Introducing our garden

This is the start of what is going to be a very, very long project - Project Garden Overhaul.

In truth, it started about a year ago really. Towards the end of 2013, my then fiancé and I bought our first house, and we moved in just before Christmas. One of the main reasons the house appealed to me was its large back garden. My (now) husband was quite concerned about the size of it, thinking that it might be too much for us to look after. In some ways he was right - it is going to take a long time to make the garden into what we want it to be - but he didn't anticipate just how much I would love gardening, and how much time I would happily spend weeding.

Last year we mostly just tried to stop the garden from becoming overgrown, but did very little to actually change the garden (I think I'll write the next post on what we did last year). In a way, we needed to spend a whole year in our house before making changes to the garden, as we needed to see what it looked like throughout the year. It was quite beneficial, as we discovered some lovely plants. I also knew very little about gardening so was a bit worried about doing things wrongly, or killing off what we already had.

Apologies for the terrible photography skills. And the grey, rainy day.

The garden has several main sections:

• Decking - this starts right outside the kitchen (where the door to the garden is, and from which the above photo was taken). It goes round to the left of this picture to the edge of the house.
• Patio - this is to the left of the decking, and then goes around the side of the house and garage. It was left kind of unfinished, and at some point will need relaying as it's a bit uneven.
• Wood chippings - to the left of the patio, as far as the side hedge. I'll find a photo of it at some point. The people who used to own the house had a climbing frame there.
• Lawn - as you can see, behind the decking area.
• Beds - just off to the left of the above photo, next to the lawn, and going further back. One of them has three fir trees which have taken over somewhat. As much as I don't want to chop down trees, they need to come out. The other has a wooden play boat. Which also needs to come out. Once we've played on it.
• Gravel/slate chips - at the back of the garden (in the above photo, up those 'steps' on the right), right across the back and then partway down the left-hand side to meet the wood chippings. There's an apple tree on the left, and loads of plants in the gravel at the back. 

We have a lot of ideas. Mine mostly involve planting fruit and veg, some bright flowers, tidying up the patio, taking out the fir trees and planting some new plants. Plus maybe a hot tub, a fire pit, a summerhouse and a potting shed. My husband's ideas mostly involve tidying the patio, a crazy golf course, and a pond with a retractable roof. Hmmm.

Since the above photo was taken, we have actually made some progress - it seems small, but it's not insignificant. There's plenty more for me to post about in any case!