A Year in the Garden

2019 was a busy year, I started working, we traveled, and we settled into the garden.  We grew a lot from seed and small starter plants got huge with the the power of miracle grow.  Its our garden's drug of choice.  Forgive these photos, they are the only two I took from the same angle..

BEFORE                                   AFTER

The garden in 2018 when I first moved here was a minor wreck, after all the work Matt had done in the house I was excited to turn this into more of an outdoor room/ extension of our living space.

I moved this pallet of tiles by hand...twice, before it was finally taken away by someone who wanted them for their own garden.  We also had a few loads of ruble and renovation mess to haul away before the work could start.  

We dug out a drainage ditch so water wouldn't sit against the house, and built two mini retaining walls.  These photos don't truly illustrate how dry and dirty and dusty the garden was.  With nothing growing here the soil just dried up and blew around like dust. I know that sounds crazy but the summer of 2018 was a very hot and dry one here in England.  In fact I'm almost certain that it did not rain here from the day I moved here until the night of our wedding almost 8 weeks later.   

The grass was laid about a week before our wedding, so when my family came to see the house I wouldn't let them walk on it.  The Flamingos were a surprise gift we came home too after our wedding, we adore them and named them Monty and Don in honor of our favorite gardener.  The first bit of planting was done because the installers were a little short on grass and I had to cover up that bare dirt some how. The best thing I bought early on was the little red tree in the middle called a Smoke Bush.  The Smoke Bush has really fantastic purple and red leaves which are hydrophobic, so water beads up on them like little jewels. I'll get a photo at some point.

Fall of 2018 I planted about 100 spring bulbs, and they put on a spectacular show starting February 2019.  (Currently in Feb 2020 I'm hoping they'll come back, but they seem later than last year.)

In Spring of 2019 we began carving out the rest of the garden beds, and starting seeds both for here and the allotment.  We also picked up several large Terra-cotta pots to sit in the gravel trench against the house.  I propped them up on bricks and blocks, to make the garden feel taller on that side. 

Matt bought a nifty climate controlled seed propagator I highly recommend.  We had mixed success with our timing, but for the most part it was positive.  We didn't grow everything from seed, but enough to be proud of and fill in the gaps between the things we purchased.  

We got the most bang for our buck from buying dried Dahlia roots, the Lemon-Ice put out huge dinner plate sized flowers!  I also bought a gorgeous climbing rose which you can see against the brick wall.  I'm hoping to train it up and over the wall this year.

I had to have Black-Eyed-Susans (Rudbeckia) as they are the Maryland state flower.  I grew them from seed and they were my little piece of home in the garden.  To be honest I'm not sure they ever looked so good back in MD! 

Drying onions from the allotment on the grass in the summer sun!  About July is when the garden started to feel a bit jungly, which we loved.  We went through a lot of plant feed, and things just kept blooming.  We would feed the pots every week and the garden about every other week. 

The Garden made me feel so refreshed every time I went out into it even though there was always a lot to do.  One mistake I made last summer was not staking and tying things up before they started to lean.  The annuals especially got so big so quickly they were flopping all over the place, but we'll be better prepared in 2020. 

 

I'd never grown a garden like this before, and it honestly was a lot of work, but it exceeded my expectations as a lush floral escape.  There were two major differences I found from trying to grow a flower garden in Maryland.   First we didn't have to worry about deer coming in and eating everything and second it was a small enclosed space.  I think both can be considered positives, the lack of deer obviously so, but the smaller enclosed space, is a limiting factor so we really pushed for WOW in the space we do have. 

In 2020 our goal is to improve on this design as things get bigger.  We've promised not to buy any more plants.  We will only grow from seeds and cuttings this year.  (We'll see, it can be hard to resist a new flower!)

-Nikki

DIY Gold-leaf Agate Bookends

I think I get bogged down trying to do blog posts that cover the grand scale renovation projects and thats why it takes ages for me to publish them.  I'm always editing them down trying to be sleeker, less-wordy, more sophisticated, to generate some idealized version of myself to put out there.  Well news flash: thats not how I am, in real life I'm verbose, project oriented, and tenacious about the little details.  ANYWAY here I made you this thing. 

DIY Gold-leaf Agate Bookends.

Its exactly what it sounds like.  I've always been a collector of pebbles, shells, and curios, so when I saw Agate slice bookends showing up a few years ago I knew I wanted a pair.  I prowled my favorite thrift stores back in Maryland until this lovely natural pair popped up for only a few dollars!

They needed a little more glam to lift them from ordinary to extraordinary so gold it was.

I forgot to take a photo before I started the project..blogger fail, but basically the outside edges were just plain stone.  First I taped off the cut sides with quality blue painters tape, you don't want to risk edge bleeds here.

I went for quality metallic gold spray paint from Rust-oleum, I've had mixed results attempting to give a metallic finish to smooth items in the past, (plastic or stainless steel) but on a rough surface like rock it works quite well.

Let the paint dry, I recommend two thin coats, then peal the tape off of the cut edges and you're all set!

My assistant..

-Nikki

A Cottage Kitchen!

You guys this post is a long time in coming...but Ta Da! Kitchen fitted!  Here is a quick kitchen recap...

I don't miss this nightmare 'kitchen' at all... no storage, questionable electrics, sink that didn't drain, or alternately leaked onto an outlet that was for some reason installed underneath of it.. 

Mr.F stripped everything out of the kitchen, and I mean everything.  He started from scratch to create a dry and level base for the stone floors!

