Front gardens.

With dry-stone dykes built we started on the front garden space. As mentioned in the previous post, a third of the area had been walled on four sides. A nod to a kailyard, traditionally the spot where crofters would grow veg. The stone dykes giving protection from both the wind and from wandering livestock.

We started in the kailyard first. The plan was to have a single border taking up most of the space. To one side a stone chip path would allow access to the rear garden with another area of chips giving both somewhere to sit and also allowing the ground beneath an inherited and shallow rooted rowan to remain undisturbed.

With the border marked out and edged with sea worn stones from the shore, Jacqui dusted off her spade and started to dig. At the side of her a dumper, a wheelbarrow and a sack barrow, the dumper for unearthed stone suitable for walling, the barrow for smaller stone, the sack barrow for stone too heavy to lift.

As the kailyard progressed, a small extension was also being built on the front of the house. The area in front of the extension makes up the rest of the front garden space. Once the extension was built, work also started on this area.

During the digging of the extension foundations, I’d tracked a mini-digger and dumper over the ground that would become garden, so once again more somme than garden. It sloped awkwardly on the left side so we decided to split the space with a simple driftwood and chestnut pale fence. The left side would be terraced to lose the slope and give instead a raised bed and a sunken area.

With the kailyard and front gardens laid out and dug Jacqui started to plant them up, the real gardener out of the two of us. Despite the poor soil within the space of two summers with her care and attention each area has filled with colour. A mix of annuals and perennials, both damp and dry lovers, all rubbing along together. Alive with bees and butterflies.