I’m 23 and middle aged. Here’s why.

I’m becoming middle-aged. Why? Because I’ve developed a sudden interest in my garden. (Notice I say ‘my garden’, not ‘gardening’. The truth is that I’m rubbish at keeping plants alive, no matter how hard I try. My parents are both extremely green-fingered, but I tend to wither plants just by looking at them). My garden is tiny, and has very little in the way of greenery; it tends to be only plants that could survive nuclear wars like weeds, ivy, and some crazy spiky plant that’s extremely sticky and is currently trying to take over the world. I tried cutting it back at the weekend, and not only did it spike me multiple times, but it attached itself to my sleeve, the secateurs and the ivy before I got angry and threw it in the canal

I don’t really have any plants but I’m planning to change that. My garden has looked like crap for a couple of years since we had to pull the ‘decking’ (rotten wooden planks) up to get to a trap/pipe underneath it. I moved out not long after, and then moved back a year later and put ‘doing the garden’ on a never-ending to do list. This is what it looked after for the past couple of years (at least):

With Joe’s help we finally managed to co-ordinate having enough time and money to actually get some proper decking put down and the worst of the ivy cleared.

It looks really nice now, and it just needs some bark and potted plants to finish it off. I also kind of want a string of star solar lights. And maybe a new BBQ. And also a giant waterproof bean bag to laze on in the sun come next year. So yeah, it’s still got quite a way to go, but this is what it looks like so far (minus the table, chairs and BBQs I’ve now put out):

The cats absolutely love it. It’s not sealed at one end, and once they discovered that they were under the decking straight away. I had a peek underneath and it’s like a jungle adventure playground down there. Joe was worried they’d get stuck, but there’s enough space for them to be comfortable (although I’m slightly concerned they might bang their heads jumping up too fast if I call them for dinner or something). Chief was rolling around on the decking for a while and came in covered in sawdust. It’ll be nice for them out there when it’s hot and sunny.

Side note: By the way, if anyone’s searching for reviews for All Hands on Deck in Nottingham, I can thoroughly recommend them. The guy was extremely friendly and knowledgeable, and the price was half that of the other quotes we got. They did a good job and were very efficient.

I know a lot of people are put off by decking because they imagine things living underneath it (or perhaps dying underneath it), I’ve never had a problem with that despite living by the canal. I was surprised there was nothing underneath the old decking we pulled up because that must have been there for years, and so I’m confident there won’t be anything under this. Thinking about it, it doesn’t make sense for animals to nest there because there are no food sources nearby – and the smell of cat probably doesn’t help.

I did sit outside for a while at the weekend despite the fact that it’s pretty cold now. It’ll be great in the summer for parties and BBQs and such, and it’s really like having an extra room out there -particularly as you used to have to step quite far down into the garden and a lot of it was unusable pebbles. The cats definitely find it easier now they don’t have to stretch up and pull themselves through the cat flap either (although Sin still has to breathe in to get through it – he’s got a bit of a tummy now bless him).

So, roll on summer and fingers crossed it’s not a rainy one Next on the list – new washing machine, and a tumble dryer. Exciting stuff, no?