Langham Family Business

24/04/2026

🌿 A final update from Langham Family Business

It’s been about 6 months since our last update… and now spring is in full swing, it felt like the right time for one last look at how things have come along.

First — a bit of honesty.

This will be the last post for Langham Family Business.
I got a bit ahead of myself thinking it would simplify life, but in reality, Kettering Handyman and Kettering Cleaner are both doing really well, and there’s no need to overcomplicate things.

Sometimes the simplest setup is the best one.

🌱 The garden… where are we now?

Things are properly coming to life.

- The onions are doing really well
- We’ve got a raised bed growing potatoes, carrots, lettuce and radish
- Raspberries and strawberries are in
- And today, the kids were properly excited to see their sunflowers starting to grow 🌻

That alone made it all worthwhile.

We’ve also got masonry bees nesting in the garage wall and bug hotel, which has been amazing to see — a proper sign that nature’s starting to find its way back in 🐝

🌿 The grass (or… what’s becoming grass)

This has been the biggest learning curve.

We ripped out the artificial lawn and tried to bring it back naturally —
but I definitely pushed things a bit too far:

- seeded early
- not enough soil down
- stones still coming through
- constant footfall from us and the kids playing on it
- and the birds helping themselves to the seed

By all accounts it shouldn’t really be working…
…but somehow, it is.

It’s patchy, uneven, and far from perfect —
but seeing real grass coming through again has been a win.

🪵 The rest of the progress
- Fences painted
- A path created
- Garage door replaced
- Slowly bringing in more colour and life

And a special one…

We planted a pair of pear trees at the back, which my pair of kids got me for my big 40th 🍐❤️

💷 Doing it on a shoestring

This hasn’t been a big-budget project.

Most of it has been done using:

- leftover materials from jobs
- free soil where we could get it
- bits reused and repurposed

The main cost has really just been seeds, plants and compost.

It’s proof that you don’t need thousands to start changing a space.

♻️ One thing that didn’t stick…

We’ve actually stopped composting for now.

In theory, I love the idea — but in reality, it just wasn’t practical for us at this stage.
Maybe something we come back to later.

🌿 What this has really been about

This was never about creating a perfect show garden.

It’s been about:

- learning as we go
- getting things wrong
- working with what we’ve got
- and creating a space for the kids to grow up in

Mud, patchy grass and all.

👋 What’s next

We’ll keep working away in the garden — just without documenting it under this page.

And for everything else, we’ll keep things focused on:
🔧 Kettering Handyman
🧼 Kettering Cleaner

Thanks to everyone who followed along, offered advice, or just quietly watched. It’s genuinely meant a lot.

– Simon & family 🌱