Great garden makeover Day 3

Good progress by the builders today. All the fancy brickwork in place and a start made on the retaining wall for the raised bed. All that remains to do on the patio is to brick up the place where the old water feature was and do the pointing. An unenviable task I think, pointing all the slabs and bricks. Mind you, that's why you have a builder's mate. Does all the fetching and carrying and the mundane tasks like pointing.

While the builders were working on the back garden I was off to the allotment for the morning. I dug two trenches for the runner beans and filled them with well rotted compost ready for May. Then I went over the old nettle patch I'd cleared in the winter, removing another trug load of roots and shoots. I'm sure it will be a constant battle to stop the nettles taking over. In the prepared bed I planted some raspberry canes courtesy of Delia. Still more canes at home to plant out from cuttings I took last autumn.

Finally I planted a couple of rows of shallots, turned over a compost bin and harvested a few spindly leeks and a whole stalk of sprouts. A good day in warm sunshine but a day you had to work as there was a cool wind blowing across the site.

Had quite a restful afternoon, ordered a set of 5 draft fruit trees to add to the mini orchard I'm creating; two apples, one each of pear, cherrry and plum. They will only grow to about 1 metre so don't take up much space so will be ideal for the plot