Shady news

We've finally started work in the last third of the garden. This is really exciting. Two years ago we decided that we wanted a really private area (while we wait for the hedging in the rest of the garden to gain some height). We planted 1.2m tall whips of Field Maple (Acer Campestre) in a semi circle to break up the narrowness of the plot. Although it's deciduous, we decided we don't really venture this far down the garden in winter and the 40cm a year growth rate was pretty appealing. It's paid off and just two years down the line we have a top hedge (it needs a bit of pruning at the moment).

The inside area was think with heavy duty weeds (more bindweed and dandelions and lots of others I haven't got round to identifying - too depressing). Sunday was spent removing the 'turf' and this is how we left it. The plan is to erect six 2.4m vertical 3x3s to support some shade material (our garden is really hot in summer - new plants don't give you much shade). We've ordered the gravel, bought the posts and found the material so it's all steam ahead...