A friend of mine grows some really good chillies and peppers and starts them at the very beginning of the year.
If I remember I’m going to start mine in January next year.
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Early November and winter approaches… Remaining colors.
Dogwood thru the window
Dogwood
Tree Peony
Cosmos
Begonia
Zinnias
Marrigolds
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Jack Frost is one of my favourite plants. Brilliant foliage and little care required.
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Our white Camelia Sasanqua in full blossom
And the rose one
This white Camelia Japonica it usually blooms early in April. Last month unexpectedly
opened a flower.
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Jam .The Slabmen cometh:
It’s all go here this morning (and for the rest of the week)
I’ll take a daily photo as they progress.
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Garden makeover progressing. It’s great to see paths and patios being constructed, and a new shed !!
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Day Two of the Patio construction:
The ground excavated and skipped out.
The hardcore has been plate whacker’d down.
The sand, cement and slabs have arrived for three days of laying over Thursday, Friday, and finish on Monday
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Nice…looking good…how about a water butt on the shed…
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Have a water butt all ready and waiting to use after the paving is laid.
It’s a 227 litre Harcoster kit 
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Hi Debs, looks good.
May I enquire about the awning as I’m looking at something to go on the side of the house which isn’t too big structurally. Was it easy to source and get it fitted?
Cheers
Tim
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The canopy is made of 4mm aluminium structural parts which i believe is manufactured in the UK and generic for the trade, and may come similar or same under different brand names.
I sourced it via a local builders merchant who had a department specific for windows-doors-conservatories-canopies.
It the sort of thing that’s more typical for car ports, however it’s totally adaptable for any size and usage and has choices for Victoriana period style (at extra cost).
The standard colours are white, or dark anthracite which i choose.
Other colours are available but cost a lot more £1k+
The canopy i have is fairly long and narrow: 8m long with a projection of 2.2m
The total cost i paid to include supply and fitting = £5.8k
The canopy structure has a built-in rain gutter, and the support legs double as drainpipes and these maybe used for soak away underground, or plumbed with proper ground works to existing drainage (at extra cost)
On mine there is a conventional drain pipe connected at one end to the garage guttering.
There is a choice of having polycarbonate or glass which i chose (6mm toughened) due to being far quieter in the rain, however the polycarbonate sheeting does cost a lot less.
The extra costs of the opaque glass options cost a lot more too.
So to keep the total price down i kept things simple with a standard colour, clear glass and no victoriana styling.
I’m very pleased with it, very practical thing that i wouldn’t like to be without now.
Mine is a bit unusual being half a meter higher than usual due to overhanging the garage roof, but this provided a simply solution in this situation.
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Brilliant, thanks so much Debs. This is pretty much the ideal solution I was looking for. Never thought about the sound levels between polycarbonate and glass and the built in gutter is a definite plus.
I don’t think mine will be quite so big as it has only got to cover the side path from the back door to the garden, so an elongated porch.
Tim
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Day Three of the patio construction:
Very windy today but the Indian sand stone is going down. Going by the process made so far i’m wondering if tomorrow and Monday will be enough time to complete the 44 square meters (?)
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Day Four of the patio constructions:
The lads are now off for the weekend, back here early upright 8:00hr Monday to do what they can but they said they would need to visit here a few days later in the week to finish off.
I really like what they’ve done so far, neat and tidy work, the slight gradient is good, and the puzzle pitching around the canopy supports are excellent.
As soon as the paving is finished up the ally way i can plant a couple of climbers against that gabion wall; have a clematis (winter beauty), and a yellow flowering winter Jasmine on the way in anticipation…
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We had similar stone and one if the problems is black spots of mould/ lichen build up over time, difficult to remove. Might be worth discussing with the guys……the solvent/silicone treatments to prevent are expensive but do not last very long.
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Lovely…and the canopy is a great idea, but do tell…where are the cat flaps???
Very nicely chosen tiles. Are you also considering some pots & flowers on the terrace?
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The secret plans is to have a through the wall type cat flap between an upstairs room and the garage, this would be very high up in the garage so will require a gantry to step out upon and a cat designer staircase to descend down to patio level which would then meet another through the wall cat flap to exit though garage wall onto outside patio.
Future plans also include a further through the wall cat flap high up under the canopy to exit from the garage and out onto a feline mezzanine chill out zone where they may from a great height look down upon their domane, and mere humans 
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