garden renovation | We Are Life Styles

pea gravel perfection

by Helen | Jun 7, 2023 | Renovation

So, finally, the whole of the front garden area – the piece we don’t actually own, but care for and improve – and the concrete patio, are now covered in a thick layer of beautiful white pea gravel. Six cubic metres have been wheel-barrowed and distributed and raked and smoothed over, and are looking absolutely fantastic. The front of the house is gradually undergoing a very dramatic transformation – and it just makes us question why we didn’t do this a very long time ago, instead of spending a fortune on ill-fated projects. Still, I suppose you live and learn.

The small pool has been relocated to under the living room window, so completely tucked away and private, seen by no-one. It’s also now out of the sun, so in a lovely, shaded spot. We’ve planted up the area under the green wall with potted plants, and added the redundant shutters from our house to the lower windows of the abandoned house, which we’ve exposed by cutting away the vines.

The concrete patio has now a total makeover. With new furniture and a bit of a change around, as well as lots of new bay trees planted up for privacy, it’s looking like a proper garden now, rather than something which will make do, until we get around to tackling it. Three palettes have been painted white and made into a table, now looking very pretty, sit amongst the potted olive trees and turquoise 70s retro satellite chairs.

I’ve also been searching and searching for those lovely fringed Bali sun umbrellas, but not finding much that would give me a lot of change from the €300 mark, I’d given up on my Balinese dream. Until I spotted them in my new favourite store – Jysk. €37! Two purchased on the spot. And, although I know the ones costing a few hundred euros will undoubtedly be better made and probably more sturdy, but our two beauts will definitely see at least this summer out. The colours are perfect too – pale blue, white and soft grey.

Today, summer seems to have returned. All building work – rear garden, French windows and balcony and steps – has been held up because of the rain, but today the builders are back. And whilst the rear of the house is a priority, because we currently have gaping hole in the living room wall, covered with plastic sheeting, they are working in the front garden today, constructing a very lovely stepped wall. All to be revealed very soon…

← demolition... and another garden wall is built →

garden makeover : white stones

by Helen | May 24, 2023 | Renovation

Way back in 2016, we viewed our house for the first time, and this was the garden. Although “garden” is a bit of a stretch, looking back. A mucky, concrete patio and a patch of scrubby land, full of rubble and stones – proper ankle-breakers – and vines attached to an old house, which had been half cut back. And we still fell in love with it!

Fast forward a couple of years, and we decided that we had to tackle this outside place. Now, there’s a bit of a curious tale attached to this piece of land. Although it abuts our garden, and sits underneath our living room window, it’s not actually ours. It actually belongs to the abandoned house – which currently has in excess of twenty owners, some on the other side of the world. So, we figured it wasn’t going to sell anytime soon, and as the only way to actually access it, without crossing our land, would be to crawl through those small windows, it seemed pretty certain that if we up-kept the land, no-one would object. And, so far, that’s what’s happened. We’ve tidied it up, looked after it and everyone seems OK with that.

The first attempt at our diy garden, involved moving all of the ankle-breakers away, and putting the smaller stones around the perimeter. We’d have needed a digger to get them all out and we just needed it to be tidied up, as we’d never really actually be using it. The vines were cut back, the soil turned over and levelled and geotex matting secured to stop weeds penetrating. The whole are was then filled with red bark chippings, which now, over time, have faded in the sun and turned a bit mulchy after winter weather and rain.

The concrete patio, to the right of the red bark, has always been pretty horrible. It’s not the prettiest and was definitely not done by someone with an eye on aesthetics, so we had the bright idea to paint it. With pale blue exterior concrete paint, which we were assured was durable. It cost an absolute fortune and to be fair, did look beautiful. For a few months…

The paint on the steps up into the house has survived, but the patio is now back to concrete. A summer of very hot sun, saw to the “durable” exterior paint and the following year we had to pressure wash it all off, as it was too flaky. So, we’ve had a major rethink and we’re now doing what we should have done right at the beginning – white stones. Taking inspiration from the beautiful hotels scattered across Puglia, in particular, we’re going for white and Mediterranean.

Masseria Moroseta, Pulglia : Image – Andrew Trotter

The option of white stones is also massively less expensive than the eye-watering concrete paint. At €40 for three cubic metres (plus delivery), we’ll be able to do the whole garden, and finish off the access road along the side of the house, for considerably less than the paint job! We’ve just laid the first delivery of stones in the area where we had the red bark chippings. Against the green wall, they look lovely and really enhance this very unusual feature in our garden.

