Yes, a winter of leaving the garden alone means I now have to spend the spring getting it sorted.

All the little jobs that would have been ‘easy’ are now kinda bigger and more involved.  Well, they’re probably not, its just hotter and sweatier out there!

The plan for the spring is as follows

1. (today) strip and re-varnish the patio furniture.
2. re-seat some of the bricks on the patio
3. dig up and re-home the rotary washing line to a different part of the garden
4. create a decking area in a currently neglected and overgrown part of the garden
5. get the fence replaced (insurance job)
6. create no-dig vegetable patch
7. plant several fruit trees next to the new fence

Some of these tasks are easy – I can probably do the first 2 today, and the washing line is easy but a brutal physical job.  The decking is very involved and requires a lot of clearing and thinning of trees before I can even start.

I cleared the huge pile of cuttings from earlier in the year, the irrigation is all working, the grass is in better shape than last year (but still rough in places) and the pot plants are nicely established, so the garden is starting to feel a little bit more under control at last.

And now, lunch, then sand and varnish the patio furniture.