Waaay back in February I wrote about some ideas I had for changing the layout of the back garden. I have finally got around to embarking on the process of turning this into a reality. I can’t do it all in one go so I have decided to do the work in stages.

I moved the climbing frame some weeks ago, so the main task for now was to change the line of the path. This previously ran straight down the middle of the garden, made of square paving slabs just cut into the lawn.

Using my previous drawings as a guide I used the long hose to mark out the new line of the path. After a few trips up and down to a bedroom window to check the line I was happy enough.

Although I had plans in my head to make the new path a more robust feature, properly laid, perhaps involving bricks, gravel or bark, in the end I decided to keep it simple. I just used the same paving slab approach as before, this time turning the stones through 45° so that they are a diamond in the line of the path rather than square. The longer diagonals will help with creating a feeling of bigger space than what is actually there. In theory.

As before, I laid the slabs on the lawn, cut around the edge and removed the turf. Having levelled out the soil I just placed the slab on top, firming it down with the Mark 1 boot. There are a couple that wobble a bit but they’ll settle down. I used the turf removed in this way to repair the holes left by moving the slabs from the old path line, adding some grass seed for good measure.

The new line of the path is longer than the old one, so I needed more slabs, liberated from the veg plot and the greenhouse.

I find I am repeatedly comparing the before and after photos. Whilst the actual shape and size of the garden is not altered, I could convince myself that it appears as though it is. The garden seems wider, for a start. It can only be an optical illusion, of course, but that is the point of the exercise: to make that which is small appear a little larger.

The next stage is to create a small seating area in the far left corner. I intend to surround this with new planting so will be extending the borders as part of that job.

I’ll be back in a month or two with an update on progress.