In August 2003, we took legal possession of a piece of land adjoining the bottom of our garden. This was originally part of our neighbours' garden, and as they no longer used it, they agreed to sell it to us. The area is approximately 50ft x 27ft x 50ft x 47ft. The legal wheels began to grind in September 2002, and whilst this was happening, our neighbours agreed that we could make a start.

The whole area was completely covered with bindweed, brambles, nettles, and anything else you can think of! I (single-handedly!) began work to clear it in September 2002, and three days later, the area was clear, apart from several huge piles of weeds! A few bonfires later, and we had a relatively blank canvas to work with. There was nothing worth saving except a clump of Rhubarb which was struggling to survive under the blanket of bindweed. We spent every spare moment digging the ground to remove as many weed roots as possible as we preferred not to use chemicals to kill the weeds, and we dug out huge amounts of bindweed roots. We also encountered problems down one side of the area where there had been some steps, as the ground underneath was just rubble, which all had to be removed!

Work progressed steadily until mid-October, when it began to rain! It didn't stop raining for more than a day or two at a time until March 2003. This meant that almost all work apart from erecting a new fence had to cease for four and a half months, as the ground was sloping, and became extremely slippery and dangerous to work on. Apart from that, we had several weeks of hard frost when we couldn't have dug the soil anyway! However, this gave me the chance to sit down and plan how I wanted the new part of the garden to look, and how I could integrate it into the old part so that it looked like it had always been there!

The two pictures on the right show the garden as it was on September 12th 2002, before any work began. I began to clear it later that day.

Once it finally stopped raining and dried out a bit, we were able to continue digging the ground, and as it sloped quite steeply on one side, we built a retaining wall of railway sleepers along one side, and levelled the ground considerably. We had to import two tonnes of top soil to finish that job, but now there is just a slight slope from left to right, as well as a slight slope from top to bottom.

By December, some progress had been made, but work was almost impossible because of constant rain. This made the sloping ground very slippery and quite dangerous. You can see from the picture on the left that there is still a long way to go! The picture was taken on December 4th 2002.

By April 2003, the borders had been dug and planting had begun. The area had also been drawn out, cleared, and levelled for the turf. We decided against seeding the area, as it would have been impossible for Toby (our dog) to stay off. Turf was instant, and a lot tougher! Toby causes mayhem on most days, though, as the squirrels are always in the Oak tree which overhangs the end of the garden, and Toby thinks he can catch them by trampling all over the borders! Bless him....... This picture is the same view as above, but with some improvement! You can see that the bottom area by the wall is still a complete mess, and the gazebo is yet to be built.

My husband built another gazebo at the end of April 2003, and this has been painted blue to complement other blue features within the whole garden. This one is square, with railed sides and a decked floor. On the two front uprights, I have hung two blue tribal masks. In front of the gazebo is a gravelled area with a line of blue slates for contrast, and this helps to integrate the gazebo into the garden. There are also three blue ceramic balls on one side. I have planted a Humulus lupulus 'Aurea' (Golden Hop), which climbs up one side of the gazebo and a Clematis 'Rouge Cardinal' which climbs up the other side (still too young to see in the picture). The golden leaves of the hop look stunning against the dark blue of the gazebo. At the back of the gazebo is a Wisteria, which used to be in a pot in Mom's garden. When she died, I brought it to my garden, and it is now planted in the ground and has done splendidly!

Where the ground fell away right at the end of the garden, we have made a lower level with some steps leading down to a small paved patio. This is very shady, as there is a mature Oak tree overhanging the area, so it has been planted with shade-loving plants. This area is also 4°C cooler than at the top of the original garden, so in the heatwaves we had in July and August 2003, when the temperature soared into the 30's (90's for those still working in Fahrenheit!) this was the ideal place to come and sit to cool off!

We needed to try to integrate the new part of the garden into the old part. Having taken the original fence dividing the two areas away, all the plants in the original border had to be moved - these were eventually planted in the new part of the garden. We then built some steps using railway sleepers, leading down from level 2 of the original garden to level 4, where the pond is. Then, as the new part of the garden was slightly lower (level 4a), three further railway sleeper steps were built leading from the pond area into the new garden. The picture was taken on the 29th June 2003, and I think we have achieved the integration quite well!

Finally, here's a couple of pictures showing the new garden from both ways, as it looked on 29th June 2003, looking up towards the old garden (left hand picture), and looking down towards the end of the new garden, where the walled patio area is (right hand picture). I hope you've enjoyed looking at these pictures of the transformation as much as we have enjoyed working on it. We're now looking for the next project!!

Further pictures of the rest of the garden can be seen on the GARDEN GALLERY, THE WATER GARDEN and GARDEN DIARY pages.