After the snow has melted...

As you know, the plan with the back garden has been to level the other half of the garden this spring, but once the snow melted, we realised that the grass on the new section would not be strong enough for another couple of months to take walking playing etc. So we shall wait til autumn to do that job. Recently though, was Mother's day, and the mother of the house decided she would like a garden swing for the present bit of Mother's day! This was quickly followed by a discussion as to where it would go....... So muggins was set to work removing the old and battered 'vegetable patch' (in reality a raised bed containing some scruffy rhubarb), and reusing most of the soil left over from the great tree project to raise the level of the ground.


This was then left to settle for a couple of weeks, and then the day before the arrival of the 3,5 kilos, we received a pallet of paving stones and a pallet with a DIY garden swing. Originally we were going to go for a 6x4 shape to complement the existing patio, but having built the swing and looked at the fit on the existing patio, it was decided to go for 5x5.

Getting started: not many tools needed for this.

I had previously carefully levelled the whole area with a long plank and an old scaffold bar, but levelling sand came into its own for the exact fit needed:


Both sides, with a built in approx. 2 cm drop towards the back of the garden to assist drainage:


And the finished article: with the level of earth brought up flush, using the earth from the old vegetable patch. It's really brought more space to that end of the garden, and we've somehow managed to find a nice sheltered and private space for it. Now let's hope it doesn't rain all summer...