At the end of the Summer, I posted how I had been invited to take part in the Bosch Garden Makeover Challenge. As a keen gardener who has been feeling a little distraught for the past year about two areas in my otherwise idyllic (for me anyway) garden, I was very eager to transform these, making them work for us at the stage that we are: young family with a little one who needs a safe place space.

I posted here, highlighting the two areas that needed attention in my otherwise perfect paradise:

The two vegetable patches hadn't been used in ages and I was lacking inspiration; my seedlings kept dying and the weeds kept growing. In the picture on the right, is what was my herb garden. It was because a gale-force wind saw the fence panel behind it being blown halfway across the garden; it crushed most of my rosemary, and all of the thyme and coriander. Then when my dad fixed the fence (thanks dad) he did in the remainder of my rosemary with a spade and his size tens! All that was left was an overgrown lavender. In addition this 'herb garden' (pah!) was edged with sharp stones and I just had visions of a nasty accident.

During the past two months we've received a lawn treatment from Green Thumb which highlighted that my lush, green lawn was in fact 85% full of weeds. The very lovely gentleman who explained about keeping the lawn healthy also kindly explained that I really needed to keep The Boy's toys off the grass when they're not being used. This set my mind whirring, one of the main culprits was the Little Tikes Playhouse which was crushing the grass underneath. I therefore decided to remove the left vegetable patch, pave that creating a base for the playhouse, and use the railway sleepers to edge the now-defunct herb garden. During the Winter months, the other vegetable patch (on the right) is going to be used as a digging plot for The Boy, before we plant seeds together next Spring.

When it came to the completely pointless herb garden (which, if I'm entirely honest, was never used anyway because I couldn't be bothered to be that creative with my cooking!) I decided to turn it into another flower bed, but this time full of vibrant plants to give colour from my kitchen window during the forthcoming grey season. With the lavender bush long-gone, and now edged in railway sleeper, I chose shrubs and Winter flowering plants. In this flower bed we now have a beautiful mix of plants including a dogwood,  berberis, a new lavender (which I shall keep controlled!), a globe thistle and a nice selection of Lenten and Christmas roses.

Here's some other gratuitous shots of my garden to give you an overall feel.

Our garden is now a much more user-friendly environment, the specific user being a two year old tiddler by the name of The Boy. It also has a finished feel to it and I'm very grateful to Bosch, Coblands and GreenThumb for providing us with the resources to make this happen.

If you'd like to vote for us to win this competition, you can do so below.

We were provided with Bosch tools, a lawn treatment and plants in order to complete this challenge. My opinions and actions are independent.