We have this large vegetable patch and are hoping to grow lots of things in it this year. Well we are going to attempt to and see how it goes. I am going to create my own version of the ‘good life’ lifestyle but as always in the simplest and low effort ways. Previous on another post (smashing eggs) I mentioned my last attempt at a vegetable patch and it was far from a success. All I managed to grow were weeds and and they weren’t even that impressive. My knowledge and experience is abysmal so remember to keep your expectations low.

The people before us were fond of gardening so we are reaping the rewards of their hard work and already have onions growing. I only knew they are onions because I dug one up to see. How do people just know this stuff. My friends daughter who was 5 at the time came to play and she was walking round just naming all the plants and educating me casually on everything that was in there. She then also proceeded to eat everything she found but I didn’t even know it was edible until she grazed her way through. Payment for her knowledge. Is it child labour if you pay them in vegetables and herbs?

There are so many odds and ends left in the garden I’ve been slowly working my way through sorting everything. Looking at what I can re use, what needs selling or removing. One thing that needed urgent attention was this death trap of a table the previous people had made. It was so unsecure, wobbled and was just bizarre. My anxiety ridden brain provided me various scenarios of me and the kids being squashed by the massive stone slabs. Look at it ! What even is this ?? We dismantled it as soon as we moved in before we managed to injure ourselves. Ideas for a new life for the slabs was forming but as always I wasn’t one hundred percent sure it would work so I experimented and a slow plan formed.

We park our van on the other side of the patch and my feral children would just walk through the soil to the van tracking mud and everywhere. I did some rough measurements using just my arms and eyeballing it to Mike’s horror. I find he often rolls his eyes and just sighs when he knows I am up to something. My lack of accuracy drives him mad and I do it on purpose to wind him up. I’m a dick like that. Our personalities are chalk and cheese but so far it works for us. With all this ‘precision’ planning it seemed like it would work … so I grabbed my shovel and started digging.

There were three massive stone slabs stashed in the garden and they were heavy but we managed to wiggle and rock them around to the patch and launch then in. We arranged them into something that resembled a path and then left it like that for 3 months. We wanted to see how they looked and felt before we committed to keeping them. It was also cold and just didn’t care that much to finish the look.

When outside playing with the boys one day my brain just clicked and created a plan. I thought about using and creating a boarder with wood from the garden but my skills are shocking and knew it would just not look good. Browsing the local lumbar yard I found some planks that had grooves. Think it must be for decking but I liked it and thought it would add an extra design element to the path. They needed cutting down to size and this is when I learnt to use the jigsaw. Bloody hell I was bricking it. If I was going to loose a finger which would be the one I would be sad to see go? Good news I still have 10. I am also keen to make more things and develop some more power tool skills. So I dug some more and shoved the planks in securing them by compacting the soil on each side. They were a snug fit so I didn’t need to fix them to anything. Then added bark chipping around the edges and it was complete.

Let me see what you have created in the garden. Tag me on Instagram @jenjensdesignsuk