Well, that very weekend we found a house and thought – ok, it’ll do.
My first view of the house – and yes, that’s me in the lefthand corner. I think the red car is ours. We used to have to hit the starter motor with a club hammer to get it going.
Why did we think it would do? Well, it was shabby, damp, not at all country cottagey, even rather ugly. But filled all our requirements if not our dreams.
Here’s the other side of the house.
The sheep didn’t come with the property. ‘But we like sheep’.
And here’s the context – an overview of Upper Veddw
We’re the red dot.
The Veddw (or The Fedw : that is a story in itself) is a small settlement about half a mile from the village of Devauden, in Monmouthshire.
There was no garden to speak of, which was just what I wanted. It gave me a clean slate. And the setting was amazing for a garden – the house right in the middle of two acres of grassland. It’s circled at the south side (on the right in this photo and up the slope, counter intuitively) by a line of old trees. This creates a kind of amphitheatre effect and is surprisingly symmetrical. It’s perfect apart maybe from sloping quite steeply to face the north, but I don’t mind that. Lovers of tender plants might, perhaps. And I might when I’m a bit older……
It’s got a lot of garden on it now, but this gives you a rough outline. It was basically house and grass in 1987. With sheep.
I bet you think we called in a garden designer. And men with machines.
Nope. The beginning was just me and a spade, with help from Charles when he wasn’t working.
I had no idea what I was doing, or going to do, or how to do it, or what with.
Totally bonkers.
Charles:
It seems like SO long ago that we were sitting on the side of one of the fields looking at the house and talking it over. And it was a long time ago. 37 years. Over half my lifetime (to date). I really had no idea what you had in mind, either. I think if I had, I’d have been freaked out. I don’t actually think you ever said “one day all this will be a garden”. I’d have thought you deranged. And as for doing it yourself (ourselves) on the kind of money we had at the time I’d have said that it was impossible. But there it is. Amazing.
