My sister moved house earlier this year and has been working really hard in her garden, with me giving encouragement by telephone. It’s been lovely to have someone to share seeds and plants with, and it was particularly lovely to visit this week, deliver some plants and see the progress she has been making.
The house she moved into had a garden with quite a lot of lawn, a vegetable patch, a filthy chicken house, dilapidated greenhouse and a tatty plastic pond. In three months she has transformed it into an orchard with a productive vegetable garden (boosted by all that chicken poo she shovelled out of the coop) and herb beds. I am always inspired by other people’s achievements; I thought you might like to be inspired too and see what she has been up to.
There’s lots of fruit
As well as herbs and vegetables:
And there’s still room for ornamentals and the relocated pond:
Plus some practical features:
What a brilliantly productive garden it’s going to be… with hens and a fruit cage planned for the future too. She only started doing any serious gardening a few years ago, but there’s no stopping her now.
The Snail of Happiness 
daniellajoe
/ May 17, 2014i love gardening too, the only thing i don’t like is the weeds and frogs and snakes, etc lol but i guess the hens will take care of them??
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The Snail of Happiness
/ May 27, 2014Hmm… your comment got into the spam fold… I wonder why, they don’t usually
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quarteracrelifestyle
/ May 17, 2014Isn’t she creating a great garden! Good on her 🙂
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The Snail of Happiness
/ May 17, 2014I think it’s going to be amazing in a few years time… and she’d going to be able to harvest all sorts of things even in this, her first year. I’m so pleased to see it all happening 🙂
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quarteracrelifestyle
/ May 17, 2014It will be lovely and picking your own fruit is just the best I think 🙂 It’s neat to be able to munch your way around the garden. Always nice to see new food gardens evolving.
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Jacquline Cappuccino
/ May 17, 2014This is so cool. I would love to have a garden like this one day.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ May 17, 2014She’s making it so lovely… I’m really excited to see how it is coming on and to think how much food she’s going to get out of it!
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davidprosser
/ May 17, 2014Huge progress in a short space of time. It looks wonderful.
xxx Massive Hugs xxx
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The Snail of Happiness
/ May 17, 2014I’m just a bit jealous!
xxx
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katechiconi
/ May 17, 2014Aha! I spy her moving boxes being repurposed in the vegie garden! Excellent weed suppression qualities in a good cardboard box! That’s a lot of garden, and I too am jealous…
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The Snail of Happiness
/ May 18, 2014Yes, the boxes have been a real bonus! Lots of nitrogen from cleaning out the hen house, lots of carbon from the boxes… a great combination!
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anne54
/ May 18, 2014Wow! All that in such a short space of time! And how lovely that you are able to share such an important part of your life with your sister.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ May 18, 2014She now only lives a couple of hours away, so we are really enjoying being able to spend more time together… and sharing our growing successes 🙂
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MollyBean
/ May 18, 2014I’m drooling over those lovely neat veg beds! I love this garden 🙂
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The Snail of Happiness
/ May 18, 2014Several of the beds were already there when she arrived, but they were full of weeds and strawberries. She has made one new bed and cleared the existing ones. The garden was full of old wood and building material, and she’s been able to make use of lots of that too… I really wish I’d taken ‘before’ photographs!
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narf77
/ May 18, 2014What is a fruit cage? An amazing job considering she has only been there for a little while and SO much exciting potential! Cheers for sharing it with us, you are right, other people’s efforts are very stimulating 🙂
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The Snail of Happiness
/ May 19, 2014A fruit cage? It’s ok, we don’t have really scary raspberries marauding around the countryside! It’s just a mesh enclosure with a top that keeps the birds off the fruit and thus prevents annoyed gardeners and redcurrant-stuffed blackbirds!
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Isaac Yuen
/ May 19, 2014Looks amazing already 🙂 Bet it will look even better in the summer!
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The Snail of Happiness
/ May 19, 2014And all this from someone who hadn’t gardened until about 5 years ago!
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claidig
/ May 20, 2014This summer is going to be a gardening summer back home…once the house has been dealt with. Nature has been winning the battle for the past couple of years, yikes.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ May 21, 2014For the first time this year I feel that I am winning the battle against nature in most of my garden… although the fruit cage is looking rather wild right now, but with lots of fruit!
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Born To Organize
/ May 28, 2014What a wonderful garden!
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The Snail of Happiness
/ May 28, 2014And getting better with every new plant!
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