My garden is situated in Redditch, Worcestershire, in the Midlands area of England. It originally measured approximately 52 feet wide, by 104 feet long, and the house stood in one corner of this space. In September 2002, our neighbours agreed to sell us a piece of land at the end of their garden which adjoins ours. This piece of land measured approximately 52 ft x 27 ft x 52ft x 46 ft, and was covered in bindweed, brambles, nettles, and all sorts of other weeds!

I began to clear the land on September 12th 2002, and three days later, I was left with an almost bare piece of land, and several huge piles of weeds to dispose of! Although no work could take place (other than moving and erecting a new fence) on the land from mid-October until early March, due to constant rain making the ground slippery and unsafe, it is now (August 2003) a lovely garden which blends well into our original garden, and is a pleasure to be in. The picture on the left (taken in July 2003), shows the small patio on level 4a, the last part of the "new" garden to be finished, in June 2003. To see the full story of the transformation, including before and after pictures, CLICK HERE.

The house was completed in November 1980. There was nothing at all in the garden, except a lot of mud, stones and the usual builder's rubbish. It sloped steeply and diagonally from corner to corner. The construction of the garden was begun in January 1981. One of the first jobs done was to erect the 8' by 10' cedarwood greenhouse, which had been brought from the previous garden, on one of the few areas of level ground. The greenhouse had been dismantled and stacked against a wall for a couple of months, waiting to be erected. It wasn't until the day came to erect it that a huge gust of wind caught one of the larger panels and smashed a pane of glass! Boo-hoo and curse curse!

The next job done was to set about trying to make the rest of the garden level (or as near level as possible). It was a lot of hard work to change the levels of the land, cutting and filling. Eventually, the garden was on five levels, all sloping slightly (except for the patio area!). The garden won the title of Best Garden in my area of Redditch for three years running, in 1986, 87 and 88, and Best Garden in the whole of Redditch two years running, in 1987 and 88, so I guess all the hard work finally paid off.

Just look at this mess! This is what confronted us in January 1981. Nothing but builder's rubble, and stones - so many stones! Some of them were quite big, and these have since been put to good use in other parts of the garden to create decorative effects. This is a view of the south facing side of the garden, looking across from the far side of the house.

This is the same view (but a bit closer) of the top end of the south facing border in October 1999. The blue gazebo was built by my husband from scratch, working only from my sketch. Clever so-and-so! In this picture, it's not quite finished yet though, I still have to put some finishing touches to it. In the pot on the left of the picture is Dicksonia antarctica, a tree fern, and the red-leaved plant at the back of the border on the right is Parthenocissus quinquefolia (Virginia creeper). Oh, by the way - I loved blue before it became fashionable!!

The next job was to build a water garden. I can't live without water in the garden - the wildlife it attracts is fascinating, and it appears quite spontaneously without any effort from the pond owner! The first pond was approximately 6.5 ft wide by 9 ft long, and about 2.5ft deep at its deepest point. It was an informal shape (roughly kidney-shaped, slightly wider at one end than the other) which suited the natural layout and proposed planting. Eventually, when the liner was punctured by some poor misguided soul with an airgun (er... wot?), it gave us the opportunity to make the pond much bigger, and it is now roughly 9ft wide by 16.5ft long (and still an informal shape). It contains several fish - a ghost Koi called Cod, some Shubunkins, and several Goldfish. These are threatened annually in the winter by the neighbourhood Heron who drops in looking for a meal! More details and pictures of the water garden can be found on the Water Garden page, HERE .

The soil is quite a mixture - it contains clay, marl and loam, but it is extremely fertile, and everything grows superbly in it (including weeds!) I suppose this is due to the site being just a field for years before the house was built.

A large, double-glazed conservatory was built across the width of the house in 1991, and this has allowed me to grow a much wider range of plants. I grow orchids, cacti and other succulents, ferns, fancy-leaved begonias and lots of other plants. There is hardly room for people in there - but then I reckon a conservatory is definitely for plants, not people!

The garden now has a good "backbone" of evergreen plants, which are essential for all-the-year-round interest. These include trees, shrubs, climbers and evergreen perennials. My favourite types of plants are what might be described as "architectural", and I love the lush, tropical look. I grow lots of perennials, especially anything tall and "jungly", or with very decorative leaves, and also lots of shrubs for use in my flower arranging. I am a bit of a plantswoman, I suppose. I could never see the point of growing a group of three plants of the same type, when you could grow three different ones in the same space. Oh well! I try to find the more unusual plants, and I'm not afraid to chance the more tender types either. It's amazing how much cold and wet a supposedly tender plant can take.

I also have a passion for grasses, ivies, ferns, Heucheras and Hostas, and I have loads of these in the garden. (See Plant List.) I'm always on the lookout for new ones, but - "so many plants - so little space!" The garden is bursting at the seams now, even the newly acquired patch is full - but being a plant maniac, I know I'll always find room for "just one more plant". Y'know the feeling?

There are lots more pictures of the garden and plants in flower on the Garden Diary, Garden Gallery and New Garden pages - have a look!!