The Garden Plan

My poor, poor garden has been on the to-do list for far too long. It breaks my heart because I love gardening it's just too many other things with the house have taken precedence and when we do have a spare weekend we seem to be camping or holidaying out of town.

But, finally, we've made a start, albeit a very small one. And it starts with a plan. I found this cool online planning software on the Gardena website and created this plan so at least I have a goal to work towards.

It's a pretty simple plan. There's just gravel down the right hand side with stepping stones to get to the patio and under the house. Everything will just be edged in treated pine and we'll try and get this bit done fairly quickly as the ground is quite uneven and underneath the house gets quite muddy when it rains. We hang our clothes there so we'll fill that bit with pavers and stones as well - that bit isn't on the plan as that's where the house is.

The left hand side will be a garden that is terraced in two places. There has to be stepping stones as the electricity meter and the gas bottles are located there. I was thinking a combination of white fragrant plants like magnolias, gardenias and star jasmine and other smaller plants like crocuses and spider lilies.

There is a huge section underneath the house with a high ceiling where I would love to put a timber deck and a projector where you can watch outdoor movies against the side of the house. This will be EXPENSIVE so that's probably stage three or four. In stage one we'll just be putting stones as there's weeds growing through and it's a pain to mow.

The rest of the backyard will just be turf with hedging at the sides and perhaps a outdoor pergola at the back.

We'll get there….eventually. The lawnmower has has broken so the grass has gotten very long until Jansen drops his mower over. Our very, very (very) sweet neighbour mowed the front part (without even asking) so at least it doesn't look like too much of a jungle.

Here's the before pics (also the present pics…for now).

We could put a projector and watch outdoor movies against this wall..eventually

Timber deck will go here eventually

This is an old pic, the cubby is no longer there

Garden will have two terraces down the side

Watch this space! ;-)