As with most of the population, the last year or so hasn’t been the easiest in lots of respects but (fingers crossed) it looks like things might be finally starting to improve. And so, in celebration of this, I have finally begun creating a very special outdoor space at Rigg House B&B which, over the last fortnight, has become my new favourite place to be.

For reasons that I won’t bore you with here, for a long time it has been pretty impossible to access our garden space, but, thankfully, it seems like things are returning to the way they were during our first couple of years here and so I finally have some privacy, along with a certain degree of peace. It’s an under-exaggeration to say that I needed this so badly after too long of feeling imprisoned in the house.

The irony is that our garden space isn’t exactly private since it sits directly beside the A76 and can easily be seen from passing traffic and it was this fact which had been annoying me for so long; I knew the space looked scruffy and unloved and I was just desperate to make it colourful and pretty. I always admire people who make an effort with their front gardens as it’s not just a nice thing to do for themselves, but also for everyone who passes by.

Anyway, here are some photos of the progress with the garden so far, along with my wonderful polytunnel den. I haven’t actually spent any money on the space yet (because I haven’t got any!) so everything I have used has been repurposed or upcycled in some way, but I think this makes it more special. If you’re coming to stay with us here at Rigg House B&B, please feel free to check out the garden and chill in the polytunnel den – just as long as you don’t mind sharing it with a hundred flying insects!

The polytunnel den is a bit of a homage to my favourite film of all time, Little Shop of Horrors
The path is perhaps my favourite thing about the garden, although it is not quite finished yet. This is a double recycled path – I found a big pile of concrete paving slabs dumped just off a side road so we did a couple of trips in the car to take those, then the kids and I had fun spreading concrete and sticking in lots of bottle lids which we have been saving for ages. We think it looks like the artwork from The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
Right in the centre of the garden is an old tree stump which I decided to give a face to. I quite like my Green Man protector, although both the kids told me it was ‘alright’.
The flower bed gets lots of sunlight so I have planted 10 of the apple trees which I grew last year – I now have over 50 decent little apple trees so hopefully one day we’ll have a beautiful orchard.
This little spot gets the most sun so it makes a great little nursery for my seedlings.
There was an old sink buried under lots of broken plant pots and leaves behind the hidden compost heap so (with a great deal of effort) Jay and I moved it into a sunny spot. I decided it would be perfect for a little fairy garden for Autumn so this will be an ongoing project over the summer – even Sidney, aged 5, got a bit involved with it.
Now I just need to wait for all my lovely flowers to grow! Lets hope we have a couple of months of good sunshine. And don’t forget – when you come to stay at Rigg House B&B you can check out all the process with our beautiful outside space.