A bit of background

Work In Progress.

The first photo of the garden using the digital camera: Christmas 2003

You'll see the Photinia we planted, the new grass path up to behind the Yew (there was a conifer there), and the start of the "Exotic" border.

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  We bought the house about three and a half year's ago. Unfortunately we have no digital pictures of the garden at that time. However, to give an idea where we started from, here's some background information.
  
  The house was built around 1970, and the neighbours have told us that the original owners were keen gardeners. This is borne out by the structure given by the mature plants. Unfortunately, when they moved out, it seems that they removed many of the more desirable plants (or, more likely, those that they could relocate).
  
  The house was then owned by the people we bought the house off and they had no interest in gardening, so the garden wasn't well maintained (in their defence, though, they appear to have made a good job of modernising the house).
  
  So, for the back garden, (approximately 30 feet deep by 50 feet wide) we inherited some mature plants near the boundaries; in the photographs you'll spot the Golden Yew, a couple of tall conifers, a fastigate (crab?) apple, cherry tree, Garrya Elliptica, and a large Viburnum (you'll also notice that I'm not a plantsman and can't spell the names properly - Janet's the clever one who can remember the names!!!); and a few smaller odds and sods tucked away in various states of neglect. Oh, and a tiny little pond, a shed that we like to call the "summer house" and a greenhouse.
  
  The order of progress from then was (as I recall)...
  
  Clear the back border - inspect what we had. What we had was a border of ground elder ... Oh, and a pond (yes, I know I mentioned that earlier, but it wasn't really apparent until we cleared the back border).
  
  First job: Dig and riddle the back border to remove the ground elder. we dug to about ten, maybe twelve inches deep, removing plants and untangling the ground-elder roots as we went . Fortunately this was early in the year so most of the plants hadn't started into full growth. we added some well-rotted horse manure (dug from the heap at the stables at Cringleford: Yuck) re-arranged the plants and replanted them. A large Photinia was planted in this border to block the clear line of site between our kitchen and the neighbour's kitchen windows.
  
  Next job: Hide the awful crazy paving in front of the summer house. Many happy hours measuring, designing and discussing options resulted in the choice of decking laid over the top for speed and ease of construction, and to provide us with a place to sit and eat. Gina offered to paint the decking and promptly got stuck in, (good on-yer lass...).
  
  And: The greenhouse, in the far right corner, gave way to make a planting area and a Gleditsia and an Acer "Bloodgood" (?) planted there with underplanting using some of the oddments remaining from the back border.
  
  Now it all gets blurred, so, the rest in no particular order.
  
  A patio with a rill running into a (small; 6' x 3') pond replaced the new border where the greenhouse was.
  A bog-garden created next to the pond.
  The border next to the house extended and re-constructed.
  The corner between the conservatory and the back of the house has been planted with shade-loving plants (including a tree-fern). We cal this our "woodland" border
  New steps down from the conservatory to the garden and the path extended three feet.
  A slate shale path running along two sides of the garden under a new arbor (that's a bit of a pretentious description, but it'll do).
  An "Exotic" border - well, it's got a couple of banana trees a Melianthus Major, some gingers, a tender Euphorbia (I really should learn the names of these things ...), a Butia Capitata (I think) and a Hibiscus as permanent planting with various other tender plants like Cannas and Dahlias adding some substance.
  The last addition is a border near the conservatory which hasn't got a name yet and has yet to develop a personality (oh, look, there I go again .. .pretentious, moi?) so will remain as "the border by the arbor".
  
  I'll post pictures of the varous parts with a bit of description as I go.