The grand scheme of things

Well first impressions are good. Really good. We’ve got pretty much everything we asked for bar an all-weather seating area and there’s a comprehensive planting plan which I’ve been poring over at every available opportunity (although given it’s half term those opportunities have been regrettably infrequent). The greenhouse is a good size. The swimming pool is a good size. And we still have loads of lawn to play with (literally). Furthermore, there are some lovely surprises; in particular a mini orchard underplanted with meadow grass and wildflowers. And the shady patio outside the living room looks full and lush and green even in 2D plan form. YAY.

Our immediate reaction during the presentation was that the lawn and the main seating area might be too far apart. We want to be able to see the beautiful lines of the grass when it’s newly cut and striped. There’s an obvious fix for this: we can lose four of the six raised beds outside the greenhouse to bring the lawn further towards the house. I briefly consider mounting a case for keeping them, but then realise that six veg beds plus a greenhouse and a cut flower patch sounds like quite a lot of hard work. So I decide to keep my mouth shut.