Before and After

You would expect before and after pictures to show the dire 'before' and the amazing 'after' transformations wouldn't you?
Well take a look at this

Before

After

Before

After

Not quite what you expected huh! There's about 8 years difference in those before and afters and it's progressively got worse over the years - hence why we are now in the middle of a complete renovation of the garden.

Mr TG has been digging out the new pond area today and though I've moaned at him ALOT lately about being lonely in the garden todays experience reminded me why I should stick to my areas and he should stick to his.
Mr TG has very different ideas to me and despite me talking him through every aspect of the pond plan before he started he has this tendency to try to manipulate things to how he thinks they should be and suddenly forgets the 20 minute conversation we had that detailed what I needed. Argh!
In the end I had to insist we do what I had planned and then I walked away, tomorrow he can go back to "his" garden.

For now here's more pictures of the mess I am attempting to tackle

Just look at that self seeded Columbine, it's absolutely everywhere and the majority of it is for the compost heap (without seed heads obviously). All that gravel is coming up and so is the polythene beneath it - we put it down believing it would suppress weeds. it doesn't! It's amazing what will grow in gravel.
The Butler sink used to look spectacular - honest! Now it's a mass of weeds and unruly Sempervivums.

Bad isn't it!
I haven't a clue what I was thinking when I built that maypole, I really don't. I rescued a Clematis this year that had been trying to climb up it but due to it being in shade it has never managed much more than a dozen leaves or so. That Cleamatis ('Warsaw Nike' or 'President', I'm not sure which) is now in a pot recovering and is looking good.
The transformation of these areas will be stunning......................hopefully!