Garden 30 August

Wow, it's been weeks and weeks since I last blogged!  Things have been happening here - working on the living room currently - but I don't want to blog photos till it's finished!  The living room/dining room walls and ceilings have been skimmed and painted, the new carpet is due for delivery and fitting on 5th Sept and the sofas should be delivered - fingers crossed - around 7th October.

Today Sophie came round and we put her to work in the garden ;) we did a couple of hours weeding in one of the flower beds.  Photos of a very autumnal-looking garden:

Sophie setting to work:

That same border afterwards:

This is one of the centrepieces from our wedding in April 2013, still just about alive!

Trying to work out what to do with the garden long-term... I'm not happy with the paths/gravel/weed paradise areas but just not sure what to do with it all...

Driveway update

Today's excitement has been the removal of the tree in the front garden/driveway.  I rather liked this tree (hawthorn) but its roots had started cracking the driveway and it was getting a bit big and Ian's car was getting covered in bird poo and sap etc... so I grudgingly conceded it was time for it to go.

The tree surgeons also took out the conifer on the corner as well while they were there.  They've just ordered a new stump grinder so will be back in a few days to grind the stumps out.

The living room is even lighter and brighter now which is really nice.

Any suggestions on what to plant in place of the hawthorn?  We really want something that isn't going to get bigger than 6 foot or so, and is upright rather than having a horizontal spread... any ideas?

Scuse the phone camera quality pics...

Before:

After: