After the fire... A new garden:)

On the 10th of May, B and I went to visit family, some 30 miles away,  my mum was staying at our house to look after the little one.

We got a  phone call at midnight from my mum:  distraught, to say  that we had a fire raging in our back garden, and that there were fireman  trying to put it out, all very scary, no harm came to my mum or daughter, luckily, PHEW! My mum had woken and come down to get a drink from the kitchen and noticed it, if she hadn't it would have spread to the house I'm sure.
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The fireman suspect that someone who lived at the back of our property had flicked a cigarette butt over into the back alley, and it had caught some grass clippings, everything was so dry after the long dry spell we have had.

We arrived home the following morning to this:

My poor newly planted apple tree

It was just  AWFUL, In a way I'm glad we weren't here to witness it. It burned the entire contents of our shed{all replaceable though} We had spent weeks preparing the garden for summer, so all hard work down the drain...

 So on with the insurance claim, and swiftly on with clearing all the debris~was not fun cleaning up after it all being brought through the house~the joys of being in a mid terrace.

 New fencing was put up, and B had the job of rebuilding a new shed,{ done very well I may add ,he's not bad you know} had some help from my eldest son, to move things along quickly, and  some thoughtful planning at the garden centres{we were covered for plants too, which was real bonus} and I now have a better garden than before!

Progress-Men at work

So 6 weeks to the day after lots of back breaking work, and we are done! We have planted some massive Bamboos, Miscanthus, Acaia tree, and a mature evergreen Jasmine which smells heavenly. All for high screening, and effect of course. A stunning red Acer-Japenese maple, various grasses, roses, perennials, and another apple tree for opposite side of garden which is a grafted one with 3 varieties of eating apples. My other recently planted tree 'Miss Derby which looked dead after the fire has sprouted lots of new leaves so looks like she will be ok after all, minus the fruit, but there is always next year.

Click on pics to enlarge!

Done!

Red Maple

The garden has been finished off with walls being painted in a calm shade of green, plum slate layed over concrete and a few white pepples, it looks really good now,  all that remains is to re turf, as lawn is all muddy.

We have some gorgeous lighting, solar fairy lights in the gazebo, and some spots which light everything up at night.

Sunny deck

suncatching mosiac mirror heart

I am looking foward to next weekend, sitting on my deck and relaxing for the first time in ages.... A well earned rest ;)