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Always Have a "Plan B"

Doghouse RileyDoghouse Riley South ManchesterPosts: 347
edited October 2021 in Garden design
I signed up to this message board a couple of years ago, but forgot abouit it. This is my first post.

We live in a small semi. The garden is about 85ft long. Two thirds of it is only 18ft wide.
This is because we have a garage and a shed on one side.

The back half of the garden was originally a vegetable plot in 1972 when we bought the house, which I grassed over.

In the mid seventies, I built this "damp window" box on  the patio I built using crazy terrazzo on a concrete raft I had laid.



I also built the shed on the back of the garage for our eight year-old daughter's expanding collection of rabbits and guinea pigs. We've still got it.

In 1985 I ripped up the pool and the terrazzo and built an 18" deep goldfish pond and and used a few pallets of York stone to build the surround on a concrete collar and the paths.

In 1986 I got the "koi bug" and converted the pond by digging it out to a 5ft deep 3000 gallon
koi pool I built a room in the back of the garage for the filtration plus a 300 gall quarantine tank.
I added the Japanese tera-house, also the 6ft pagoda and the lanterns I built from concrete the following year.

When I built the koi pool, my wife asked me what I would do if I ever got fed up with it.

I told her "I have a plan." I didn't need the plan for thirty-two years. But two years ago the liner developed a serious leak and to replace it was going to involve to much work, so the fish went to a good home, two doors away and I had the pool filled in and paved over. It took 20 tonnes of eco-friendly hardcore.

Here's a couple of "before and after" videos.



I've a lot of other hobbies besides gardening.

I like a bit of music when I'm gardening.


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Posts

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Central Norfolk UKPosts: 82,298
    Hello @Doghouse Riley .... you seem familiar ... I'm sure we've met before  :)
    I'm afraid that those links to your photos on the hosting site don't work ... I get told they no longer exist  :'(
    “I am not lost, for I know where I am. But however, where I am may be lost.” Winnie the Pooh







  • FairygirlFairygirl west central ScotlandPosts: 49,201
    I also recall someone with this name who posted regularly for a period of time. Are you not the same person then @Doghouse Riley?
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....


  • Doghouse RileyDoghouse Riley South ManchesterPosts: 347
    edited October 2021
    Dovefromabove said:
    Hello @Doghouse Riley .... you seem familiar ... I'm sure we've met before  :)
    I'm afraid that those links to your photos on the hosting site don't work ... I get told they no longer exist  :'(

    Sorry about that. links from imdbb don't seem to work so I've edited my post.
  • LoxleyLoxley NottinghamPosts: 4,978
    The garden looks the same. Welcome back!
  • philippasmith2philippasmith2 Posts: 2,446
    Familiar indeed @Doghouse Riley - pretty sure I remember your posts and photos of the garden from some years back - the Pagoda certainly rings a bell.  Nice to see you are still in gardening mode :)
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Central Norfolk UKPosts: 82,298
    edited October 2021
    The site had an upgrade a while back, so maybe you've been 'reborn' for the new one   :D

    Welcome back!
    “I am not lost, for I know where I am. But however, where I am may be lost.” Winnie the Pooh







  • Doghouse RileyDoghouse Riley South ManchesterPosts: 347
    edited October 2021
    Some changes this year.

    In April I found a young hedgehog collapsed on our front lawn during the day.
    We think he was dihydrated.
    Fortunately he recovered and now lives in the house I bought him under the azaleas next to the patio. He comes to his feeding station every night, he gets an 85g sachet of Sheba and some crunchy hedgehog food (which he mostly ignores) though hasn't come for a few days as we think he's gone into hibernation now. He can't get out of the garden, hedgehogs get run over in our road sometimes.

    We call it 'arry as we don't know if it's an 'arry or an Arabella.
    We keep an eye on him with a trail camera. They don't hang about, do they?


    Not taking any chances, I filled in the little frog pond, in case he fell in. There were rocks at one end that let the baby frogs get out he could use. But ten years ago a hedgehog fell in, couldn't find them and drowned.




    For a few weeks after we found him he lived under the tea-house and ignored the house I'd bought him. At first we thought he was going to run away and join the hedgehog circus, as he seemed to be practicing to be a tightrope walker.




    But I guess he got sick of the jukeboxes disturbing his rest at week-ends so moved into the house. I put handfuls of extra hay on his "patio" each evening until he'd got enough to complete his "nest."



  • edhelkaedhelka GwyneddPosts: 2,267
    I remember your garden, it was beautiful with the pond and it is beautiful without it too.
  • punkdocpunkdoc Sheffield, Derbyshire border.Posts: 13,027
    I remember it too and I remember you left after causing a few problems.
    There are ashtrays of emulsion,
    for the fag ends of the aristocracy.
  • Doghouse RileyDoghouse Riley South ManchesterPosts: 347
    edited October 2021
    punkdoc said:
    I remember it too and I remember you left after causing a few problems.

    Sorry.

    Was that your job?

    Your remarks were uncalled for, unsubstantiated and totally unnecessary.


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