Well, about 2 years after I initially said I would (I even wrote about it in August last year), I finally got around to tidying up the garden of my rented house. From the moment I moved in (almost 4 years ago now) I knew that the garden and I weren’t going to get along. The grass was waist high and there were a lot of weeds in there. But more importantly, it was only about 15m² and so wasn’t even worth the effort of looking after properly. When my girlfriend put gravel down on her garden, and then the rest of the neighbourhood followed suit, it was mine that stuck out and made the place look like a dog’s dinner.

I told my landlord I intended digging up the grass, putting gravel down, and everyone would be happy. He loved the idea. But I kept finding things to do that were more fun and interesting than gardening (like just about anything). Winters came and went and weekends were spent biking or watching football. Anyway, with my girlfriend about to sell her house I decided I needed to tidy the garden up so it’ll look to a prospective buyer as though she has decent neighbours (which they will when I go). So I hired a skip and set to work last weekend.

Unfortunately, the first problem is the access to the garden. You can see a narrow path in the photo above which is 23″ wide. I had a wheelbarrow that would fit, but I didn’t have any planks of wood to wheel it into the skip (and the sides were too high anyway). So I improvised and used my wheely bin instead. I’d kick it over in the garden, shovel dirt into it, stand it up and wheel it to the skip, kick it over again and shovel the dirt into the skip. I did this about a thousand times and finally filled up the skip and, in the process, emptied the garden of earth (although you’d be amazed at how much rubble and glass was buried there). I put some plastic sheeting down (held with a few bricks and other heavy things) for the stones and finished for the day. Phase one complete (and I was a bit tired too).

Next was to get a ton of gravel delivered (which I did, see right) and then shovel it over the whole garden. This time I did use the wheelbarrow and it was a piece of cake compared to the dirt shovelling. By the time darkness fell I was finished. One more weight off my mind. And I’m happy because I know I’ll never have to do it again. (Okay, I probably will in my new house, but I’m trying not to think about it for now). All I need to do is nail the fence back together and we’re done.

Maybe I’ll do it tonight or tomorrow…