The Green, Green Grass...

After 5 years of resembling a building site, we finally got our garden in shape this summer. This was a good opportunity to flex some green muscle.

We broke up a lot of concrete and replaced it with grass - a permeable surface which absorbs rain. You may think this is insignificant, but, as I write, half of Newcastle is under water and people are being evacuated from their homes. Our drainage and rivers cannot cope with the rapid run-off from hard surfaces, and this is our small contribution to reversing the trend of concreting over front gardens.

The benefit of all this rain is we haven't had to water the lawn and I'm going to try and feed it with homemade fertiliser next year. The grass cuttings will also balance the hedge clippings in our very dry compost heap - I've bought a push mower for when it dries out enough to cut.

Other green features include reclaimed flag stones, a retractable double washing line (we never have owned a drier anyway) and several bird feeding stations. We'll be stocking it up with more wildlife friendly plants in the next year.

The eco-bandit in all this greenery is the pressure treated wood deck. We would have preferred a stone patio, but the cost was prohibitive.