In an English country garden

Phase two of the big garden project kicked in today. And when I say kicked in I mean.. well I did a lot of thinking.

My aunt S has given me three large stone planters, one with a shrub still in it. It took a lot of huffing and puffing, dragging and lifting to get them from her garden to mine but it was definitely worth it.

Things are finally coming together in the house as well. My mum and I have finished cleaning the stairs and landings (I have three landings), my dad has (half) volunteered to paint the skirting boards in the hallways and on the stairs and I've chosen the carpet for the stairs. Once the painting is finished I'll arrange for the carpet to be delivered and fitted and that will be everything for this year inside the house. At some point in the future I will have to paint the living room and front entrance floor - matt black yacht paint - but that'll be quite a big job, probably best saved for the winter.

In the garden, I need to cut back the grass on the side where, eventually, I intend to grow vegetables and fruit and then cover that in black 'lining' to kill off the grass and weeds. I intend to pave over a small area of this and turn the rest into a slightly raised plot. The main lawn needs cutting again and I have to tackle the weeds and long grass at the back as well as prune the tree (yes, I know it's the wrong time of year but hey...). I still have all sorts of rubbish lurking in the undergrowth but the shape of the garden is emerging. There's a border in the back garden to be weeded, a blackberry bush to be sorted out and an area of unknown significance (my own Area 54) to be approached. On top of all that, my front garden is a little riotous. I had the most gorgeous display of daffodils, followed by bluebells. Now they've all died down I'm left with grass and sprouting rose bushes. I think that's going to take a weekend but, hopefully, the good weather is here now so I'm going to get on with it.

Oh, and I still need to pot on the plants I bought yesterday!