So I stood on a table and here I am

So for some reason my dearest went to America and I ended up digging up most of the garden as a 'surprise'. You know the kind, where you try and change everything and make it 'AMAZING' and a 'SURPRISE'. And, despite your best efforts they always come back quicker than you expect. You know 'mid-surprise'. Unfortunately my 'AMAZING SURPRISE' also involved 16 large wooden 'railway' sleepers, a considerable amount of turf and two dogs a tonne of bark and lots of trips to the recycling with many shrubs which were, in my professional opinion, 'in the way'. So, I was, for a while, last October, home alone with my new project. Mainly, to manage this 'project', I stood on a table a lot (in the garden) and told them all I had a 'vision'. (The dogs wanted to send me to specsavers......and get my eyes tested.)

They, understandably were not impressed. So they gnawed the table and made a lot of sawdust mess. But, I never came down. I had vision.

They, however continued to be very unimpressed as these non-gardening dogs tend to be.

And they, those chickens, weren't much kinder. Everyone, it seems is a critic these days. So I soldiered on, sometimes in the rain. Like a lone voice in the madness, saying it will be lovely, it will be lovely. I promise. And I started to cover the garden in black fabric unrolling it like a carpet for the new paths. They thought I'd gone mad. Black carpet in the garden. But it was nicer to walk on than wet grass.

Sometimes there was a lot of mud. And I lifted a lot of turf. Possibly ten tonnes. Fear not though, it took me ages cos I chopped it up into 'girl sized baby turfs'.  Easier to manage, see. And remember I am often prone to exaggeration, so there wasn't really ten tonnes. It just seemed like it on those short dark days.

And sometimes I also worked into the night. You know, because if a surprise is worth doing, its worth doing obsessively. Yes, I really did. And, somehow we got into November.

Eventually it started to come together. But not before a long lie down. And, after Xmas which somehow kind of arrived, full of cheer and friends.

And eventually, we all decided that maybe digging up all the garden at once, was perhaps not the best plan, but we'd done it now. Except we didn't really have a plan, or any plants. Mere details I told myself.  I was working to a vision, which by its very nature, was very fluid and dynamic. Which is what we say when the plan isn't really in our brains yet.

And the main outcome of this vision was that the lawn was toast. As many might remember, it use to fit the entire garden. like a carpet. But, really who needs a big green carpet in the entire garden? So we dug it all up. Or covered it in black matting we found in the shed. Another happy circumstance where we find the very stuff we need. As if by magic.

 Apart from a small part of it which we decided to keep under the apple tree. As Peedie said, it might come in useful one day. So best to keep 'some'. He's a canny Cairn Terrier after all. Very wise.

And, as we were keeping it, we gave it a nice edge. And some lavender which had been brutally ousted by that much loved pesky purple perennial wall flower thug,  Erysium Bowles Mauve (a story for another day, do remind me, real time thuggery in the garden {that was a 'th' by the way not a B}). 

And we moved what seemed to be a tonne of bark on to the paths. We chose bark, because the garden was full of it, so circumstances led me down that path, so to speak. I'm all for recycling, and sometimes using what you've got is better than wasting new stuff you might not like. 

Then we were bored of moving bark (frequently) we chopped back more shrubs. And found a wall and a very muddy edge to it. And a house behind all the undergrowth. Who knew that was there? Not I.

 And so we dug up the edges and gave it some bricks. To help the mower keep it tidy. We chose bricks, erm, because we already had them. A bit like the bark. I was a victim of circumstance, again.

By this point in the whole dig up the garden episode, lets just say, the person came back from America and decided it was time for me to get a job. 

You know, in a proper garden. 

Perhaps to save this one from my 'exciting' surprises when he was on his travels. Because sometimes he shares this garden too.  And, whilst it was a lovely surprise coming home to find a half finished garden and most of the lawn dug up, perhaps it was thought I had a bit too much time on my hands. Who can say.

So a snowdrop garden took me in. 

And they keep me busy three days a week. 

Mainly digging things up, like snowdrops which keeps me happy and January and February and lots of March just disappeared.  They don't seem to mind things like people digging plants up. Its a happy find. And whilst I don't know so much about snowdrops, I'm happy to learn. Which is good because they have over 300 different kinds. Yikes. And we both thought they were like Mr Ford, only came in white. Not so.

 And, as the snowdrops went to sleep in April, the woodland woke up. And the snowdrop garden decided to keep me too.

A happy time.  And suddenly its May.

But even with a second job, it didn't stop me digging things up at home. Although that's a story for another day.  For now lets leave it at that. You can see the vegetable garden is now happily settled in but still growing nothing more than dandelions and grass for now. Early days mind, you can't rush a 'surprise garden'.

And the muddy brick edges are now full of plants. A bit like an airport lounge, the plants are just there for a while, popped in, to find their proper homes eventually, as friends and family kindly donate them to us. They'll reach their final destination one day, they are a victim, like me, of circumstance. This is the only bed dug.  So they need to go in here for now. OK so the clashes will be spectacular, but I never claimed to have taste or a refined colour palette.. However, if this bed is delightful, lets just pretend to himself, and onlookers, that we planned it this way all along.

 Meanwhile, the plants slowly start to wake up. Like this little Abutilon x suntense 'Jermyns', its about time eh usually this flowers for my birthday but this year, late. Although its been cold.

So expect more soon, we've so much catching up to do! And unlike my good friend LinneW I don't have a time machine. Although May has got here, as she said, 'really fast'. Happy Gardening folks. A word of advice, digging up the lawn as a 'total surprise', perhaps not the best of ideas, but its turned out OK so far. They think so too.

Although they tell me, they prefer the beach. 

And, who can blame them. Less mud. (And, no surprise gardens.)