A better view

Some weeks ago, in early August, my pro gardener brother joined us at Lynton Towers to add a bit of grit and determination to Christopher's ground force efforts. The aim was a basic garden structure to give us a pleasant view through the winter months, avoid a mud bath, and be ready for planting up next spring.

We began the month with a week off work in which Christopher filled a skip with rubble, bricks, weeds and poor soil, which had the effect of lowering the garden level by a couple of bricks. Matt arrived the following Saturday to help lay the lawn and start building the patio. After many discussions about shape and form, they laid the top soil and turf in a perfect rugby ball design in honour of this year's rugby world cup (not really).

To build the patio they built up a base of sand and laid the found terracotta tiles that we unearthed from the garden. They edged the patio with bricks also dug and reused from the ground. As I supervised from the dining room, I remarked that if I had been a paying client I would have asked these two cowboys to leave my garden immediately, but perseverance and determination made up for where skill and experience was lacking and we (they) got there. Aim achieved: a small but much improved city garden.

Here's a photographic step by step...

A leaf? A lemon? A rugby ball? 

Whitewashed walls, terracotta patio, lawn, and even an outside tap.