Planned gardening

Right - everything is in place and we exchange TODAY. (Insert eyes-rolling icon here). I have now heard that for a week so you'll excuse me if I sound a little suspicious. Anyway, we're moving in in a weeks time - March 9th - and as this is going to become mostly my garden / allotment record, here goes - MY PLANS.

I'll post you all a picture of my blank canvas as soon as I'm back online - obviously I want to wait for a little while to see where sun & shade fall - but not for long as I want to get my vegetable garden started!

We're going to lay out string / sand for where we want the curved beds, it's still going to be mostly lawn as Isaac is looking forward to playing in a garden at last. For the first year, we're going to use the beds as a vegetable patch, with annual flowers in as well for colour - we'll plant up a few of the perennials we've bought with us from this house but not that many, and I'll have to try & restrain myself from buying any!

Over the next year we'll be working on clearing & planning the allotment, which is through the garden but currently all grass & weeds. We'll be building raised beds, laying a pond, etc. As we start planting up next autumn, we'll gradually be able to reclaim the 'garden' part [I]as[/I] a garden, and have more pretty things. It will very much be a wildlife garden - I've had one here for three years so I roughly know what I want to do. The allotment will also have it's fair share of wildlife attracting plants - and the pond of course - as I want it to be away from my toddler. I also want a few trees at the top of the allotment to a) attract wildlife b) be useful fruit & nut trees c) help shade us from the field that our allotment backs on to and d)give us somewhere shady for the majority of the plants we've brought from our current garden - mostly ferns and hostas so far as the entirety of my current garden is permanently in shade. Although I want it to be a 'proper' allotment with plenty of space for produce, it [I]is[/I] garden shaped and tagged on to the end of my garden so I want it to be our 'secret garden' in appearance as well - that way I won't feel bad about Isaac (my 2 year old) having his 'own' garden with plenty of lawn and toys & the odd football kicked into my plants.

All money saving of course - I've collected lots of seeds and got garden vouchers for Christmas, I know that I'm going to have to spend a fair bit on a pond liner and trees so I want to get everything else as cheaply as I can manage it - and of course save money on buying fruit & veg over the course of the year!