Toing and froing

As I've mentioned previously this years Great Garden Tidy Up has me jumping between the front and back gardens, like some kind of demented kangaroo 😏

I managed to get this remaining area in the back garden tidied up before we made a start on yet another Big Job 😲  I did have three rhubarb plants in this bed at one time but only one variety, Fulton's Strawberry Surprise, survived.  After I'd tidied the bed, I moved this lone survivor into the kitchen garden.

Yes, I did indeed decide to move the escallonia 😄 I gave its roots a good dust with mycorrhizal fungi ~ why does the wind always seem to pick up when I use that stuff??? ~ and added a good sprinkling of chicken manure pellets to the soil when I planted it in it's new home.  Then it had a good watering, a light trim, and I finally topped it off with a layer of bark chippings.  Escallonia are pretty tough shrubs so I'm fairly optimistic about it's chances.  

I thought I'd give you a close-up of what has, thus far at least, been a very successful replanting story.  I've probably told you before, my lovelies, that I bought this bay tree a number of years ago from the potted herb range in Tesco's vegetable section.  It was in a largish pot in our old back garden, next to the garden shed, and I was pleasantly surprised that it lived and actually grew to be honest!  However it was starting to look rather unhappy in said pot, so I decided to take a chance and plant it here when we re-made this bed.  It had developed something of a "lean" when it was in the pot, hence the tree stake supporting it.  The bed is somewhat sheltered by the kitchen and the bay tree is obviously very settled and happy here.  It continues to put on new growth which is very pleasing to see, although I do keep it lightly trimmed as I don't want it to ever reach it's full potential of 8m ~ even if it is very slow-growing!  

As I said earlier, I moved the rhubarb into the kitchen garden.  It's now living in a designated "rhubarb bed", along with a couple of newly-bought companions: Goliath and Timperley Early.  No doubt I shall have to move one of them if they all thrive but I'll cross that bridge if and when I come to it 😉

I'm pleased to report that there has been a teensy wee bit of improvement with the French beans in this bed since the last photos I took...

...likewise with the celery.  I was pleased to see the carrots have finally germinated, too ~ as have the bloody weeds 😒

Here's the Big Job referred to above, putting down more stone chippings in the "utility area" in the back garden.  Two of the four bags we'd ordered were delivered last Friday (the company had some issues with their crane lorry), and by the end of Sunday one bag had been completely emptied and the second was a good three-quarters empty.  We rather underestimated how much we would need, so Adrian phoned Orkney Aggregates yesterday to add an extra bag to the two we are still waiting for!  Adrian shovels the stones out of the bag and wheelbarrows them to where we need them, but even though I'm only raking the stones into place I must confess that I still find it pretty tiring ~ and my back doesn't like it much either!  Still, hopefully after the next three bags have been delivered, we won't have to do this again ~ fingers crossed 🤞