Before and after of tiny Victorian yard

I’ve spend the last six months improving the tiny 1.8×3.5m L-shaped yard at the back of my Victorian terrace. I’m brand new to gardening apart from helping my mum with hanging baskets as a child so here’s the results of a lot of trial and error!

When I started, it was full of junk and several absolutely feral buddleias that were threatening to bring the garden walls down. I cleared the junk and murdered the buddleias before they murdered me. I then repointed the 130 year old wall in traditional lime mortar and lime washed it. I still need to paint the gate.

There’s no room for a shed so I turned the corner behind the L shape into a storage area for bikes and tools but managed to squeeze a clematis in, as recommended by a helpful Redditor! I was planning on getting a Montana Mayleen but ended up with a Piilu as it was on clearance in Tesco.

I tried to plant lavender in a window box but it failed so I rescued the plants, put them in pots and added some petunias to the window box. I planted up the conical hanging basket with what I think are trailing petunias and lobelia, I can’t take credit for the pink plastic one as that was a gift. In pots I’ve got dahlias, tomatoes, courgettes, lavender and rosemary.

I can’t legally do anything about the concrete floor as it’s listed, so I jet washed it and put an outdoor rug down to brighten it up a bit. I even managed to squeeze in a double retractable washing line and a mini BBQ area to make as much use of the space as possible! It’s south west facing so I like to have my lunch out there on sunny afternoons.

I’ve still got a lot to learn but I’ve enjoyed the journey!