The garden fun continues

Apart from cleaning and unpacking a few things from the garage, we are having a bit of a break from doing stuff inside the house. Instead most of the efforts are going into the garden in the hope of having some sort of garden to relax in over the summer, even if it is just a small area done. The digging and levelling at the side of the patio has progressed with mixed fortunes, most of it has now been dug, but along the edge of the patio it is too tough to get a fork through. 

The garden end is softer, so after a rest I will try again from this end and see how far I get. It would be nice to have the whole lot dug, but if we can't the plans should be ok with minimal soil on that side. The weather doesn't look like it will hold so we spent a bit of time playing with the layout for the paths and flower beds.  Those bricks from the old patio came in handy.

The first go wasn't quite right, so some fine tuning.

We both liked the bigger curve to the path, and it should make the end more private. The aim is to have a little shady seating area with a cafe style table and two chairs. The flower beds on the left will be filled with bamboo and tree ferns to make it nice and green.  The area on the right will be more spikey, with a raised rockery.  Hopefully when sitting down there you won't be overlooked from the houses in the cul-de-sac. Currently the greenhouse hides them a bit, but it will look much nicer when there is a lush green screen instead.

The other experiment, is a run of vertical posts that will continue through the garden (somehow). We set up a few to see what they could look like. The actual ones will be taller and will vary in height. We have to decide what size and type of board to use as well, but at least the idea should work.

With the layout firming up nicely, now we need the materials for the paths and seating area. Then it's onto the planting.  There is a certain irony that we have hundreds of plants in pots waiting to go into the ground, but only a few for this area. 

Sadly the rain is not going to hold off any longer and so it will be back to the list of jobs for inside. Hopefully though it will not stay wet for too long as we need to get some green in for our first proper house guests at the end of the month.