I was lucky that I didn't have to live here during the installation even though it went much more smoothly than the bathroom renovation catastrophes, feel the pain here and here.

Fun kitchen deliveries!

We decided to have the kitchen professionally fitted, which came with its own ups and downs but now that its in and we've lived with it for a while (a year, yes that is how long it takes me to get around to blogging.)  I'm already thinking about how to tweak it.. mostly just fun stuff like shiny brass handles and painting the cabinets. 

Waiting for installation!

 The cabinets are primed white, and originally I thought white and bright was the way to go, but it shows everything and I've really been feeling the deep jewel tones in decorating lately.  So maybe a deep ruby red or a sumptuous dark plum paint color is on the horizon..

What color would you choose?

We went for lots of classic cottage kitchen features like the farmhouse sink, the breakfast bar, and butcher block counter-tops.  The counters are a beautiful light Maple, a material traditional to Victorian kitchens, I love them but I'm not sure I'd do it again.  The Maple stains easily so we have to be careful to always wipe dry spills, in fact its probably time to oil them again.. add it to my list.  

The scene of frequent cooking shows staring myself.  

Check out those gorgeous backslash tiles we had exactly the right number left over from tiling the bathroom.

Ok so, what color would you paint the cabinets?

-Nikki

Summer + Fall adventures: A summary.

(Us at Wortley Hall.)

We got married in July 2018 in Sheffield (U.K.), it was wonderful, definitely one of the most special days of my entire life so far.

The rest of the summer was spent exploring around the Cotswolds with our National Trust membership cards, and working on the house (of course, that is why you're all here.) 

(me at Broadway tower.)

Right before the wedding we managed to get carpet in on the stairs and two bedrooms, we went with a modern light gray and now that its winter I'm so glad we did it.  The rooms feel so much cozier than they would have with just bare floorboards. 

(No we haven't done the radiators yet..)

We hung loads of pictures/paintings and some pendant lights, plus curtains!  Curtains really helped to make the rooms feel more finished and comfortable, they hide the fact that the windows don't have trim yet and stop people from being able to see in. 

We also did a lot of work in the garden, we built a retaining wall to keep the trench next to the house clear, fresh grass was laid down and I pulled up several of the big flagstones to make a little flower boarder.  I put in about 65 assorted spring bulbs and a purple smoke bush and two rose plants.

More on the garden to come later in its own post (we have flamingos!)

We also chose a paint color for the back-bedroom! This room with have warm amber brown floorboards and dark forest green plaster walls. I'm hoping it will feel like a cozy retreat. 

As fall began we took on a garden allotment to grow our own vegetables (because we don't have enough going on), I went through the visa process again, (much simpler this time), and we planned our honeymoon.  Most of November was spent traveling around the United States.  We did a mega road trip (2000+ miles) through Arizona and Utah, and we had a second wedding reception in Maryland for the USA side of the family.  It was so much fun that I think we should get married every year.

(Waterholes slot canyon in AZ.)

In Tewkesbury I also started volunteering at a local charity bookshop and at the local town museums, its been a fun way for me to get out of the house and meet more people in my new community.

Those of you who are house detail junkies like me, don't panic, I'll go into more detail in later posts. I really needed to get the big picture out first before I started in on the room by room stuff.

-Nikki

Watching Paint Dry

I've been in the UK about three weeks now and I've settled in somewhat.  The studio is now completely painted with Cat's Cradle (Earthborn Claypaints) on the walls and Off-Black Estate Eggshell (Farrow and Ball) on all the trim.  I even painted the inside of the little closet over the stairs and picked up some classic clear storage containers to organize it.  

I also finally had a chance to clean the paint off of both sides of this little transom window!  Now even if all the doors are closed the hallway gets some natural light, a welcome change!

 
I love this little room and I can't wait to see it carpeted, which, SURPRISE we are going with wall-to-wall carpet in the studio, the front bedroom, the hall, and the stairs.  We attempted to revive the floorboards but they are just in horrible condition and at this point we really just want the space to feel finished and cozy. 

Next I used Farrow and Ball's Off-Black downstairs on all the new baseboards.  All through the lounge, hall, kitchen and dinning space, we have brand new baseboards (because of the new floor.)  All the screw holes (huge masonry screws) had to be filled and sanded, then a wood primer coat and two coats of Off-Black.  All this took the better part of 3 days.  Long days spent home alone; on the floor, listening to true crime podcasts, I went a little stir crazy.  

I'm so in love with the way it came out, the soft black feels sophisticated and elevates the color of the limestone floors in a way I did not expect.  I'm not 100% happy with my fill job though, when the screw holes were on the curved section of the trim, it was a real struggle to get a seamless fill (whos idea was that!?)

I used Farrow and Ball's Railings for the baseboards in the front bedroom (no pictures of that room yet!), this one is a deep blue-black, though it just feels black in there, maybe that will change once the carpet goes in.

I also painted the woodwork going down into the cellar.  Previously the spookiest space in the house, it is now tidied up and a little more welcoming.  I only had enough paint to do the one wall, but after I added new light bulbs, it made a world of difference.  My next job down there will be to get some new shelving.  I need a place to store all these cans of paint!

Finally, I threw paint at the outer garden gate, it is a POS but the paint helps a little and is a step towards the garden not looking abandoned!

In wedding news: We picked up the succulent favors!  They are cute and now I don't want to give them away...

-Nikki