Most of my vegetable beds were made using the no-dig technique before I'd even heard about it, a surprise benefit of my lazy shortcuts. But now I wanted to reduce the amount of grass and add more colour to the front of my house, so in spring 2022 I mowed the grass, laid out a patch of cardboard,

covered it with about 10cm of top soil I'd bought in from the local supplier and planted seedlings grown in the greenhouse and, for good measure, sowed five blocks of seeds, some perennials and some annuals, from the collection of free flower seed packets donated to me by my mother.

I am not good with the names of flowers. I just selected those that looked nice in the picture and for which the sowing instructions seemed appropriate. Four of the seed blocks did well, although they don't show up in the photos I took as the marigolds and sun flowers dominated. I think the lupins (I do know them) may have been eaten by slugs.

For more photos see the gallery