Before and aft...

It has been a funny old week.. in more ways than one..
One couldn't fail to notice that the weather has been like a big dipper this week.. warm sun then days where the mercury plummets and I reach for the central heating switch again..
Temperamental in a word!
I have been asked by a client to design some Christmas Cards for a photo shoot next week... I do find the idea of snowy landscapes and holly sprigs a little hard to stomach when I long for the heady days of summer.. when will it come out of hibernation I wonder.. or rather .. will it come out of hibernation ?
Mustn't be pessimistic... onwards and upwards and outwards.. preferably.. in the garden.
I have been flitting in and out of blog world to snatch a few glimpses at what the community is getting up to and it is fairly evident that a great deal of you are thinking of outdoor pursuits .. particularly your gardens. I had some lovely compliments about my small country pile..and a request from Lesley to show the pebble mosaic that we have set in our bottom terrace..So with this request in mind I have decided to do a makeover post.. and show you the jungle that we inherited two years ago and how it has gradually evolved into another jungle but more manageable!
When we first saw this house and garden.. my heart sank to see that the lay of the land was on a steep incline and the garden itself had been badly neglected..
Some would rub their hands in glee to see a challenge and to some degree I did until I realised that we had also inherited the national collection of bindweed and assorted vermin.. weeds!
I am a wee bit OCD about house and garden and like to keep it tickety boo as much as I can.. but it has been an ongoing battle to try and eradicate the weeds that have been long established. Little by little I will win this one!
The first task was to clear the jungle.. and oh boy.. what a tangle of plants it was..
Hard not to believe that there was a lost tribe of Bath pygmies living amongst this lot..
One man and his scythe came in and chopped it all down in a day...Then we could see the lie of the land and the space that had been obscured..
Looking up the garden to the top of the ski slope with the crumbly stone walls held together with sheer willpower and little else
The bones of the garden were skillfully rebuilt ...


This one is for you Lesley.. the pebble mosaic was the finishing touch to the last terrace and my favourite part of the garden..
The best part of any gardening project for me is choosing the paints to apply to the canvas .. and after digging in copious amounts of compost, grit and manure to improve the soil I relished the planting of my new garden..


These little tiddlers soon grew.. in a matter of weeks into this ..

The last terrace to be finished was delayed for a year due to .. the piggy bank being empty..
The top corner of the garden under the study window was a sad and sorry sight a few months ago but after putting in a few bulbs and forget me nots..

ta da!
My dear beloved professes to love gardening so I graciously allowed him to have his little plot at the bottom of the garden to grow his fern collection..
His idea of gardening is to sit in a chair sipping a cold beer and strumming his guitar whilst I flit around pruning, digging, weeding and eventually sitting back to admire..
So there we have it.. I don't think there is a corner of my garden that I have not shared with you.. oh well.. maybe the compost bin area and a few determined weeds..
I hope to get out there again this weekend and continue the tweaking and maybe enjoy a glass of something cool..
Have a wonderful weekend ..XX