The woodland garden is a magical place. See what the woodland garden holds!

Yesterday I went out to the woodland garden for the first time this year to really take a look around and to pickup some tools that I needed for an upcoming project. There are a lot of leaves this spring as a result of my slackness last fall. I was tempted to spend the afternoon burning and raking but opted instead to blow the leaves out of the perennial beds and into a pile for burning latter. This was a quick job that only took about 45 minutes. While my angst over the ton of leaves that were everywhere was not resolved I felt that I had made an attempt to get things a bit under control. I have this almost anal compulsion when it comes getting things looking good . I even find myself looking at other peoples gardens and think this or that should be done to make things look right. So it was a tiny victory.

What gives me hope that Spring is here is that after removing the leaves from the beds I got to see the first shoots of the early perennials starting to poke up and start there quest for the spring sunshine . That is the best part of spring I think , seeing the barren earth starting to pop with hints of the new plants and flowers that will adorn our environment for the upcoming months .

I know that in the next two weeks or so I will be back at the woodland garden battling all those leaves because now that I seen them they will be on my mind. It was a good trip and even though I did not leave with everything in order I did leave with the positive outlook that spring has actually arrived.

During the summer of 2007 we made a major improvement out at the woodland garden. It was in fact a huge undertaking and one that literally changed the whole place. We had purchased this used trailer during our first year at the woodland garden and it was originally built back in 1986. It was not the best looking thing in the world but it had a lot of charm. It was built by the Park Trailer Manufacturing Company and was one of their original models. Here is what it looked like before we decided to renovate instead of purchase a newer model.

(click to enlarge)

It was a very unique design and had a certain appeal. My thought was to upgrade the wife said renovate. She did not want to lose the charm so we renovated. It turned out to be a complete rebuild almost.

As You can see we really took it down to the studs.The vinyl siding was removed and the underlying wood siding as well. We also replaced all the insulation. It turned out pretty good and the new color combination was much more pleasing to the eye.

Having the new siding and roof was inspiring. Also it made the project a wee bit more expensive and expansive. You see after the outside was done it was obvious that the old warn out inside could not stay so we redid that as well and changed it to meet our needs.

The water heater was in the bathroom area which was rather tiny and their was a storage closet across from the bathroom where the 2×4 was. This view was from the entrance. The window on the left was the first room you walked into and was the small bedroom.

The bedroom became a large shower room and storage area. The bathroom was expanded. The kitchen remodeled a bed put into the front bump out and pretty much all the electrical and lighting was changed . New flooring you name it we did it. So finally we finished and it now meets are needs.

The new shower on the right really made the whole place a lot more comfortable to stay in. No more trips down to the comfort station . A nice big steamy shower!

Now for the kitchen it was always so dark and dreary not to mention a tiny sink and no counter space.

The fan is sitting on the old refrigerator just a little bit larger than a small dorm size refrigerator. Looking in the right upper corner you can see the paneling in the bump out that use to adorn the whole inside of the trailer. I believe it was the cheapest paneling on the face of the earth!

In with the new kitchen. Much nicer and certainly more inviting and brighter.

All the old walls where replaced the new flooring and cabinets gave us organized storage and an easy to clean kitchen.

A sink where you could wash dishes and the draws would not fall apart when you opened them . Not to mention the brighter room.

The last area is the living room and bump out just like the rest of the trailer a new floor was installed and then the old wall covering would get ripped off and new walls installed.

You can see a good picture of the bump out where the bed was going here. The whole trailer got new oak flooring so that it would last a long time and be sturdy!

Finally a shot of the new living room after all the work and time I believe we now have a nice little camping tent out there in the woodland garden. All the comforts of home and now rain on your forhead when you sleep at night.

I fought hard for this last change but in the end I lost the battle. I wanted to have a nice outdoors feel to the bathroom and be able to feel like I was out in the woods but this was one of the changes that was not allowed. I’m still not sure I should of fought harder but I guess it would have still came out the same.

My outdoor plumbing idea go nixed.

Well today is the first of March. There is snow every wheres  and it is not an early spring this year. I am hoping the weather will be good enough to get out to the woodland garden in two weeks. There is a lot of winter cleanup to be done and I really do want to get out and see the early spring flowers.

There are a couple of projects I want to finish up from last year and then I think I will take a while and not do anything else new for a while. Overall I am very pleased with the layout and I do not want to get too crazy and formal. I am even thinking of get some of the areas back to a more natural state.

But hopefully in about two week s I will resume regular posts about the woodland garden.