Labour of love part 1

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For many years I have been attending a small church not far from where I live. It is a tiny tin tabernacle set on a large plot. And for a long time I have been quite good about ignoring what goes on on the outside.

Here's a taste

There had been talk of letting the local school develop a veg plot but nothing had come of it. In February this year I decided that something had to be done. The brambles, nettles, tree stumps, spurges and whatever vegetation was present was depressing me.

One day, I got out the spade and loppers and started to clear. For the next few Saturdays a group of volunteers spent time clearing up alongside me and we could have filled a few skips with all the rubbish removed.

As this is an unpaid job (hence the title of the post) and since the volunteer labour quickly fizzled out, I have been taking the lead on the design of the project.
The actual plot measures about 18m by 6m, so what I am tackling is about four times bigger than the picture suggests. It is southfacing which is a blessing and a curse. A blessing because a biggish plot allows me to use some tall shrubs and because I had recently created several shady borders and quite fancied creating a beautiful sunny border. A curse because southfacing invariably means loss of water through evaporation. Currently the only water supply is inside the small kitchen of the church, a setup not condusive to regular watering and something to bear in mind when planning.