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Okey dokey, we’re at a pretty good point! 

I’ve been rather absent from this blog recently. Life’s been busy and I figured I should spend any spare time gardening, rather than writing about gardening! 

Well, that’s just what we’ve been doing, and we’ve made some good progress. The top corner of our little garden is really getting there. We have a compost bin in the corner, a flower bed at the top, and two out of three veg boxes in place! (See pictures at the bottom of this post). 

We’re now at a stage where the space is prepped and we want to get growing… but I feel a little scared. I feel like I’m missing a stage. 

So I’m here to give a quick update on the garden and think out loud about what to tackle next. For now, I’m just focusing on the flower bed. The final veg box is coming soon, so stay tuned to hear how we approach that too.

Clearing the chaos

There was already a flower bed at the top of our garden. It was overgrown and riddled with bindweed, but there were also some lovely flowers that popped up last spring / summer time. 

However, and I’m still not sure this was the right thing to do, we purged the ground. We dug deep and removed everything to start completely afresh, then levelled the soil and built a new border using blocks from the old wooden edging. And I must say, it’s looking rather nice!

From what I’ve researched (and the fact there was already one here before), this seems like a good location for a flower bed. It gets sun for much of the day and sits against a wall, so it’s sheltered from strong winds – hopefully preventing taller plants from toppling over.

The floral plan (in theory)

I’ve managed to collect a few different types of flower seeds. Our Gardener’s World magazines have all come with a packet, and so far, we’ve received: 

Delphiniums – some of my favourites, as they remind me of my wedding bouquet – I’m very excited about these ones! I’ve already sown these in pots in the conservatory and I’m (impatiently) waiting for them to germinate.

‘Red Midgets’ – low maintenance, self-seeding perennials, which feels perfect for a first-time grower who isn’t particularly disciplined in caring for plants yet. 

Daras – I wouldn’t call these the prettiest of flowers but the packet says they are ‘pollinator magnets’ and great for wildlife in the garden – so that’s always a win. 

I was also given sweet peas, De Caen anemone mix and Blanda anemone mix for my birthday, so plenty to experiment with! I would also really love some lavender in there too but I’m thinking of buying a part-grown pot of this to transfer in (any advice around this would be appreciated!). 

The missing piece

So we have beds prepared, and seeds ready to plant. However, in a brief conversation with someone at church, they mentioned preparing soil… which I have no clue about. 

But to prevent this post from being super long, and to give me a bit more time to do a deep dive into soil preparation, I’ll leave it here for now. Just a little update on our garden, and a sneak peek into some of the flowers we’re hoping to grow. 

There’s so much to learn on this gardening journey. Some days I feel far away from having a functioning garden, and other days it feels so tangibly close. 

I just hope that I’m implementing all that I’m learning well. It’s been 10 days since I planted the delphinium seeds, and there’s no sign of life so far – I hope they show up soon! 

See, some good progress…

Spoiler alert: I’ll post progress pictures for this little corner when all of the veg boxes are in!