Slowing down

image from Magnific.com

Yup, I'm still here ~ I just haven't had too much to tell you about really 😄  Following on from our rather wet summer it seems we are now in an equally wet autumn, so work in the garden has slowed down considerably.  Even on those few-and-far-between days when it isn't raining the soil is so cold and claggy that trying to do things is really rather unpleasant *sigh*

We're in two minds at the moment over whether or not to order the new sleepers that we want to replace the old ones with.  I think we're both feeling a tad "burnt out" to be honest, and it's becoming really hard to work up the enthusiasm to get on with the work that still needs to be done in the garden.

Between the weather and a couple of appointments this week, I haven't done anything out there at all 😳  We did manage to get some bits and pieces done last week, although I had a dental appointment last Tuesday.  It's a struggle for me to walk to and from town and work in the garden on the same day, to be honest, especially if the appointment is in the middle of the day!

We moved one of the two weigela from elsewhere in the garden that I mentioned previously.  I cut it back very hard before Adrian dug it out from the border which currently runs along the path from the front gate.  You can hopefully see it in its new home, up near the climbing rose.  There is another weigela that will eventually be moved into this border but not until the buddleia has been moved.  I'm pretty sure this won't be done now until next year, as I'm planning on planting it in the last raised bed that we want to put in to finish off the run that we have been working on this year.  If we had some dry days no doubt we could get the bed in place, but the main issue is whether or not we would have enough dry weather to give the bed two or three coats of wood stain before putting it in position.

Adrian put down a piece of fairly flat stone (that was leftover from when the side wall was rebuilt) in front of the climbing rose for me, so that I don't have to stand on the soil when it needs attention.  I also got the area on the other side of the rose completely cleared out.  It was mostly the dreaded crocosmia, along with a few weeds.  Don't get me wrong, I don't hate crocosmia, it's just that it has a tendency to go mad in our garden and tries to take over the whole bloody place!  I still haven't decided what to plant there, although I am contemplating moving one of the ferns that I already have as I know that at some point two of them will need to be moved elsewhere.  We have plans in the pipework for alterations to the other side of the garden, and there will be at least two ferns that will need to be moved at some point.  I think all these changes are going to take us a good couple of years or so to get done, so no rest for the wicked anytime soon methinks 😏 

Once we'd finished what we could currently get done in the front wall border, we turned our attention to the new path area running alongside the side wall.  We were able to get the soil levelled out fairly easily although it was a little claggy.

We managed to get the weed membrane in position without too much difficulty ~ the wind usually seems to pick up when we decide to do this but the weather gods decided to be kind that day 😄  No doubt weeds will still come up along the wall but we couldn't get the membrane any closer.  Adrian may well get some stone chippings delivered sooner rather than later so that we can get the rest of this new path laid.  At least that's a job that isn't quite as horrible when it's wet as digging in soil is!  Hopefully we will be able to get the rest of the wall repointed some time next year.

I know that it's not typical to have a path running alongside the boundary walls, with the garden borders set further in, but it just seemed to make more sense to be able to reach the plants and shrubs from both sides more easily.  It meant that we could have a wider planting area that wouldn't have to be stepped into to keep maintained.  The borders along the front walls are fairly narrow and I can reach across them more easily than the borders along the sides of the garden.  We are planning to do something similar on the other side of the garden, not least because of the issues we have with all the prickly and thorny vegetation that keeps encroaching from our neighbours on that side 😒  

The escallonia on this side of the front wall border ~ which is, of course, comprised of more than one plant ~ had got a bit wild and woolly, so whilst we were in the mood we decided to give it a good trim.

It isn't perfect but at least it looks much tidier now than it did previously!  When it next has to be trimmed, I might cut it back a little more than I did this time.  We don't really need a particularly high hedge as the pavement on the other side is very much lower than our garden.

The sorry-looking little tree in the raised bed is an apple that we moved from the back garden.  I'm hoping that I haven't killed the poor thing and that it will pick up again next spring 🤞

I've made a start on tidying up the area behind the table and chair ~ naturally, I forgot to take a proper "before" photo 😕

Anyhoo, this is how it's currently looking.  I can't remember what either of these shrubs are called and what I wrote on the plant labels has worn away to virtually nothing so they're no help at all.  There was a third shrub between them, which Adrian dug out completely and in the end I decided to discard.  I didn't feel too bad about making this decision as more often than not, I do try to reuse plants and shrubs that I move from elsewhere.

My original idea was to move both shrubs into the front wall border at some point and completely remove the little area to the left that's edged with large stones.  The curved concrete edging on the right was here when we moved into the house and to be quite honest, we really don't feel up to dismantling it ~ plus there's a matching area on the other side of the path which leads up from the front gate 😳

I've now decided to leave both shrubs in situ ~ after having given them a bloody good trim! ~ and just alter things slightly.  I will tidy up the area on the right and at some point will no doubt have some plants from elsewhere in the garden that I can rehome there.  As for the area on the left, I'm going to dig out all the plants (and weeds!) and rearrange the stones, moving them further in to make the area a little smaller.  Then it, too, can be replanted.

The border running along the path, of which a small section can be seen to the right, is now completely empty.  Adrian is going to lift the old sleeper edging and we will temporarily cover the area with weed membrane until we are ready to make the alterations we have planned for it.   

I've been meaning to tell you about the so-called "mystery plant" but kept forgetting 😏  Since I last mentioned it the flower has opened, and I'm pretty sure that it has revealed itself as an agapanthus.  I decided to take a chance and have now planted it in the latest raised bed.

So that's the garden report up-to-date.  As I said earlier, I'm afraid I haven't got out there at all this week.  I had a hairdresser appointment on Tuesday afternoon, so knew it would be too much to work in the garden and walk to and from town on the same day.  Then on Wednesday I had a follow-up appointment at the dentist to have a tooth removed 😱  By the time we'd walked home again (having also called into the furniture shop at the bottom of our road to look for a new mattress en route) the numbness was starting to wear off and my jaw was aching.  My mouth still felt pretty bruised and sore yesterday but it's not so bad today thankfully.  I'm a terrible coward when it comes to the dentist but apart from the stinging of the numbing injections, I didn't feel any pain from the actual procedure itself despite the root of the tooth being a tad more curved than the x-rays had shown!

I must admit that as the year moves further into autumn and with winter just around the corner, I'm finding it difficult to drum up much enthusiasm for gardening ~ when the soil is cold and claggy it's not exactly fun working out there, and even wearing gloves I find my fingers get awfully cold.  I do have a few bulbs left (that have been dug up as we've been working our way around the garden) that I want to get either put into pots or into the new beds.  I recently got three of my ornamental pots planted up with some of the narcissus and tulips, and there is one more that I'd like to fill as well.  The few bulbs that will be left over can go into permanent spots in the raised beds, and the ones in pots will join them after they've finished flowering next spring.

Still, perhaps I'll get a little more work done out there before calling it a day for this year.....although I confess that I am feeling the siren call of the cosy indoor crochet projects that are on my ever-increasing list 😊