As many of you know, late last summer I moved to a new home. The thought of starting the gardens over was overwhelming, But luckily for me, one of the things that I loved most about the new place was the potential that I saw in the landscape. I wasn’t going to have to start from scratch again, but I certainly knew that I would need to make it my own. It just needed a bit of garden restyling. You can imagine my surprise at our final walkthrough when I discovered that the previous owners stopped watering as soon as we signed the purchase and sale agreement. When we moved in everything, and I mean everything, had dried up. Plants were dead and the earth was a giant dust bowl. I prayed that everything was just dormant and would return come spring.So as garden centers began to wind down in the fall, I scooped up many plantings at steep discounts. I could not wait for spring to arrive so that I could get to work. Slowly, we have been adding perennials, re-seeding the lawn and putting in some lovely raised vegetable beds from Gardener’s Supply Company. Of course everything takes time and patience and I know it is going to be years before I am where I would like the gardens to be but things are finally beginning to feel like home around here. I am beginning to see “me” in the gardens.
The first place that I wanted to place my attention to was around the chicken coop and run and my little side garden. I would describe my style as “cottage garden”. Here’s a peek at how far it’s come over the past couple of months. For me, these gardens had good bones. I just needed to revamp, move and replace and redo what was existing. It wasn’t all bad but there was room for improvement. All it needed was a little garden restyling. With a few tweaks, suddenly everything looks better.
I think planting a garden is something that we can all do as a legacy. It’s a legacy to us and to the earth. I know that I love to visit my Grandparent’s garden when I am in Connecticut. They passed years ago, but somehow, it is though they are still there. Is it strange that I feel like I can hear them too on the breeze? Gardening is definitely something that is in my heart.
I received an email a few weeks ago from Angie’s List. I was thrilled to learn that they wanted to work on some backyard projects with me. I loved being able to tell that that I did indeed have a few problem areas in my backyard. We quickly devised a plan and I am excited to let you know that we’ve got some pretty cool things and more garden restyling happening over here at Tilly’s Nest. Suddenly, I have been able to work on these larger problem areas sooner than I thought. For a peek at the problem areas and what we have planned, please check out my “Before” post over on Angie’s List.
I’ll keep you all up to date, it involves LOTS of hydrangeas, and until then, tell me— what are your gardening plans for this summer?
More Posts from my Angie’s List backyard makeover series:
Reseeding a Lawn
2 thoughts on “Garden Restyling and Refurbishing Makeover”
I’d love to see pictures of/hear your opinion about your Gardner’s Supply Company raised beds! I’m looking at pulling the trigger on the lifetime bed corners for my veggie garden, and it would be great to hear your thoughts. The original flimsy slide-together beds I started with just aren’t cutting the mustard anymore! 🙂
I really like these beds. I ordered the 4 x 4 cedar beds and I have six of them. They assemble super fast and they seem to be of good quality. The reviews on the website are quite good as well. I would say, try ordering one or two and see what you think. I wouldn’t call these flimsy at all in the size and style that I have in my garden. I have also doubled them up so that I have essentially 4 x 8 feet beds. I did this so that my beds would have support in the middle. I hope this helps.