We have fenced off the garden so that we have a playing area for the children on the decking and paving, and the grass/growing area the other side. We don’t really let the children go on the grass in the winter as it’s all wet and muddy until the sun reaches it again around Easter time. Up until now we have had to remind the children to “stay on the decking” over and over, now we don’t need to. It also gives the garden a bit more structure and strangely makes the play area seem larger.

The main fence is just a fence. There used to be a small drop off the paving onto the grass which I have now banked up and put new turf on top. The gate is just a bit of trellis cut to size and gets dropped in from above into a channel on each of the posts. It means it is either there, or it is not, while also being easy for us to step over while children cannot. I opted for this approach as a hinged gate would be troublesome trying to get buggies through and children would swing on it or keep opening and closing it. Also, it was a lot easier just to do the drop in approach.

It has been raining ever since and so I have slowly be painting the gate, it’s all now done. The new turf has mostly taken and this weekend I gave it a first cut.

Because of the constant rain we still have a lot of green tomatoes and a lot of them have split. I am picking off any that look like they are starting to go red and finishing them off indoors. Also growing are cucumbers, we picked two on one day and a couple of days later another two appeared. When we remember, we still have lots of celery and beetroot.