Eating an elephant.....

image from Clipart Library

.....one bite at a time, as the saying goes.

I've been alluding to what a terrible state the ornamental borders are in but up to now, my lovelies, I have avoided both showing you the evidence and actually doing anything about them 😳

To be perfectly honest, it all just feels so terribly overwhelming at the moment and I've found it very difficult to make a decision about just where to make a start.

Believe it or not, there is actually a little nature pool beneath all the overgrown weeds and plants here.  The fuchsia was originally a small piece that reappeared in the front wall border after all the old hedging had been removed.  It needs to be cut back regularly really but it's got somewhat out of hand this last year or so!  Beverly and Lyndi are going to give me a helping hand with this area at some point, and I've decided that the fuchsia will have to have a drastic pruning so it can be dug out more easily.  I have a place where it could be moved to, over on the other side of the garden where we have some issues with our neighbour's shrubs and brambles encroaching on our garden.  I will leave the fuchsia pretty much to its own devices and let all the shrubs fight it out amongst themselves 😉

Once this area has been cleared, I'm considering making the pool a little larger.  I may also replace the fuchsia with a small tree, perhaps a rowan.

Something strange seems to have happened to this mahonia!  It's throwing out new growth top and bottom but there is a weird section of bare trunk that looks as if something has made a meal of the leaves.  I going to leave it be and see if it continues to grow okay.

If you thought the kitchen garden borders were in a sorry state, well, just look at the ornamental garden borders ~ I have days where I look at them and just want to weep as we worked so hard getting them all set out😞

Adrian got the border on the kitchen garden side cleared out a couple of weeks back, and you can see the marked contrast with the border on the other side of the path.

The weeds, of course, are bad enough in this border but the worst thing of all is the dwarf elder that I planted.  I certainly made a rod for our backs and I'm beginning to wonder if we'll ever get the bloody stuff cleared out permanently😩

It's a shame, really, as it does have attractive leaves and pretty white flowers but it's just so incredibly rampant!

I don't know what the tall, rust-coloured, weeds are called but we get lots of them growing in the garden.  And as for the buttercups, well they also grow like they are trying to take over the bloody world 😒

The hedge border isn't really as bad as it might first appear.  Much of the growth in the various sections are in fact ground-covering plants that I put in, and they are doing a fairly good job as smothering and keeping the weeds at bay.  Just some general tidying-up required here I think, along with some trimming of the shrubs perhaps.

Again, this border isn't quite as bad as it looks, although the dwarf elder has made its way across and will have to be dealt with severely 😠

 Finally we have the soft fruit area, which we have decided needs a major overhaul.  I mentioned previously that the blackcurrants, whilst they have grown very well and are producing lots of fruit, said fruit is extremely sour.  It seems a shame to just dig them up and get rid of them, so they will be going into the little border near the bay tree in the back garden.  We don't put out bird feeders because we don't want to encourage rats and mice, but the birds are welcome to feast on the blackcurrants should they fancy a little fruity snack!

I may move the redcurrants to live with the three little cordon fruit trees in the back garden but I haven't decided yet.

We are aiming to rearrange these beds somewhat, with the whole area then being given over to ornamental plants.  This might be the first section that we tackle (not including the fuchsia/nature pool area, which is dependant on when the girls can come over), then as we work our way around the other ornamental borders we have somewhere to move plants to should any thinning-out be necessary.

I guess all I can do is keep telling myself "one bite at a time, Sharon, one bite at a time" 😳