Flexing our muscles

image from Magnific.com

Although I suppose to be more accurate, Adrian has been flexing his muscles somewhat more than I have 😉

We got most of what needed to be shifted out of this front wall border.  The hypericum has gone into the latest of the raised beds that we recently got in place.  It was planted much too close to the climbing rose (Claire Austin), which was suffering somewhat as a result.  Hopefully it will feel better now that it isn't being crowded out!  The rosa rugosa beside the hypericum has been dug out completely.  It really had turned into a terrible thug, spreading across as well as out of the border 😒  I fully expect to be pulling up shoots for sometime yet to come 😳

There was another, much more well-behaved, rose to the left of the buddleia which has been relocated.  The buddleia itself will be left in the border until we've got the last raised bed in place, which won't be until next year now methinks.  In the meantime, much as I really like it, the alchemilla mollis has also been dug out.  I have more plants in other parts of both the front and back gardens, so I'm not getting rid of it entirely 😊

The weigela (between the buddleia and escallonia) is staying put, even though I planted it a little too close to the latter really.  I just don't think it's worth all the effort involved to get poor Adrian to dig it out and then me replant it just a little further along from its original spot!  I have another two weigelas in other parts of the front garden that will be dug up and moved to this border in due course.  We can get one moved as soon as we feel like it, as it will be going near to the climbing rose ~ although not too close, obviously 😉  The other one will have to wait until we've been able to move the buddleia.

  Once the weigelas are all in their new home I will probably relocate a couple more shrubs from elsewhere in the front garden to join them.  I don't intend to have any other plants in this border, although there are spring bulbs in there that I'm happy to leave in situ and I will probably add more over time.  I'm just going to top it with a good layer of bark chippings to finish it off.  I'm still not sure what to do with the little area on the other side of the climbing rose.  It's full of crocosmia at the moment and I'm contemplating digging it all out as the bloody stuff does tend to take over.  I might replace it with something low-growing and, if possible, evergreen.

The "well behaved" rose from the border has gone into this large pot, which used to stand near the dining room window.  We were lazy and moved it without emptying out the soil!  It was pretty damn heavy but we managed to shift it nevertheless, and it saved some time and effort not to have to dig out all the soil and then refill it again.  Thankfully it didn't have to go far across the stone chippings 😏

The rose is The King's Rose (again, from David Austin).  It only has a light scent when I would normally go for something stronger, but it has such a pretty pink and white striped flower that I couldn't resist it!  I now have matching pots either side of this long bed, both with roses.  The pink blooms you can see in the photo are on the rose in the tub behind: Eustacia Vye.

I've also managed to get the second planter finished.  The rose in the centre is Desdemona, the second of my recent new purchases from David Austin.  Like with the other planter, I dug up some more of the London Pride plants from one of the borders to set along the back, with the two little alpine plants I'd put to one side either side of the rose.

We're both pretty pleased with how much we've managed to achieve so far this year, a lot more than we thought we would to be honest.  If we continue to get some good days, then hopefully we'll get a bit more done before we have to stop for the winter 🤞