Delightful landscaping courtesy of our builders.
The existing pots and plants had been moved to one side, many of which really need re-potting or planting out. Some of the palms in the pots will be planted in the back and one or two others will get new homes in a larger pot.With the new porch the area by the front door has reduced in size, so there is not as much space for as many pots as there once was. With the obvious change due to the porch it is a good time to rethink quite what we do with this space. Its size (or lack of) makes it a tricky space to garden, and the benefits offered by keeping the majority of it as a hard standing further restricts the use.
The space itself is not big enough to park our car on, unless you park almost horizontal to the house, so a useful parking space is also ruled out.
As the house is close to the road we are keen to add some height with any planting to create some visual block to passers by. Fortunately we live on quite a quiet side street so there's not lots of people looking in as they walk along the pavement outside.
Our plans are still developing, but the current idea is to add metal railings on the left and right hand sides, with a matching gate in the arched passageway. From chatting to our builders we found out about a small local firm that makes railings to any design and size, so in the new year we can go and have a chat with them about what we want to do.
On the right hand side we want to introduce a small border and grow several shrubs in an informal hedge. We have a number of ideas as to what we will grow there, it is south facing and sheltered from the buildings to the north. The block paving may well also act as something of a heat sink absorbing warmth to radiate back to the plants.
On the left hand side, we need to be wary of service pipes - electricity, gas and water that are all buried somewhere under that paving. They come into the house on the far left hand side, and the water meter is in the pavement outside the house on that side, so we do not want to risk disturbing any of these items. A simple makeover could become very expensive if we sever a pipe!
As a result we have been considering pots or a planter for this part. Again its not a large area but we don't want something that is underwhelming. Mark has written before about having a raised gravel bed there with yucca or other succulents that should enjoy the sheltered aspect. I quite like the idea of building a planter from new railway sleepers. This would give us a reasonable planting depth without disturbing the ground below the paving. If it were to sit on top of the block paving then if access was needed it could be dismantled. We haven't needed access below ground so far, so with any luck there will be no need to disturb the plants.
Some Winter color from last year.... probably a one off
We had also thought about placing large pots on the paving in front of the bay window. These could be moved if needed and would keep the paved surface available if needed to store materials on for future projects.Whilst there is still plenty to do indoors, our minds are already jumping ahead to these future projects!
In case you wondered where the picture of the finished porch is... watch this space all will be revealed soon :)
Gaz