Thanks for your replies i did think it could be an apple tree...those little horrid crab apples i sometimes find them on my drive way...

we used to have two dogs, a male and a female...both Boxers but we just have the female now but she rarely goes into the main garden as we block it off with the wheelie bins...just the odd time she sneaks in when the bins are out when im busy with housework, we have a large paved area at the side of the house in front of the garage that she uses 99% of the time we're planning on getting a proper gate to block it off. i dont like her going in the main garden because whenever she does...she goes over to the corner on the right and starts pawing as if shes trying to uncover something...if i try and move her away she growls at me a little..its as if she can smell something...before we lost our male they had spotted a hedgehog in the early hours one morning..we had thought the barking was down to there being an actual intruder..when we let them both out to "see it off" Toby came back and dumped this massive hedgehog on the backdoor step! it was gone the morning after but is it possible that its living in this corner? if so...now what do i do?

im not sure about the magnolia..is this the bush with funny brownish petals? if so thats in our garden. if not then i have no clue ha! im so rubbish at this...but i need to get a move on because my nosey neighbour likes to complain about how she doesnt like looking at my messy garden :/

Iv uploaded 2 close ups of the corners if this would make identification easier?

We plan on doing it all ourselves as well honestly we need a project that we can do together away from our mummy and daddy roles and i felt that this was a good way to go about that. Our son goes to his nana's every weekend for a sleep over so this is the best time for us to get cracking...starting tomorrow

i am planning on getting rid of the ivy but im unsure of where its actual roots will be...erm on the far left it looks like at the back of the garage leading onto my neighbours garden...if i spray it and then it turns out to be their ivy thats just taken advantage of my garage walls then im in trouble arent i? but i hate the ivy it just looks very dated and untidy. perhaps i should knock on and ask...hopefully it isnt theirs and i can get rid of it!

Again thanks for your replies ]

Zoe