While this is not your typical garden area, it is now more in fitting with the rest of our gardens, and not as much of an eyesore.
This area was originally a grass area with a silk tree above. Hubby then built a solid frame for berries to grow up. Unfortunately, even with a concrete round protecting them, he still managed to weed eat 3 raspberry plants (we plant these here as it does get some shade and raspberries aren't always easy to grow in the north). Eventually a fencing area was put up to allow the chickens more room, with a temporary type edging to keep the bark in (sideways fence palings). Fast forward a few years, storm damage to the tree and the coop, and endless water through the area from the Neighbour's and another raspberry weed eated and changes need to be made. It took me a bit to convince hubby but he eventually came on board and helped as he saw benefit in what we were doing. We were even having to move the cars before mowing the lawn as the bark from the run would flick up everywhere.
So over the past month we removed the rounds, and hubby put another layer of edging in. We then put weed mat down, and I've moved some stones to cover the weed mat. Landscaping around a coop isn't easy as it needs to be easily removed if we no longer have chooks, but also plants need to be far enough away to protect them from the chooks poking their heads through.
My mum has given us another raspberry (ironically a cutting from my original one) which is planted down one end. The other end has an orange raspberry. While these are both quite small we've actually popped a couple of rock melons in at either end for this year (we will hopefully be able to grow them up the wire). We've also popped a few cape gooseberries in.
In the stone area we have some planters with a few different things growing in. This will add some colour, but also unites it to the bbq area. As we look down from our lounge area to this space, it is definitely an improvement. And as things grow, it will be even better.
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