Hello and welcome to The Compost Bin. I'm Compostwoman and I live with my family in rural Herefordshire. We have nearly four acres of garden and woodland, all managed organically and to Permaculture principles, which we share with Chickens, Cats and assorted wildlife. We also grow a lot of our own food, run courses in all sorts of things and make a lot of compost!
I am a Master Composter and have spent more than a decade as a volunteer Community Compost adviser with Garden Organic and my local Council.
I'm a self employed Environmental Educator so I run workshops and events where I talk about compost, veg growing, chicken keeping, cooking, preserving and sustainable living. I also run crafts workshops and Forest School/outdoor play sessions in our wood.
We try to live a more self sufficient lifestyle here, as best we can, while still having a comfortable life and lots of fun.
To learn more about us click on the About Compostwoman tab and remember to click on the photos to make them full size!
Sunday 20 July 2014
Putting it all together.
Some of you may remember my posts about how much I wanted a patio that I could actually use, with pots of scented flowers and chairs to sit on. After the (horrible, dangerous) old patio was re laid last year we now have a really wonderful area that I use daily, to sit, to work outside on, to use as an outdoor workspace.
We made some new beds as well around it (as if there were not enough work to do here, but never mind!) I have been slowly designing the layout and then planting them up, mostly with plants grown from seed or from cuttings already in the garden. I am thrifty like that!
This is what the two new beds looked like at the end of May.
I have also slowly been adding to the pots of flowers and herbs which live on the patio. Again, grown from seed or cuttings.
And adding places to sit and tables and sun shades. The swing seat was bought last month in a sale from Homebase, at Compostgirls request.
The garden seat/arch which I got from Argos last year as part of a batch of useful items to review, is actually destined to go elsewhere in the garden - I wanted an arch at that end of the patio and wondered if the wooden bench/arch would do the job, but it is wrong there so will be moved. A simple metal arch with some scented climbers will go in its place tonight.
Still a work in progress ( and I still don't have my Olive trees!) but really, I am rather pleased :) At the moment the patio is a bit of a mess and covered with pots and plants waiting to go into their final place in various flower beds. I will post some pictures of what it looks like with the flower beds more fully grown and the new arch in place when I have cleared it up :)
It's looking lovely. I'm trying to plant up our garden for free from cuttings or from plant hospital donations as people round here chuck a lot in skips when they have the landscapers in.
ReplyDeleteI have my own landscapers, they are called the free range chooks! I love the nosey round posts and I'm glad your back on the mend x
I have been taking cuttings from all the plants I love best and thatthe insects seem to love and am growing lots more plants! I wish *we* had skips like that to rescue plants, though - I love rescuing stuff :)
DeleteI've just been in my greenhouse potting on some seedlings. Coriander and rocket and what i hope are Birch tree seedlings. One, the biggest, now appears to be a nettle and not a lovely tree after all. I suppose I could make some tea with the nettle. Hoping it's just a rogue nettle amongst my Birches.
ReplyDeleteWe have bought a swing seat this year,we love it. But like you haven't sat in it much yet, always seem to be busy in the garden.
Jean x
I have sweet peas in pots either side of the swing seat so it is a lovely place to sit - shame we don't get more time to enjoy the fruits of our labours :)
DeleteBeautiful! Do you all like the swingseat or is it a bit strange? I know I don't like them! Glad you're back on the mend!
DeleteOh, and you have a real skill for photography I think. The fourth photo is real lovely!