In this episode, Rachel walks you through how she built the garden design featured in the last episode.
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10 replies to "GT9 – Building my food and medicinal garden"
Your sense of humor cracks me up! How cute you look running around in fast-forward mode but lordy girl -I can’t believe you got all that done in that heat. You’re a better gardener than I am. I love seeing a small project that is achievable by a homeowner and a few friends. I love the design, it is gorgeous and when you leave the next owner will be thrilled to have this backyard space. I wonder how much you increased the value of the property with your work. I am now inspired to add a brick border to my yard. I was surprised that you used concrete to set the stepping stones. No reason not too, I guess. I just always a bit of pea gravel. Thanks for sharing. keep us posted. AND – oh, I think the greenhouse is a hoot!
Thanks, Arlynn, glad you enjoyed this one! I can’t believe I managed in that heat either! All those years living in Spain must have paid off… and a deadline does rather focus one. My main helper, Marius, was emigrating 2 weeks after we started so it HAD to get finished!!
As for increasing house value, what I normally find is you get back what you’ve spent if it’s done well but more importantly the house sells more quickly than neighbouring properties when the garden is good.
The stepping stones would have been dangerous if we hadn’t have set them in place with concrete, the ground was too soft and with the mad dog charging around it was even more important to have them on a good foundation… as much as I dislike using concrete!
It’s fabulous. Such an inspiration. Full respect doing all that in the extraordinary heat.
Thanks, Vee! I was expecting it to rain the entire time, glad it didn’t but I would definitely have preferred it to be cooler! 😉
That was absolutely brilliant. So interesting to watch it all happen in double quick time (and no adverts 😆) with explanations of how and why, and useful tips (how to space the paving) and rectifying something that doesn’t work. I really enjoy your style of commentating, using humour and sharing personal details of your family and friends ….and of course your pooch. It’s especially nice for me to see how successful you have been. You designed my postage stamp garden in Welwyn Garden City around 2009 which completely transformed it and gave me so much joy whenever I looked at it. It also helped it sell really quickly when we decided to move. I used that design as inspiration for my next garden and now I’m moving again, I’ve signed up to your course to do it even better with my next garden project,
Hey, Pat! Lovely to hear from you – I remember your garden well. I’m so glad you’ve been able to reproduce it elsewhere and how wonderful you’re still going with another one! Do keep us posted with how you get on 🙂
Glad you enjoyed the video, it was fun to do! I hate the adverts, one of the many reasons I’ve switched to a different video host!
Wow! You made me feel ten degrees warmer just watching you at work in that heat. I wasn’t brave enough to go outside, let alone tackle a landscaping project. Fantastic results – what a difference, even before most of the planting is done, and it was fun to watch it in super-speeded up filming. I’d love to know what sort of soil you have and how the garden is oriented. It would also be great to see your planting plan when it’s done. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Hi Ruth, thanks for watching and commenting. Yes, I forgot to mention the direction – it faces south-east and has a clay soil which is reasonably well-drained thank goodness! I will indeed be covering the planting plan when I find the time to do it!
Hi Rachel, amazing video to watch.. really interesting to see the skill,effort and energy that goes it to these garden projects!! Thank you for your kind words – it’s been great having you as our customer and look forward to the future! Thank you – Travis Perkins – Halstead
Hi Adam,
Glad the video loaded ok eventually! And you are very welcome, it’s so rare to turn up anywhere these days and have one person be helpful, so it’s truly amazing when everyone is! 😉