Project Garden Haven

Some of you will know that I'd been planning a surprise birthday barbecue for Bren for months. The key to this, obviously, being outside. So, when I saw that someone was giving away free garden furniture on Facebook I snatched it up quickly - 8 plastic chairs and a table, that'll come in handy thanks very much!

Of course, that was just the beginning.

Once my mum and I put that in the garden, we started to trim back some of the blackberry brambles. Anyone who'll have seen this in the first instance will know how that blackberry bush dominated my garden. The previous owners had planted it in a bunker in the back left corner of my garden, but blackberries also grow in from both neighbour's gardens - it's just everywhere. We were pulling on vines and finding that they extended through the trees into the neighbour's garden. It was like a horror scene from Jumanji. So, that's when we decided to take the whole bush out. Logic being, we still get plenty of blackberries from the sides of the garden if we want them, and the dogs only ever eat the thorns anyway.

2 hours later, the job was done. Unfortunately, I don't have a before shot as it was a rather spontaneous event. In those 2 hours, I started to plan other improvements that I might make in the garden.

Just a small list...!

Basically, I'd set myself a mammoth task to be completed in 10 days. A visit from Groundforce wouldn't have been entirely unwelcome - out of me, Mum and Lizzie I wouldn't like to say who was Alan Titchmarsh!! 

Pressure washing the decking was a long, but oddly satisfying job. Who knew the decking was actually a different colour?? Then, once the furniture was installed I decided to buy a new parasol and base. This I was particularly pleased with, because I knew it had LED lights on the inside, but I didn't know you could change the colour of them - that was a great discovery after a few drinks!! =D

With white, red, green and blue LEDs

Mum and I also installed some more colourful plants where the blackberry bush was.

Cone flower and Chilli plant

Lavender and Hyacynth

Sweet Williams

More Sweet Williams

The biggest part of Project Garden Haven was repainting the wooden bench that used to be at my parents' house. When we first bought it to our house I remember saying I'd repaint it, then I said it again after Mum and I rescued it from underneath the mass of brambles. YouTube (and Liz) was a great help here!

Bench: Before

First I pressure washed the bench, which cleaned it and also took off a lot of the old brown paint. Then, we used sandpaper to get rid of all the paint and to get smooth, bare wood. That took about 2 or 3 hours - we had skinned finger pads by the end of it, but it was a good result! I could have left it as it was had I not already chosen the new paint colour!

Bench: After sanding

Then, I put on 2 coats of wood preserve. At this point in Project Garden Haven, it rained on and off for 3 days, so there was a lot of concern about whether it would be finished in time. But then, the weather was glorious on one Sunday so I managed to get both coats of paint on and dry before it rained in the evening. I chose a lemon yellow, thinking it would stand out against the brown decking. And also, yellow is a bit more gender neutral than, say, purple!

Painted - Cuprinol: Dazzling Yellow

In the only flat place in the garden!

After all of this, the garden was finally ready. Or, you know, as ready as it was going to be! From start to finish, including rain, it was about 10 days of work. The original plan was for my husband to see on the day of the party as he'd be home the night before when it was dark. Of course, he came home a day early so he saw the garden. I managed to tell him that it was just a summer project with no hidden agenda...! Thankfully, on the day of the barbecue the sun was out and everyone could enjoy the garden! Some of Bren's friends eve moved the chimenea up to the decking for us so we could have some heat in the evening =D

Kumbayah!