landscape ahoy

In the two happy years we've been here, we've tried to maintain this beautiful garden as best we can, but frankly it's only as lovely as the previous occupants made it. Now, at last, we're able to put something back and develop the garden into something lovelier still. I say we, but the credit for all the back breaking labour and ideas must go to our friend Matt, landscaper extraordinaire. In just a few weeks, he's already cleared a mountain of soil and detritus and is well on the way to transforming an already picturesque retreat into a garden we never thought we could have.

What was a fairly piddling postage stamp patio is being resized, bringing the meadow and the garden together and providing us with a huge space to entertain. The foundations are there, still to come a wooden pergola to train the rambling vines, clematis, climbing rose and honeysuckle that have been sorely neglected. A string of white festoon bulbs beneath will light evening barbecues in summers to come.

Matt has cleared beneath our trees, a scrubland of ground elder and half abandoned rockeries. Though it looks a bit scorched earth right now, the plan is for forest planting of hostas, ferns, hellebores and bluebells. During the process Matt has discovered a happy colony of frogs and toads, and even a few slow worms. He's relocated them all under piles of rotting and mossy driftwood, making a haven for creatures. Soon we'll also have steps and a stand pipe from the drive to the veggie patch, making it a bit easier to tend to the growing garden.

It is exciting beyond words and makes me love this place even more, a near impossible feat.