Chez Larsson

Garden Plans

Yesterday I shared my interior to do list. Aside from that I have quite a few things to do in the back garden too this spring. And I can’t wait. Above you can see what that space looked like at the end of March last year, a month and a half before we moved in. Sadly overgrown and not cared for for over eighteen months. A horrible huge juniper at the far end and a neglected apple tree with it’s fruit rotting on what used to be a lawn and an equally sad plum tree.

 

My first instinct was to start over but I decided I’d give the garden a second chance, try to clean it up a little to see if I could live with it. The juniper went, the trees got new hair cuts, I weeded like crazy and tried to revive the lawn.

 

After a while I came to the conclusion that while this could potentially become the garden that used to be it just isn’t me. It’s all too fussy, too colorful, too much. Just look at that super deep flower bed. Or should I say weed bed…

 

And check out this here jungle in front of the patio. And the crazy paving that goes with it. Sorry, I can’t deal with it.

 

So I posted an ad on ilovegratis.se (a Swedish website where one can post free stuff) and offered all the perennials to whomever was interested. I had two lovely ladies come dig, gave a lot away to neighbors and…

 

… here’s what it looked like after. There are still a few plants in this shot that I’m keeping such as the Hostas.

 

And here’s what it looked like at the end of summer. I dug the rest out and my next door neighbor and I drove to the local dump/composting site and got rid of it.

 

I raked out the soil to redistribute it and replanted the plants I wanted to keep in a temporary bed in front of the stairs to the basement.

 

My aim for this garden is to have fewer plants, more lawn (the garden is tiny), a bigger patio (decking). I’m going for straighter lines and will keep a more modern approach. Those dots on the “after” lawn are something similar to these.

 

Come spring I’m having a larch wood deck built here (slightly larger than the existing stone area) and I’m hoping my next door neighbors will agree to letting me have a fence that covers theirs completely from my side.

I get a lot of inspiration for my new garden from Pinterest. Check out my pins and you’ll see what I mean.

Ok, now I’m REALLY ready for spring to come!

Snow!

With less than a week to go until Christmas we have snow! Snowflakes as big as mittens have fallen over our neighborhood.

 

It’s unlikely that the snow will stay, it’s already pretty slushy but fingers crossed we’ll get a white Christmas!

 

The neighborhood kids love it for sure. Many a snowman and snow dog (?) has been built in the park. This is the day view from Wille’s room.

So, what’s the forecast for where you will be on Christmas? Any snow? Will you be likely to have a white or green Christmas?

Hellebores

I have these beauties in the back yard and it’s so cool that they bloom at this time of year.

 

Having a cutting garden at the end of November is pretty good in my book!

And, again, it’s Friday! Wohooo! Have a great advent 1st weekend!

Nostalgia

When I met the previous owner of our house at the bank when we signed all the documents back in May he gave me two very cool things along with the keys.

1) Instructions on how to build the house and the interior fittings.

2) The original plans of the house and garden.

 

I love the instruction booklet. It shows exactly how to assemble and mount everything. This house was built in 1954 and was in the same way as our old house a semi-self build. It was like a kit house and the more you could do yourself the cheaper it got and these books were there to help you along. On this page it shows you how to assemble the kitchen countertop and sink.

 

 

Back yard

 
Front yard

What I also love are all the plans and drawings and I love how there are little scribbles where changes have been made along the way.

My favorite drawings are of the garden. I have to admit to being the one who will be ripping everything out and starting over because it’s all too fussy for me but I still love to see what the plans were to begin with and it was fun this past summer to figure out what’s left plant wise 50+ years later. I think the almost weed like clematis are original. They’re everywhere and they are on the original plant chart. Also still in abundance are the Helleborus which are blooming like crazy right now actually.

Raking the Gravel

 

So I’ve had a bunch of comments and questions about the sea pebble gravel I put down in the front yard. How would I deal with leaves in fall was one of the questions. I promised I’d get back on that when it was time to rake and last week all the leaves had finally fallen off our cherry tree so yesterday I got my rake out.

 

The raking isn’t actually a big deal at all. I have several rakes for different jobs and the thing is to get the widest pronged one out so when you rake you only rake the leaves and the pebbles stay put. Also it’s good to rake lightly and not pull the gravel with you when the prongs are full with leaves. A few stray leaves will probably stay but once they wilt you won’t see them (they’ll turn the shade of the gravel) and most of them will probably blow away anyway.

I love raking, everything looks so neat and tidy after.

Another question I’ve had several times is how to shovel snow with the pebble gravel underneath. I’ll have to get back to you on that because so far the weather’s been pretty warm over here, about 10 degrees C (50 F) day and night which is really unusual for November, usually we have snow by now. I’m sure it’ll be here soon though and I’ll let you know how that goes.