Gardening Tips > All year > ‘How to’? Get Growing with our Team – Nat&Alfie

‘How to’? Get Growing with our Team – Nat&Alfie

Alfie (Retail Sales Assistant – Tiptree) and Natalie (Retail Sales Assistant – Sudbury) have recently purchased their first home together and begun a ‘Get Growing’ project in their garden. They have kindly agreed to share their story with us. It may feel like a daunting task, to begin with, but even if you have a space that’s overgrown or rundown you can turn it into something spectacular. Once you make a plan and get stuck in, the project will have a very rewarding outcome – a garden to enjoy and to be able to sit outside listening to the birds, smelling fragrant flowers, and growing your own vegetables or plants.

Here is Alfie and Natalie’s story so far:

Phase 1

“We completed our purchase on our first house on April 8th, 2020 – the first picture shows the state of the garden (or at least one part of it!)

 

phase 1 garden - overgrown

Phase 2

We removed all of the overgrown ivy, shrubs, and other plants which showed us just how much damage it had done to our fence.

However, we noticed that the afternoon sun hits this spot of the garden so we wanted to utilise this area. With the garden being south facing and having more or less light all day we took this into account as being the main factor for this project.

 

phase 2 garden - ivy taken down

Phase 3

As you can see we have created a border with Cotswold Stones, have lots of pots and a dodgy fence still.

After allowing a year to see how the garden grew, taking into account factors such as light levels and wind direction, etc we have now come up with a further plan for the garden.

 

phase 3 garden  phase 3 garden

The plan is as follows…

This area of the patio/garden is what we can see through the patio doors when we sit indoors on our sofa. So, we want to be able to enjoy the view from indoors as much as outdoors.

The project objective is to create a “Mediterranean/Spanish” feel with lots of terracotta pots, a herb pallet planter, and colourful annuals to provide bold pops of colour (both of which require plenty of sunshine to thrive).

The trellis on the wall is going to be moved to another area and some of the pots already there will be moved elsewhere. Most importantly the fence is getting replaced – that’s the first priority!

So that’s our “Get Growing project” so far – wish us luck.”

Update 21st June

“The Mediterranean/Spanish corner has been delayed still due to fencing but, it’s all sourced now just waiting for it to be installed.

Meanwhile, I have managed to create my herb pallet planter, and although there are still a few tweaks to make it’s nearly finished.

  

I did some shopping at Perrywood Sudbury to purchase my herbs and bedding plants. I only purchased herbs that I will cook with and I bought a mixture of bedding that I have planted up with peat-free compost.

    

I have also planted up my Spanish pots with three trailing plants (if you look closely you can see the new fence panels just waiting!).

I also moved the trellis that was originally where the pallet is now to the other side of the patio. Painted it the same brown as the pergola and planted jasmine into the ground to climb up it. I did that at the end of April

and now…

The jasmine and the acer have both really grown – all that warm weather really helped and hopefully, the pink flowers on the jasmine will come soon too.”

Update July 1st

“Hooray! We came home from work to find the new fencing installed.

Natalie with new fencing

Not even the rain will stop me now. Over the coming weeks all the solar lights, hanging baskets, pots, and plants that have been collected will finally get their home!
Natalie out in the rain decorating new fence panels new lighting and pots on fencing

The final hurdle now is creating the ‘floral pallet planter’ which will stand against the fence and be seasonal between summer and winter bedding – so it’s always got a pop of colour visible from the house all year round. We are using a pallet to create this, like our herb planter, super easy and a cheaper alternative. This is also great if you like upcycling to create new items for your garden.”

Pallet ready for floral planter

Update 13th August

“This is the final part of my 2021 ‘Get Growing’ project. I’ve had a second shopping haul from Perrywood Tiptree. I bought the last remaining bedding plants to go into the pallet and unfortunately, I had to replace a few that I had lost over the last couple of months.

I took apart one-half of the pallet and boxed it in at the bottom with a fabric liner to create a planter. Then, I painted it in the same colour as the herb planter but only on the back, so that it stands out against the fencing. It’s not perfect but I didn’t want it to be – looks a bit more rustic and in keeping with our garden.

Although there are still some titbits to do, we have managed to achieve and turn this corner into more of what we wanted. Originally I wanted to use more white/cream to bring that Mediterranean feel so that the terracotta pots stood out more. However, we came to realise that it’s not a practical colour for us and our garden so we opted to use sage green and wood instead.

 

We plan to replace the Cotswold stones and brick patio with all new paving slabs but, that’s a job for 2022 instead!

Thank you for following along with my ‘Get Growing’ journey. I hope this inspires you to transform a blank canvas in your garden to create something exciting.”


Look out for more projects from other members of our team!

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