Wasteland Makeover Magic

Hello my lovelies!

Any of you who have followed my blog over the years may remember that I’ve written the occasional post about the end of my garden.  It has a dog leg shape and could easily be forgotten about.  So it was.  Out of sight out of mind.  And because of that it became a wasteland.  A dumping ground.
A horror movie garden corner.

You can read a little background by clicking 

 HERE, to read the-lost-garden-of-poutland. HERE.

Today I’m showing again the worts and all of my little garden corner.
I’m embarrassed to show you how messy the whole area had become, though one can’t do a good makeover post without before shots eh?

So brace your teeth, let’s go on a pictorial journey of my wasteland’s transformation.



2019

The dog leg corner.  Stuff got dumped here and weeds grew up to waist height.  Several times a summer I came in from a day of clearing the weeds with cuts all over my arms and legs from dastardly brambles, and red weals from stinging nettles.  It was never a pretty sight, this corner and my body after clearing it!

 In this pic we must have recently done some clearing as the weeds are a mere few inches high. 

At the front of this corner the two sheds about to topple over.  

I called them The Leaning Sheds of Guernsey, and sometimes of Poutland. 

In between was a utility area, which here had been cleaned out ready for demolishing, so the site was even worse before.  How bad COULD this get?,  I hear you ask.

Well here’s a post about us “tidying” the sheds ready for knocking down.  Read the shed “clearance” post please click HERE

I’m shocked that this post dates back to 2016.  It took me three three whole years to brave up, knock those sheds down and then finish the project in 2020.  Nothing happens fast at Chez Pout. 

So that was the corner of the garden I managed to turn a blind eye to all those years. 

I think we’d better move swiftly on to something looking slightly more positive. 

 Sheds demolished, revealing the mess that had accumulated behind them. 

2020

Decking was put up and the solid wall was painted a fresh white in summer, 2019. 

Then in spring this year we set about finishing the area. 

The fence paneling is a mismatch of panels resulting from storms and replacements added as fencing fell down.  The fencing belongs to the neighbour so couldn’t be replaced.

So we painted the panels black (excuse the big UFO finger thing hovering top left!). 

Painting them black gives some uniformity to them and the mismatch is hardly noticeable. 

Black also gets the fencing to sort of disappear.  I like doing that trick with black.  Works with clothing too!

During lockdown we brought in some old garden furniture that was on its last legs.

TP banged a few bits of wood in the pieces as a temporary fix until we could get out to a shop to try out some replacements.  (He then discovered those nice bits of wood he’d found were the base slats of a bed!) 

Meantime, in spring it gave us a place to sit and drink coffee.  Or maybe wine. 

The old trellis panels were eventually given their own makeover (see below).
Nothing is wasted at Chez Pout.


We set about planting in the border by the wall (more on that in another post).


 When the garden centres opened up in Phase 3 of lockdown exit we skidaddled over to our local centre and put our bums on various seating arrangements.

And our makeover journey has gone from Nightmare On Pout Street to ...

Tadaah!  

This was delivered a few weeks ago.

 We went for a more traditional arrangement of sofa, two and two, primarily because this was by far the most comfortable in the shop.  High backs, nuff said.
But TP was convinced this set was The One when the salesman explained that the armchairs and the sofa end seats recline.  Deal done.  Men and gadgets eh?!!
The table lifts with a simple action to rise to dining height.

Corner arrangements are popular but we could see limitations with this type of seating arrangement as when all are seated around the table, chilled and enjoying a nice lunch, said all have to rise if the one in the corner needs to go to the loo!

Back to the picture.  The old trellis panels can be seen hung on the wall, painted white to blend in.
We’ve planted clematis under one and a honeysuckle near the other.  Eventually both will be covered in foliage and blooms.  But probably not this summer.


Overspill table.



An old picnic bench and chairs were given a top up coat of black paint and now provide overspill surface for ice buckets, glasses and food etc.

I picked up the all-weather rugs last summer in a sale, B&Q, £15 each.


And there you have it, from ignored uber-embarrassing dumping ground horror story to a serene chilling and entertaining zone.  It’s like we’ve magic-ed a whole new garden within our garden!
This corner will never be ignored again.  And it’s only take 4 years to get here!


A la perchoine,
Mary x.