After a Fire, This “Total Mess” Yard Space Transformed into a Beautiful Garden
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade — or a lush flower and vegetable garden. U.K. resident Eli Hayes (@hayes_eli) had an emergency outside of her home (a small fire behind her apartment that singed her outdoor space and made it “a total mess”), but through a labor of love, she took a stressful situation and turned it into a calming outdoor space that’s packed with plants. “It wasn’t until the fire happened that I felt I really had an opportunity to take a blank slate and make it my own,” Eli says.
Before the fire, it was a white-walled outdoor space that wasn’t packed with personality. After the fire, “it needed color, it needed life, and it needed some serious work,” Eli adds. Now, it has plants galore, shelves, color (Cuprinol Garden Shades’ Cornflower Blue for the bold blue wall, to be specific), and it’s a favorite spot for both Eli and her dog, Enrique.
Apartment Therapy Before & After Survey
- Name: Eli Hayes
- Social media: @hayes_eli
- Type of home: Apartment, owned
- Who do you share your space with, if anyone? Jack Alessio Pretto
- Approximately how big is this space? Roughly 81 square feet
Describe what this space looked like before.
The flat had been recently renovated, but the “garden: was still very bland; it had plastic grass covering a layer of gravel and a small cupboard at the far end with an unhelpfully sloped floor, and was painted in white and gray. There was no plant life, no decoration apart from an old mirror, and it felt very much like a blank slate.
From this point, I began trying to add my own touch to it with outdoor lights and a few plants. But before I got very far, in July 2022, there was a huge fire right behind my flat which totally destroyed the garden and everything in it. The garden was full of melted roof, dirt, dust, ash, and the remains of anything that burnt. It was a total mess, to say nothing of how bleak it was underneath all the debris.
It took a long time to get the wall, which was crumbling and wobbly, pulled down and rebuilt (covered by insurance, thankfully). Once this finally happened, in summer 2023, I was able to paint the wall white again and begin thinking about how to build the garden I really wanted from scratch.
As part of this process, I was able to pull down the cupboard at the end of the garden, which served pretty much no purpose, and add length to the space.
Why did you decide to make a change?
I’ve always loved plants and taking care of them, as well as the effect they have on wildlife. I wanted to feed birds, see bees, and create an ecosystem that wasn’t just good for my own well-being but also for the creatures around me. I also wanted to be able to grow fruit and vegetables, because I love to cook and the idea of having a kitchen garden was so appealing.
What were the important steps in the project?
Starting post-fire, the first step was to knock down the big wall that marks the edge of the space. The fire had damaged the bricks, so the wall wobbled when you pushed it and was crumbling around the edges. This, and cleaning up all the mess generated by the fire, really put me in the state of mind to get stuck in: The atmosphere was no longer miserable, but felt more like an opportunity to make the most of a totally malleable space for me to play with.
From here on, I gradually began to collect plants while simultaneously planning what kind of space I wanted to create. It all happened a bit serendipitously, as I would find certain things along the way.
Between now and summer last year, I just picked up various things — like the wooden patio tiles on the floor — until I had the money saved and plan firmly in my head of how to actually design it. I started with small bits, like painting the walls with pale blue and yellow wiggly lines, which were inspired by Richard Wentworth’s work Agora at Bold Tendencies in Peckham, London, where I used to work.
Once I had the free time to work on it, I ordered the timber with only a vague idea of how it would come together. Then I spent a day sawing wood and constructing the raised bed and used the offcuts to build a few shelves. I of course spent time measuring and thinking through the logistics, but a lot of this process was just laying things out, considering where the sun would shine down to support plant growth, and working out what felt right for me.
From that point on, it’s mostly been a case of gardening. I had to get a lot of compost to fill the bed as well as buy a few additional plants. I spent a lot of time learning about the different species and trying to make sure I was planting them somewhere they would be happy. Then I gathered more plants, and more, particularly as propagations and seedlings from family, and then they bloomed! There’s so much color and life now, and the ongoing care is minimal — just watering and pruning as need be.
Is there anything you did for this project that was a home improvement “first” for you?
I’ve done a fair bit of DIY, but I have never constructed anything that began as an idea in my head before — or done as much sawing of wood (with a handsaw) as I did for this.
What did you learn in doing this project?
Although I’ve looked after plants for a long time, I’ve never gardened to this extent, whereby I’ve created a whole living space with wildlife and fruit and vegetables. Learning more about plants and the best way to look after them has been really rewarding. It’s made me more conscious of my surroundings and is a real exercise in mindfulness.
What would you do differently, if anything?
I think the one thing I would go back and change is paying slightly closer attention to what I’m planting. I got a bit carried away with plants at first, so now I’ve got a bit of an overgrown garden to tend to — even if it is beautiful. Once winter comes and the annuals are gone, I can do some pruning and put pen to paper on a more effective plan for next summer — hopefully one that includes more vegetables.
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