A Green Wall or a Moroccan Courtyard

In this house, the first one in my life which is truly mine alone, I seem to be fated and really very unlucky. The saga of my new Wren kitchen is well documented. Now it's the saga of my Courtyard.

I started off wanting a "green wall" & duly got a company, well a man actually, I really didn't see any signs of a company as such. I first contacted him in in August 2014. I paid him to come out and do a site visit. That should have resulted in a plan for the complicated fittings and watering system which supports the planting. Not unreasonably I think, I expected 3 things, a design for the underlying structure, a planting plan & a costing. Here we are 8 months and many excuses later and I don't have any of those. So the Green Wall bites the dust. I really can't go through that whole process again with another company.

So I expand on my Moroccan Riad courtyard idea.

• Some minor electrical work resulting in a hole needing filling - what a botched job that was! 
• Then a whole wall painted a terracotta shade of peachy orange - a bit risky, it's a very bright colour. A good job - hooray!
• Meanwhile an order for 2 large fiberglass plant troughs to sit on a ledge above a pre-existing water rill - badly packed by the supplier, lost by the carrier, then arriving with very damaged packaging. These things are the size of coffins, so not easy to wo/manhandle, but I did manage to get them out without having a heart attack & miraculously the troughs were OK.
• The "piece de resistance" is a specialist Moroccan tiled panel feature with a central polycarbonate mirror. The tiles have to be encaustic because of the possibility of frost damage.They come from the Netherlands - a bit risky you might say. How right you would be. Much excitement & anticipation when they arrived - They were completely the wrong colour. The border should have been a bright blue -  think Mediteranian. They were darkish grey. Panic.
• What clout do you have if you have paid for something coming from abroad? Well if it's in the European Union you have quite a lot fortunately. Have you ever heard of the European Consumer Centre? Me neither. However apparently they are like Trading Standards for the whole EEC. 
• The issue is that the colour of the tiles on the website in no way resembles the colour of the actual tile. I had asked for a sample tile to be sent but the company declined. I have finally got that point accross & agreed to pay for 2 alternative coloured tiles to be sent. I have to hope that one of those will be better & that the company will then arrange for the new tiles to be delivered & the old ones collected.

So, I'm waiting on the tile samples, and contact details for a tiler. The electrician needs to come back to modify the existing uplighters. Then if that all happens I can fill the troughs with compost - I estimate about 12 bags, that's how big they are. Finally, the fun bit, I can choose the shade tolerant plants & get them in.

I am developing depths of patience I never knew I had. Or maybe I'm just more cynical about the infinite possibilities of things going wrong & the unreliability of trades people & suppliers.

It will happen, but it should have been done weeks ago so I could be enjoying the planting now.