Before and after garden shots

We've completed the renovation of two of the beds in our patio area, so we thought we'd post up some before and after photos.

The 'before' photos only give a very rough idea of what the beds looked like before we started working on them. I forgot to take any 'before' photos this weekend, so we had to dig out some old pictures taken in early December.

If you can imagine each 'before' border after nearly three months of neglect, you'll have some idea of how straggly, overgrown and weed-ridden they were.

Bed 1 before

and after

Bed 2 before


and after

As we're reluctant gardeners, we've tried to make the borders as low maintenance as possible, so we've put down black matting and bark to suppress the weeds and the plants we've bought are all hardy, evergreen perennials. The stick-like things in bed 1 are a few of the old plants which we've left in (a lavender, a rosemary and a shrub we haven't identified yet). They were all very straggly, so we've pruned them hard. If they survive we'll keep them, and if they die we'll take them out. It's kill or cure.

If the weather remains fine we're planning on doing some more garden renovation during the next week, so we'll post some more pics. If anyone has any gardening advice or tips, we'd love to hear them, because we know absolutely nothing about gardening and are stumbling around in the dark at the moment.

Right, I'm off now to have a big sit down and a nice cup of tea.