Adding a log store and storage to our garden

While we have an established border in a corner of our new build garden, what I realised fairly quickly is we don’t have is a space to store things such as ‘resting’ pots, or open compost bags without them being on show, or taking up unnecessary room in the garage. We also brought some seasoned logs with us when we moved, which had spent a year or so in the garage and while they were living their best - and driest - life, the garage was never intended as their long term home.

I’d been using the area inside the trellis to store pots and some compost bags, as well as leaving it on the paving outside the garage - but neither of these were ideal. We do have a space alongside the garages, where our many wheelie bins live (we have four, or rather three and a half - recycling, glass recycling, garden waste and general waste). These are out of sight as, unless you have to, no one wants to see their bins do they?

That empty space had potential, I was sure and so I started to look at mini sheds - but didn’t find what I was after, not that I really knew what I was looking for either. I changed tack and started looking at log stores, and I had a bit more luck. , but they still weren’t right.

Then I struck gold, and found a log store which also had a small storage section. Perfect. Or it would have been as it wasn’t in stock. Sigh.

But I find one I did. The same model, but cheaper. That never happens does it?!

And so it duly arrived from Robert Dyas with delivery by Forest Garden in our often wet summer. It needed assembling and MOH set to work, working in the garage - which was just as well, as it meant he could continue when the summer weather was slightly more than inclement.

We’d worked out that between us we could lift it into position without adding the weight of the roof, and the final touches could be added when it was in situ. Thankfully the weather gods were on our side too, and we were blessed with a gloriously sunny day on the day we planned to tackle this.

This is the corner where it was going.

Of course it needed some prep work first. We cleared back the top gravel, and were pleased to discover compacted earth beneath. I’d got some weed suppressant - but importantly permeable - ground cover that I wanted to put down, and planned to use the metal pins to keep that in place.

That didn’t work so well. I was lucky with the first one - it went straight in. Then wherever we tried we hit something harder and bent the pin. A plan B was needed.

Plan B made use of the gravel to anchor the weed suppressor. And I thanked my lucky stars that we’d opted to put the log store here, originally we thought we might make this another small planting area for a climbing rose - but that wouldn’t have happened given what we discovered.

But working with what we had, it was soon in place, fitting nicely into the space we had and which we’d planned for it to use.

It wasn’t long before MOH had attached the roof and finishing struts, and attached the door too. That needed a small adjustment to make it fit a little less snugly - we needed to be able to open the door, and no doubt the wood would swell a little in wet weather too, so with the adjustments made, it was time to fill it.

It didn’t take me long to stack our logs or collect the open compost bags from their various storage spots around the garden. And I couldn’t be happier - we have cleared some space in the garage, and brought all the compost bags together to create a functional and secure storage area. We don’t use a lot of logs though, and in truth this is probably more space than we need for logs, but if we need to we can add another storage area relatively easily, but we’ll see how we go for now.

But the weather wasn’t done with us yet!

From being the driest they’ve ever been, the logs soon got a dousing - well actually several - from heavy rain. They weren’t soaked but wetter than you’d really want them to be, and so we added a tarpaulin to give them some protection.

I never knew how many sizes you could get tarpaulins in - but of course, none exactly matched the size we had. In the end we went with a custom-sized tarpaulin, as i) it will fit, ii) it will hopefully last and iii) it actually wasn’t that expensive - with delivery this was just over twenty pounds, so not extortionate - and definitely worth having.

Though having it a week earlier would have been better!

My garden in October

Last month was all about the sunflowers and tomatoes finally delivering, and that theme has continued this month and while this update is still sunflower heavy it does contain a little more too. But sunflowers first…

At the start of the month at least the sunflowers were upright, at times this was solely because they’d been propped back up again using plant pots at their base to help them buffer the wind as much as they could. However, it wasn’t to last and in the end the sunflowers have spent most of the month casually draped across the closest bush, still flowering, still gorgeous, just lolling!

It was great to see the smaller sunflowers persevere though - and we’ve been enjoying their flowers throughout the month. As the month progressed they adjusted to their surroundings, and once again started to head towards the light. Given that the plants have found themselves a more sheltered position I’ve left them there, which I think has extended the time I get to enjoy them - so it’s a win from me, even if these must be the most unconventional sunflowers ever!

I must remember to collect some seeds for next year though, as they are a variety I’d grow again. I’m not sure exactly which they are as the seeds were passed to me from a neighbour of dad’s in Norfolk.

We’ve had plenty of wildlife in our garden this month too, some of which we’d expect and some not so much. For a couple of mornings we enjoyed watching this blackbird gather berries from our pyracantha - and it seemed they enjoyed it too, so I’m glad we were able to provide a good perch point.

