And so finally it's beginning.

The Base for the deck has been started and it is going be be amaze balls!!

The weather has been wet, wet, wet.

It's slowed the man that can down a bit but he has done the hard digging.

The rain has been good for the plants though. 

Everything is almost running away with itself. 

The 2 tiny lavenders I planted in the pink wicker basket are almost bursting out.  Id been worried that they wouldn't grow but I think next spring they'll need to go into the ground.

The old bucket I popped a few tiny plugs in is also fit to burst....its just lush

And the sweet peas that went into an old coal scuttle are still just gorgeous.  Next year I'll have faith and not over plant them as I did this year. I didn't realise they would bush out as much.

Between work and rain we've not spent a huge amount of time in the garden, but given the state of it that's not a bad thing.

Decking arrives next week and I'm hoping it's dry enough that I can give it a couple of coats of wood stain after work in the evenings, before it gets laid, followed by one final coat once it's done. 

There's been so little crafting done in these parts.

Work is all time consuming, it's taking time to get a groove we can all jam to.  

Garden plans...

Every year I look in envy on many pretty garden blog posts and now I'm on Instagram that envy has grown.

My garden is in all honesty pretty shot.  I've tried over the years to patch it but between 6 children and 4 chickens it has taken a battering. 

However that could all be about to change...

Take a look at it as it is this evening

The shitty shed is literally falling down,  but it can't just yet as it's holding the even shittier fence behind it up.  

Fencing contractor is booked for the middle of July to replace or repair the old fence. Pots of wood stain are sitting patiently waiting for that job.

I've got a smaller shed on the patio waiting to be put up as soon as the fencing is done and the old one comes down.

If this was a design blog I would be referring to this area as a 'sunken terrace'.  Looking at it as it stands, terrace is just too grand a description so we'll settle with area!

The long term plan here is to create a chill zone for the teens, I'm starting to gather pallets to create a pallette seating area with a fire pit. The floor is pretty uneven with a mix of paving slabs and various concrete hard standings. Too expensive to replace, turf or deck I'm going for a jumbo sack of pebbles to cover it all.

On the floor down the bottom you might have spotted the big blue plastic sheet?  It's covering up the pitted crumbling ground where once the chickens lived. That is to be decked. The decking been ordered and we have a man that can coming in at the end of this month to lay a large deck to cover a multitude of crap. 

 Long term (next summer hopefully) I'll be putting my workshop on this deck.  But I have champagne taste on a lemonade budget and finding the right workshop that ticks all boxes including price will take some research and even more saving.

The patio area is with selective vision not so terrible, put your blinkers on and it's bearable.

These old cable reels were picked from the bins of an electrical shop on the industrial estate I'm now working at.  They'll be handy little garden tables!

However I'm hoping we can afford this year to deck the patio and extend that deck over the crumbling weed ridden bank...

The man that can says it's an easy job to do but I just need to finalise my budget!

And there we have it.  It will take time and no small amount of effort and saving but this is the first year that I have an actual plan not just pie in the sky dreams.

Still without those dreams the plan may never have been made!