The Garden Project - July 2026

EARLY RETIREMENTSLOW TRAVELSCOTLANDHOME MAINTENANCEGARDENING

Liz

10/3/20265 min read

R and I have adopted what I think is quite a simple but sensible approach to living our lives in retirement. Transitioning from working a full-time job to suddenly having no job, no boss, no daily commute, no weekly structure, etc., can be a slightly scary thought for some people, and I guess some people struggle to adapt to their 'new normal' after the 'holiday honeymoon' period wears off.

Whilst no one knows exactly how it is going to be for them until it actually happens to them, I think R and I had a reasonable idea of what we wanted our retirement to look like. We knew we wanted to do some slow travel to far away places. But I also knew that I would need to have some 'projects' to ensure I wasn't bored. Yes, we were both very much looking forward to not having to set the alarm clock for every day during the working week, and yes, we had travel planning and travels to look forward to, but what were we going to do in between these times?

For me, I wanted to set up a health and safety consultancy business, which I felt would be a good way to transition from my full-time working career into a part-time opportunity which I could do even when I was on the other side of the world. This felt like the right choice for me, and I was looking forward to the new challenges and skills I would have to learn in this process. So that's what I did, and in the process of doing this, I had to do some other things like sort out my new office space in the house. So move over, S, but your old bedroom is no more, as it's now my 'office space'. I enjoyed the process of making this space into my new domain, so much so that R never helped in the slightest with the painting! Of course, once this was done and the business was up and running, then I needed to have some other projects to keep me going. The first year of our retirement, we also redecorated A's old bedroom, emptied the loft and did some badly needed decluttering of house items. I didn't really manage to get out into the garden much in our first year of retirement, other than to do the usual tasks of mowing the lawn, cutting the hedges, etc., so I planned on trying to rectify this in our second year.

Fast forward to when we returned from our travels to Thailand and Malaysia in February 2026, and it was still a little too cold to do much, other than arrange to get the trees trimmed. By March, I was starting to get my seedlings sorted out and started off in the house. Then in early April, I put them out to harden off, and guess what? Yeah, we got some unexpected frost, and it killed off most of them. The ones that the frost didn't get, the snails had a good try at. So by the time they needed to be put into the ground, there were sadly a lot fewer than there should have been.

Then I noticed another problem. As I was starting to think about how to put up the support structure for the plants, it became apparent that our garden wall was in a pretty dire state and badly needed re-mortaring. So, I decided that I really should do that before I put in the plants. However, this was easier said than done, and it took me a LOT longer than I planned due to the length of the wall, the removal of plant materials, my old arthritic fingers and joints and the changeable weather.

The Bottom Patio

Another garden project that has been on the horizon for the last few years has been our patio at the bottom of the garden, which was very uneven due to the roots of a nearby tree. Now, this patio has been here since we moved into the house over 25 years ago. In the past, I had grand ideas of redesigning the whole garden, which included getting rid of this old patio, but I have since come to my senses and, rather than spend a lot of money on the garden (especially since we retired early and we no longer have the same amount of money coming in each month), we much prefer to spend our money on travel, experiences and memories. So, I had decided (notice how R sometimes doesn't get a say in some things?) that we would take up the slabs, cut back the tree roots, and just relay the existing patio. One Saturday, when A&A were over, A and I lifted all the slabs (the old heavy 60 x 60 ones!), with R supervising and assisting by means of killing the ant nests that were underneath the slabs - there were loads of ant eggs - yuck! Oh, and don't forget to note the state of the wall down at this end of the garden!

Once the slabs were up, it was time to start prepping the area, get the sand and concrete in, which we should have ordered to be delivered, but we didn't and then had to make numerous trips back and forth to the garden centre. I stupidly forgot how R always over-engineers stuff, so we underestimated how much material we actually needed. R cut out the main root issues and then set about planning out the new patio layout, which needed to change a bit due to the tree base. I managed to find some second-hand small bricks for sale on Gumtree that I thought would be ideal for a border (they just needed a bit of a clean), and then it was time to roll up our sleeves and get on with it... just in time to coincide with a heat wave - typical!

July 2026

Glasgow, Scotland

It took us about a week to complete the patio, and we were pretty done in by the end of it. I then needed to sort out the mortar for the wall in the corner, as the tree had done quite a bit of damage to this area, with some parts completely loose! The mortar does look a bit of a mess, but the brightness will die down with time. The wall has lasted about 130 years, so I guess it was overdue a touch-up. The final touches were putting the new furniture items together, including an old chiminea which I bought (again on Gumtree) and sanded and repainted it, so it looks as good as new!

I don't have much in the way of photos from the vegetable patch, but our good friend V, gave us a boxload of plants and flowers, which I planted, and I can confirm I have had some tomatoes and there are a number yet to ripen. We've also had a number of courgettes, potatoes and rocket too. The best bit is that now that the wall is done and the patio sorted, next year I should be able to get going in the garden from early spring, and we will be able to enjoy using the bottom patio with friends and family when we have nice weather (ok - that's me just jinxed the weather for next year now, folks!)

So in summary, retirement is many things for many people and for us it's all about adapting to a mixture of different projects, be it travel, home improvement, gardening or running a part-time business, but always things to keep us motivated and busy! Being busy is also a key reason why I have not updated this blog in such a long time, but I have a new project in the planning stage, so I need to get this updated so that we can look back and remember what we actually did in our retirement!