It wasn’t long before we received some unexpected visitors, who spent most of the morning in our garden waddling about and making the most of the fallen crab apples. Google suggests they’re red legged partridges and most likely had escaped from a local shoot as they didn’t seem that savvy at all. Hopefully they found somewhere more suitable, as we’ve not seen them since - which I think is a good thing, as lovely as they were I wasn’t overly keen on adopting them. Perhaps they found a pear tree that was more to their liking than our tiny crab apple tree, who knows.

One of my challenges for this garden is not quite having the hiding spots yet for plants over the winter, many of our terracotta pots I’ll move under bushes or closer to the brick wall at the front of the house to give them as much shelter as I can, and that seemed to work fine last year. But it’s the more tender plants that I’m struggling with in the colder weather; I’ve brought the chilli plant in and that’s by the window in the utility room. It’s not ideal but I think it’ll fare better than outside.

My other challenge was the succulents, which are new to us in this garden. I didn’t want to bring them in as the pots aren’t indoor pots, but I knew they’d need some protection but would also need some light. Then it came to me they could quite easily be re-homed in our garage gym, I thought initially I’d just place them by the half-glazed doors.

With frost forecast (but thankfully not materialising) it was time to put my plan into action, but then I realised the ‘drip trays’ I’d bought for under our bikes could really earn their keep. Even better having the pots here don’t get in the way of accessing the bikes, and when they’re watered there’s no risk of having any pot leakage across the floor! Definitely an unintended bonus of having something a bit dull and functional.

I had two newer and much smaller succulents from our recent Open Studios visit and these are also in the garage in their old biscuit tin drip tray. I hadn’t thought to add plants to our garage gym, but these are really great additions even if they’re here just for the winter.

Outside the garage the small pot of wallflowers I bought earlier in the year looks a lot more healthy than they did during the warmer summer months, so I’m excited to watch them do their thing when the time comes. These are ‘Chelsea Jackets’ so should be a mix of pastel colours, let’s hope they know what they’re supposed to do!

Although the weather has been unseasonably warm the amount of sunlight is obviously much reduced, so it was time to pick the remaining green tomatoes. Some ripened, but most were resolutely staying green which I don’t mind. I also had quite a few from dad that were green and all of them have been put to good use and gone towards a green tomato chilli ketchup, which is one of my favourite ways to use green tomatoes - more on that soon.

And talking of unseasonably warm temperatures, right at the end of the month I noticed through the utility room window that our everlasting sweet peas which we brought from the old house have already started growing. There’s lush green growth about 8 inches high, which I really wouldn’t expect to see normally. That said, the pot is in a sheltered spot and not the best place for growing sweet peas as they’ve not really done anything much more than this since we’ve been here. In some ways I’m pleased to see they’re still going, but surprised to see them now - and all I hope is that when I’m ready to put them into their long term home they remember to grow and flower in a more usual timeframe. Fingers crossed, though they may have a fair while to wait!

My garden in September

In my garden September has been all about fruition - finally the sunflowers flowered, and the tomatoes started to show the briefest hint of ripening, then suddenly boom! they were ripe, and quite literally burst with the influx of rain we had suddenly!

I’m surprised to find that I have no other garden photos this month - usually you’ll find pictures from around the borders, but I think that tells its own story and just how much the sunflowers took over, and while they were late bloomers they were so good when they got going, in fact it’s the middle of October now and they’re still going, just not quite how I thought they would be.

At the start of the month the height discrepancy between the two remaining sunflowers was huge, and as the month progressed it got even larger. Both did eventually make it higher than the wall, but only just in the case of the smallest one. That wasn’t any bad thing though as it meant I could quite easily check progress, and I was surprised to see a ladybird nestled in the flower head one morning.

Gradually though the yellow petals started to appear, and unfurl. It was a slow process though, and I was particularly impatient it must be said. I was also curious about the flowers growing on the side shoots and how they would turn out.

But we had a flowering sunflower, finally - and it was the smallest one that flowered first. Clearly it knew how impatient I was and decided to put its energy into providing a flower rather than height - and I’m glad it did, as I was beginning to think it might not happen at all.

Similarly the tomatoes had been keeping me guessing, but they too finally started to show the vaguest hints of turning colour. Though not all of them.

And just with everything, once it starts it starts and then the rains came and some of my poor tomatoes burst!

But during those rains the tallest sunflower also flowered, so I wasn’t too upset for long.

Finally we had two flowering sunflowers, even though the first one did well to hang on for the largest sunflower to do its thing. And not long after that the side flowers started to flower, but the winds also came - and that brought new attention to my sunflower watch, but that’s for next month’s update, where I might also have pictures from elsewhere in the garden, who knows?!