Evolution 2

The garden has changed so much, this (left) is another "historic"view of the garden. Taken in the mid 90's it shows the upper part of the garden which was at the time just lawn with a border of shrubs mostly hebes and of course the cherry trees which are still there today. The black and white feline is Bagheera who lived with us before Mili and Hecate. On the right how the same part of the garden looked in the summer.

The lawn has been replaced with the ornamental grasses and the boundaries have certainly filled out. A common theme of the evolution of the garden has been to reduce the amount of labour it takes to maintain. I will do a series of posts soon on labour saving ideas for the garden but the biggest top tip of all is to reduce the amount of lawn that needs to be mown and managed. It is the most intensive part of most people's garden. When you have a busy working life but also want a nice outdoor space then lawn is not ideal. To achieve a pristine area of well manicured grass requires skill, dedication and an awful lot of man hours, just ask the green keeper at your local golf club!

As this part of the garden is also the furthest from the house it was also the most difficult to tend when it was lawn. Combined with the quite steep slope, even with the use of a hover mower, the regular cutting was a chore. It is my firm belief that gardening should be as much fun as possible, a playground for family and felines.