The long game

Hello, 

My name is Dan, I'm 28 and I am new to gardening.  Eight months ago I moved into a gorgeous cottage on the Caerhays Estate near St Austell, after a month of cleaning and redecoration. But that's a story for another forum/website.

The garden is quite big (I'll see if i can upload a pic)

 The grass hadn't been cut in two years and its a blank canvas. 

It was left over the winter and in march i attacked it with a strimmer as it was way too long for a mower. I left it to recover for a month and then attempted to tame it with my  other halves, cousins, lawn mower. After 3 long hours (the mower is a tad old) we have a semi-respectable lawn

 For those studying these pictures you will notice that i found a shed (former outside toilet) underneath the ivy. 

I have more images and things that i have done in front of the house but i thought i would show you my lawn first and introduce you to my "Long Game".

Hope you enjoy and i will no doubt call on you expertise soon.

Dan x

I'm impressed .... it seems you've tackled the lawn very sensibly .... you say you're new to gardening, but you appear to have a gardener's intuition - and what a lovely part of the world you're living in - we visit when we can, for holidays and meet up with friends originally made on other fora.

I'll look forward to watching the progress of your plot - good luck and may the weather be with you 

Really exciting a blank canvas..

It looks like alot of hard work ahead but how exciting to have such a large open space to work with and do as you please.

Happy gardening.

Thank you Dove, Weejen and zoom. 

In May I decided to look at one of the two (due to cash) areas in front of the house 

 These were very densely over grown 

 This one is infested with mint and has a couple squeeky residents.

I strimmed my way through them like a man posessed and took them all the way down to the top soil. The area on the right had only about an inch of soil and then hardcore and the left one has dark loose soil.

I nipped to B&Q and brought a week barrier and then to Wicks for 250kg of pea gravel for £14!.

 We have a bench facing out to the garden and i will be sorting the other side out this weekend.

Dan x

Last weekend was a fun weekend.

1, I now have my own mower

 2, Lovely new mower needs a house and i have no cash so for some reason i decided to build one out of pallets.

 Total cost £30.

A lot of sweat and swearing went into the construction and i am happy with the way it turned out.

Dan x

See what I mean - a born gardener!  Geoff Hamilton would be proud of you 

Was it a derelict house when you bought it Dan, or just neglected by previous owner?

Becks.

The previous tenant (We rent through the Caerheys Estate) was wheelchair bound, had dementia, alcoholic and smoked 100 a day. The cottage hadn't been cleaned of decorated for 10 years and the neighbours stopped helping with the garden about 2-3 years ago as it was just getting too wild.

I am going to keep mowing the grass once a week (mainly because i am in love with my mower) until i can see slowing in the growth. During the winter i am going to look into getting it rolled, there are about 10 years of mole holes that have grown over so it's very lumpy bumpy.

Dan x

Oh my! So you have a huge job both outside and inside to do then? Wow. Keep us posted with everything!

What a lovely place you live in. Its looks as if it going to be like Homes Under the Hammer with before and after pictures. We have stayed in St Austell many times and other parts of Cornwall, beautiful place. It must be lovely to have blank canvas, I am very impress with what you have done so far. Do keep us updated on your  progress.

Good Luck 

Hi guys.

Here's an arial photo of my house, its the one on the right

 Dan x

You either have a VERY large tree to climb to take that photo, or a private copter!!??

Dan looking at the before and after of the front garden I think you made a wise decision to put gravel down with the weed suppressant. The house will breath better too. I hope you keep up telling us how your getting on

Jenny

My partner Jade's Cousin Michael lives in the house at the bottom of our garden, and after many drunken injuries we decided build a new fence and put a gate in. His garden is lower than ours so we are going to install some steps.

The bottom of the garden is an overgrown mess, there's an 4 metre tall Buddleia, nettles and docs. The only good thing about it is, it gets the afternoon and evening sun. So i have decided to put a patio at the bottom.

Michael has some slabs stored from when he gravelled his garden for his cars and work van.

I have no idea how to start clearing so i started to roll away the grass, as it seemed to be the tidiest way as you can load it in a barrow, (Reminds me i need to get one) and what i dont use for patching the old mole holes, i can put on freecycle, but it just got too hot! I lost about a stone in sweat.

I will be continuing tomorrow, that's if i am still alive after telling the miss's that her trampoline is exactly where the seating area is going to be.

Dan x

The sun came out for a good couple of hours, checked the lawn and it seemed pretty dry so i thought smeg it and cut the grass.

Minutes after putting the mower away this happened

 Its starting to look sexy, the brown patches are slowly greening up and i'll soon look into feed & weed and a spreader.

I've cleared some more from the bottom where the patio will be going but it's a slow and painful process as its just ivy roots.

Dan x

Love the pictures Dan, you are making good progress and it is looking great.  Keep posting pics so can see how you are getting on.  I have found that people on this forum have so much gardening knowledge if you get stuck just ask and you will have the answer at your fingertips.  Good luck

What a beautiful place to live. And a garden that size im jealous. Dont envy you clearing the inside of the house though. At the moment i have a large hole in my dining room ceiling. We had an unknown leak in the shower, must have been going on for months. Chap is coming on tuesday to mend the ceiling have a feeling the hole will get bigger before its mended. Good luck with your garden.

I'm taking the day off from my garden renovation because I am just lacking the motivation today. I know it's a poor excuse and a gardener should always make the most of the inclement weather, but the driving force to continue with my ivy clearance for the patio eludes me manly beacuse the roots are everywhere and are driving me crazy!

 I did manage to finish building the log store round the back while it was dry and I just need to get some tarpaulin to cover the front.  

Dan x