The Big Job...

...is finally finished ~ well, almost 😉  We had four more bags delivered, two in the driveway and two here in the kitchen garden.  It's amazing how much of the bloody stuff we've got through!

We were on a bit of a mission to get the bags in the driveway emptied, as we share it with our neighbour and wanted to get it all cleared away before she got back from holiday.  Not that there would have been a problem if we hadn't quite finished but we do like to be as considerate as we can.  Having a couple of bags put on the driveway made it very much easier getting the stones wheeled round to the back.

Mind you, wasn't an easy task to get the wheelbarrow along the back of the shed as there isn't much space to turn in the corner!

We managed it, though, and it was easier along this side.  The bags contain leaves gathered up from last year and the compost that Adrian emptied out from our bins ready to move them for the Big Job.

It was a straightforward task laying the stones here.  We've decided that we should perhaps put some kind of little fence along the top of the wall at some point, though, as there is a drop down.  

Just about the only "before" photo that I remembered to take 😏

To outsiders, as it were, I'm sure that it doesn't really look like putting down this additional layer of stone chippings has made much difference, but we can really see the change it's made.

I have to confess that it took us much longer just to get this section of the back garden done than we thought it would!

This was another very awkward area.  The wheelbarrow wouldn't fit past the downpipe and Adrian just didn't have the heart to dismantle it.  Even if he had done so, it would still have been difficult bumping the wheelbarrow up the step.  In the end he filled a metal bucket with stones and wheeled it round.  It was easier once we'd reached the lower level as he could go back to filling the wheelbarrow, dumping it this side of the downpipe, and then I could drag it along.

The little piece of paving slab used to make the edge of the step didn't quite reach all the way across, so we tidied it up by digging out the soil that had gathered there, and wedging in a couple of pieces of broken roofing slates.  We placed them back-to-back to strengthen them and it's now very much neater.

Again, there wasn't enough space for the wheelbarrow trundle along the side of the kitchen but it wasn't too much of an issue as Adrian just tipped the stones down from the top.

We moved the small pots and the old wheelbarrow  in the kitchen courtyard out of the way, although it wasn't possible to move the large containers so we just worked round them as best as we could.

It's really made a big difference here as everything is now level.  Incredible as it sounds, we actually emptied the two bags on the drive and had to make inroads into the bags that had been placed in the kitchen garden 😳

Thankfully there was still enough left to finish off the strip at the far end of the kitchen garden.

Adrian had put down an extra layer whilst I was staying with my Dad earlier in the year, but he ran out with just this path section left to be done.

It was good to get it finished off.

Another job well done, even if I do say so myself 😉

And this, my lovelies, is what we have left from all those bags we had delivered this time around.  We do still have more sections of the front garden to be topped off but I really don't think that will be happening until next year now ~ our 60-something elbows, knees and backs really need a bit of a rest for a while to be honest 😄