First, let me show you the herb garden which I planted up 10 years ago, and most of the herbs did well, but time adds woodiness and congestion to the bed and it became compacted. So here we have an early April shot after I decided to remove the fennels and alpine strawberries and cut back on the marjoram on the right hand side. I'm leaving the large droopy rosemary till it stops flowering because what bees there are love it so much.

Here are after photos taken a few days ago.

On the left hand bed, I've put in a new lavender in the centre, two French tarragons, a sage and an oregano as well as a couple of violas, you can't see the yellow viola any more cos the slugs love it despite the pellets I put down. In the right hand bed we have a new rosemary in the centre as well as 3 lavenders on the right. The bright green at the front is a gorgeous lemon thyme which is wonderful for cooking. I need to work out a new method of maintaining the border edge with the grass, one which allows me to cut the grass easily without allowing it to wander into the herb bed.

This is an overview of the back garden, my wasn't it cloudy, the best you could say about the weather is that it wasn't raining.

Last weekend we had this. A series from left to right of my new border with new shrubs.

First, a Black Lace Sambuca (Elder), then a Gunner Manicata, which should grow huge, and in the background a shade loving Hellebore. Next to that though hard to spot is a Quince tree Vranja which should fruit in three years. In  the right hand corner we have two black bamboos, which were 3 for 2, guess the corner one you can't see was the freebie. And over by the south facing wall we have a Cotinus.

Finally the three side borders which are south facing. Over the years I've removed a couple of shrubs which were way overgrown, it's been overcome with convulvulus for a long time and it's still a problem, hence my reuctance to put in shrubs, but if I don't now I never will so ...

Firstly, we have a bed of self sown lemon balm, lady's mantle and feverfew, in the back I've planted a blackcurrant bush, since removed and some fennels and alpine strawberries. In the middle bed, the grey stuff is Stachys Byzantina which is lovely and soft to touch and has managed to stay in the garden despite my hacking at it over the years. The pot has a big hosta which usually succumbs to slugs despite my best efforts, I did want to plant in the new border but missed my window of opportunity before it really sprouted, maybe next year.

In the middle bed, it's lots of aquilegias which are all self seeded. In the right hand back corner we have an Exochorda 'The Bride' which has white flowers in June. And finally in the right hand bed, we have mostly emptiness as this is where I want to sow some veggies like mange tout and Broad Beans, there are some aquilegias at the back and we have a flowering Japanese quince 'Jet Trail' which has white flowers near the bottom. The last pic is an overview of all 3 beds.

That's the current state of the garden and if you read this far well done.