The next delivery of stones, for the patio, has just arrived but we’ve been slightly diverted by another improvement, which is being put into action. And which has led onto another idea. We’re having some of our shutters replaced and the old ones have been propped up in the garden. We think we can definitely make use of them at the far end of this stoned area and cover the old wooden door, with pale blue shutters. They’re not good enough to hang at the windows, but they are perfectly fine, in their weathered state, to cover something even more weathered. And, when that’s done, we’ll be implementing the new idea, then levelling the next load of white stones on the patio.

It’s great to be finally seeing huge progress in the garden – by the end of today, things will look considerably improved. And, by the end of the week, we’re very hopeful that the construction of the wall to the rear of the house, will be almost there, ready for rendering next week…

← garden wall construction begins... demolition... →

autumn in the garden : istria

by Helen | Oct 21, 2022 | Lifestyle

Although it seems like no time since the long, heady days of summer, we’re well into October now and only a week away from the clocks going back an hour. Usually, we’ve had the wood-burner lit by now, and our logs delivered. But not this year. Since early April, we’ve had pretty glorious weather, but along with that, we’ve also very little rainfall, so the garden has struggled at times, despite regular watering. Flowers haven’t bloomed for as long as they normally would, and there just hasn’t been the intensity of colour that we usually have, when we have our normal rains. But, one thing that is definitely happening now, is a bit of a garden resurgence.

Temperatures are still relatively mild – low to mid twenties, most days – and we do seem to be having rain some nights. And, what we’re seeing now, is that a lot of plants which are normally finished by this time of year, are springing back into life. Or, plants which have been pretty dormant, are now growing and blooming. This time of year is usually when we’re packing up the garden, emptying pots, clearing up leaves etc and it always makes us a bit sad, as things start to look a little bleak. But, not this autumn…

Passionflowers winding up & over the shed, and blooming.

Blooming passionflowers

New strawberries.

Tiny lemons.

Emerging squashes.

Nasturtiums & pansies growing through the cracks and stones.

Courgettes still growing.

Towering cosmos, grown from a seed.

Pink dahlia bloom.

Crimson dahlia flower.

White dahlia flower.

Burgundy dahlia flower.

Colourful cosmos flowers.

Pink cosmos.

Flowering purple hearts.

Dahlia blooms.

Tall cosmos.

Yellow cosmos.

Mimosa already beginning to bud.

Seeing all of this colour, so late, in the garden, is making me very hopeful that winter may not seem quite as long as it often does. And that before we know, spring will have returned…

← british corner shop... irregular crockery →

secret garden reno : update 2

by Helen | Nov 16, 2021 | Renovation

Whilst we’ve spent the best part of the last four and a half years, fully renovating our Istrian stone-house and creating beautiful gardens to the front and side of the property, the rear has been woefully neglected. We’ve tried to titivate it up, but it’s never really been the kind of place where we want to spend any time. When people are viewing our house for sale, I always internally shudder when we take them to the back of the house. I know that when you are buying property, you are often buying the potential, but we just felt that the time had come to tackle this much neglected part of our home. So, let us take you right back to the beginning, and what this area was like when we saw its potential…

Yep, this is what we saw when we viewed the house for the first time. A very, very sorry state – and don’t even get us onto the shutters! But, when you can see through the current state of things and have a clear vision, that’s what drives you on. Fast forward a couple of years, and we were given the opportunity to buy the little abandoned house from one of our neighbours. Although we were knee deep in renovations, we knew that other people had expressed interest in this property and we felt that if we didn’t secure it, we could have someone else purchasing it from under our noses. It’s very close to our main house and we were concerned with a) the potential proximity of another house and b) building works – out of our control – going on under our windows for goodness knows how long. So, the decision was made to purchase the house and land.This took quite a long time to complete on – much longer, in fact, than the purchase of the main house – but eventually everything was signed off and we finally owned it, meaning that no-one could build close our house. We were also at this time, in the very early stages of considering our next renovation property and toying with the idea of selling the house. Owning this smaller dwelling and surrounding land, with all boundaries legally established, therefore became even more important.

So, for the last couple of years, all we’ve really done is tidy things up, gradually. All of the building materials and the trailer, as per the contract our solicitor negotiated, had to be removed by our neighbour and the area generally cleared, prior to completion. This enabled us to begin assessing what we might eventually do with the land. We decided early on that the house would stay, especially if were selling up. Although it would need to be demolished, we felt that new owners should decide its eventual fate, and we knew that whilst we were still living here, it could be the backdrop for something very pretty. So, very slowly, when we had the time, we started to tackle this overgrown mess…

We think that originally, the small house would have been for the animals, as probably evidenced by the stone trough, below. It was in a bit of a state, with stones beginning to come loose and to be honest, hadn’t really been put together very well, so we decided to take it down. It did give us quite a bit more garden space – but, in an unexpected turn, it’s recently been rebuilt, using the same stones. This time, though, it’s not a drinking trough. It’s going to be the home for our gorgeous new olive tree…

Once the ground had been cleared of weeds and vines and ivy and stones, sheeting was laid and we marked out our boundary with flagstones, before infilling with bark chippings. (The quite strange shape of the boundary is due to the fact we agreed to give our neighbour access to another of his properties, which he plans to renovate, opposite the small house).

