Super Chilled Saturday in the Garden

Today, I spent most of my time in our small city garden. I mentioned a few posts back how we're trying to give it a big overhaul this autumn. Many of the shrubs and trees had got overgrown and some were just too big for the space they occupied, mainly because I failed to prune or cut them back properly last year. The time had come to actually remove some and really prune others back dramatically.

Here are a couple of photos of the garden back in late spring/early summer:

Don't get me wrong, I love the orange blossom that cascades over our little shed outside the back door, but it was getting to be 12-14ft high and I was concerned that it might be bothering the neighbours a little, so it needed some work once it had stopped flowering. 

The apple and cherry trees on the opposite side were also getting way too tall and needed a dramatic prune back.  I started on these a few weeks ago and still need to finish pruning them, but today I concentrated on the orange blossom and the left hand side of the garden.

My neighbours on this side were on holiday and were due back any day, so I wanted to get it pruned before they returned.  I couldn't get to all the branches, as some were growing too far over onto their side, but I did what I could. It does look a bit butchered, to be honest, but I'm hoping it will grow back well enough next spring.

Here's an after picture of this bush:

I also took another shrub out of the border on this side of the garden.  I've got a couple of new plants to go in at some point, as I wanted to freshen up this border, which has been the same for nearly 10 years.

Here's what it looks like now:

It looks pretty bare, but I can't wait for the hydrangea to go in and fill out as it's going to be a beauty.

Whilst I was tackling the pruning and cutting back, OH did a bit of clearing at the end of the garden.  He's cut out part of the fence that used to surround the trampoline that was here originally, to open up the space and today he removed the rotting potting table which ran along side the shed. The dog is very happy, as she could never access this part of the garden before and now she can.

It's looking a lot tidier:

We now just need to get a new shed, as we've had this one for 14 years and it is falling apart.  We bought it for our first allotment and it remained on there for 5 or 6 years before moving it here.

We also need to dismantle and dispose of the small greenhouse, which is collapsing due to the metal poles having rusted through.We don't actually use it anymore, so we probably won't buy a new one.  Instead, I think we'll make this part of the garden a nice paved or gravelled seating area with a few pots and some nice garden furniture. (Alternatively, a hot tub would be great, but I can't see OH going for that one!!!)

I think it will look great when it's finished and it might encourage me to sit out in the garden more, which I don't do enough currently.

A productive and very satisfying Saturday, and it feels good to get the garden back under some sort of control and to get a bit more light into the garden too.  We probably need to spend another day or two on it, to plant out the new plants into the border, finish clearing the green house, move the hot compost bin to another position and complete all the pruning and then it's more or less sorted, until we get around to doing the paving at the end and getting a new shed.

I'll keep you posted on progress.