This is how my back garden used to look before my hubby turned into a mole and I became a plantacholic. I had forgotten how plain it was.

The long border was the only place that I had practiced my gardening techniques until the other half became a compulsive digger. Formerly everything was planted in this border and then just left to fend for itself. That is probably why I had so much success with herbs and bulbs as they didn't need to be nurtured.

Spring 1997. The top of the long border looked great when the honesty was in full flower but pretty horrible in winter and early spring.

Spring 1997. My little seed house that hubby built to get all the plants out of the house! This border by the back door has been extended and now goes along by the wall and meets the seat.

Spring 1997. I was having a lot of trouble filling the newly created beds, especially when hubby decided to extend the semi circle lengthways.

The summer of 1997. The use of plenty of summer bedding plants helped to disguise the bare patches in the narrow border beside the garden path.

This is my minature rockery in April 1998, six months after it was built. The gravel has since been softened by the addition of more plants and weathering. The Chamaecyparis Ellwoodii is now about 20ins high and the Lewisia cotelydon has flowered for the first time this month, April 1999.

The summer of 1998 seemed to suit everything in my back garden, including the slugs and snails, everything was growing well except the trumpet vine on the trellis which was losing the battle with the yarrow ( Achillea).

Late summer 1998. The trumpet vine 'Madam Galen' eventually got it's own way, but it still hadn't reached the top of the trellis yet.

Autumn 1998. The runt of the seedlings - this was an odd seedling that I had no room for so I planted it beside my minature pond, you can't see the pond for the cone flowers. The sunflowers that I watered and fed are in the corner, the big one was ignored! It's leaves were eaten by mountaineering snails but it just kept on growing. The young lady is my daughter.

Winter 1998. Not much colour in the back garden - I'll have to change that, I wonder which plants flower or look good during the winter?

"The evidence"... This is the digital photo that hubby took as evidence against Petra when she insisted that they weren't her paw prints in the border. This was shortly after the new border was first created when Petra was still refusing to recognise it's existence.

May 1999. During 1999 the garden filled out, a bit more lawn was trimmed away to make room for more plants and a small water feature/mini pond was added which has a small raised bed surrounding it. This was planted with a baby fern 'Dyropteris affinis'.

October 1999. This was the canna, the trumpet vine 'Madame Galen' and a chocolate cosmos in October, after we had returned from our holiday. The trumpet vine only just won but it is planted in the ground so it did have a slight advantage over the canna. To the left of the picture is Dahlia 'Bishop of Llandaff' strutting it's stuff. Obviously the dahlia, along with the grass, had enjoyed the weather while we were away.

April 2000. This is the shady corner with the seed house hubby built. The sun never reaches this bit of the back garden but it is a good place to harden off my plants as they don't get sunburned either.

April 2000. This is a very cheap way to have a frame work for climbing plants without blocking out the sun in my north facing garden. All it consists of are bamboo canes held together with cable ties, the middle cane is the longest which is pushed into the ground, to make sure it stays up it has been tied to the fence and the next fan of bamboo canes, total cost about £8.00.

April 2000. The rockery has been enlarged to include a few grasses, a hosta and an urn with a pink in it. When this picture was taken in April 2000 the phlox had just started to flower and the Chamaecyparis Ellwoodii was about 4ft high, it was only 10 ins high in 1996. If I don't start clipping soon I will have to move it.

April 2000. The Pieris looking brilliant in the late spring sunshine, last year I lost all the new shoots to frosts so I remembered to cover it when hard frosts were forecast and my hard work was rewarded.

April 2000. The mini pond looks a bit bleak in this photo but with the forget-me-nots and primulas giving their best it won't take long for the fern and other plants to catch up and soften the edges.

May 2000. A few weeks later and you can't see the edges of the pond, even the clematis is trying to add to the effect. The Euphorbia 'Chameleon' really works well against the new growth of the fern, 'Dryopteris Affinis'. I do have some successes with colour matching!

May 2000. Rhododedron 'Grumpy' having its moment, we missed this show last year as we were on holiday and our neighbour kept telling us how beautiful it was while we were away, she was right it was a beautiful display.

June 2000. The seed house is nearly full again, it will be full to overflowing when I get round to pricking some more seedlings out.

June 2000. This is the shady corner looking more cheerful now that the light levels are higher. Even though the sun doesn't get here, the slugs and snails do, I thought the hosta would be safer up here, no chance!

June 2000. The rockery, complete with weed on path. The phlox is over but the thyme, diascias, dianthus, the sedum 'blanco' and the sweet smelling purple plant on the right are in full bloom.

June 2000. Well you can nearly walk in a straight line down the path. The borders seemed to have filled out quite nicely this year.

June 2000. Alstroemeria 'Friendship', isn't it nice, apart from the cats breaking pieces off, thats why the bamboo canes are behind it, to impede their progress into my garden.

June 2000. An aerial view taken from the bedroom window showing the pieris, the rhododendron and the path that goes nowhere.

June 2000. A close up of the pieris, rhododendron and geums looking quite reasonable even after a bashing by the wind and rain.

June 2000. The window box on the ground with a close up of the Rhodohypoxis and the black grass Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens' which shows up well against the shells that I have used as a mulch.

June 2000. Here are my hubby's additions to the garden. I think he would like to be in the tropics judging by the kind of plants that he likes.

September 2000. Black Knight 'butterfly bush' attracting the right kind of visitors, it was hard work trying to capture the three butterflies on camera so you could really see what they were.

28th December 2000, the leaves are still on the fuschia along with a flower (bottom right of the picture), the buddlejas are still in full leaf and the garden was still looking quite good until the arrival of the snow.

January 2001. After a long soft autumn, winter finally arrives with the frost. The fern looks great with frost bite but the hebe to the right was not very happy and never recovered from the shock.

June 2001. Everything has finally recovered and begining to look good. This is the best this honeysuckle has ever looked, one advantage of a late frost is that the greenfly did not get to eat all the buds. When I compare this photo with the one taken in Spring 1997 (at the top of the page) I feel I have achieved something.

End of June 2001 and it's 'A Jungle Out There' as the rest of the garden decides to play catch up and over take. So the spring flowers are still at their best with summer flowers butting their petals in. I was getting complaints from visitors who were having difficulties walking up the path.

September 2001. I'm chasing butterflies again. This time on the creamy-orange butterfly bush. The nasturtiums were making a bid for all the space in that part of the garden.

October 2001. We have had no frosts so far so everything is still growing up and out. Even the bronzy chrysanthemums are still upright as the wind has not been strong enough to knock them flat. The golden leaves in the foreground are from Campsis x tagliabuana 'Madame Galen' -- Trumpet creeper the flowers lasted well this year. The rosemary to the bottom right of the picture is showing its age, well it is about 22 years old, so it is entitled to look a bit rough but I don't seem to be able to get cuttings to take.

May 2002. The Rhodo Grumpy. This is the first time we have seen this plant in full flower, the neighbours tell us how wonderful it has been while we have been away on holiday. We now know that they we not winding us up.