A new gardener's journey

As I mentioned on your photos, it's good to be able to start with a virtual blank canvas. Looks a great design.

My garden was full of old diseased trees etc. So much harder when there is lots to remove before you can even start redesigning.

Which side is yours legally ? i.e. fence or hedge ?
You gave the hedge a good haircut Lol. :o)
Welcome to GoY
Enjoy.:o)

Thank you for the welcome, I thought I'd introduce myself by showing what I've done over the last summer, almost all of the digging i did myself with help from OH for some areas (where we discovered concrete UNDER soil!) Gardening certainly keeps you fit!

Both the hedge and the fence are within our boundary, the fence is new (summer 07), the hedge was a desperate measure to stop the kids kicking balls into the neighbours veg garden when they were small! I hate it, but OH doesn't want it to go.

Nice blog, good to see your progress isn't it? All that hard work rewarded! Well done! Look forward to more photo's. Oh...Welcome to GOY!

Looking lovely! Hope you've not forgotten to allow room for your green washing line?! I like to see washing in a garden, makes it all look real and lived in.

Thank you Potty (are we related? lol!) I'm glad I've taken photos, it's good to see that we're getting somewhere!

Weeding, at the moment we push the line away from the pond using the prop, I think we should be able to keep it, I like to dry as much as possible outside! If we can't keep the line, we'll get one of those whirly things instead. Thanks for the nice comment :)

Welcome to GOY, Madmum. What a good thing you remembered to take 'before and after' photos! You will be able to check progress on your garden project from start to... I was going to say 'finish' - but I don't believe that gardens are ever finished!

I'd love to know how long all that work so far has taken!

Hi Mmum & welcome2GOY i see uv done some Fantastic Work on your Garden!! Its looking Great :) So whats on the Gender nex? Cant wait2see what other plans u have :) Do keep Us Up Dated with ur great pics:)

Well done it really is coming on,looking forwould to seeing ome more photos as it progesses, oh and welcome to GOY.

Well done - lots of hard work but it is looking much better already. Really looking forward to seeing how it develops. And years later, you'll be glad you took photos of the developments so you can see how much you've achieved

great bolg, brilliant to have a photographic record of the changes in the garden

Well done you have worked hard, gardening is one of the best hobbies in the world, (I might be a little bias there!) it looks lovely.

Well done you've completely revitalised your garden and I can see there is more to come. your pond looks great, Welcome to GOY. You will enjoy this site.

It's great. You've done a lot of work and it will only improve as time goes on.
All the best, Hywel.

What a marvellous garden you're creating here. Many thanks for this blog, it is a credit to all your hard work.

You've done a marvelous job!

great blog,
like the shed, at an angle to the garden , we painted ours green to 'blend' in . keep the hedge it looks nice.
with all your kids off to college you may have to change your title to 'sanemum'.when ours left , the peace and quiet was heaven!!!.............steve

Thanks to everyone, I feel very welcome here on GOY!

Spritzhenry, we started thinking about it a few years ago, and put the fence up in 2006. The real work only started this July when we laid the base for the shed, so I suppose it's taken just over three months, with all the heavy work done on the odd weekends when my OH didn't have to work (he works at Wyevale Nurseries, so summer is always busy).

Jacque, I plan to build a wooden pergola over the bench to grow honeysuckle, clematis and maybe a climbing rose over. We're also putting a gravel path down the right side and to the shed. The back right corner is hopefully going to be fit for a few vegetables - beans at least, although it might be a bit too shady.

Steve, I was determined not to have the shed tucked in the corner, I wanted it to be a part of the design. I'm not sure whether we'll paint it green or not, we'll see how it looks next summer! As for changing my name, it could be too late for me, the madness is permanent ;o)