It’s been my mission this year to fix up our family’s long-neglected garden, and this month I focused on the overgrown weed field that was our back garden…here are some before, after and process pics (and yes, the cats feature quite a bit too – this is a full-on old lady post…)

The area behind our house is an odd patch of land – it’s up some stairs and on quite a slope, and once upon a time my brother and I played on a swing up there. Over the years we’ve kinda left the plants at the back to their own devices which has been okay on the far end, where our washing line is, but the other side is basically an overgrown lawn where traditionally the most exciting part about summer has been devil thorns and dandelions.

Now as much as I truly do like dandelions, the fact that we use that area constantly means that livening it up with some new plants and flowers should have a great effect on us every day and would make the area one in which we’ll actually want to spend time. Here’s what it looked like this time last year, in full dandelion (and cat) bloom:

and here’s the best ‘before’ pic I could manage from this year, (that brown pile in the middle is the ivy I ripped off the back wall, a cathartic activity if ever there was one):

I’ve been spending so much time at Stodels Milnerton this year that many of the staff suppress mild giggles when they see me and my family make constant threats of therapy and intervention…and I admit, they may have a point. But as far as addictions go, it’s not the most unhealthy one to have.

So I’d been amassing plants over the last while with a view to planting them at the back, all from Stodels (and many from the ‘sad’ reduced-to-clear table of wilting office plants and drooping seedlings – which is actually probably where my real addiction lies but anyway…) and then my mom and I spent some time in the sleepy town of Tulbagh, only to discover it has the most amazingly beautiful nursery…I haven’t even gone through all my photos of it yet, but until I do here are some for some examples of the place’s ridiculous loveliness:

Long story short the main focus of my mental garden layout became a modest collection of roses, given the Tulbagh nursery’s amaaaazing roses.

The only frustrating thing about this whole process was that I’ve had the most annoying lingering flu since the beginning of the month, and it’s made lugging soil and logs and digging holes very slow and exhausting work.

Luckily the weather was amazing the days I was finally able to work and that really helped – there was even a rainbow behind the wall the day I finished the backline, seriously, it felt so scripted it was ridiculous, but it was lovely.

Another 2 evenings after that and finally everything was in, hallelujah!

Over 120 plants later and the final area ended up being a lot bigger than in my ‘before’ pic, so big and long (and the garden so slopy) that it was really hard to photograph. Here’s a panorama of the wall-backing beds which include roses, wild irises, watsonias, vygies, a pincushion and a lemon tree…as well as Ziggy on the drain and Kira doing the Lion King thing on the enduring big rock.

…and here’s a pic of the side (below where Ziggy is in the previous pic), which is also a panorama that came out a little weird, but you get the idea…

It’s been 3 days and so far everything’s looking great. It’s a real soul-uplifter and the cats are definitely liking it too. Here’s hoping the plants all continue to grow big and strong, happy and healthy.

♥

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Stodels  |  Tulbagh Nursery  |  Life is a Garden