Our garden used to look like this.

Somehow it became this. A little tidier. A lot more bare.

Now it’s in this tragic state. Too sad for words.

Don’t worry I hear you. Why oh why?

Good question. It was never our intention. We thought we’d have a little tidy up, see what grew this year then plant the garden properly for next year. But straight away the little tidy up encountered a very patchy lawn. Almost bald in fact. So much so that we’re going to dig it up and start from scratch, no choice really.

Onto the clematis. What a plant. It really was like something out of sleeping beauty. It flowered earlier in the year and looked absolutely gorgeous. What we didn’t realise was that it hadn’t been cut back in about 20 years. So behind the thin veil of flowers was a 2 foot deep mess of thick, dead, tangled stem/stalk/trunk, metres and metres of the stuff. The photo below is what came from behind just a short stretch.

It was such a chore getting rid of the thing that we postponed/abandoned the task of ‘attacking’ the rest. But while AM went off to play football this weekend, something possessed me to do just that. Although in fairness at times it felt like it was attacking me. A huge wall of ivy (which I swear was glued to the wall), holly, evergreen trees and various unknown species. Hours later, blood (a scratch really), sweat, a mountain of greenery and dead stuff and no doubt a few guffaws from the neighbours if they witnessed me doing a tug of war with a wall, and the job was done. Albeit with a major panic about a third of the way through when I wondered if AM really meant it when he’d said he wanted to get rid of the lot. Needless to say he was relieved beyond words that I’d saved him a job.

We have/had quite a large tree which looks nice but sheds a deep carpet of catkins. It turns out our neighbours hate it too. So much so that when we hinted that we might get rid of the tree they promptly attacked it with a chainsaw. That really is a post in itself but the good part is that it we’ll easily get rid of the (rest of the) tree and it seems we might have very decent neighbours. If a tad impulsive.

We discovered strawberries. I replanted them and they did grow and even started to turn red. That’s precisely when some of our resident wildlife munched their way through the lot in just one night.

I found a rose. I honestly couldn’t call it a tree or a bush, just spindly strands trying to escape from under a clematis. It was in a sorry state but I was determined to save it. It still looks very forlorn but it has beautiful blooms with the most gorgeous scent.

And we have potatoes. Far too many in fact as they take up such a large area and have grown really tall and untidy.  We thought we’d keep them this year then dig the whole lot up. Then only last week I decided they were such an eyesore they simply had to go. I planned to flatten the entire garden and, you guessed it, start from scratch. But then I discovered our first two potatoes and was amazed at how delighted I was with our tiny crop.  Fluffy new potatoes served with butter. So hands off my potato plants until they’ve yielded their full crop.

Along the way we have encountered slugs the length of my hand. Ugh! They just don’t grow this size in Ireland. And snails. Hundreds of the feckers. All of which were fired over the back wall and beyond the next fence into the trees. They’ll be much happier there.

We have our very own blackbird which I’m so pleased about. He turns up every night for a handful of dried fruit then later on sings his wee heart out. One of my favourite sounds.

So we have destroyed our garden. For now. But despite the chaos we love spending time out there. There are big plans ahead. And even more hard work. But it will definitely be worth it.

The fruits of our labour so far? A blank wall and these beauties. A few roses discovered amongst the thorns.