Progress report: the ground, unsurprisingly, was like concrete, but the bloke discovered a very useful turf-lifting azada technique. Bit of a soak and it was all go. Slowly, but going. Got a little bit on the back dug and some bee-happy flowering plants in there, and the first actual bed outlined and quarter-turfed. At that point we started to lose light, so gave it a good soaking and left. It'll have got another good soaking with the rain last night, so hopefully tomorrow, when I can next make it up there, it'll be a lot nicer.

Thanks for all the advice - I tried the spade thing but couldn't get the spade in more than a centimeter or so - I am very much in love with the azada - without it I doubt I'd have got much at all done, if anything.