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my garden: a short and occasional series

(Feb 2006 : this page is now part of an archived web site. I have been unable, or too lazy, to update this web site for 18 months)

1:: the terrace

I love the terrace. It took many hours of hard graft to make it. When we bought the house, the area that the terrace now covers comprised of a hedge about 3 feet thick, behind which was a bank of earth, full of weeds, bricks and other detritus.

This is a picture of myself, mother and Deborah stood in front of the old hedge in May 2002.

We took up the hedge in spring 2002. It took me a day driving to and from the municipal tip to get rid of all the hedge, and around two weeks of evening digging to pull out all the roots. We were left with a bank of earth and a trench where the roots had been.

I had no idea what to do with the the new land. Knowing nothing about gardening, my first thought was to grass over the area. It was my brother Jeff who actually suggested levelling the area and creating a terrace. We thought about creating a wooden deck, but in the end decided it would be easier to put down a membrane then cover the terrace with gravel.

During the autumn of 2002 I made the front 'wall' of the terrace. I just learnt as I went along. I bought some thick, treated planks from Travis Perkins, painted them with brown wood treatment, and made 'pegs' out of old chunks of wood that I had lying around. I remember taking a day off work to start the job, and it absolutely threw it down all day; I felt I had to do something that day, so I worked in the pouring rain, slipping 'arse over tit' on the clay soil. It rained a lot that autumn.

In late winter 2003 Jeff came up for the day and we covered the terrace with gravel (a tonne of basic Cotswold stone, about £40 from Travis Perkins). We added gravel in a curve in font of the terrace to join up with a new path (under construction at the time).

As soon as we had the gravel on, the terrace, and the garden, was transformed. The garden was immediately lighter and longer, and appeared sunnier. Mum had bought us a Cordyline which we planted towards the front as a focal and striking feature. (see picture, left).

Deborah bought a fatsia japonica and a slow growing bamboo to plant at the back. We've added grasses and a phormium on the terrace, and a range of grasses in the gravel in front of the terrace. The grasses - especially a carex buchanii, have grown prodigiously, and give a seaside feel. Last spring we planted daffodils and tulips which provide some colour in spring, and a blackcurrant plant, which is flowering now.

There are two large containers on the terrace, one containing a choysia goldfingers, the other a purple heuchera. The whole terrace is overhung by a beautiful tree peony form next doors garden.

This spring I have added a small pond made out of an old barrel. I use it too as a hot area to germinate seedlings. The birds potter across it. The birds shit on it from their perches on the fence. The terrace is hot and Mediterranean. It exudes summer.

Design and content rog peabody 2004.