Patio

Just a quick post today. I am off to see a show tonight, and need to do some prep. Despite the weather the patio is almost completely down. Need to lay near house, then pointing needs doing. But wow is it looking good, I can see how the garden will look around it now. I'm excited.

Rain?

Just after this picture the heavens opened. Alot of rain, but seems to have stopped now. Popped out last night to get a new whirlygig, and look at pots, plants and fence ideas (for the veg garden, I have little doggies and I want to keep them out.) Very excited about these steps, but they are gonna cost quite abit obviously, so let's get this patio out of the way.

Marking out and prep for main part.

(Sorry photos are sideways, they come from my XOOM tablet, and blogger has no way to turn them.)
So we have began. My hubby and brother (who is a very skilled bricky) have been busy with spades and pick axes. And we have the first lot of patio space marked out. The space down the right, with the tree parts, is going to be pickett fenced off, to be our veg. I get to plant the rest. The back we haven't decided on yet. It may be pathed at another date and a small lean to green house or budge avery (or what ever I can fit) put there. Might just be a relaxing seating area?

Time for change.

We let the garden grow for a few years and have discovered its not as great as first impressions, even putting a few of my own plants in has not helped. When i first glanced at the garden I called it a mature garden. I can now add to that, it is an over matured garden. There was an old lady in this house before us, and i think perhaps her sons came over now and then, mowed lawn, cleared up, pulled up 'everything' not a shrub and hacked back everything else in winter. Touching on some of the problems with the garden due to this. What i though was uneven grass turned out to be uneven ground, dips and hills everywhere, enough to pull your hair out, and to top it up the whole garden is gently sloped, so all rain takes garden towards house. A few days rain means all pathing slabs are covered in mud and need excavating! Not much grows apart from the years weeds. Some nice hostas, londons pride, a few aqualegias but not as much as you would expect from a mature garden. But what makes it worse is all the growing plants have been hacked back badly for so many years that they are nothing much than a huge ball of dead bits that throw up a few weedy shoots a year. Sadly I hate to say it but most the fuchsias (and other scrubs) need to be put to rest. Not much is worth saving, 2 trees ( magnolia and lilac )  and some icelants are about it.
So we could either live with a garden we were having trouble loving and try bit by bit to make it smile. Or blow a lot of money making it just so. After a year of ignoring the garden ( blush )  we have gone with mostly the latter idea.
Firstly there was the hugest conifer ever right next to both our house and the neighbours, which is now mostly down. So we can begin. In a week, a digger is going to destroy the place to fix the place. Then the grass area is going to be replaced with slabs. Down one side will have a small veg patch for me and the kids, and the edges will be free for me to plant. It's going to take a couple of years with our busy lives to get looking as amazing as I in vision, but the start is here....