We have a patio!

I have had a wonderful ten days in Arizona, based in Phoenix and arrived home on Sunday.  Jet lag behind me I hope to start working on my photos ready to post.    In the meantime while I was away my wonderful husband made us a patio...we have been without one for at least five years, so it is lovely to finally have one.  

A work in progress...

Finished.  Table & chairs, and our new patio pond which will soon have some plants and fish in it.  

It will be nice to have a more natural sound hopefully drowning out the roar of the M25!

Still lots more work to do, we are going to move the green mini shed and bin that is along the back of the house as well and tidy the whole area up.  They served a purpose but are no longer needed.  Hopefully we might start work on those tomorrow or at least the weekend.  We have seen some raised vegetable trugs, that we might get and use for both vegetables and flowers as it is a lovely sunny area and the raised vegetable beds which don't get much sun and as such are poor producers will also go.

It was lovely to see the wonderful colour in the garden after being away in a completely different environment.

The roses are looking glorious.

Beautiful lily.

More gorgeous roses.

Petunia

Clematis

While my husband was working he was kept close company by this sweet baby robin...

Such a cutie.

Rockery & Pond finished!

Well another really busy day in the garden...first up though off to the garden centre to get a couple of water plants and some suitable for my rock garden

Here it is finished...the pebbles/stones were all collected from our garden a few years ago when DH worked hard to clear some soil from the base for his office.  He sifted all the soil and we were left with loads and loads of pots of stones.  We knew they would come in handy one day!  The bigger rocks were also from around our garden.

It is only small, but I did it all myself and am really pleased with it. I didn't work to any plan, I just had an idea of what I wanted and it all came together 'just like that'.

My husband had wanted to plan it all out...but I knew if we did that, or rather if I waited for him to do it, we would still be waiting several years down the track...hence why our spa pool is still sitting packed up in a box ready to be assembled!  These things take planning you know.

It will be interesting to see how this evolves.  We are hoping to add some frog spawn, or tadpoles to it at some stage.

I am loving it.

While busy working I have had a little feathered companion close by.

More planters were potted up.

Due to lack of actual space for planting, the blueberry and gooseberry have been put in planters.

The old laundry basket is being used for potatoes

Still some tidying up to do, but everything planted now...well until I decide on anything else!

I was delighted to find our first ladybird in the garden.  Unfortunately not the best photos of it.

Just because...another photo of my rockery and pond.

The makings of a pond & rockery

The fields around us are covered in yellow at the moment - the rapeseed is in full blossom and the contrast with the blue sky is just beautiful.

Now the other day I mentioned I as working along the fence line...clearing, pruning and generally cutting back.

This is an 'almost' before photo...  the picnic table is rotted as has the frame for the swinging chair so both will be dismantled and taken to the dump...that is DH's job!

It was all rather straggly and messy.

Part the way through tidying up, already looking clearer...

I had in mind for this spot a pond!  So on the pretext I persuaded my husband that we needed to go to the garden centre to see if they still had the rock garden mini-bases they used to have...they didn't but they did have a small pond liner!  Perfect for the job in mind.

I got to work and started digging...

Work done so far...now this project still has a lot of work, I want a slightly raised rockery type garden behind  it and of course need some suitable plants both for the rockery and the pond.  

These were just the rocks we had around in the garden - I don't want to have to buy any if at all possible as they are ridiculously expensive and I object to having to pay for a rock!

The Cherry tree is still looking gorgeous.

Percy is enjoying chewing a 'crocodile'.  In these two photos you can just about see his longer white hairs along the ridge of his back and by his tail.

The flowers I planted out the other day in the front garden have already started flowering.  Once the other plants have grown up I think this will actually look quite nice.

So nice to see flowers in the pots again.

It is early evening now and the birds are coming down to have a wash in the bird bath and to feed.

Mrs Blackbird is busy inspecting the ground for any tasty grubs.

She has a drink...

...then decides it is time for a bath.

Another lovely day in the garden.

Oh and our little contribution to an Easter display