April 21st ~ May 9th

I got a little more done to the wall on the 21st, the 26th and May 1st. I ran out of original wall bricks and started recycling the bricks from the wall, demolished by the BMW in December.

Lynne decided she wanted another vegetable planter, just for the strawberries, as the potato crop was creeping into the strawberry area. There was just enough room for a 3 feet square planter, but we had to get a 3 x 6 ft planter and just assemble it as a 3 foot square. The slates were cleared on the 5th of May, while the planter arrived a few days later. It was assembled on the 9th, lined and filled with the leftover lawn topsoil and compost. The bird netting frame was a really tight fit, but did go in without alterations.

On April the 24th, I got four more packets of seeds. They were Daisy Pomponettes, Cinercria Silver Dust, Canterbury Bells for various locations around the garden. I also got Creeping Thyme as ground cover for the earth next to the path behind the garage.
  

May 8th

Due to the poor weather and really dull start to the first half of the year, I bought four LED grow lights to help the seedlings develop. By the 16th, I'd also added two cold frames to the patio outside the workshop, to move the plants on to. My workshop window sill was getting a bit full and the seedlings would need hardening off before planting outside.

I got a bit of real railway action on the 26th of May while visiting Tanfield Railway for their 1940s weekend. I had my Jeep and Dodge on display there and got the opportunity for a footplate ride on "Horden", their 0-6-0 saddle tank loco.

Back to my own railway and after a few days out in the cold frame, on the 29th, I planted the rock cress to finish the edge of the embankment. What I thought had been Forget-me-not, turned out to be an invasive weed, so that was pulled out and the rock cress planted to fill in the remaining gapsto the left and right.
  

May 29th

The red Water Avens were shedding lots of petals on the ballast, so the plant closest to the track was dug out and moved further back. This left more space for the rock cress under the edge of the conifer. I still need something to fill that space that doesn't mind being in the partial shade and shelter of the conifer. The other embankment plants have almost been in the ground for seven weeks now. All of them have survived planting out and several cold nights in April. While they still need to grow and spread, they have been flowering well.
  

May 31st

With a few days of dry weather predicted at the end of May into June, I wanted to get on with the wall. I'd previously cleaned up a number of bricks that were used on the 1st of May, but needed more. So on the 31st, I got another 120 bricks cleaned of mortar, ready to be laid.
  

June 1st

The wall is pretty much finished. I've used all the original capping stones, so I'm going to leave the wall for now and try to find a terracotta capping stone to finish the row. The pillar isn't going any higher, as that was just used to tie the wall to the neighbour's wall. I'll either cut some of the existing bricks to put a sloping top on it, or look for another suitable capping stone. For now, it's complete enough, as the year is ticking by very quickly and I want to make a start on the patio extension.

June 4th & 5th

On the 4th, I began digging out and clearing plants from the location of the patio extension. Some of the tall plants, which I think are Astrantia Major 'White Giant', would be moved to the back of the railway embankment. On the 5th, with most of the plants out of the way, I began to mark out the foundations for the low wall that would be needed to support the edge of the new patio and retain the hardcore. Foundation digging began after that.

June 6th

On the morning of the 6th, I moved several Astrantia Major 'White Giant' plants to the railway. They were fairly tall and would make a nice background to the low alpines at the front of the embankment. I got that done in time to watch SpaceX fly their Starship for its 4th test flight, followed by preparing my military vehicles for an evening D-Day beacon lighting ceremony in the village.
 

 
June 18th ~ July 11th

Between mid June and Mid July, I got the patio foundation filled with hardcore, followed by concrete. Two layers of bricks followed, to support the edge of the patio and to contain the hardcore which would support the slabs. Several paving slabs were pulled up from the side path, as they matched the existing patio. When the brickwork had set, I started breaking up old bricks, left over from the garden side and front walls, to fill the patio area. A layer of mortar was added over the top and the paving laid on top. The following day, I pointed between all the slabs.

With the patio done, the new borders had some unwanted plants dug out and the earth level raised to just below the new patio height. I put some 12 inch square stepping stones along the yew hedge, to give access for trimming. Between and around the stones, I planted Thyme as ground cover. Canterbury Bells and Silver Dust were planted up to the patio edge.

In the lower border, I added more stepping stones down the middle, to give better access for weeding. Thyme was again planted around the stones, with Daisy Pomponettes along each side. Some of the other existing plants were moved around and a space left for an evergreen shrub, yet to be purchased.

I think I'm going to wrap up the garden updates and end the story here, considering the observatory, railway, lawn and patio are now complete. They were the main tasks planned when we first moved here, three and a half years ago.