My name is Lorraine. My hubby and I live in a tiny house, with a tiny garden, in Oxfordshire in the UK. This is the smallest garden I have ever had ! My previous garden in Zimbabwe was over 4 acres, and here I am faced with a few square metres. Challenges abound - and I rise to meet them.
Hubby and I rent the house we are in, and we have lived here for 2 years. When we moved in, we decided we weren’t going to do any gardening at all - it wasn’t our house and we just couldn’t justify spending the money on someone else’s property. Well…that has made for a miserable 2 years in the garden (as any gardener can imagine !) We will be renting this house for a few more years before we can buy our own place. So…this year, 2007, I just couldn’t bear it - I had to get my hands dirty ! We decided to get busy in the tiny garden without spending too much money. I felt I could create a decent garden with annuals (and a few perennials), and any expensive plants would be grown in pots (so they could come with us when we move).
We have no front garden at all. Our front steps lead down on to the pavement. We live in a village, but are on the main road through the village, so there is traffic, but not too much that it drives us crazy !
The back garden is small - very small. It is approximately 26 feet long x 18 feet wide ! Unbelievably small by my standards. I last gardened in 4 acres. When we moved in, half of the garden was concrete (nearest the house), and the other half was lawn (a bog in winter, and a desert in summer). The back of the house faces west. In the winter it gets no sun at all (how depressing) and in the summer months is flooded with heat and sunshine - we bake out there - LOL !! Not a happy medium.
With the owners permisssion, we have made a few alterations to the garden.
This blog will become a record of gardening in such a small space in difficult conditions.
I remember living frustrated because our former yard was woods and the rest very little sunshine- had narrow strips against the house on two sides to grow things. What I didn't know then was how much could be grown up walls. Now we have a bigger yard and I'm retired so also have more time (but less energy! and the kids are grown and married so not so many mouths need feeding. Each season of our lives has a reason. Enjoy!
Posted by: anne | Tuesday, 29 January 2008 at 03:30 PM