Simple living in the country - back to basics

Cheery_Daff

Thanks greenbee, definitely lifetime projects here! We've been here 5 years now and I've done much of the bigger scale structural planning, eg adding chicken run, greenhouse, compost system, veg patch etc. So the bigger elements and pattern are there, this is more about filling the gaps.

Seating areas are indeed where I was planning to start. We've got four main ones:

1. The terrace, which is small, right next to the house, and faces east, so gets the sun for breakfast then rapidly goes very shady and cool. Used to have its own table and 2 chairs, but these have been requisitioned elsewhere.

2. The front garden - there's a swing seat here, facing kind of south east with a lovely view. I sit there a LOT, and it's where we gather for lunch when people come round - it gets the sun til about 2 or 3pm in the summer. 

3. The main 'lawn' in the 'back' garden - gets the sun far later, so this is where we usually sit if having people round for tea in the summer. 

4. Bench at the end of the garden - faces south east, and gets the last of the sunlight from behind, which lights up the hills on the far side of the valley, so a good place to watch both the sunrise and the sunset. Quite exposed though, so most of the year a bit breezy, and further from the house so not really somewhere to cart a whole elaborate meal.

At the minute, we only have 5 or 6 garden chairs (plus the swing seat, and bench) so they end up being moved between spaces, which does my head in. I'd like the terrace to have dedicated breakfast facilities (well, table and chairs 😂), a table that can stay near the swing seat ad a couple of visitor chairs (but that don't get in my way when there's only me there). Back garden has a table, but the chairs are often somewhere else which does my head in, and it's slowly been encroached by both the trees and the chicken run 🙄😂

Anyway, lots of plotting and scheming going on, quite a lot of which will never get past the plotting and scheming stage 😁😂

themadvix

Cheery, I feel your pain with inadequate seating in the garden! We only have a small patio currently at the end of the garden (which gets the sun the longest), but with plans to add a small decking area to the patio doors so we can enjoy sunny breakfasts  there (and probably include a catio to please B&W cat) and something in our front garden (which fronts onto a barely used footpath. However, in terms of actual furniture, we currently have 5 ancient plastic chairs (which all have cracks in the seat supports!), donated to us by the in-laws when we moved in and an aluminium camping table. We did have a plastic table to go with the chairs, but it got beaten up by Storm Eunice (or the following one) last year, so it went to the dump. Sourcing garden furniture seems to be one of those things we never have much luck with (partly due to lack of storage space and lack of space to use it!). 

Cheery_Daff

Glad it's not just me! It's a balance, isn't it? I don't want a garden completely overrun with chairs 😂 But I also don't want to be carting them about all the time. They always seem to migrate to wherever I don't want them 🙄😂

I'm trying to identify sticking points that stop me using things as I want to - hopefully fixing some of them are easy wins! 

* The terrace has got all covered in moss again, and the table and chairs have ended up somewhere else. Won't take long to sort out, and then we can use that again. This is a nice time of year for it, as it gets full sun in the morning (when there is some sun!) as there are no leaves on the trees. Would probably take less than an hour to sort the moss/leaves and retrieve the table.

* we've got two little metal tables - no good for a proper meal, but fine for a picnic, or for breakfast. But one has gone all rusty in the middle, and I've been meaning for at least 3 years to scrape the paint off and respray. Stops me having it out in the garden because it's annoying to look at! Would probably take maybe a couple of hours over a dry weekend to scrape and respray.

* The table in the back garden is a wooden one Mr Cheery built - it's an odd height and often ends up balanced on a couple of bricks to make it even, and the paint is all flaking now. The slats on the top are slightly too far apart, and it's easy to dislodge a cup of tea, especially if there's a tablecloth. I'm considering altering it, or making a new one... But this bit of a bigger project... I wonder whether something slightly more permanent would be useful in that space - I end up shifting this to strim round it, which is a nuisance because it's on the bricks, and is quite an awkward size.

Anyway, lots to ponder 😊 

themadvix

Well it sounds like you've identified one easy win there!

