The Cottage Smallholder

Photo: Cutting down shrubs to create more space for flowers and vegetables

“Danny I’m thinking of renting some more land. We just don’t have enough space for all our projects.”
“I’m sure that you could rent some land very easily around here but let’s wait until we have maximised the space at home first. Our land is free.”
“But we have maximised our space – increased the size of the borders and made the paths quite slim in the kitchen garden.”
“Well the forsythia in the front could go for a start. I’m having problems getting out of my car.”
He’s had it in for the forsythia for months now.

I like the forsythia but he did have a point. So we agreed to chop it virtually to the ground. This would give us some forsythia sprigs in the Spring, as it has plenty of time to throw out new growth. And we could use the extra space.

So for the past few days we have been wielding the chain saw and the long snips in the front garden. Hacking back the forsythia and the ivy that hangs in vast clumps on Next Door’s fence. Taking turns to relieve boredom.

Our shredder has already filled five 75 litre sacks and the piles that you see in the photo are about a third of what we have hacked down.

We discovered a long forgotten border – narrow but serviceable and found that the forsythia had been ten feet deep (it was also about fifteen feet long). Because I liked it I estimated that it would be a maximum of four feet deep. Thank goodness Danny wouldn’t gamble on the revealed depth. Having removed everything over the fence height we now have a lighter and ‘bigger’ front garden. The Sleeping Beauty look has finally gone.

“And of course we don’t really need a lawn.” Danny added as he paused to survey the new land. “We can keep generous sized paths and have space for far more flowers.”
“But I’ve just bought a new lawn mower.”
“Do you like mowing the lawn?”
“Not particularly.”
“Well there you go. And I’ve been looking at some of your gardening books – why aren’t we using the fences for planting in pouches? The fences in the front garden would be perfect for this.”
“What about the watering?”
“Surely you could run something up along the lines of the Drip Watering Kit that we have in the greenhouse.”

He’s right. We need to really stretch and be creative with our land before we even consider renting further afield. And I always thought that I was the practical one!