Put the lawn out to grass
It’s goodbye to my lawnmower and hello to fresh plants and decking
GARDENS are ever evolving but mine moves on too slowly for my liking. Lockdown has created unplanned time for me to tackle some of the areas for which I’ve had dreams, but which had been put on the long finger.
All the lawns in my garden are now gone and the lawnmower has been given away.
The smallest lawn on the top terrace nearest the house had never been effective anyway. It was always a pain dragging the mower up and down three sets of steps to keep it trim. It was the right time to replace it so last week I sent a WhatsApp message around the neighbours to see if anybody had some spare wood. I’d long intended to create a small deck surrounded by some luscious planting.
My friend Pete obliged and I took over his garden.
To create a circular deck, I laid his scaffolding planks side by side to form a rough rectangle. With a marker on a string, I drew the outline of a circle from the centre and cut the planks accordingly.
Once the lengths of wood were back at chez Gavin, I screwed in batons on the underside to keep the planks together and I rolled it into place. It’s just 2.5 metres in diameter and now forms a usable hard surface. A circle shape is a simple and effective solution for a small, square-ish space.
It doesn’t need to be made of decking, it could be an area of gravel, old bricks, anything at all, as long as the shape you’re creating is well defined.
Next it was on to the fun bit, planting it up. Even the smallest of spaces can take trees so long as you choose carefully.
I planted two beautiful Japanese maples. I’ve learnt the hard way with these beauties – sheltering from east winds is key as well as a bit of shade.
These trees age gracefully and