Landsc(r)aping by

Despite winter taking its time to kick in, it's the lack of daylight that gets annoying. The clocks have gone back so there's not much to do in the evening but plan for next year. There's a patch of lawn by the fish pond that's mostly shaded so the lawn is suffering, so I'm thinking a nice Victorian themed garden, with small cottage garden beds, gravel paths and a rambling rose along the north-facing fence.

With the wonga being tight I've taken to setting up some Ebay searches for local, cheap landscaping materials, as well as the usual scans of Freecycle and Gumtree. They've all come up trumps in the past few weeks...

From Gumtree, a tonne of free gravel! Thankfully the previous owner had already bagged it up for me. 26 bags in 3 trips in the car was a nice way to spend a wet Saturday afternoon. Shame my old bulk bag split though.

From Ebay, a tonne of timber off-cuts for £3.27 from a local joiner. He makes furniture out of reclaimed scaffolding planks. There was so much of the stuff I had to leave half of it there. Should come in handy for making planters and trellis for the fences and pergola. Here's a first attempt...

I'll try growing some butternut squashes in this one. I grew one this summer, but they take up a lot of room if left to trail on the ground. If you can't go across, go up! Made a pair of saw horses to, which I made with my Xmas present to myself - a Circular Saw from Argos for £28. Fantastic. Don't know how I ever managed without one.

From Freecycle, 70 Victorian terracotta floor tiles. Needed a little cleaning up, but should serve as edging for the flower beds. From Ebay, 100 Staffordshire Blue Brick pavers for £6.00. Dirt cheap.

Again from Ebay, 12 bags of well-rotted manure for £8.00.

Oh, and a tonne of free top-soil from a local fella building an extension. The poor old Fiesta is resembling a skip-on-wheels, but the bad-boy low suspension is holding up well.

Now where did I put that seed catalogue...