A dilapidated chicken coop transformed into a garden paradise in 1000 days, how did she do it?

Chicken coop becomes a garden

Looking at the garden above, it is hard to imagine that three years ago it was actually a chicken pen. The garden owner Jiuyue is not some rich second generation, but a complete "second-generation farmer." As soon as she got home and saw this chicken coop, no matter how it was cleaned up it was still dirty and messy. She thought she was pretty good at growing flowers, so she might as well turn it into a garden!

Without hesitation, and relying on the straightforward spirit of a Sichuan girl, Jiuyue immediately began searching online for information. The garden in her mind needed to have many, many flowers, grasses, and trees, and also a sunroom, so that family members could rest in the garden and be placed in a dream...

While gathering information, Jiuyue was also struggling with her parents. They only wanted to plant corn next to the chicken coop, and if they did not plant it this year it would be too late. There was no way around it. Jiuyue followed her parents around every day and showed them the information she had found. The garden is so beautiful, do you really still want to do farm work for a lifetime?

Overall garden renovation

Everyone has a love for beauty, and moreover their daughter found nearly ten thousand reference pictures, so her parents finally decided to complete the garden dream together with their daughter. In the spring of 2016, everyone knocked down the chicken pen walls together, and after that there was not a single day of rest.

1. Plan the whole layout well, pave the paths first

At the very start of the renovation, first measure the overall area, make the layout according to the plan, then demolish what should be demolished and dig what should be dug. It was all boring physical labor. Hiring workers was too expensive, so the whole family, old and young, joined in. They were covered in dust all day, and for one or two months they never ate on time.

Two months later, the chicken coop and the abandoned yard had basically been leveled. First they laid some stone slab paths, so the garden's zones became obvious. Some of the stone slabs were leftovers from home renovation, and some were bought. Materials were all too expensive, so Jiuyue suggested saving wherever possible.

The main path in the garden needed to be paved with gravel, and every single stone on top was picked up by Jiuyue by the river and laid on personally one by one. In the corners along the path there are also some little stone footprints. Jiuyue has a daughter in elementary school, and these little ideas were all thought up by her~

2. Small central platform

At the intersection of several small paths, Jiuyue designed a small platform, surfaced with some broken marble. It was mainly completed by her dad. The father who had originally wanted to plant corn contributed the most to building the garden!

This small platform is for everyone to use while active in the garden. Besides viewing, it is also convenient when pruning flowers and plants normally, especially when arranging flowers, which is one of Jiuyue's favorite things. She had already imagined it in her heart many times.

Hurry to plant flowers

After the paths were paved and the zones were obvious, Jiuyue began busying herself with planting flowers. After all, flowers also need time to grow. By the time the garden was more or less organized, the flowers had also grown well. First she planted hydrangeas, roses, and clematis, these beautiful and easy-to-grow large flowers. They survived that same year, and by summer the flowers could be seen blooming.

The edges and corners of the garden were enclosed with stones, and small succulent seedlings, easy-to-spread lucky bamboo, and colorful heuchera were planted. At that time Jiuyue was not some flower-growing expert. It was common for half of ten plants to die, so she first chose small and easy-to-care-for ones to test the waters.

This is the succulent that Jiuyue grew in pots herself. She had not yet dared to plant it in the ground. Summer had arrived, so it was still better to care for it carefully!

Temporarily build a small pond

Once the flowers were more or less planted, all that was left was to wait for them to grow and bloom. At this time the weather was getting hotter and hotter, and the whole family had not yet had a chance to rest for a while before immediately deciding to build a small pond too. Acting as soon as the thought came, let's begin! The pond was placed in one corner of the garden, built with large stones and cement. Once the cement dried, water could be added.

Later, Dad used cement to make a rockery, and placing it in the pond was indeed somewhat interesting. The family happened to also have a flat stone slab, which was just right as a tray for the water lily pot. At first, several fish and turtles were put in the pond, but in the end half the fish died and all the turtles ran away! They had no choice but to raise them again...

Life in the garden

Jiuyue's garden has already endured three years of wind and rain, with both bitterness and sweetness. Although the climate in Sichuan is relatively good, the severe winter of 2017 still caused heavy losses. Because there were too many flowers, many flowers planted in the ground could not be moved indoors in time, and most of the flowers kept outdoors were frozen to death overnight.

No one is born good at growing flowers. Jiuyue also killed countless plants before achieving today's results. Now the garden is mainly hydrangeas, and perhaps because the soil in the south is more acidic, most of what grows comes out blue.

She also planted quite a few clematis. The flowers are truly too beautiful. Before having a garden, she had always wanted to grow them, and now she has planted quite a few varieties~

There are also the succulents Jiuyue grew at the beginning. Now they have all become old stems. There is no secret, just growing outdoors and relying on the weather!

The garden is not only a world of flowers and plants, but also has some little cuties. What must be mentioned is Jiuyue's pet Huihui: it is a little expert at all kinds of posed photos, and comes as soon as a photo is taken. Usually it also loves to play in the garden. When it gets angry and burrows into the garden, you cannot call it back no matter how much you shout~

Huihui's little babies were also born in the garden, three round little ones, and they have all already found good homes.

Huihui's good friend Damião, the two are always inseparable.

After reading Jiuyue's garden-making story

Do you, as someone who loves flowers, feel anything?

If you want to discuss with more flower friends

Then chat a few more words~