Doing up a jungle of a back garden on a very tight budget!

[ancee]

This is the begining of photos from the 'garden' we 'inherited' this Summer. Have only begun work on it now as it's a council house and we've had to ask permission for everything that we do. Hopefully the pics will work and as we progress I'll put more on so that you can see how we are slowly getting on. Funds are EXTREMELY tight, so we are using and re-using anything that we can get our hands on. Any tips would be appreciated!!! The garden is 75ft long by 28ft wide. After we had it cleared, (photos don't do what was left behind by previous tenants any justice) they sent a big digger thing and all topsoil, fences, rubbish,weeds everything was plonked into 2 huge skips and we were left exposed to the field behind. We had a blank canvas. First we quickly put up a fence, for security, and to keep the dog in! We got a few little conifers off a car boot, they've gone in. Then it rained. A lot. The garden turned into a clay-y quagmire. We've saved up for scaffolding planks, and have begun rustic decking. What do you think? It's not finished as we have to hire a sander and then oil the deck, but we've started - HURRAH!! The first pics are the begining of a long 4 months...

[ancee]

more pics as you canonly add 5 at a time

This is the begining of the ladderwork frame that we concreted into the ground and painted with wood stain to protect it. My amazing brother Ben is in these pics!

[ancee]

more pics as we progress...

The house wall has been painted this afternoon brrrrrrrrrrr! The deck was finished last night by torchlight. We are now looking for a cheap to hire big sander, then the deck will be oiled, more pics to follow. I no longer have to wear wellies to put out the rubbish

[veggiechicken]

Oh Ancee, I can't believe that you would have been offered a house with the garden in such a state! Its dreadful Thank goodness its all gone now and you have a wonderful space to play with and develop in your own style.
What would you like to grow? Veggies, flowers, fruit, herbs?
Watch on Freecycle for greenhouses and gardening tools - even plants. Its amazing what you can pick up.

[FROSTYFRECKLE]

Wow, what an amazing amount of work you and Ben have done. Congratulations. Who needs an allotment when you have a back garden that size

[ancee]

Apparantley the house had 2 skips full taken out before all that was left in the garden, I have more pics, but could only upload a few. They wouldn't empty the garden until we had the keys as they were worried other people might just dump their rubbish once they'd left - I think that's what had been happening. Once deck is finished, we're building a shed with a paved area for the dog, then the rest of the garden is going to be my allotment!! Ooh I have big plans and a few packets of seeds, so I can't wait! Luckily it's Autumn/Winter as there is so much to do, hopefully we'll have a lot of it done before the growing season starts next year. So far I have pear tree, fig sproutling, some strawberies, a dead looking rhubarb and my small conifers. I've got loads of sweetpeas and marigolds and quite a few other flowers that I need to go through. It's so exciting!

[ancee]

My husband George was there too! I must give him a lot of credit, it's just the phot's with him in it wouldn't load haha! My son Theo helped with protection painting and my daughter Madeleine made thousands of cups of coffee and bacon sarnies! What a team

[Glutton4...]

What a team, indeed! Well done - looking goooooood!

[northepaul]

WOW!! That is so impressive and you've done so much hard work.....big pat on the back for you and your family!!

Can wait to see what you put in next!

[binley100]

What a difference , and what a load of rubbish you had to get rid of . You've all worked very hard and now you have a blank canvas to play with ..

[taff]

well done

[ancee]

Thanks for the support guys! We are in the process of sourcing a big sander now. I don't know if you can tell by the pics or not but we used old scaffolding planks to make the decking. I wasn't keen at first, but my brother first made a deck for his father-in-law so I went a had a look, otherwise I would've been wondering what on earth I was doing. Once they've been sanded down we are going to oil them - it brings the woodgrain through and they look like great big wooden floorboards, really beautiful. Once they're done i'll add pics. Then we're onto a shed build, going to hopefully start the foundations next week. We have to do a shed as we have nowhere to put any tools!

[kathycam]

Looks great and amazing to have such a huge growing space on your back garden!

[ancee]

I've given up getting a lottie, as the waiting list is endless and doesn't move So I cannot wait to get a digging and a planting next year, just got to keep the dog off my plantings, he tends to look up into the sky and bark at birds while walking backwards on his back paws! You should see him if there's ever a helicopter - world's biggest birds! I'm sure i've seen him do a backflip!

[ancee]

Spent most of the afternoon (it feels!) in an aisle in B & Q looking at decking oil/stains/protectors in various shades/clear/natural/matt/ am fed up! Finally decided on an oil/protector in natural oak. Tomorrow (fingers crossed that weather is dry) we'll begin the sanding of all the wood we put down last saturday and then apply the oil, big day ahead, better get an early night! Pictures will follow Am ridiculously excited about this haha