Welcome to the Smaller Garden

 Welcome to my Smaller Garden.

I think it's time I took you all on a guided tour. 

If we go down from the deck to the lefthand side, as you step out of the Van door, we come face to face with the shed ... and my newest little acquisition, it's an early birthday present from Alan ... a little tin bath.

It was much cheaper ... and more environmentally friendly ... to get a vintage one rather than a modern reproduction from a garden centre.  It's less than half the size of the one I have full of herbs back in Wales and it will soon to be my little veggie growing bath. 🙂

It has had some holes made in the bottom for drainage and a good layer of stones.

On the other side of the shed doors is Alan's chimnea.   Hopefully we'll get to use it this year if we have some Summer nights that we can sit out on.

 Then to the right we have the main flower/shrub/herb growing area.

It's looking a bit sparse at the moment but we tidied it up over the weekend and there are lots of signs of life.  I'll add some more herbs to replace the ones that died off over Winter and maybe a few veggies too.

You'll notice few little brown planters dotted along the tall trellis, they all contain climbing plants.  A selection of Ivy, Clematis and Wisteria, these are all just starting to spring back to life  ♥️

The planters have had the bottoms removed so that the plants can send their roots deep down into the soil.

If we turn to the right there is the big bowl of Chives happily springing into life after lying dormant all Winter.  I love the way Chives vanish at the end of Autumn and then come back stronger and more vigorous than ever each year.

Then we have the oak bench that Alan made from a pair of vintage bench ends and some lengths of oak.  He is going to give it a fresh coat of stain next week if the weather is good enough to do it.

Turning slightly you can see the green painted planters that hold up the little trellis fence.  Alan made them out of offcuts from the workshop cladding wood, and I lined them with empty compost bags to give them a longer life.

 They are filled with Winter Pansies, more Ivy,  kale, spinach and spring onions at the moment and do a good job of helping to divide the garden area ... making it safe for the dogs to play out ... and the parking area.  As well as giving me a bit more growing space.  

Turning again we are back to the steps.  

The space underneath the decking is paved, and as the skirting goes right along the bottom of the caravan, although the dogs can go under the decking area to take advantage of shade they can't get under the van.  It's also a useful storage area for Alan's electric lawnmower ... I went old-school and bought a little push one that I love  😁

Up the steps and onto the decking we have just got our two chairs and the little table out of the shed and put them in place on the re-instated Astro-turf.  We got them reduced at B&Q at the end if Summer last year as one of the chairs had lost one of it's little feet, so I just took all the feet off the table, put one of them onto the chair and put our three 'spares' in the shed in case we need another replacement. 

 It makes a good sitting out place for a read and a coffee as the decking is a nice little sun trap although the Summer.

With the front gate closed the dogs can safely watch the world go by and bark at passing dogs to theirs heart content.

That's it folks ... a complete guided tour of my new Smaller outdoor space.  To give you a sense of perspective I would guess the garden area is about 14ft square and the parking space and the decking area the same width but a bit longer.

Sue xx