Summer has been an extremely busy time, here at Agents of Field HQ, so apologies for the radio silence!

Aside from the usual harvests and gluts which have been coming in from the kitchen garden thick and fast, Ade’s been speaking at gardening events around the country AND we’ve had some major work done in the garden. Nothing pretty I’m afraid, just some much-needed work that I mentioned at the start of the year, concerning our drains! We are no longer reliant on a septic tank (hooray!) and are connected to mains drainage.

The work meant road closures, digging up much of our garden and general chaos for a few weeks, but now we (hopefully!) have an efficient drainage system and a brand new driveway to boot! It also means we now have three new garden projects to sink our teeth into!

First up is the front garden. There wasn’t much of a front garden to begin with as the area in front of the house was shingled and used for parking, but now that the existing driveway to the side of the house has been extended for extra parking, we can turn what was the shingled area at the front of the house into a proper front garden. I really love the idea of this. There’s been a disheartening trend, recently, for people to pave over their front gardens to create parking spaces. While I do understand this, particularly in busy urban areas where parking can be problematic, it doesn’t look great, it can have a detrimental impact on wildlife and it can even increase the risk of flooding. So, we’re very happy to buck the trend and do the opposite of everyone else, by adding a front garden where a parking space once existed!

Secondly, we want to create a pond/wildlife area. This area was initially lawn, we then dug it up and grew wild flowers, and it became a dumping ground during the recent drainage works. It’s looking pretty sorry for itself at the moment, but we want to build a pond and rockery here and add some plants, or maybe keep a wildflower area… we’re still collecting ideas on that front.

Thirdly, we’re going to build patio. When we moved here, the space directly behind the house was covered in decking that was in disrepair. After I slipped over on it one soggy morning, Ade pulled it up, only to reveal odd bits of paving at different levels, some clumsily-built brick planters, and it was generally a bit of a mess. We lived with it for three years, but it was all dug-up when our new drainage system was installed, and now it’s been levelled and sub-base has been laid in readiness for what will be, at some point, a lovely patio with dining and seating areas.

So, lots to think about. We don’t have concrete ideas for any of it just yet, but we’re looking forward to paying some attention to the areas of the garden that have been pretty neglected until now, and we’d love you to come along for the ride. The first project will be the front garden and we hope to get stuck into that quite soon. We’re thinking a rose hedge, spring bulbs, lots of cottage plants and something gorgeous scrambling up the house… watch this space!