We’ve lived in our house just shy of three years – blimey time goes fast. We spent a lot of time & money working on the inside. From insulation & damp proofing to painting & wallpapering. We also had to buy a lot of new furniture & thanks to our taste of one-off pieces, we didn’t have much money left to finish the inside (which we still haven’t!) let alone get to work on the garden. So, sadly, the garden has been somewhat neglected for quite some time. Look at how sad it is 🙁

Gardening

For those who follow me on Twitter will have read about the constant battle I have with the neighbourhood cats who have confused our little patch of dirt with their litter trays. I get a lot of advice about how to takle this but our aim is to get a dog – yeah, that’ll show em! Sadly it won’t be a pug, unless we win the lottery, in which case we’ll get enough pugs to form an army. But because pugs about £1000 & are rarely up for adoption, we won’t be getting one just yet. Anyway, before we can head down to Dogs Trust or Blue Cross, we need to get the garden sorted.

In order to get the garden sorted, we need:

  • A new fence – the length of one side of the garden.
  • A new shed – our current one in the picture is being held together with cobswebs & snail trails. (Not kidding).
  • A wall repaired – you can see through it in places *sigh*
  • New borders dug in – the grass has no boundries & needs to be put in its place.
  • Raised beds – so that I can grow lots of veg.
  • Plants. Lots & lots of plants.

So. Just a small job then. Combine the amount of work with the cost & the shocking weather we’ve had this summer and you’ll understand why it’s looking a little sad.

We’ve done sooooo much though. All the borders have been cleared, and continue to be cleared of weeds. My OH has removed the collapsed fence & dug up a number of plants & shrubs that were beyond saving. We’ve spent hours clearing it & hurt muscles we didn’t even know we had. I long for the day when gardening doesn’t include aches & pains for a week and that it will just be pottering around, harvesting veg & cutting back plants. I can’t wait for gardening to be a lovely past time, rather than a massive chore. I know it’ll come, but there’s still so much to do. This weekend, while digging up a root ball, I actually wished Ground Force was still around! So if anyone wants to contribute to the Crafty Chai garden fund, just let me know! x