This week we have been thinking a little about our plans for the garden.

When we were house hunting a large garden was one of my top priorities. I was lucky enough to grow up with a large garden and really wanted A to have the space to run and explore as he grows up. Our garden is around 80/90ft (I think) which give us fantastic space to live outdoors in the fair weather. The only downside to our outdoor space is it is quite over looked, perhaps our one compromise. However I hope over the years we can grow some lovely plants and trees to give us a little more privacy. And so far we have found our neighbours to be quiet so that's great.

We haven't done too much to the garden since moving in, what with the house to renovate first and being in the winter months there hasn't been much to do. G did dig out the front drive (hence the attractive soil pile in the back garden) and I have planted a few bulbs. The lawn has been mown and a little pruning done.

Mainly we planted our 3 fruit trees at the bottom of the garden. A) to give us privacy and B) to produce yummy fruit and pretty blossom. But we are far from having our dream outdoor space. And I think it's the best time of year to plan and then implement said plans before the Spring.

I love the over grown wild cottage garden look, packed full of leaves and blooms in the summer. I am not keen on the orderly perfect garden and love a natural look. We are really luck to have some established lovely plants in the garden already. We have a few Rose plants and a Buddleia, we do need to identify a few others yet though.

I was lucky to grow up with a veggie patch in the garden thanks to my Dad's hard work, which I probably took for granted when I was younger. BUT I would love to have our own little allotment too, and this is part of our plans. The site below where the soil is; I am hoping we can created some raised beds for some home grown produce. We'd love railway sleeper beds, but I am thinking they are a little expensive, does anyone have any cost affective ideas? I'd love to grow vegetables we purchase often but that are expensive to buy, and to start small at first. I'd love to start with spinach, carrots, purple sprouting broccoli, salad leaves, courgettes and I need to replenish my herb pot too.

I also really want to run a series on WWW about growing your own wedding flowers, and would like to grow some blooms and document their progress on the blog. Peonies are my very favourite cut stem, I think Hydrangeas, Dahlias and Sweet Peas would be a great addition too. So perhaps I could find space in the allotment or elsewhere in the garden to grow these.

We also need to leave enough space for A to play, he has an assortment on ride on toys and a new football goal. I am sure he is going to be after some more fun things for the garden too, it's hard to balance the look of toys and a pretty garden space. But I think it's important that the garden is used and not just pretty to look at.

We'd like to remove the shed in the garden which is looking a little shabby, but I think that will be a while away yet, and most of our fences are looking worse for wear, but again budget constraints are putting that on hold. We do want to remove the fence that separates the garden, as I think it makes the garden feel smaller and the means the bottom half is less used.

I think we will used the paved area next to the brick shed for now as our seating area. Although we have no outdoor seating as of yet hehe! I really want to paint the shed door a pretty colour and would love a pagola over the area covered in festoon lights, although this may be a little ambitious ;-) We also need a step where we had the new patio doors installed.

Wow it feels like there is so much to do, and it's almost March already!

Does anyone have green fingers? We have zero gardening experience and any help or tips would be gratefully received.

Now just to work out how much we have to complete our garden plans hehe :-)

Happy Sunday XOXO Lou