First job: Dig out the beds. As you can see if you look closely our soil is very heavy clay. Clay is impervious to water so if you don't do anything about it then you'll end up waterlogged. If you look in the pictures at our grass you can see the effect of this - patchy growth (everything except the weeds anyway!).

Using the spade blade, mark out your chosen shape and then using the fork, lift up your grass and move the sods out of your way. You should end up with a bed that is lower than your lawn.

The next step is where the hard work begins - digging the bed over. The aim here is to break up the clay so that the plants roots can spread and water can drain through. If your soil isn't heavy clay then a fork might be best here but in our case we found a spade easier.

The technique we found most effective was to dig out a hole across the bed, a foot wide and just over a spades depth. Just pile this soil on some sheeting to the side of the bed. Now you can slice the bed down into the hole a bit at a time, breaking it up as you go. How you break it up will depend on your soil but we found that it was like making pastry - you have the sticky soil and you need to dig in loads of sharp sand and some manure to dry it out and break it up.

Note: if your drainage is really bad then no matter how much you dig then the water will just collect at the bottom. If this is the case then you risk waterlogging your beds anyway. If so then you need to look into more drastic measures.

For each of our beds we used about three to four large bags of sharp sand and a couple of manure.

If you find a bed is not very full now then you may want to add back the soil you removed to make your first hole - just mix this back in and add sand & manure. Then rake over the top to level the bed otherwise you'll find the surface undulates.

We now added the water feature reservoir. To do this, dig a hole and use sand in the bottom to level it out. Different water features are more sensitive to slopes so you may need to be more or less careful at this stage. Ours is quite sensitive so use more sand and a small spirit level.

Now we built the raised bed. Four sleeper sections (precut to my measurements by a local sawmill) we joined by right angled metal brackets. The inside is filled with soil that you've already improved.

Now would have been the best time to add the cables (though you really should get a professional involved for this bit) as you can easily lay them on the surface. I just wish we had realised this - it's so much harder once you've layed the membrane!

The aim of this garden was low maintenance so each of the beds is covered by weedproof membrane. This was laid and cut to shape next. Likewise the plants are added by cutting a slit in the membrane and putting the plant through. The hole was filled with compost and firmly pressed down.

The final bed has shorter lengths of sleeper added vertically then membrane added over them. Finally bark was added on two beds and gravel on one.

A few bits of painting - firstly some trellis to give the rear bed a little height. We'll nail this to the fence and put in a climber.

Secondly, we have left the decking until now because we've been carrying sand over it into the garden but it was looking a little worn so this is touched up with Ronseal Ultra Tough Decking Stain (Applicator pack).

Also a good time to fit an electric patio heater to make the decking even more versatile during the evenings. This Algarve kicks out loads of heat but perhaps we were a little keen using it for a barbeque on a chilly early April day! The heat it kicks out is in a direct line so if you want a wider spread then look at gas ones instead.

Final tally of what we used ...

Next steps ...

Tools - Keengardener.co.uk & Local Builder's merchant (PGR Timber)

• Spear and Jackson neverbend range spade and fork
• Spear and Jackson trowel and fork
• Wheelbarrow
• Hozelock wall mount hose reel & hose - make light work of watering.
• Wolf tools:
  • Lawn rake
  • Patio brush

Features - Keengardener.co.uk

• Blagdon Three Side Pillars Water Feature - Granite
• Select a light low voltage lighting system :
  • 50m cable
  • 150w transformer
  • 2 x 20w spike garden spotlights
  • 1 x pond light with green filter
  • 1 x rock effect light
  • 3 x siri wall lights
• 1 x Algarve patio heater

Plants - Local discount plant supplier (Barleylands Farm Shop)

• 2 x Cordyline Australis
• 1 x Pheonix
• 6 x Box shrubs (varing sizes)
• 6 x Hebes (various varieties)
• 10 Heathers (assorted varieties / colours)
• Climber - undecided at time of writing ...

Materials - Local builders merchant (PGR again)

• Sharp sand - used for conditioning the clay
• Building sand - used for levelling the water feature and slabs.
• Composted manure
• White chipping stones (Used for 2 beds)
• Granite chipping stones (Mixed with the white for the water feature bed)
• Chipped bark (Surround the sleepers and covering the other bed)
• White cobbles
• Weed supression membrane
• Garden hose to act as conduit for cables (Consult an electrician here)
• Used railway sleepers - various lengths - local sawmill.
• Right angled brakets & screws to fix sleepers
• 7.5l Ronseal Ultra Tough Decking Stain

Of course this is only the start for the garden and we've got several more smaller tasks / projects on the plan ...

Breathe some life into the lawn.

• The lawn is looking quite tired after 4 years of children playing then a heavy dose of building with all this work! We don't want to relay it completely so will see if we can breathe some life in by airating, raking in some sand to counteract the clay and reseeding.

Corner "hiding" area

• Luckily I mis-measured the sleepers so have a number left over. I've decided to make these into a little walled corner area to hide the wheelbarrow, leftover sand and wheely bin.

Then it's time to start all over again with the front garden ...