My Summer Garden Update

I've been meaning to share this post for a while and just haven't got around to posting it. Well before summer is well and truly over, I wanted to share a little garden update. Of course, all the flowers I now dying but here's some pictures from when they were at their best! 

As most of you will now, I'm currently living in a rented terrace house. The garden is small but perfect size for me. When I first arrived, the grass was dull and very sparse. There were areas with no grass at all, so the first thing we did was seed the areas lacking. The grass is obviously of different varieties but I was pleasantly surprised at how well the seed grew. 

Around the garden was a border. This was overgrown, unruly and uncared for. The borders were also of different sizes and widths, with the wood rotting and falling down in places. We completely cleared the borders, relevelled the ground and made the borders equal around. 

We had a bit of a cat issue, as a couple of the neighbours pets kept using the ground as a toilet. The rest of the gardens are completely grass, so understandably the soil is where they go. We ended up purchasing two cat deterrent devices which make a high pitched noise to keep the cats away, whilst also simultaneously using cat granules. These were garlic scented which is meant to also deter cats. Both actually worked really quite well. We have got a little lazy with it recently and noticed the poop coming back but I have found the plants have helped. 

I picked a selection of seeds from Wilko. I got mainly packets of seeds for a pound at most: cornflowers, poppies, candyfloss, echiums and comsos. I also got some bulbs of lupins but none of them have grown at all. I later added a couple of pre-grown fuschias which have done really well. I think in the future, I would use these more so, because even though they're a little pricier, they look gorgeous much faster. 

As the flowers grew and blossomed, I do wish I'd have separated them a little further but the packets said usually only a few of them grow. I ended up buying some plant supports to help them stand up. I got two different types, with one for individual stems and one for a group. Both worked well for the different types of flowers.  

I've also purchased a garden box and padlock to store garden tools, outdoor supplies and chairs in etc. Whilst I was visiting my sister, I also purchased the most beautiful hanging basket. I was really sad to see some of the flowers fall off in the car, and then even sadder when it fell off the wall, but it's still doing incredibly well and every time I look, there's new flowers waiting to bloom! It is currently sitting on top of the chest. 

Overall, the whole project has cost me less than £100 and I'm really quite happy with how it looks. It makes it feel much more like home and a place I want to spend my time. It's a little save space now. I can't wait to have my own permanent little garden that I can invest a little more in, but for now, this is the somewhat finished project.