Laying a path...

I am very pleased with the end result of one of my recent garden projects. We had a very uneven and randomly placed slabbed patio area half way down our garden and around a corner (our garden is 'L' shaped) which was pretty useless. I decided to pull it up and use the slabs to lay a path down the centre of the first third of our garden. Previously, there was a path but it was very thin, and to one side of the garden, and never really got used so in the colder months we would always bring muddy footprints into the house after walking on the grass.

Here is the garden back in January this year:

Not much interest and in need of some love. The old patio area is around the corner to the right.

In April i pulled up the old path on the left of the garden and have kept the pentagon shaped slabs for another project later this year insha'Allah. At least 10 wheelbarrows full of pebbles had to be moved from that area down to the bottom of our garden to make a path behind our two sheds (for Little D to play on).

I also dug up a strip of worn out turf on the right hand side of the garden in preparation for a border of flowers and shrubs.

In May i used old bricks from a house renovation we worked on this year to edge each new border i have created on either side of the new path. Little D lifted, carried, and placed about a third of these bricks for me! I spent ages measuring and then digging out a wide strip of grass for the new path.Then i had to rake it level, add a layer of sand, then lay the slabs on top. I filled the gaps between the slabs with more sand. All of this digging resulted in at least twenty wheelbarrows full of soil and old grass which needed moving around the corner to our temporary dumping ground. I did it all by myself with Little D at my feet!

I planted grass seed in the space where the old path used to be.

By the start of this month i had my greenhouse seedlings transported outside into the borders, new plants along the sides of the new path, and some very luscious, fresh, green, new grass growing where i had sprinkled the seed. The hard work is now complete! It really has been hard work, ive done every part of it alone and there have been times when i thought id be spending the rest of the year doing it. But im so pleased with the result - insha'Allah when the plants have matured a little and i have filled in some more of the gaps, it can start taking on a much more wild and cottage garden style. The path actually gets used and just makes the garden look so much better. There is still years and years worth of work to be done in this space but im excited about every part of it!

The new path is lined with Pinks and Lavender. Lavender has long been one of my favorite plants and ive always had some in my gardens, and Pinks are said to be the prophet Jesus' favorite flower, and i like them too.

And this planter was bought from a charity shop for about £5 - i spray painted the black plastic box cream but left the rusted white frame as it was as it looks more interesting this way. The orange flowers were grown from seed (nasturtiums) and the others were reduced to just ten pence each in B&Q (petunias).

Laying a path...

I am very pleased with the end result of one of my recent garden projects. We had a very uneven and randomly placed slabbed patio area half way down our garden and around a corner (our garden is 'L' shaped) which was pretty useless. I decided to pull it up and use the slabs to lay a path down the centre of the first third of our garden. Previously, there was a path but it was very thin, and to one side of the garden, and never really got used so in the colder months we would always bring muddy footprints into the house after walking on the grass.

Here is the garden back in January this year:

Not much interest and in need of some love. The old patio area is around the corner to the right.

In April i pulled up the old path on the left of the garden and have kept the pentagon shaped slabs for another project later this year insha'Allah. At least 10 wheelbarrows full of pebbles had to be moved from that area down to the bottom of our garden to make a path behind our two sheds (for Little D to play on).

I also dug up a strip of worn out turf on the right hand side of the garden in preparation for a border of flowers and shrubs.

In May i used old bricks from a house renovation we worked on this year to edge each new border i have created on either side of the new path. Little D lifted, carried, and placed about a third of these bricks for me! I spent ages measuring and then digging out a wide strip of grass for the new path.Then i had to rake it level, add a layer of sand, then lay the slabs on top. I filled the gaps between the slabs with more sand. All of this digging resulted in at least twenty wheelbarrows full of soil and old grass which needed moving around the corner to our temporary dumping ground. I did it all by myself with Little D at my feet!

I planted grass seed in the space where the old path used to be.

By the start of this month i had my greenhouse seedlings transported outside into the borders, new plants along the sides of the new path, and some very luscious, fresh, green, new grass growing where i had sprinkled the seed. The hard work is now complete! It really has been hard work, ive done every part of it alone and there have been times when i thought id be spending the rest of the year doing it. But im so pleased with the result - insha'Allah when the plants have matured a little and i have filled in some more of the gaps, it can start taking on a much more wild and cottage garden style. The path actually gets used and just makes the garden look so much better. There is still years and years worth of work to be done in this space but im excited about every part of it!

The new path is lined with Pinks and Lavender. Lavender has long been one of my favorite plants and ive always had some in my gardens, and Pinks are said to be the prophet Jesus' favorite flower, and i like them too.

And this planter was bought from a charity shop for about £5 - i spray painted the black plastic box cream but left the rusted white frame as it was as it looks more interesting this way. The orange flowers were grown from seed (nasturtiums) and the others were reduced to just ten pence each in B&Q (petunias).

Surprise in the garden...

It had been about four days since i had explored our garden but last night i ventured outside to hang some washing on the line and decided to check on all of my plants. I like to try and catch and absorb each tiny little change in them, the speed at which they grow, the different stages that the fruit or flower buds take as they unfurl or grow to reach their peak. On Monday we had rain for most of the day which gave the plants a good soaking of water to quench their thirst and empower them to grow and mature some more. So when i stepped outside last night, i was overjoyed and amazed by the changes which had occurred since i had last spent time with them. I ran (almost skipped and sang) back into the house to grab my camera and entice my husband back outside with me to show him what had amazed me so much (these things don't interest him but he has the good heart to pretend every so often).

