Monday, April 29, 2013

From Lawn to Jungle

We call the area at the bottom of our garden "The Jungle", the planting in this area is a little more untamed, plants jostle for position and people have to push past overhanging plants.

The area itself is not huge, but it does feel bigger than it is as you cant see it all and have to explore. It hasn't always been like that of course. When we first moved into the property this area was mostly a lawn, dominated by a huge old sycamore with a few shrubs round the edges, a pig sty on one side, and the remains of a World War II bomb shelter in the far corner. 


View towards what became the Jungle
Same View today after the shed was extended - (see here for the extension blog)

Sadly nothing much was left of the bomb shelter, except a pile of lumps of concrete that had been grassed over.

A neighbour to the rear of our property has lived in his house for well over 50 years, so although he didn't remember the bomb shelter in use, he was able to give us the history of that part of the garden, how it was used to keep chickens and rabbits (until the fox got the chickens and the rabbits dug their way to freedom - Go Bunnies!!).

However the more recent history of this part of the garden is something we have been able to document though photographs, taken over the years since 2005 allowing us to recall how this part of the garden evolved.

The remains of the pig sty were still here when we moved in, built from wooden telegraph poles and corrugated sheet metal. Fairly early on this was removed, and I spent a weekend with a sledgehammer and wrecking bar removing the concrete base. I had originally planned to remove the concrete from the  pig pen as well. But having spent an entire weekend clearing the 2/3 square meters of the sty I could not face the idea of lifting up the 20ish square meters of the sty beyond, so the plans for the garden were changed, and this became the base for the bottom patio and the first koi pond we built. In retrospect this was a good decision. 

The old pig sty - as you can see we had started on the garden beyond before tackling this job.
In reality removing this much concrete would not a good job to do by hand, and really a job for a pneumatic drill!

Perhaps if we had removed the concrete we would not have built the pond, and without the first pond who knows if the second would have ever been built. So thank you to the former owner who thought pigs needed 6 inches or so of concrete to walk about on!!

Building the first Koi Pond (see here for more)
The other half of the old pig sty became a patio with a pergola over the top. 

Laying slabs over the concrete.


Twinkles demonstrating the patio today!

The bottom patio area, summer 2011
The bomb shelter area is in the back corner, we took the view that as we did not know how much concrete was dumped here or how big the shelter would have been (from the images of Anderson shelters I had seen before they often were partly dug into the ground so there may be quite a lot of rubbish under there). This area seemed the perfect place for a greenhouse, and so what is currently our "arid" greenhouse sits here now.
Building the base for the arid greenhouse, July 2007

The arid greenhouse today, we have to put the mesh in the door way to keep the cats out
Inside the Arid Greenhouse
Turf cutter - photo from Nixon Hire
The main area of lawn was gradually dug over - have you noticed a trend, we tend to do most things by hand rather than bringing in the cavalry in the form of heavy machines. 

Perhaps we missed a trick here by not using a turf cutter as on reflection this may have been quite good fun as well as saving time. Maybe next time! Although we no longer now have any lawn at all in the garden - we just need some more garden now to get out the boys toys!

We spent quite a bit of time tying to decide on the layout for the jungle area. And as is often the case I drew out a number of sketches of different designs. I can often visualise what I think will look good, but I am not that great at explaining my ideas to Mark, so a sketch helps. Sadly none of those sketches survive. The approximate design was to have a roughly kidney shaped bed in the middle of the former lawn area with pathways surrounding this and beds of varying depths round the edges.

How the area looked in 2005
In 2006 the first plants went in, the small pergola in the far corner was built, but initially it was a series of beds with grass pathways.





By 2007 the jungle was starting to fill out and look a bit more like a jungle - although still too many fences on display.



The bottom patio area before the pond was built

The pergola went up in the summer of 2007.
Once you get to 2008 the area is looking much more familiar.
The garden is now walking up after the long winter and cold spring, so finally a few photos from today of the Jungle Area. It can be difficult to photograph as everything overhangs so much!





So that brings us back to today, I hope you enjoyed the tour through the jungle!

Gaz

23 comments :

  1. What a spectacular transformation! You guys constantly amaze me with your vision, hard work, and love of great plants! Thanks for sharing your garden's evolution!

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    1. Thanks, glad you enjoyed seeing how it started and evolved.

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  2. Thank you for such an overview and the old pictures, very inspiring!

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    1. Thanks Clive, glad you enjoyed it. We are enjoying watching your transformation of your new part.

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  3. I LOVE these retrospectives. It gives one hope that the fledgling areas of the garden will one day be as spectacular as yours.

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    1. Thanks Ricki, I have no doubt your new areas will look fantastic as they mature.

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  4. What a fantastic tour! I have a much better mental image of your garden's layout now. The changes this area has undergone are dramatic. A real metamorphosis.

    Looking at today's jungle, it's hard to imagine this area was ever as barren as it must have been when you bought your property.

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    1. Thanks Gerhard, it has been fun putting this together, looking through the archives of photos. In the earlier years we had far less photos to select from.

      Although bland and very messy the garden was a big reason why we chose this house, as it is gets wider the further down you go so is bigger than many comparable properties in the area.

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  5. Great tour and fun going through that with you. Love that look back there.
    Cher Sunray Gardens

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  6. What a transformation...you guys take no prisoners!

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    1. Thanks Scott, that is over the last 8 years so not a quick overnight change!

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  7. This shows what imagination, creativity and hard work can achieve - turning a bomb shelter, a pig sty and some grass into one of the best gardens I've seen. I always knew you guys were amazing :-) This confirms it.

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    1. Thanks so much for your kind comments Missy!

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  8. Thank you for the wonderful tour, i guess this is the portion not yet included in my visuals, as i started just lately in reading your blog. But i started the progress of the pond, start to completion. You two are very good designers, carpenters, construction workers, landscape architects, horticulturists, etc,..and good writers! Whewwww! In the end i guess this will be your home for the next 50 more years, and when you will be leaving, this must be a maintained garden for enthusiasts and collectors ...The Alternative Eden.

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    1. Thanks Andrea, glad you enjoyed touring round, and pleased it gives you a better understanding of the garden itself

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  9. I am blown away looking at these photos! There is no way that I could ever imagined it all as open and barren (Gerhard used the perfect word) as those images show it to be, it's such an enclosed jungle now. Did you alway know it would look like this or are you even surprised by the results of your labor?

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    1. Thank Loree, it has come on a long way. We always wanted it to feel quite enclosed, however we did not know exactly how it would turn out. Some plants do too well others get replaced, but overall this is the feel we were after.

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  10. Amazing transformation, really interesting to chart the progress, and the gradual take-over by plants. Must be very satisfying looking back and seeing what you have achieved there, transforming a rather scruffy very ordinary garden (albeit with an over engineered pigsty) into a celebration of the exotic.

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    1. Thanks Janet, it has been an enjoyable journey, and no more pig sty. We do have a couple of photos somewhere so will have to share them!

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  11. Wow, what a transformation! I love the variety of edging materials you've used throughout your garden. You must be so proud!

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    1. Thanks Heather! We do like the different materials, and it's nice to recycle too :)

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  12. Loved the tour - my type of garden, especially the tree ferns! What is that pinky, orangy succulent thats flowering in your arid greenhouse - its stunning!

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