You moved how much?

It’s early April, and we are there… at least we think we are (for now), in the garden. Foolishly when all the wood was delivered and the deck down I thought the heavy lifting was done. How wrong could I be?

The deck is treated with deck oil and looks great, but now we really see how much the rest of the garden looks a mess. The old gravel is ugly and patchy and the grass… well it isn’t grass at all, it’s weeds. I’d always wanted a Japanese garden and at first we thought with all this gravel, that could work well, but this is such a sunny garden, it has much more of a Mediterranean feel, and Olive has been part of our lives for 15 years, so now she can have a garden fit for her beauty.  

We had a few deck planks left over, and the pallet a delivery came on, so Ian’s been making good use of them building a wood store. We plan on some lovely evenings under the stars keeping warm using our new fire bowl. It is a fabulous wood store, and looks great in the garden, but I can confirm it is very heavy! Moving it from the grass to it’s new home was an epic lift that included one fall but luckily no injuries!   

Having built this, and decided on the garden’s theme, we realised we need gravel, lots and lots of gravel. We thought we would start with 2 bags to see how we go. It looks fabulous and really makes a difference, but we clearly need more, lots more!

In fact we needed 6 bags…. Big bags…  

We have been working on killing the weeds/lawn, we aren’t sure there was any grass actually left by the time we got here, and so now we need to sort that too. I say we, I have done nothing, Ian has done it all, digging, turning, raking, flattening, feeding… the lot.

It’s hard to remember how awful the garden was when we first started. Every step really makes a difference. After a trip to the local plant nursery, and a garden centre or two, we also have a few plants that bring it to life. As I have said before we want low maintenance, so we have been planning it carefully. With these plants in place it looks great, but our favourite plant isn’t coming just yet. We need to wait a few days for delivery!

Over the week, Ian has wheeled 4800 kilos of gravel, from the drive to the garden and laid it. It looks amazing.

On Easter Saturday the finishing touch arrives. When you live by the sea, of course you need a palm. Who wouldn’t want a palm in their garden?  If we had planned it better, it would have arrived on Palm Sunday – but you know, a palm is for life not just for Easter.

The garden is transformed, looking magical.  By day.

And by night.

By the end of the summer the final element will be in place. We can’t wait to enjoy it with friends and family. We have years to do that in, so no rush. We will be here to welcome you when the right time comes.