A pot I can manage - in my old home (going back 10 years now), my garden was small and easy to manage and I enjoyed being able to grow things is pots and look after the small area I had.... in this house however - the garden is large, sloping and uneven, it has potential, but in many ways it is too large and has some challenging features, it requires constant maintenance to stay on top of things, and as such is pretty unkempt in places because I don't have the time, ability or resources to keep on top of it all. My plan was always to develop some of the spaces into low maintenance areas, so that I could devote some time to little projects like raised veggie beds and planting more fruit trees and that kind of thing, but my husband didn't value the outdoor space and wouldn't spend money on it, and now that I'm here alone, just staying in this house is a financial challenge, there aren't any spare funds.

It exasperates me....it could really be something special, it's pretty non-overlooked and has a dry stone wall like you see around fields of sheep over here along the rear boundary with very  tall mature trees beyond that, which are not on my land but overhang it giving a foresty feel to the bottom end of the garden, whilst the top, less shaded portion could be a good growing area, but the soil needs a lot of work on it, it's a claggy, clay soil, so really raised beds or a good depth of topsoil would be the easiest way. It needs thousands and thousands of pounds worth of groundwork & re-landscaping doing though, it needs tradesmen bringing in to do it...so I try not to look at it or think about it too much - I hide away from my own garden so I don't have to face the disheartening, frustrating feeling I feel when I'm in it.

All that said and done, I bought a book in the shop at the crannog, about building your own earth oven, and I have promised myself that I will stick with it and get that finished by next August...I just have to figure out where to site it first, before I can start thinking about the groundwork and foundations, so all I can say is...

....watch this space! :)