Back Garden Improvement and DIY: Plans and Progress

Hey pals,

I have tons of ideas I want to create this summer to make my mum’s garden look better and be better for the environment. We live in the countryside, so we are reasonably eco-friendly. We have a food compost heap, several horse manure piles that we spread over the fields and use to fertilise plants, we reuse all kinds of things and DIY a bunch of stuff… But our fenced off bit of garden is a bit of and eyesore because it is mostly for the functional use of keeping our dog from running away. When you live in a half-arsed area you start to feel fed-up and low. So I have a whole hoard of things I want to do this summer for the garden! Here is my list.

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I want to plant plenty of beautiful flowers to attract wildlife and bees. I have planted a lot of wildflower seeds and bulbs, and now we are just waiting to see their growth. I think we might need to put some more soil on top of them because the bulbs are made half naked again with every rainfall.

1. Making a planter out of an old BBQ and water tank. It has been half set up but needs painting black before I start filling in the pebbles, soil and plants. We were going to make the top half a succulent base but my centerpiece seems to have died (??).
2. Making a herb planter. There is space in the bottom half of the BBQ that I can put more plants into and I think herbs are a great idea for gardens to have. I already have a chive plant in the back garden so one down.
3. Peeling and polishing the oak tree logs. A few years back we had to get our three oak trees cut down (I know, very sad) due to the roots moving the foundation of our house and two of them were very diseased. We still have two big logs in our garden and we thought it could be an idea to peel off the bark that has mostly separated itself from the rest of the tree and polish whats under it to make some bench like trunks to put plants and garden decorations on.
4. Make a bee water basin. I’ve been researching how to help keep the bee population alive and healthy, one site suggested having access to water. So, I have a plastic flower pot I decided I want to use. I need to cover the holes in the bottom and fill with white decorative stones and the little coloured glass pebbles so it’ll look pretty before I fill it with water.

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5. My dog digs up the garden when she gets over excited, so we are trying to fill in the holes as much as possible. This takes more than one go though as we have done this several times and it’s still not quite right! But we are trying to fill holes and re-grow the grass. We mostly use horse manure as we have had horses for many years and have quite a hefty few piles of it just rotting down. It actually makes the grass that re-grows there extra green, it’s quite bizarre. And how do we re-grow the grass? I go and collect seeds from the grass we have growing elsewhere! Saves money.

6. Wildflower planter box! This is in the works but is a continuous work in progress adding more flowers and plants to the planter and they bloom almost all year round except for winter. My aim is for the whole box to be full.

~ Artie