elderberry and damson

Damn, damn and double bugger.
I've just taken a walk down to the very end of the garden to get a closer look at what has actually been done to my trees.
they were supposed to be tidied up and an overgrown elderberry cut down .

*Note to self*
Never, Ever leave workmen to work unsupervised.
Ever.
At All.
Not even for a second.

And what do you think i found?

A missing Damson, which they were supposed to prune gently so that it would start to bear fruit more prolifically.
and a flowering [ if rather hacked about ] elderberry.

I could have cried.

So i think they are all going to have to come out, and I'll start again.

Hmmmmmmmm.......
I was going to draw a little plan of how it will look in the end, but I can't find the equivalent of 'paint' on my mac.
Now it's quite possible that its me.
Especially since I got moaned at recently for asking the same question about how i did things on here too many times.
*hangs head in shame*
But I really HAVE looked this time, and i can't find it.

So.....lets see if i can paint a mental picture.

Behind the new patio, running to the very end of the garden, is a space that was full of brambles and big river stones [all buried and we have no idea why they were there] and a mish mash of overgrown shrubs and leggy trees.
its about 15' by 20' and at the moment had earth piled up in a hump down the middle so it arches upalong the longest length of it.

What we want to do is level the earth, cover it with a thick layer of gravel, put some stepping stone type slabs in the central section, running from the steps that come from the new patio to about 3' from the back [ really just so i have somewhere stable to stand while i prune the stuff that's going in.
In the rectangular area surrounding the centre I want to plant some medium sized shrubs, probably with a holly and something else suitably spiky at the back where the fence opens out onto the garages behind, and a flowering cherry or a magnolia and an apple tree.
If I chose them properly even when they are fully grown there will be enough space for both of them.
Then I'll put some low lighting down there, and a semi hidden bench,and just keep it as a quiet secluded part of the garden for me to sit and read in.

That will leave the new patio for sunbathing / playing netball on.
The bit up from that with the big pampas grasses/a dwarf willow /a mock orange [philadelphus] /some honeysuckle /a couple of cordyline/a potentilla/ and some incidental bits and pieces.
All of which should be big enough to screen the view of the house from the lower patio and vice versa.

Then finally the lawn and the small patio up by the house.

Its a long thin garden.

But it's MY long thin garden, and i can see how i want it to be in my head.

fur coats , stiletto's, orange people and queues

Yup, all of the above were things that we saw on our weekend away at Alton Towers.
I don't have the energy right now to go into why people were wearing full length fur coats and stilettos to a theme park, and it would all be speculation anyway, but the orange people were scary.
I sort of hope it was fake tan, but somehow i doubt it.
Lets just say that on a chilly drizzly english easter sunday I didn't expect to be confronted with bare middles, low tops, corsets, 5 inch heels and spray painted faces .