We had plump pink raspberries and fat pea pods ready to be picked and enjoyed. The apples on the trees are now the size of plums and the sweetcorns have swollen stalks containing our eventual corn-on-the-cobs insha'Allah. There are perhaps fifty to a hundred blackberries growing, large heads of elderflowers perfect for elderflower cordial, and fully opened flower buds which ive grown from tiny seeds.

And insha'Allah this is just the beginning. I don't take any of this for granted, i know how much effort i have put into trying make this happen, and how much effort il continue to need to give. But its oh so worth it! Just the smile on Little D's face as he is learning to pop open a pod of peas which he says are "from the garden!" makes it all worthwhile. (And at least my hubby can enjoy the fruits of my labour in the form of deserts and salads even if he couldn't care less whether it had come from Asda or our back garden!)

Surprise in the garden...

It had been about four days since i had explored our garden but last night i ventured outside to hang some washing on the line and decided to check on all of my plants. I like to try and catch and absorb each tiny little change in them, the speed at which they grow, the different stages that the fruit or flower buds take as they unfurl or grow to reach their peak. On Monday we had rain for most of the day which gave the plants a good soaking of water to quench their thirst and empower them to grow and mature some more. So when i stepped outside last night, i was overjoyed and amazed by the changes which had occurred since i had last spent time with them. I ran (almost skipped and sang) back into the house to grab my camera and entice my husband back outside with me to show him what had amazed me so much (these things don't interest him but he has the good heart to pretend every so often).

We had plump pink raspberries and fat pea pods ready to be picked and enjoyed. The apples on the trees are now the size of plums and the sweetcorns have swollen stalks containing our eventual corn-on-the-cobs insha'Allah. There are perhaps fifty to a hundred blackberries growing, large heads of elderflowers perfect for elderflower cordial, and fully opened flower buds which ive grown from tiny seeds.

And insha'Allah this is just the beginning. I don't take any of this for granted, i know how much effort i have put into trying make this happen, and how much effort il continue to need to give. But its oh so worth it! Just the smile on Little D's face as he is learning to pop open a pod of peas which he says are "from the garden!" makes it all worthwhile. (And at least my hubby can enjoy the fruits of my labour in the form of deserts and salads even if he couldn't care less whether it had come from Asda or our back garden!)

Edible garden 2011

We moved into this house on the last day of March last year so i didn't get around to planting any seeds until May, but i was still really excited and motivated and over the moon with the small amount of food i still managed to grow in my garden. This year i started in March and managed edibles and flowers too, and i have almost finished planting my veg seedlings out into a strip of land i prepared down the side of my garden. This 'plot' is much bigger than last years and i am going to double it insha'Allah over the course of this year so that in 2012 i can try to grow even more.

I started by digging out all of the grass, nettles and dandelions and then digging in some home made compost and shop bought multi purpose compost. I raked the land to level it out and removed loads of stones and shards of glass from the soil. Then it was ready to start planting. I already had a raspberry bush, blackberry bush and blueberry bush there which i planted last year. Ive now added sweetcorn, courgettes, peas, french beans, cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli. There is a tiny space left over for the carrots and parsnips which are currently in my greenhouse, but i need to dig more of the grass out really to fit them all in comfortably. I like digging though, and Little D likes to collect all the worms that we find. Sometimes a robin will join us and we throw the small ones to him. Then he will sing in his shrill but beautiful tone and i feel like he is saying thank you.

Already the seedlings have grown so much since i originally planted them out. I protected them with ground up egg shells at the bases (keeps slugs and snails away, naturally, no chemicals, and no harm done to creatures or plants) and hung cd's from sticks as the movement and light reflections scare the birds off. Both methods seem to have worked so far alhamdulillah! No casualties yet! All of my plant supports are either old garden canes from previous years or sticks / small branches which i have cut from our trees.

I took the photos above just after planting the first lot of seedlings. They have since more than doubled in size, building my hopes of eating home grown food this summer insha'Allah.

There are lots of berries on my fruit bushes, last year the blackberries and blueberries didn't fruit so im looking forward to tasting this years crop.

I noticed tiny courgettes developing yesterday, they were my biggest success last year and im hoping that the extra space ive allowed them this year will mean that we get even more from them. Isn't it just so satisfying when you can feed your family with something from your own back garden that your own nurturing hands have helped grow, from the smallest handful of coriander to a whole crop of peas? If you havent tried to grow food for your family yet than i think you should try it, even with just one or two plants.

I have lots of pea plants growing and so many delicate flowers and pods already. The tendrils amaze me, the way they have reached out to support the plant, God has blessed us with so many wonders!

I bought some chives from the Supermarket last Autumn and they have flourished and now display beautiful and extremely tasty flowers. Little D munches on them every day.

And finally there is the Elderberry tree, damson trees, apple trees and our wild cherry tree (which i forgot to photograph) - all covered with either fruit or flowers, preparing to insha'Allah over-run me with organic fruits which i will surely struggle to keep up with.

Spring and Summer are exciting times in my garden, but Autumn and Winter have their high points too. What are you growing this year? Id love to read any of your posts dedicated to your edible garden this year, please drop me a comment and a link...