Definitely hard to find balance between too many chairs and not enough to enjoy the spaces properly though.

EssexHebridean

Cheery_Daff said:

Ha, yes, there's definitely been some going backwards! 😂 But plenty of learning and improving. 

Interesting to just read my first couple of posts for each of those. At one point I was saving a 'patchwork fund' for when my contract ended, and I quite quickly got up to about £6k, then started merrily spending it when my job was extended. I'd moved into Mr Cheery's house and had literally no idea of all the things that could potentially go wrong that might need money to spend (new boiler etc). Those things haunt me now 🙄😂

Oh my I'd forgotten about the patchwork fund! I bet there are loads of old pals on those diaries too - some of whom we may even still be in contact with now, I would imagine...  

slm6002

We have a small garden and some very old plastic chairs that are on their last legs.  Would love some foldable but sturdy wooden ones that can be put away each year.  Need to find a solution for nosey neighbours and unwanted visitors before we feel we can sit in the garden in peace.  May not be this year but we will get there.  Concentrating on the house first and will then move onto the garden.

Cheery_Daff

Yes EH, lots of old pals on those diaries! 😊

slm6002 said:

We have a small garden and some very old plastic chairs that are on their last legs.  Would love some foldable but sturdy wooden ones that can be put away each year.  Need to find a solution for nosey neighbours and unwanted visitors before we feel we can sit in the garden in peace.  May not be this year but we will get there.  Concentrating on the house first and will then move onto the garden.

Definitely a good idea to concentrate on one thing at a time 😊 And yes, a peaceful space away from nosey neighbours etc is good. Our garden at our old house was tiny, and all directly adjacent to the pavement - I was SO much happier once I'd fenced off a little bit that I could sit in, without people walking down the street being able to see me. The rest of it was still open, and I got to know the neighbours while pottering about there, but having a place to sit without being watched or having to have a conversation was great.

Ironically, having moved to the middle of nowhere, I now have the exact same problem with a public footpath running right past the house, meaning the whole garden is in full view of anyone walking down it 🙄😂 But fortunately that is far less frequent than down the old street, and here it's mostly people out on a long hike who are quite often pretty cheerful.

Dug another couple of holes, and realised I should have done a bit more measuring, as while the fence line is broadly in line with the washing line post, it's completely wonky in relation to the chicken run, which it will be attached to 🙄

Strung up a line where I now think it should be, and will get a second opinion when Mr Cheery wakes from his nap.

In the meantime I've got the pruning saw out - there are some large sycamores interfering with the washing line, and a bit of conifer that half snapped off in a storm last year, and some sycamore which has effectively been coppice and is starting to obstruct the footpath. They've all had a good chopping now!

Can't believe it's still light 🥰🥰 Just sat on a stile listening to the crows 😊😊

This is the sycamore I'm lopping, and the stile I'm sitting on 😊😊😊

Baileys_Babe

In our garden we have 6 freecycled plastic chairs before we acquired these we used our camping chairs but we never had enough seating if we had visitors. We also use our camping tables in the garden.
One problem with using our camping equipment in the garden is we end up storing it in the dining room so it is easy to get to but it adds to the chaos in there.
We have been reluctant to buy any garden furniture that would live permanently in the garden as one or two people locally think that means help yourself 😢

Our garden needs a big rethink and adding 2 or 3 different areas of seating to make the best of the sun at different times of day would be good along with breaking it up into different zones and more privacy from next door.

Cheery_Daff

Yes, that is an issue if you can't just leave things outside 😕 We're fortunate here - completely at a dead end so nobody just drives past - anyone going past is walking, which doesn't make it very easy to take off with garden furniture 😂

I did maps of the garden when we moved here, with direction, sun, wind, views, paths etc all marked on. Used that to plan eg veg patch, chickens, trees etc, but now all the big stuff is in, we're honing the finer details. A nice place to be 😊

themadvix

Loving the view Cheery! And I've definitely noticed the birdsong pick up in the last few days - it's very cheering! Spring is on its way.