We’re no strangers to garden work! Back in our old house we built a retaining wall and shovelled 10 tonnes of top soil into the garden to make it level but we swore we’d never take on a garden that needed so much work doing to it again.

Then along came this house. Initially we thought this garden needed minimal doing to it; the garden is flat and we could see new fences along the border.

Then we removed the ivy and saw the damage it had done to the mismatched fences. Then we discovered the sheer size of the pond. And then we realised that if we wanted to get the hot tub out it would take a lot more than just wheeling it out on a trolley.

To get the garden how we’d like it, we need to remove so. much. stuff. I can’t count the amount of trips we’ve made to the skip with ivy, gravel and bits of decking.

It looks a mess now (it’s definitely a case of it looking worse before it gets better) but every sunny day I’m reminded of how nice this space will be; the sun shines into the garden all day and it’s private and quiet.

The garden itself is wide but quite shallow. Immediately when we viewed the house we knew we wanted to knock into the kitchen and dining room and open it up into the garden area. This means changing the shape of the grass area, redoing the brick wall and laying a new patio. This is quite a while away yet and when I’ve worked out our to-do list we’re only on phase two of six!

Inspiration

We’ll need to replace the brick mini retaining wall running along the garden like above.

We’d like to lay a patio with steps leading up into the grass like above though ours won’t need to be quite as high.

We’ll have a seating area somewhere in the garden and this set is stunning.

Green painted fences will border the garden.

Tall hedges will create privacy.

Flowers will be planted in beds in the middle of the garden.

In the future I’d love to create a summer house like above.

And there’ll be paths leading from the kitchen patio to the main seating areas in the garden.

Our To-do List

Phase one, removal – DONE

✓ Remove ivy

✓ Remove pond

✓ Remove decking

✓ Remove hot tub

✓ Remove concrete

✓ Remove gravel and stones from hot tub area

✓ Remove bushes from left hand side

✓ Remove stepping stones

Phase two, tidy up the left side – IN PROGRESS

◦ Sprinkle grass seed

◦ Lay weed membrane

◦ Add bark chippings

◦ Plant bushes

◦ Pave the concrete slab

◦ Dig post holes

◦ Put up new fence

◦ Paint fence

◦ Seed missing spaces

Phase three, tidy up the right side

◦ Dig up gravel

◦ Flatten area

◦ Seed or pave area

◦ Add bark chippings

◦ Plant bushes

Phase four, make functional

◦ Dig up area for patio

◦ Knock down brick wall / steps

◦ Rebuild wall and steps

◦ Add in drainage

◦ Build new door steps

◦ Lay patio

◦ Add in gravel paths

Phase five, make pretty

◦ Add bark chippings

◦ Plant flowers in flower patch

Phase six, make amazing!

◦ Build summer house

◦ Build play house

◦ Make outdoor bbq space

There’s a lot to do and who knows how long it’ll take to complete but for now all we can do is crack on!