Oh the joy of breeze blocks!!
Now I know this photo might not be inspiring for others but you have no idea how wonderful it is for me to have this area of the garden finally sorted.
I hate my patio with avengence but can’t afford to do anything about it at the moment. At the end of the patio is a gravel area, when we first moved here I thought great I will dig that up and plant it up to disguise the fence. No such luck I dont know what is under the gravel but it is neigh on impossible to dig and therefore nothing would want to grow in the groud here. Plus up until recently this area has flooded whenever we have heavy rain.
Last summer we put the trellis up on the fence and put some better gravel down and topped off with a nice wooden table and chairs. Bad move – when it flooded I had to move the table and chairs as they were standing in the water. So the latest idea is to create a sort of staging area for pots.
My eldest has used some breeze blocks (I know not that attractive but money is tight) and some timber and created a sort of step effect. At the moment the staging is covered in my pots of bulbs and tubers which is scary as I have realised that I may just have over done the summer bulbs and tubers this year. But once these are planted out and the weather has warmed up the plan is to use the staging for the tender plants which are currently residing in the greenhouse. Then in the winter I can use it for seedlings etc with some plastic sheeting over to protect from frost.
I am really chuffed, lets just hope that I can find an equally cunning plan for the small area to the left of the photo which floods lots. I’m thinking a big bog plant but a Gunnera will be too big so I need something slightly smaller. Of to do some research!!
This is really smart. I am going to copy this. I saw ages ago a photo of a similar set up at, i think, east ruston old vicarage (not with breeze blocks, obv!) tiers covered in summer with succulents and agapanthus and geraniums and have always wanted to set up something similar myself. You have got me thinking now…
I really like this as well, it’s a great way to make use of an area like that. Guess what, I’m going to copy too. Used to do this with bricks and wood for bookshelves in my student days, why not plants too.
I think that it is lovely, and very, very handy. My husband gets annoyed when our outside dining area is covered with plants, and they have to be moved when we want to sit outside. I am sure if I show him this picture, he will agree in a heartbeat.
Isn’t that the beauty of growing things though? That you don’t need to use some fancy and outrageously expensive off the shelf product to get the effect you want. You can use materials which might be unpromising by themselves, but when you add living plants to them they always end up looking lovely. I have a corner where this will work too.
Very resourceful of you. I agree with Joanne about the softening effect of planting on hard materials. Instead of gunnera you could try one of the rheums (ornamental rhubarb) – good architectural foliage but not so big.
Looks like a great solution!
The best laid plans, huh. 😉 Something tends to mess up all our grand ideas, mine too. I think this is a good solution and a convenient one. Nothing wrong with that I assure you.
No use battling against a flood. Your staging idea is very good and makes best use of a difficult area. Breeze blocks may not be very pretty but it is surprising how much insect life is attracted into those little holes!
Hello Patient Gardener – seem to have arrived at reading about the breeze blocks in a plodding and tortoise manner (time-wise) I absolutely love cheap solutions to gardening problems. Like this one.
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