The Patio

So our garden is a blank canvas.  This is a vast improvement from the 'mess' that we inherited when we bought the house

This was the overgrown back garden when we first moved in:

And here's the patio:

We worked hard to clear the whole thing including the rubble and brambles that were the biggest part of the end patch:

Yes that was once a pond!

Which led me to have big plans which we were due to get started on 18 months ago. And we all know what happened then...

So absolutely nothing happened in the garden for the whole of the last year. DH doesn't do gardens. He grew up in a sixth floor apartment in Athens, gardens confuse him LOL. He did keep the grass cut (sorta) but that was about it so this year I am on a mission to get started with my plans. Stage 1 is getting the patio sorted.

This is what it looked like after the winter:

And this is what it looks like now (minus the bread which the birds have removed):

A friend of ours jet washed it for almost two hours to get it to that state - there's just no escape from the fact that they are old and nasty slabs but we cannot afford new and nice ones so we're going to repoint these ones and make the best of it for now. 

Do you see those decorative bricks down the left hand side?  We have enough of those to build two walls at the end of the patio either side of the steps (it's about a foot and a half drop from the edge to the garden below) to make it a bit safer for the boy toddling around.  I will also finish painting the side of the garage so it's all blue (I painted the first bit two years ago LOL).

Once that is done I have plans for a veggie patch and a wildlife garden as well as leaving a large chunk of kid friendly lawn.  We won't get too far with it all this year but we will definitely make progress on last year!