Starting to look better, but still a long way off finished! However, ideas were beginning to form. The table and chairs and the lone bamboo looked a bit lost, and we knew we most definitely wouldn’t be sitting out here for quite some time to come, as we still felt very exposed. Plus, the nearest property to us, beyond the little house, was an abandoned, tumble-down property which had recently been demolished and building work had started to create a new stone cottage. We were still focusing on the main house and moving on with the securing of our new renovation project, so things stalled a little at the rear of the house, but we did what we could to create a little bit more privacy.

To the other side of the little house, we also cleared the ground and started the process of laying flagstones, to create a pathway, and more of the bark chippings.

As summer ’21 progressed, we started to get more enquiries about our house for sale, and had a number of speculative visits, as people passing would see the A-board by the road and often just turn up in the garden. And this made us realise that once and for all, we had to properly tackle the rear of the house. However much we had improved it since we moved in, it all still looked far too ramshackle and not what we wanted visitors to see. So, Project Secret Garden commenced at the end of the summer, the intention being to have our builder construct a wall, all along the boundary. This became complicated as the land is on a slight incline and we didn’t relish the prospect of getting in a digger for excavation works. A wooden fence, supported by posts sunken into concrete was decided upon – and then abandoned when this too became problematic, for a variety of reasons. So, we took things into our own hands, and got creative.

And, although it looks as if we’re kind of back to where we started, much progress has been made over the last two weeks. We hope that the final pieces of the jigsaw will all come together this week, and that we will eventually have a beautiful secluded space, which is completely private. Which screens us off from the comings and goings in the village and means that come next spring, either us, or new owners, will be able to enjoy our secret suntrap – and no-one will know we are there…

Coming up – how we developed The Secret Garden…

← project printworks : update 3 secret garden reno : update 3 →

garden reno : update 11

by Helen | Jul 27, 2021 | Renovation

After over a year of lockdown and travel restrictions, we’ve finally been double jabbed and now that we can access the EU vaccination certificate, the prospect of travel is on the horizon. Not immediately, but the prospect is there. In the meantime however, we’re going to enjoy the garden we have been working hard on creating, since early spring. Building works on the house have now finished, so there’s no more mess in the garden. Meaning that we’ve able to tackle it properly. Way back in February, we started on the little patch of land which is communally owned (but no-one so far seems to have taken responsibility for it), just to the side of the house. Trees, vines, ivy, weeds etc were cleared and a small wooden fence put in, to create a lavender patch. The area was also cleared of stones and levelled.

Spring has felt very long, but finally summer has arrived. February, March & April were spent sowing wildflower seeds, seed balls, sunflowers, dahlias, new potted plants and climbing roses. Most mornings were spent doing a “tour of duty” around the garden – pulling out weeds, checking on new growth, nurturing and watering and feeding. And, we think it has finally paid off…

Of course, in the middle of the growth spurt, we did have a very, very cold snap and we thought that our beautiful new growth would perish. But, as we know, nature is nothing if not hardy.

Once the snow had thawed, our attention turned to the land around our little abandoned house to the rear of the main house. This was also cleared of stones and vines and weeds, and black plastic sheeting laid, before being covered with red bark. We also created a stepping stone path to the back of the house, using spare flagstones to create curves for interest, which were infilled with wildflower seeds. Solar lights have made a huge difference, as this part of the garden is now lit up at night.

We also ensured that we used cut down branches – they became supports for the climbers, including our honeysuckle and wisteria. An old log crate was also chopped up and recycled, part of it being utilised as a “fence” to hang plants from and encourage one of Virginal Creepers to entwine its way around it.

Over the last couple of months, the garden has exploded into a riot of colour. It’s looking so pretty, we’ve decided that new sunbeds and an outdoor L-shaped sofa were in order. More of that in the next blog, but here’s a snapshot of what’s been emerging..,

The garden, finally, is looking so, so pretty. We’ve worked hard on it this year. It’s full of bees and butterflies and colours and aromas. So, even though we can potentially travel in the near future, I think we’ll be quite happy to sit in our garden and savour it. Because, our house is for sale, and having found our next renovation property, we could soon be back on a building site…