AnDIY's Page... the other passsion!

Over the last 14 years we have slowly conquered the garden...it has taken alot of hard work and alot of 'saving up' for things we wanted to achieve. We are not there yet! Our aim is to make it a place where friends & neighbours can get together for BBQ's etc. and enjoy spending time relaxing. If you would like any tips or advice on building/gardening please contact us and we will try and help if we can. We have both had to learn from everything from scratch.
The garden as it was when we first moved in! What a nightmare the thought of tackling it; we didn't know where to start. Would we ever get it tamed? It was full of weeds, and old smashed up pigeon sheds! We needed somewhere to park cars, so the first thing was to put in a drive base. We hired 'chap with digger' for a very reasonable price, but couldn't afford to have the soil shifted! So it's sloping lawn. How much hardcore??? It had to stay like this for several years, again we just couldn't afford anything else. Plants on the left handside were little cuttings scrounged from Andy's mums garden and would become the flower border
The garage was the next big 'save up' but first we needed to put down a concrete base, grateful to friends from church who helped lay it before it went off....Then 2005 Andy built the conservatory. What seemed like a good idea with the concrete, soon had to come up when we could finally afford to have the drive block paved. 2007 Back to shifting tonnes of sand then and carrying hundreds of block pavers, sometimes till early hours. The neighbours said we were mad!
Anita's work currently in progress a tropical garden not quite finished. Andy does the hard landscape, Anita does the planting, we design stuff together. The drive was completed by Andy's dad in summer 2007 and finally we got some gates. No more dog muck on the lawn...yippee! The current Andy project no where near finished, but taking shape. Neighbours now think we've had so much wood and rain he must be building an ark!
...especially as it begins to rise upwards! What is he building??? Andy disappears from the project to check the 'CAD' drawings he's made Anita's planting scheme on the main garden is 'cottage garden style' very random with old favourites and herbs.
veiw from the back door...an outdoor kitchen? The Pathway to the lawn & flower borders seating all around the decking ideal for outdoor parties!
Picked up a couple of end of season pots, just got to remember to keep the plants watered! More seating!

Still looks like loads to do??

Click here to see further developments

If you have enjoyed the transforming of a wilderness so far, and are wondering what Andy IS building then please continue to watch and comment, we'll continue posting progress