The front lines

The landscaper was back last week to begin planning the front garden. Our one technical spec here is that it must allow for a car to be turned. He took a rather functionalist interpretation of this and the first design was as follows:

A sort of parking space cut into the lawn. We didn't like it, wanting a bit more symmetry and looking less like it has been specifically designed for a car (something we don't have and have no plans to acquire).

Version 2 was designed under closer supervision. It's in the same yellow paint, though so I've cleverly digitally enhanced the new line for illustration purposes:

There'll be a large quarter-circle on the right hand side when driving in, and the shrubbery opposite will also curve away closer to the house. Symmetry of a sort, practical, and low maintenance.

He has taken meaurements for this and now we're waiting for an estimate.

Rear ends

The last feature of the back garden went in a week or so ago: the hop trellis.


The idea here is that the hop vines act as a shade for the back patio during summer and then get cut completely away at harvest time leaving the back patio in full daylight until the following summer.


All the rest of the work at the back is up to the plants.

Meanwhile, the old shrubbery at the front has gone a lovely shade of autumnal gold:


Well, that's weed killer for you.