. The speed of that might give you a clue as to why the word landscaper is in quotes. You will get to hear about the problems in a couple of posts time. I forgot to take a picture of what it looked like before any work began. All I can say is visualise the Somme. This is it at the end of day two with quite a bit of earth moved from one place to another and retaining walls made with sleepers.