So It Begins.

Cute bee house from my friend

Well well well I fell down the biggest rabbit hole on Pinterest for gardens and plants and now know exactly what I'm doing. When we first moved into my house it was a giant dirt mound, James had to try and flatten it as much as he could and we were left with a slope at the back. He added grass which grew nicely for a few years until we had seeds blow into our garden turning it into a clover field. I have no issue with this because clover is much softer to walk on but at the same time all that hard work with the grass was pointless.

James eventually built a wall, decking and a shed which I have no complaints with. Now we realise it's time to turn the giant grass patch into a blooming garden and maybe some more privacy with bushes, although houses loom and can look into gardens anyway. Due to it still being winter, I'm sowing some of my plants now indoors and then they will go in the greenhouse when spring comes around (not too long now). I made an order from a website that offered a great selection of seeds and bulbs for a small price, I was a little sceptical with all the prices but they came pretty fast if I'm honest, I also ordered plants from elsewhere that seem to be doing well for now in this warm house.

The plant website I used offers a wildflower packet for free you just pay postage, I did get these along with some bee and butterfly-friendly ones from Asda. I went through the list of what was included in the pack and they all seem ok to plant in the garden and hopefully won't become invasive. The only thing about most of these plants is that they're not all perennials, this is a pain as it means I need to scatter new ones each year instead of them regrowing which is why the other seeds and bulbs I have collected and bought from last year and this year are Perennials. I want a garden that can be managed and regrow independently each year without much hassle.

An idea of how I want my garden to look

As you can see from the pictures of my garden, the shape of the grass is awkward, I'm hoping to do a border of plants around the edges so the middle is left as grass, possibly add some cute stepping stones and a water feature/or bird bath, but that will come later once my plants, bushes and shrubs start to bloom. I still have my hydrangeas from last year, they're already growing their leaves back, the reason I've not yet put them in the ground is due to being worried that they wouldn't thrive in our soil yet as they're still pretty young. This year I think I may plant them on the top slope of my garden to see how they do, only once I've seen the buds start to grow on them.

So far my list of seeds is as follows: 

• Free Wild Flower Seeds
• Cerastium Snow in Summer
• Perennial Flower Mix Tall Amazing colours
• Thunbergia Alata Mix Black Eyed Susan
• Aquilegia McKana Giant Mixed
• Aubrieta Aubretia x Cultorum Mixed
• Pollinator Bee Bomb (this was a gift)
• Dicentra Bleeding Hearts

On top of these, I have loads of bulbs and seeds left from last year, they're all safe in my seed box in the shed until they're ready to plant, I can't wait to plant sunflowers directly into a flower bed this year instead of keeping them in pots, I'm hoping we get taller ones than last time. 

Allow yourself time to rest

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