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Click here to read the Story of the Weekend Garden Project! The Plot What we are faced with is a very small house with good sized garden ground to the front and rear but interestingly enough not a single living plant. In terms of the back garden – two major issues – a large double garage plonked almost in the middle of the plot and some rather unpleasant structures in the neighbours garden. On the whole the potential was there but the main issue was what to do to make best use of the available space and shield the garden from neighbours on both sides. And of course there was the issue of cost. The usable plot (excluding the garage and of course the dead space behind it is approximately 25 feet by 20 feet. The site was laid to gravel and a sad lawn (well moss if truth be told) with random scatterings of concrete. Overall the place had the look and feel of a car par, not what you want when you are a keen gardener The Plan (well actually there were a few) Plan A: Get the professionals in. First thoughts were that the garage had to go, level it all, landscape the lot and make it look gorgeous overnight. Of course there is a fatal flaw or two in this plan; the cost being one and also the fact that while I might not like the garage, losing it might detract from the re-sale value of the property (what I call the Sarah Beany effect!) Plan B: Ok then, with this one we keep the garage and work with the area to the front of the garage. Again, get the professionals in make a really good job of it. But then thought…wait a minute…there is an alternative Plan C: Get a group of friends who are hard working and also keen gardeners and see what we can do with the plot. Problem number 1 finding willing volunteers….not too difficult when you identify the weaknesses of your friends. Arrange for suitable quantities of beer to be on tap, fill their bellies with food and agree to night out in the pub. Suddenly you have a couple of volunteers. The final plan of the garden was drawn up on a flip chart (no fag packet to hand). This was followed by a spot of measuring to help identify the quantities of materials required and of course to make sure the whole plan would hang together. Then it was simply a matter of using the web and the phone to ensure that the supplies would all be on hand by the Saturday morning. As well as formal supplies, a few mails went out to friends borrowing extra tools, wheelbarrows and the like to make sure we had enough kit on site. Day 1 For all of the week before I was praying for rain to soften up the ground and make it more workable. Fortunately on Wednesday and Thursday we got just that (sorry!) The weekend dawned bright and surprisingly mild for October. Friends arrived and we all set to emptying the skip of the 4 tonnes of soil which the contractor had kindly left in the skip. Half an hours work said someone……approximately two hours later the skip was emptied! Heavy work for those of us who desk jobs but it all went a lot smoother when we got a routine together and were filling two barrows in rotation. Next the concrete had to be chipped out. A good going over with a pickaxe and some brute force soon(ish) had it moved. The afternoon saw us moving on to the gravel, again heavy work involving shovelling and wheelbarrows This had to be shifted in order to begin to rake out the soil for the turf. We had a bit of luck in that the plastic underneath the gravel held for the most part and we were able to quickly shift metre patches For the none hardcore amongst us it was time to put up the arch and mark out the path. The original plan had been to dig out the path, but after an opening foray with a pick axe it was decided that in the interest of time, sanity and health some edging would be purchased for the lawn instead. Once the gravel was up it was time to get busy with the rakes. Yes that 4 tonnes of soil had to be shifted once again. This time though we were using rakes to lay it out for the turf. Time was marching on and here in the frozen north it gets dark early. We soon realised the turf was not going down on day 1. So to give our morale a little boost and to add some definition to the path, the small patch of lawn in front of the garage was laid. And at that point we stood back….reflected and then headed for the pub in true gardening style. Day 2 Coming Soon!!!! | 
Weekend Garden Makeover 
