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First insane step : the vegetable garden

Given the garden's layout, we felt like the best place to start a small vegetable garden (just, you know, to "have fun") was left of the canopy, between the house and the shed. The only problem with that idea was that, well... it was a rather crowded place.
The future vegetable garden is both under and behind the thuja (or cypress, or... well, ugly conifers, whatever they are) hedge...

Behind the hedge, it's definitely not any better : a huge gas tank (which will be "disappeared" as we get the house connected to the town's gas service) and, under it, a similarly huge concrete slap... covered with ivy...

To be a masochist or not, that is the question, I suppose... And on that point we're definitely in the "Spank me I love it" club.
So, July 2010: the tank must go. And that implies removing at least some part of the hedge. So lil' Julie gets her saw and her little arms and removes 3 of the thuja (yes, yes, with a saw).
Here's the result:

And without the tank :

Fortunately for my little arms, onto which the ugly conifers caused a bit of an allergic reaction (not to mention cuts and bruises), the in-laws came to the rescue with highly technological artefacts (well, a chainsaw and a trailer truck) in August.

And after quite a few sledgehammer- and pickaxe-related events...

... and many trips to the waste collection centre ...

...and "Chainsaw massacre" operations...

... we finally managed to clear the area near the end of the summer:

This Spring we're preparing the land in order to plant a few vegetables.

We should plant some potatoes this week-end. I'm also considering sowing carrots and beans. Courgettes and tomatoes that were sown earlier are looking mostly decent and will join the rest in May...

Because the ground is really clayey, we're not expecting much from the vegetables this year: it's bloody hard to break the clods! But... we'll see: if I end up eating a single courgette, a lone tomato and 3 potatoes, I'll be happy anyway Besides it can only improve with time, given the amount of organic waste and compost we're throwing around everywhere
Some will notice the presence of 3 hydrangeas and 2 forsythias in the area we were working on; some of them aren't dead! After quite a while in a pot, the hydrangeas found a new home in a clump above the water tank. As for the forsythias, well... I hope they rest in peace: given their size it was quite impossible to move them. In addition, there were others at the front of the house and I don't have a forsythia-related obsession. However, one of their "babies" is currently in a jardinière, waiting to be moved to a more permanent location...