Soil mountain!

I've mentioned our "soil mountain" a few times now, so thought I'd show it to you.  At the moment it looks like a weed-covered burial mound LOL but in the winter it isn't such a pretty sight!  Still, at least all those weeds wild flowers are good for the insects 😄

Adrian is very gradually working his way along the pile, using the soil to fill the new beds in the ornamental garden.  It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for all the rubble in there *sigh* Before we can use the soil it has to be sieved, which takes time especially with Adrian's dodgy arm joints!  We'll still have a load of soil left after we've finished in the front garden but have vague plans for raised beds out here to move the raspberries into.  Well that's the plan at the moment ~ as you know, our ideas could very well change before we get that far!  In any event, hopefully we'll get round to that little job next year.

Whilst I was showing you the weeds out the back, I thought I'd show you those in the front garden too.  No "Instagram-perfect" photos on my blog, I'm afraid 😉  The line of greenery in the right-hand side of the path border is dwarf elder, Sambucus ebulus.  I really like elders and we did have a couple in the back garden, but they had to be removed when we had all the work done out there.  I came across this dwarf herbaceous variety on the Shire Plants website and thought I'd give it a try.  I wasn't expecting it to spread quite so much though, I must confess.  I'm going to dig it out of this border and move it to a spot where it can be a tad more contained!  

I had a good tidy-up of this section of what will be the hedge border as I wanted to move the alchemilla mollis into the new border.  It's one of my favourite plants and I have a fair number planted all around the garden.  The two forsythia Spectabilis will also be moved, probably to become part of the new hedge, which will be a mixture of shrubs.  I have a crab apple tree waiting to be planted where the forsythia are at the moment.  The rowan tree is Sorbus Aucuparia.  The little plant in the front right corner is Ajuga Reptans Variagata.  I may well leave it where it is and get a few more to edge this section of the border.  

Along with the weeds in the hedge border, I've also got self-seeded digitalis popping up.  As they are biennials, I shall dig these up and put in pots ready to replace my plants which have flowered this year.  This middle section of the wall border has been the most weed-ridden part by far.  The thistles are horribly prickly but thankfully pull out quite easily.  Actually, most of the weeds are fairly easy to pull out other than the dandelions and buttercups which I never seem to be able to get out completely!

The buddleia on the left of the photo is Lochinch, and will be staying where it is.  Also staying put, rather swamped by the dratted thistles at the moment, is another rowan Sorbus Cashmiriana.

I've managed to cut off a chunk of the right-hand side of the border in the photo, but you can just see a glimpse of Gypsophila repens Rosea which is growing very well here.  A few more plants to join those already planted, methinks, to edge this section.  Creeping Jenny is also growing happily here, along the back against the wall.  It makes good ground cover and I expect I will plant more of it along the whole of the hedge border.  

There are also four small hollies here: Sharpy, Blue Prince, Golden Van Tol and Aurea.  They may well become part of the new hedge, too.

This last section wasn't as weedy as the second, but was more so than the first LOL  I had quite a few plants in here and most of them have been moved now.  There are a couple of trees in here, a Balfour willow on the left and what I think is a Whitebeam on the right, both of which will be staying of course.  There are also two more forsythia, which could well become part of the hedge with the other two.  I shall probably add to the sweet woodruff to edge this section.

Although we had to have two sycamore trees removed from the garden, we believe we have done our bit by replacing them with trees more suitable for the size of our garden and proximity to the house 😊

Just look at that thistle!  This is in the front wall border, which will be revamped along with all the other borders over the coming months.  I've already moved out a lot of the small plants.  I'm undecided at the moment whether to use it for the larger herbaceous perennials or a variety of shrubs.  Whichever way I go, I shall be "shopping" from what I already have elsewhere in the garden 😉

More thistles!

Thankfully it didn't take too long to clear out the weeds and I've started moving out the plants.  I think this is where the dwarf elder will be moved to.

Escallonia are such tough shrubs!  These were dug out of the front wall border nearly two years ago and they are still surviving.  They will finally be going back into the garden this year, though ~ I'm sure they will be mightily relieved!