Before and After - the caravan space

If you look in the left hand column under Photos you'll see I've added some albums to make the pictures easier to find.  One of them shows how we've used the space by the side of the house where the caravan used to stand.


Luckily the real hard work was done in that it was already laid to hard core and gravel for the van so all I had to do the day the 'van went was to load it up with all the garden junk I've always hated sharing my space with.  Then it was a big think as to how I really wanted to use the space.


Initially I decided that just for once I wouldn't rush at it and I would live with it for a year and see how I actually did use it and then see what was needed to make that work.  That lasted about two days and were off looking for trellis and an arch!


We did very well and came away with a double bargain (by sheer fluke) from Newbank.  We had hunted all over the place for the trellis to match what we already had.  We knew it was unlikely we'd find it because we'd had a similar job a couple of years ago. After buying our first lot of trellis (from Newbank) and were told that it had come from Poland (???) and it wasn't available any more; at that time we were lucky to find an odd piece at Newbank which wasn't quite what I wanted but did the job.  At the same time as the great trellis search we were also sussing out various arches.  The spread of prices and quality was huge.  Back to Newbank to buy the cheapest arch we'd seen which would do the job.  We knew it would as, again, we'd used one at our previous home (in the third garden I'd done from scratch!)  This was £49 but was the last one and we got it for less - I'd tell you how much if I could remember. As before there was no joy on the trellis as it had not been sold for some years.  Then I spotted some used, old, weathered pieces on a trolley in a work area which they had recently taken down from various display areas and replaced with new stuff.  They looked as though they were just waiting to be scrapped so I set off to ask if I could buy them.  An executive decision later and they were ours for £15 instead of £60.


My valiant husband then did battle,often between showers, and in a couple of days the entrance was complete.  Then just by happenchance, as these things often are, I was at Boscow nurseries (for a mooch) and came across Lady Boothby.  To explain; this isn't one of my many titled friends (!!) but a climbing fuchsia. A couple of years ago I had fallen in love with one at my favourite garden - Wollerton Old Hall and was keen to get one. Yet again in another amazing co-incidence shortly afterwards my sister bought me one for my birthday.  We took all ten feet of it to lunch in Manchester - but that's another story. Then last year following the hard winter I was convinced it had given up the ghost and dug it up.  My sister left hers in and it is thriving!!!  Since then not only was I bereft of Lady B but also dying of envy.  When I saw four of them at Boscow at only £2.50 each it was as if it was meant to be.  A pair of these for the new trellis was a given.

Our utility area, as it is now named, houses the three - soon to become four!! - dustbins (do you know about this?), a greenhouse, bags of potting compost, a great watering system for all and sundry, a huge box for chair cushions and (for this year only [oh yes!] pots of vegetables. It will soon have a rotary line too.  The parasol base in the photo is to be replaced with the usual tube in the ground.  The brolly base was just to test out the theory.  We will use it to take the overflow we sometimes have when we do the washing.  If it works OK and the washing actually dries there it will become our main one and then we won't have to have the washing spoiling the garden on Mondays!!!  Obsessive - moi?


We added a couple of lounger type chairs to the ex-BBQ space.  These were also a bargain from Argos - not made to last a lifetime but cheap for wooden ones at £90 the pair and do the job very nicely.  All the chairs have cushions I was just to lazy to put them out for the photograph.


I forgot to mention the greenhouse.  This was another "I don't want one of those", quickly  followed by - ''That's a bit of a bargain, I think I'll have one of those''.  We were at B & Q doing other stuff and I spotted the 6' x 4' polypropylene greenhouse for £185 (after our wrinkly discount).  By the way, the large warehouse B & Q in Bury only offer that discount on Wednesdays unless you ask (!) and then they'll let you have it.  Go figure!  The Crostons B & Q let you have it every day.  As for the greenhouse, I have never seen anything with so many pieces - hundreds of bits and bobs.  Husband (mostly) got it up and running fairly quickly and I am (unexpectedly) thrilled to little bits with it.  I wanted it for raising seedlings in April when we get back.  I started with a small, green, loose-cover job the first year and then bought a bigger one last year and still didn't have enough room.  They haven't gone to waste as the shelving fits the new greenhouse perfectly and has saved me having to buy staging.  We added a small potting bench which also fits perfectly.  Argos and B & Q sell them.  I thought I'd toss in some bits and bobs of plants I'd already got, such as the peppers and basil plants I was going to grow outside, rather than let it stand empty.  Something worth mentioning here in case it happens to you...  I had a four foot tomato plant all raring to go and I broke it getting it out of my old greenhouse.  There was a three inch stump of the stem remaining - no leaves, nothing.  I put it in the greenhouse out of curiosity and within a little over a week I had a two foot tomato plant.  It is now a good deal taller than that and flowering.  Like the (bargain) potatoes in pots which I planted miles too late this late tomato has romped away to almost catch up its predecessor.  I have also added some tiny strawberry plants (Mignonette) and started some dill.  I also started some lettuce, radish,beetroot and carrots in there as an experiment and to get them up to speed before putting them outside.  It is such fun and with a bit of thinking about it should be really useful next year.


We've stapled my usual green coated chicken wire to the fence panels where the loungers are and planted some climbers that I've moved from the patio area.  They were plants that I was moving any way because, again also by luck and excellent timing, when we were away last week in Lincoln we visited Belmont House (NT) and they had just one Blush Noisette rose which I've been waiting to buy to match the brilliant goer that I already have on one of the patio trellises.  It was going to cost me something like twenty to thirty quid from Peter Beales where my original one came from.  This one cost £7.50. The moved plants may or may not survive in that spot but I am hoping the jasmine Beesianum and clematis (Josephine Evijohill) will have enough sense to find their way to the outside of the fence they are planted against as directly under their feet it is pretty much solid concrete - necessary to haunch up the slabs when the patio was built.  I do have a fall back plan if they fail: I will remove them, the soil, the wire and just hang pots on the fence instead.  I'd much prefer permanent planting as I am trying to avoid  having to plant up any more pots each year.  It is costly to do and hard work maintaining them.  I love pots of annuals but I don't like the maintenance.


So.....  job well done.