Courtyard
Courtyard Diary
The courtyard is where my gardening for this house started. I made a pallet planter and put violas in the top row and strawberries in the 2 bottom rows. It was really lovely seeing the pop of colour from the kitchen window and it got me into the whole 'growing your own food' thing. Over the years the layout and the things that fit in this space have changed a lot. Slowly but surely its starting to look how I want it to look.
I've started painting the woodwork white, the alley wall will follow as that is north and catches the sun throughout a chunk of the day. By painting it white the sunlight will reflect into the kitchen (which is very dark) and it will make the space appear larger. I've painted the kitchen wall white with the window frames and woodwork white as well. the gutter and downpipe i've spray painted matte black. It's a real nice contrast. I think the monochromatic look will go really nicely with the mint green of the gate that I build out of old Ikea bed slats and paint I had left over from the front door.
I've purposely not painted the bricks surrounding the gate, this so that the alley wall merges with the gate wall, making it all one space and connecting the rest of the garden to the house. the only thing I really dislike about our garden is the alley that separates the house from the garden and the shared access step that's out of sight. Doing this at least makes it look like it belongs together.
Another plan is to put up a trellis on the alley wall and have a passionfruit growing on it to provide privacy from anyone and everyone walking past (it's such a nuisance on bin day), and it will provide fruit in summer/autumn for us. Not to mention any little bugs that will live in the soil and plant. I will use the trellis that is currently up by the greenhouse and use the narrow tunnel bed from the kitchen garden as the planter. Might even remake it into two planters. One for the passion fruit, one for one of my roses (Generous Gardener) that's in the orchard.
It's definitely getting there and I've so enjoyed it this year (2024)! Having it brightly painted, lots of plants in pots and flowers has given so much joy. Can't wait to finish it with fairy lights and maybe a little metal bistro set for that morning coffee and evening tipple