Plans to revamp our neglected little back garden have been talked about for at least 2 years and probably longer. It was a bare plot (the house was newly built) when we moved here and a lot of effort went into laying turf, building and populating a pond, establishing paved areas and a path, and planting.
Almost twenty years on, and with our enthusiasm for gardening having waned over time, it's in a sorry state. Faced with all of that empty soil, I made the classic mistake of overfilling it and you only have to look at the narrow borders to see that the shrubs and trees have had to jostle each other for space and light, with their long, misshapen, skeletal arms which only manage to bloom, if at all, in the last couple of inches. Then there are the self planted aliens that made themselves at home and flourished, and those others that have simply vanished without trace.
Part of the problem with the garden is the odd shape. Whilst small, there isn't one place where you get a view of it all. It has no depth, running behind our garages at the side of the house, which wasn't an issue when we backed onto a field but now we're overlooked by houses, built far too close and too high in our opinion. Of course, there's nothing we can do about that (apart from move house which the mister is passionately agin) but we can do something to improve the outside space so that we can actually enjoy it.
And so we've taken the first step by having most of the fencing replaced. What I hadn't understood was that this would involve the rather brutal removal of some of those afore mentioned shrubs and trees (and thus providing some of those afore mentioned neighbouring houses with uninterrupted views of life chez nous).
Part of the bomb site, after four loads of debris had been taken to the tip.
A view of work in progress from the bottom corner of the garden, looking past the garages towards the pond and house.
Where plant and fence become one.
But I'm quickly realising that this unplanned decluttering is a good thing, forcing us to think about what should be kept and what really has no business to be there at all.