A few steps further forward

Alright for some, eh!  Next-door's cat in one of his favourite spots again ~ he plainly doesn't mind sleeping on stone chippings😄

Adrian got the other half of the new raised bed constructed and set in place.  It really wasn't at all easy to get it level 😳 On reflection we should have done the levelling before putting down the weed membrane, and that is what we intend to do with the other beds that we move.  It actually looks worse in this photo than it does in real life, but in any event once it's planted up hopefully it won't be noticeable 😉 

I mentioned previously that we had used up one of the two little soil mountains from the back garden in the new bed.  Rather than take soil from the second mountain, we have started to empty out what had been the old strawberry bed instead.  We've thought long and hard about how we're going make the new garden area, and have decided to use most of the kitchen garden beds to create it.  Hopefully the new area will be a little easier to look after if it is raised up off the ground somewhat.  It seemed much more logical to move the soil from one bed to another first as they are, after all, out in the front garden already.  This is going to be a long process, methinks, and may well take a couple of years to complete.  

We haven't filled the new bed all the way to the top yet.  I'll be moving shrubs into it later in the year and want to avoid having to shift a lot of soil out of the way to accommodate them.  It may be necessary to top up with more soil once the shrubs are in place but we've got plenty to spare 😄

I finally got this side of the back garden tidied up.  Eventually all the plants in this bed will be moved elsewhere as this area of the garden is where our new, very much smaller, kitchen garden is going to be.

The raspberries and blackberries didn't take long to tidy up, and still seem happy living in their large tubs.

There had been four pots of dahlias here but two of them had disintegrated into nothing.  The remaining two, though, are growing quite happily.  The varieties are Café Au Lait and Tyrell.

This bed remains untouched, unfortunately.  I really can't be bothered to move all the bags waiting to go to the dump out of the way, to be honest!  It, too, will eventually be emptied out and will become the new home of our rhubarb plants.

There's still such a lot of work to be done but I feel that we've made a pretty good start 😊