Then And Now

This week we will have been in this house 37 years. When we bought it we left a 6 year old modern house and came to a 50 + year old tired house needing lots of TLC, but on viewing the house I not only saw potential in the interior but the garden was enormous. Now I say enormous but it wasn’t really, it was compared to the modern garden we had just left and the fact that both of us had been born and raised in old terraced houses in quite poor areas with no gardens just yards and outside privies.

So the joy of having space for small children to run, kick a ball and for Mr Malc to grow some veg was amazing. Over the years we have had pet rabbits in a run, climbing frames, cricket pitches, parties galore and a very special wedding.

Looking back at pictures now it seems unbelievable that I thought this space was ever so big.

This picture and the next one were taken probably a year after we moved in. Thoughts on the garden were the last thing on my mind then. See the shadow on the right, well that is a leylandi hedge running the length of the garden. We had no idea what we had taken on. They were our trees and we couldn’t wait to get rid, but it did take a few years to do so.

The back of the house, now this has a conservatory running the whole width of the back. This is our second one, as the first smaller wooden one started to rot so we replaced it with my beautiful plant room.

This is the footings for my greenhouse. You can also see the rabbit run and Mr Malc’s veg patch. All this disappeared when I got the gardening bug in the mid 80s. The area where the rabbit run was is now my tiny white garden. The veg patch is where the g/daughters play house was.

This picture and the next are about the early 90s. Just look at either side of the circle you can just make out the tiny box plants, well these are now more than a metre tall tree tier box balls. The leylandi are still here in this shot.

Still with leylandi, and looking towards the hedge from what is now my summer house and before the rill was put in to join the two ponds.

The view now from our bedroom window clearly showing the rill.

Views from around the garden, including the three tier box balls, the now crumbling fence which replaced the leylandi hedge, think the ivy is holding it up…. Now I’ve got a several of trays of plants to go in before we open…..mmmm can anyone see any space….?