An afternoon job, six weeks of Sundays

The finished stepped bed along the front of the house, every level filled with fresh soil and the young magnolia in its own small box in the middle

Walking round the neighbourhood one weekend, I noticed someone had stepped their front garden down in levels, following the slope instead of fighting it. I stood there and thought, that's pretty easy, I could do that. I had it down as an afternoon. It took six weeks of Sundays.

The front of our section falls towards the footpath, and the further along I went, the more it kept falling. Every box had to sit a little lower than the one before it, so I ended up doing actual calculations to keep each level flat, and it worked out at a 100mm drop from one step to the next. Then there was the clay. It came out in solid lumps, and the pile on the lawn got bigger every Sunday.

In the middle I built a small box of its own, and that's where the magnolia went. Back in July I said it was getting a mound and my honest hopes; it got a box instead, which I think it'll like better. Then a load of soil went in on top, and I tipped in every packet of seed my mum had given me a few months back: sunflowers, carnations, sweet peas, pansies, marigolds and whatever else was in there.

A big pile of lumpy clay dug out of the front lawn, beside the new timber frames

A mountain of soil tipped onto a blue tarp on the driveway in front of the garage

The young magnolia staked in its own small timber box in the middle of the stepped bed

Note to self

Before you call anything an afternoon job, check how much the ground drops.

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