Gardening weekend

A year ago, when T&G bought their flat, the front garden had been filled with alkanet, nettles, brambles for years, and well-used by the neighbourhood cats -

but a few trips to the garden centre later, and with the investment of many hours of labour and rather a lot of topsoil, it became "much improved" -

 So hopes were high for the back as well -

and in spring - when, maybe two months ago? - the work started, levelling the ground, building a 3m extension and adding raised beds -

The raised beds were raised further, paving and steps put in, topsoil ordered, and finally the bed for the "grass" could be prepared

 and the beds filled with soil -

 Work had to stop just before noon on Saturday, leaving some soil still be be dispersed -

Early(ish) Sunday, while Tom got on with laying the "lawn", Gemma and I went to the garden centre for some instant floriferous gratification -

 and came back to find Tom watching the World Cup -

before bringing out and assembling the garden furniture bought last autumn in hope of just this moment -

This rose, a birthday present, was the first thing to be assigned a place (where it gets most sun) and after five hours or so, almost everything was planted -

As with the front garden, I'm amazed at how long it takes to get a carload of plants into the ground. The decisions of what goes where ... some plants went into the front (more decisions) ...

After a break for a take-away supper and a chance to enjoy the sofa and the carpet, the rest got done quickly -

 Here it is, in its bare-earth glory - fuchsias, impatients, echinacea, mandevilla, rose, verbena, penstemon, foxglove, snapdragon, lavender, astilbe, sweet william (a rescue plant), lupin, veronica, and the punctuation of those stripey petunias -

south wall

east wall

north wall

 And the (north wall) fence has been rebuilt, though whether it will keep the cats out is doubtful -

Still to come, climbers - evergreen clematis, honeysuckle, jasmine ... all the usual suspects.