Adrian Halliwell

In October 2012 Anne and I moved into our bungalow, having spent three months renovating the inside of it, bringing it up-to-date. This was a long job which meant that we didn’t touch the garden apart from taking all of the trees, bushes, hard landscaping and getting it ready for remodelling the whole lot! In September the conservatory was being built and luckily the contractor had a mini digger which he let me “play” with to enable the levelling and terracing to be sorted as well as digging out the old hedge.

In April 2013 work on the garden started in earnest with me building a 30metres long retaining wall, never laid bricks before, with three sets of steps. No sooner had I finished one section when Mrs H wanted to plant the beds up! A month later the wall was built and laying the paths and patio areas was next on the list. All of the hard landscaping was now complete and we attacked the planting of the plants we had brought with us from our old home and allotments.
From that time to the present we have continually enjoyed our garden, constantly updating various parts, for example: we had a fruit cage which when it rotted out demolished it and changed it to a flower bed; had chickens for a couple of years; installed three raised bets for the vegetables, shifting nine tons of topsoil to fill them. Outside the fence we have laid out several borders which give us pleasure as well as those passing by. Often we have great comments on how beautiful it looks and how they look to see what next is going to change.
Part of our enjoyment is the propagating of plants by cuttings, dividing and seeds. This is Mrs H’s domain. Naturally there are always more than we can use in the garden so we set up a table outside the bungalow and sell them off for charity, predominantly the TLC Appeal, I am the Taunton area coordinator, and other organisations.
The work in our garden is our hobby, which we love and enjoy, gives us immense satisfaction at seeing the fruits of our labour, especially in these difficult times.