Garden goings-on!

Gosh, it's been a long time since I posted anything about the progress in the garden ~ not since way back here, in fact!  There have been quite a few changes since those earlier posts.

We cleared out the far end of the garden ~ you can see how dismal and decrepit the area was.  

Adrian built this log-store when we first had the wood-burner installed, and we had to decide whether or not to keep it.  In the end, as we have a second log-store anyway, we thought it best to dismantle this one as it was rotting quite badly along the base.

This is all the stuff we cleared out from the end of the garden.  Well, actually it's not all of it as some things we had stored down there we didn't need anymore and other stuff was just simply rubbish!

What a difference, eh!  Steve (aka Crest Services, our go-to all round handyman extraordinaire) did an absolutely fantastic job building a made-to-fit-the-space garden shed.  He also built the double gates and has started replacing the old fence panels as well.  He used our pile of old slabs to pave the area in front of the shed ~ what a difference that has made!  It's so nice to have a decent paved area to walk on now.

The log-store is another one that Adrian made; since it was still in a decent condition we decided it was the one to keep.  The wooden platform between the log-store and the shed is the base of yet another log-store that we discarded!  That one was a readymade one, and wasn't a patch on the two that Adrian had made, although the base was still okay.  I am going to use it to stack bags of compost, wood chippings, etc.

There is still plenty of work to be done, as you can see.  I have lots of staining to do but the weather has been somewhat against me.  I have been out there on sunny days but it makes my arms, back and legs ache to do too much in one go.  Oh well, it will all get done eventually!

The pile of wood is waiting for Adrian to cut it up.  It looks like a lot but that's only about half of what was there originally!  We have lots of logs in bags and under cover all over the garden at the moment :-)

A different view of the pile of wood, plus the plant pots I have kept ~ for the time-being, at any rate.

My lovely raised beds need a good tidy-up but it's not easy to get to them at the moment *sigh*  I can't use the clothes-line either, as the pile of wood is too close and too high.  I've been using the tumble-dryer far more than usual, as well as drying things on the clothes-horse indoors ~ I dread to think what our electricity bill will be for this quarter!

Abigail and Babs have been moved further along the garden, where there used to be a small shed.  It made such a difference to the look of the garden when that shed was taken down (by Steve and his son), it really opened up the space.  It's so much better having the girls on a paved area; they have a nice deep layer of woodchips to rootle about in but no mud.  We stacked a layer of big fence posts along the back of their run to protect the new fence panel from a build-up of woodchips ~ the girls have a tendency to scatter it all over when they get started digging!

And this is little Martha, who lives all by herself as the big girls pick on her terribly.  She used to live with Prudence, who was also a Black Rock like Abigail and Babs, and they got on very well.  Prudence was also picked on by the other two, so in the end I took a chance and put her in with Martha.  Happily, the new living arrangements worked out just fine but sadly Prudence died last year.  Martha seems perfectly content with her own company; she can still see the other two but doesn't get harassed.  Once the last two old fence panels have been replaced, we will move Martha's home alongside that of Abigail and Babs, then we will have a nice paved area to actually sit out on!