Ta-Dah Tuesday In The Garden

Well hello! How the devil are you? On this sunny Tuesday morning, I once again find myself linking up with the Lovely Lakota at Faith, Hope and Charity Shopping for Ta, Dah Tuesday.
This week, it's not actually a Ta Dah of my own doing. I had to Get A Man In for this one. Getting A Man In is something we have to do quite often in Edith Florence Towers, due to Mr EF's reluctance and quite frankly pantsness at anything to do with DIY. Or in this case gardening. Cutting the grass is fine, but anything beyond that, unless he sees me heading off out there with a saw and decides he wants a piece of the action, is not his bag.
On the whole, I keep on top of the the garden. I don't mean I float above it like the Heavenly Host, I mean I keep it under control. Almost. Up to a point. This year, however, due to the Nasty Neck of Badness and The Hurty Arm of Pain, it had gone a bit wild. I will tell you a bit about my garden. It is about 100 foot long and about 42 foot wide. (I still remember this from the Estate Agent's blurb Next time I move shout the word COURTYARD  to me at the top of your voices please.) There is a fairly large garage near the back door, a tumbledown greenhouse behind that and a wall, which I pretend looks French about 50 odd foot down, which separates it into two parts. Behind the wall is a summerhouse that I blogged about here. Since then, surprise, surprise, not been touched. Also behind this French wall and sort of next to the summerhouse is another little outbuilding that I have never set foot into. Behind that and on the back of the summerhouse is a log store thingy that is full of branches and rubbish that we have cut down in previous years. There are about twelve or so trees out there (I'm guessing this) and just lately they had started to resemble a rain forest canopy. Also the borders (and I use that term loosely) had started to look a right old mess. So, as I can't even pick up a crochet hook without squealing in pain and we already know that Mr EF doesn't care much for gardening, I decided it was time to Get In The Man.
They came on Saturday and I very much regret now only thinking of before and after pictures and not actually getting any durings. The tools alone were worthy of a mention. They actually lined them up on the grass (I hesitate to call it a lawn) and set down petrol cans next to them. Very impressive array of cutting down instruments I can tell you.
Anyway, I will do some photos of before and after.



This is a sort of mini patio. Not that you can actually see it...



Scalped, I tells ya



Garage before and after. At least this bench is clear enough to sit on now! They took the rose bush right down to give it a chance to come back and went at the winter jasmine with a chain saw thingy that looked like it belonged in a horror movie!

When we moved here, I was quite relieved in a way that it was a 'mature garden.' In our previous two houses we  (for that read I) have done the garden from scratch. Had it turfed then put every single plant in. Although I enjoyed that, it's hard work and costs a lot of money. The difference in this garden is that there is hardly room to shoehorn a plant in, which sounds stupid given the size of it, but believe me, I've tried. Every year I've trotted happily back from the nursery with pots of lupins, foxgloves, acquiligas and other cottagey loveliness and have found places to put them in. Do they ever grow? Nah. Do they come up the next year? Nah. Am I bothering again. Yeah, course.

Anyway back to the men with the power tools. I gave them free reign to a degree. I said I wanted a very brutal haircut of everything they could manage to get to in one day. They got as far as French wall and then had to be convinced by Mr EF to just do the little path behind it. Fair play, they did loads and had the cuts and sweat to prove it.  By the time they'd done there was a mountain (oh why didn't I go out with my camera?) in the middle of the grass and another Man had to be called to dispose of it all in his truck.

Some more photos.

As you can see, they were a tad gung ho with their chain saws and have left this side a bit bare looking.  A lot of what was there was half dead or being strangled by ivy anway and I'm telling myself that this is a good thing as it gives me space to put a few flowering shrubs in. Problem being that it needs digging over, lots of bits of old root taking out, and planted up. And we know that Mr EF isn't up for much of that. I may be Getting The Man In again before long. (When I have saved up, or sold one of my kids on Ebay to pay for it.)
All in all, I'm happy with it. I would still like a chunk taken off some of the trees down behind the wall and behind the garage as I think this will let in more light, but the rain forest canopy effect isn't so bad now and I can see some space to play with. I do miss that romantic, overgrown look, I don't like a garden to look too tidy but at least now I can see the sky, I don't have to turn lights on in the day time and there are different areas to sit other than directly outside the back doors.
So that's my ta da for today. Carried out by someone else but enjoyed by me! Do hop over to Lakota's to see her lovely recipe, it's very retro! Her post made me laugh out loud!
Laters!