Two years ago I moved into a new flat and for the first time I had a garden of my very own. I couldn't wait to slip into a pair of designer wellies and get down and dirty with mother nature.A veritable blank canvas stood before me, with nothing but an ill kept lawn and some overgrown weeds and brambles to indicate that it was in fact a garden at all . The first job was to get rid of all these unwanted offenders so that I could see exactly what I had to work with, now to say that this was a little bit harder than I'd first imagined would be an understatement. Who new what hard work gardening was? Not me that's for sure. I won't even go into the dangers that are also involved in this hobby, the incident with the secateurs is still fresh in my mind.
Sadly I didn't think to take any photos at the beginning of this project, which is a damn shame as it would have been good to have some 'before shots' followed by the spectacular reveal at the end, making this post as exciting as any TV make-over show, aah well such is life I will just have to cut straight to the spectacular result pics 'ha ha'.
As you can see in the pictures I decided to get rid of the lawn and replace it with gavel, I didn't do this right away however, but after months of manicuring the grass every week the novelty soon wore off and I ripped it up with glee. I find that the gravel is much better as not only does it stop the tedious lawn mowing but it also gives the garden more of a contemporary courtyard look which is what I was after.
The seating area was simply created with some paving slabs that I salvaged from a skip believe it or not, and yes I did have the cheek to knock on the front door and ask if I could have them, my philosophy is 'if you don't ask you don't get', the kind lady even put them in her car and drove them to my house...I used a different colour granite chipping to fill in between the slabs, just to define the area.
You may by now have realised that it is quite a small garden and although it would have been nice to have a slightly bigger one, like a lot of things in life you sometimes just have to be grateful for what you've got...
That's all for this edition of 'The Great Outdoors' next time we will be taking a look at some other things I've done in the garden, don't miss it!
