well as fast as the two of us could go with pick and shovel and two wheelbarrows
Lots of digging in 2009, removing/replacing plants and amending soil!
The first project was tackling the jungle on the east side of the house..... before pics from 2007 before we moved in and after pics 2009
before
during and after
The narrow strip next to the garage
The terrace trough
Next big project – West side retaining walls.
before
Oct 2008 after addition of store room and first landscaping
End of June 2009 we started moving and rearranging each individual stone of the existing wall. Two weeks of hard labour and we could see a difference but still had quite a way to go!
How’s the saying go? ‘Stop and smell the roses!’
And when we did stop for a breather, we were already able to start enjoying the fruits of our labour!
April - Daffs and tulips
May - Allium - Foxies and Peonie - Roses and Pansies - Sweet William
June - Clematis, Roses and Spirea - Lillies and Roses
The front garden - hard to imagine the state it was in the year before!
August 1, Swiss National Day, arrived and is traditionally the beginning of our three week summer holiday
The view from our terrace 
We had big plans!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 
6 palettes of retaining wall stones!
And so we continued on the west side of the house, moving individual stones and digging back into the slope
Two weeks solid and the results could be seen but we were ‘kapooped’! And the stones on the palettes were still in the driveway! But ‘Genug was Genug’! It was actually a pleasure cutting the hedge - a job we never look forward to ...
August and September passed in a flash and with October came the addition of our ‘Wintergarden’ (aka Sunroom)
Aesthetically, perhaps not the most attractive addition to the house but boy did it make those chilly autumn evenings that much more comfortable!
Today, I look back at 2009 with great satisfaction and quite a bit of pride. Especially when I consider that the two of us did it all ourselves and that only on weekends and during the holidays!
They say a picture paints a thousand words! A cliché for sure, but its true! So I am going to include quite a few.
When we bought this property in September 2007, we saw the potential – not only in the house but also in the garden! It isn't a big garden, 1000m2, but above average for a residential property in Switzerland. Next year will be our 10th season here having undertaken numerous projects, big and small, over the years.
May 2008 was the first which entailed transplanting the 90-odd Thuja forming a hedge through the middle of the front garden. This was so that the grader could get in to prepare for the addition of a storeroom as replacement for the little shed.
Before pics - September 2007 (pot collection was courtesy of the previous owners!)
During pics - May to July 2008
It was slow going but we eventually started landscaping in August of 2008.
Mom and Dad visited (working holiday from SA) and were an immense help with the initial landscaping.
Things already looked a little different in September 2008
When reading a blog, do you ever wonder about the author?
Instead of just jumping in and posting day-to-day occurrences, a brief introduction may be in order ...
Difficult to believe but these days, most people would probably (hopefully) refer to DH and myself as middle aged! Our daughter, who has long since flown the coop, might say we are old but that would make my parents (both still around) ancient which they absolutely are not!
Originally from South Africa, near Johannesburg, I have lived in the north-eastern part of Switzerland near the Lake of Constance for almost 20 years now. Prior to that, we jumped between South Africa, Sweden and Switzerland depending on where DH’s job took him.
Both DH and I still work (at the same company) although since June this year, I have reduced my hours and now have more time to spend doing what I love best – gardening!
My interest in gardening most definitely comes from my mom and over the years, I have tried to implement her teachings in all the gardens we have had. She has been my source of inspiration and has always been ready with advice and a helping hand wherever possible.
Talking a walk around my Mom’s garden is always interesting!
Anyway moving on, we purchased our present home, then 30 years old, in September 2007. Renovating the house was our first priority at that stage – the garden, even though it was a bit of a jungle, had to wait!
Garden view September 2007
In my next posts I am going to try and recapture what has happened from then until now. Looking back through all the old pics is really going to be fun! Freshen up all the old memories!
Do you read the blogs on NGA? If you are reading this you obviously do! Quite often I read a blog post and think to myself – been there, done that, new to me, great idea, fantastic and so on! The day-to-day (or month-to-month) happenings others encounter in their gardens are fascinating to me and time and again, I can relate to and learn from their experiences.
I have often considered starting a blog of my own but have had a number of reservations. Is my penmanship good enough? Will readers like what I write or even read what I write? Will I find the time and be disciplined enough to make regular posts? I could go on but suffice to say they were numerous!
Finally, throwing caution to the wind and putting all doubts aside, I have decided to start my own blog: primarily as a diary for myself and secondly for my loved ones abroad so that they can share my enthusiasm in our garden. It will be an added bonus if other NGA members find pleasure in reading my posts. I truly hope so….
So with the best intentions of making regular post, at whatever pace, this was the first!
