Introduction
On purchase the plan was that Diana would look after "the gardens" and Greg would look after "the grounds". The Garden was be all the open space around the house but not going beyond the decking at the rear. There wasn't really a garden to the front. Apart from a shed that was disintegrating, it was entirely laid to gravel, the car park for the fishery that used to operate from Ruston House. To either side there was little more than some grass with shrubbery along the borders. To the rear there was no more than a few feet of decking.
As with other sections of the site further photos may be found in the archives which may lead to more material being added to the site. It is recommended that you visit the What's New page where you can find how subscribe to our newsletter that will let you know when additional material in posted.
The Garage
When we bought Ruston House there was no garage but it was our plan to get one built. There is now a Garage Sub-Section to this area of the site linking relevant pages. To navigate through the sub-section use the links at the bottom of garage-related pages. These will also include a "Garage Pages:" section in the main navigation menu rather than a "Garden Pages:" section.
2014
15 November 2014 - Brick Edging and Fresh Gravel
After the construction of the garage foundations work continued on the rest of the front garden project. By 12 November cementing in the brick edging was complete and most of the ground was covered in a fresh layer of gravel. We were still undecided about running tall fence from the font corner of the garage directly to the hedge at the front of the garden to create a utility area that would keep the oil tank out of sight and provide a space for compost bins.
1 November 2014 - Patio Plants And Chiminea
We have a lack photographs of what was going on around the gardens, but there is one exception from late 2014 that shows a little of Diana's work on the patio behind the Music Room. It also shows the chiminea which had been bought recently. At this time we had also become concerned at what seemed to be a growing gap between the patio and back of the house and the decking at the quay heading appeared to be gradually bowing.
31 October 2014 - Garage Foundations Constructed
It was more than a year after moving that work finally begun on the garage. Gone was idea that it would include a third bay to act as replacement for the temporary shed. It was to be a simple two bay cart shed and, with confidence that may have been misplaced as we hadn't applied for planning permission, part of the brief to North Walsham Garden Centre was that they should construct a 6m x 7m base.
21 August 2014 - Patio Furniture Arrives
A lot of time was spent in creating and improving grounds rather than the gardens in our first couple of years. One exception was a new circular table and set of six chairs to go with it. The image below was taken on 21 august and was emailed to Diana who was on the Isle of Man the day it arrived!
19 April 2014 - Just 17 Comes Home
The next interruption, on 19 April, to the gardening plan was the arrival at Ruston House of Just 17. At the time the plan was that she would go back in the water as soon as she had received a little TLC. However, although a start was made she stayed on site until being sold on 8 September 2018.
28 March 2014 - A Garden In Need Of Attention
By 25 March there was photographic evidence that a clock, a Christmas present from Sylvia, adorned our front door, as did a decent post box, which replaced the old cool box we had been using. Also present in the front garden on that date was the large metal trunk found behind the reed bed in the grounds, and seen by the fence. It stayed by the gate for a while before going to the tip.
24 February 2014 - The Willow Sheds A Branch
In early 2014 we still had a lot to do to tackle the garden area around the house and there were always things happening to distract us that had to be dealt with first.
