Veggie's random garden

I take Kato for walks in a woodland glade.I wear shorts a lot and am always dodging nettles and brambles .Kato sems to have an affinity for nettles and always stops for a sniff. I am sick of pulling him away from them. He even has a sore bit on his nose which I am convinced was caused by nettle stings?I try to tread them down when I am walking but they are persistant swines and as you try to flatten one bit another bit jumps up and stings you somewhere else.

All in all though the traipse trough woodland is worth it with sightings of dear,rabbits, squirrels and even a hare which came to say hello until it seen Kato and took off like a flash.Its nice to hear the  bird noise from all manner of birds and there is something quite appealing about a sun dappled  babbling brook that Kato likes to plodge in.

I don't have a big babbling brook, but, there is a small spring-fed stream that is the boundary at the far end of the garden. Its hardly visible because the field brambles have grown over it but I've cleared enough to see the birds bathing in it. In summer it dries up completely and loses its babble.

The "Rockery" makeover. 
The rockery is just a fanciful name for a mound of soil and a heap of rocks - it was created to solve a problem. 
When I moved here the house next door (uphill) had not been built, although plans had been approved so I knew it would happen. There was a wild hedge , including some horrible spindly conifers on the boundary and they needed to be taken down as they overhung the boundary, where they proposed to build a wall.
The trees were felled, leaving the stumps - like broken teeth they grated. So I covered them up with soil and some rocks that materialising out of the house build. 
It was very neat and tidy with lots of herbs and spring flowers for years but, the inevitable happened, brambles and montbretia appeared and my rockery gradually disappeared. At the same time, my GH empire grew, GH2 was first on the east of the rockery. Then next door gave me their GH - GH3 which went on the flat ground to the west of the rockery. GH1 came next and went to the south of the rockery - so all 3 are easily accessible from the house, but not from each other. The rockery is a mountain in between.


    Bits of all 3 GHs with the Rockery in between

    The path from the house being widened.

    Looking back along the path, rockery on the right.

    From the door of GH2, towards GH3. This is where I need a path!

Like it. Some very nice rocks. I like rocks   . Do you think your tree stumps have rotted down yet? Is your new path going to be the same level as other path and are you going with 2 smaller rockery’s either side of your new path ?

Good questions but the answers will probably turn on how hard it is to create the new path. It will be at a higher level as there are steps up to GH 2 and a smaller step up to GH3.
If you look at the 1st photo, at the higher side of the rockery, look for a pile of black MFBs. These are sitting on some slabs that make a path across the rockery. At one point, I thought of adding more paving to make a small patio area as there are good views from there down to Cardiff Bay. I haven't bothered though as it would be quite expensive to build it up and level it and, in reality, I'd never sit up there anyway!
The big green bush near GH2 is a bay tree that I grew from a cutting!!

If it was me, I'd think about removing the sharp corners from the path best seen in your first picture, particularly the one on the left making them more rounded. As well as tidying them up.
(I did mean I'd think about as I would be more likely to just live with it and I am one of the most untidy gardeners going).

If you mean the wooden edging stuff, its there to hold back the soil as it all sloped up towards the rocks. I'm thinking of sowing flowers between the wood and the rocks, if I can't physically move them backwards without digging out a lot of soil.
BTW, the white fencing/baby gates are always moving around. We close them at night to stop the dogs disappearing down the garden and barking at all sorts of beasties.

I'm sure you'd hate P's input. He'd dig everything out, clear it to bare soil and lay slabs. Probably not a lot of character though. I would then have to persuade him to allow plants.
I'd send him to help, but the last time he removed a tree stump for a friend he had a stroke
He did covet the fencing/baby gates.
Your plan of a walkway between the ghs sounds completely sensible (for once ) send us progress pics please.

Please thank P but its not possible to level it down because of the sloping ground. If it goes down it would undermine next door's wall - the only way is up, up, up, which would mean bringing (buying) lots of soil/chippings etc in. The cheapest solution is to either create different levels (my initial thought) with a drystone retaining wall, or a slope. A paving slabbed area would become a dumping ground for odd pots, barrows, junk - you can spot some in the photos. Think how much more junk I would dump there if there was more room.

I feel you, V. Dad always said there wasn't a cupboard in existence that Mum couldn't fill with junk. I'm the same with flat surfaces inside and out, they become 'put places'. Makes life a bit difficult living with an obsessively tidy organised and methodical person. I win though, usually.