Tackling the Front Garden

For 18 months now we've been scuttling up this weedy, overgrown bit-of-a-cliff, up to the house, and the lovely terraced garden at the back. The journey from the street to the front door was on a different planet altogether, but slowly, surely, we got used to the weeds, the ivy, the cracked concrete path.

I've dreamed of wandering deliberately up to the house, nibbling as I go, brushing past scented leaves and flowers, plucking herbs and salad for dinner--the front yard properly paving the way to the back. I've dreamed of not paying $30 a week for a leaky, mouldy, scary garage to store our bikes and recycling bins in.

A little bit of history. To excavate the front yard and put in a full garage? Bankrupting. To excavate a storage shed at street level? Not exactly bankrupting, but exorbitant. To repave, replant and put in a simple (and hopefully invisible) shed? Palatable.

Call in the experts! Dru, the Little Landscaper and Kaye from Grow From Here, on the job, and in business on day one.

There is nothing quite like walking through your front yard with all the weeds and ivy gone. It feels so much bigger, so much more full of potential. You may wonder what that drapery is...

There's a pretty big part of the front-of-house cliff that's held in place not by a retaining wall, but by the roots of ancient ivy plants. Needless to say, pulling out the roots is out of the question. And leaving them exposed to the wind and rain is equally mad. So the yard must be wrapped.

Only until we figure out how best to garden vertically.

And meanwhile, there are still lovely moments on the trip up from the street.

And a rather alarming lean to the side fence... but who needs fences anyway? What's it fencing out? Not snails.

Watch this space for the best ever cliff-front shed and storage solution.