And the digging goes on...

...and on and on!  After weeks of procrastination, we have finally made a start on the other side of the front garden.  There is a lot of digging out to be done, but it's been really hard going out there as the ground has been trampled on so much and has consequently become rather compacted.  The plan has always been to have a wildlife pond on this side, nothing fancy or large, we just want to encourage insects and birds into the garden.

We've made good use of the tree trunks that were cut down last year.  These pieces are just a bit too difficult for us to cut into logs so we've made a border edging with them instead.  A sweet little plant (which looks like a geranium but I don't really know for sure what it is) has self-seeded into the side of the round section of trunk with the gardening gloves on them.  I admire it's tenacity and have left it in situ as it is clearly happy there, and adds to the more natural feel we are aiming for here. 

Adrian has dug out a lot of crocosmia from the wall border ~ it grows like a weed here!  We still have a good two-thirds of the border to clear but the area in front of the retaining wall is now cleared.  He has also dug a hole for the wildlife pond, but I'm not up-to-date with photos at the moment.

Meanwhile on the other side of the garden some of the plants and shrubs are growing away nicely.  I love this weigela and am thrilled that it has flowered so profusely already, despite it still being quite tiny.

And isn't this dicentra gorgeous!  The foliage is beautiful and the flowers are such a lovely colour.

All the plants in this pot came with us from our old garden.  They were in pots there too but not all together like they are now.  They took a little while to settle once I had transplanted them, but now they are romping away.  The pots they were in previously were a lot shorter than this one, and I must admit that I thought I had lost them over winter as the pots became pretty water-logged.  I think this new pot will suit them better as there is much more height there for drainage.

Mr Toad came to visit over the weekend!

I disturbed him when I was refilling the bird bath (well, technically it's a deep-ish plant saucer but the birds don't seem to care!).  I have to refill the bath several times most days as the sparrows splash around so much that the water slops out.  They make good use of it and we both love to watch them.

I've no idea what sort of toad our visitor is (actually, I'm not even certain that he is a toad ~ I guess he could be a frog!), but he was very obliging and posed quite beautifully for me to take plenty of photos 😊

Edited to add that Mr Toad is indeed Mr Frog!