Dodging the downpours

"Mr Grumpy" from next-door, looking down his nose at us when we spotted him from the living room window the other day 😏  I think he's a bit annoyed that we are altering "his" garden 😉

We got some more work done last week but it really was a case of having to do bits here and there between the showers ~ some of which were actually rather bloody heavy!  Of course all the rain is also making the soil pretty damn heavy and claggy, so even when it wasn't raining it wasn't particularly nice to dig in the stuff 😳 

I had to make an effort, though, as the plants I'd ordered from Shire Plants arrived and I really needed to get them in the garden.  I started with the new little herb bed that I had finally managed to get cleared out.  We don't use a lot of fresh herbs in the kitchen, so the few I have now planted are ample for our needs.  I already had the chives, which came out of the planter which matches the one now on the new patio.  I added rosemary, oregano, two different varieties of thyme, and mint ~ the latter (hopefully!) safely ensconced in a pot, obviously 😏

The second planter from the kitchen courtyard has now been beefed up, given a few more coats of wood stain, and put in its new position on the patio.  Adrian made inroads into the soil mountain in the back garden when he filled up the planter; he then moved the soil that was left and dumped it into the empty raised bed in the front garden had been used as a holding bed for the plants I had dug up and wanted to keep.

He's very pleased to get the soil shifted, even though it will have to be moved onto a tarpaulin next year so that we can dismantle the bed to re-use it.  He really wanted to clear the area in the back garden so that he can easily access our second log-store over the coming months.  With the weather being so changeable there doesn't seem to be much point in trying to get the last raised bed in position in the front garden, not least because it will need a few coats of wood stain.  We may just get the new sleepers ordered and set them in place on the days when it isn't bucketing down with rain 😏

I finished off the first planter on the patio by adding an alpine-type plant either side of the rose.  I had already put in some London Pride plants along the back ~ there were a lot of them in the garden when we bought the house so I dig 'em up and use them to fill in gaps where needed!

I've saved two of the little alpine plants for the second planter and used the rest of them to make a little rock garden in the old wheelbarrow.  I made use of some of the fine stone chippings we had originally used for the paths between the old kitchen garden beds, both to mix in with the compost to help it drain more freely and to top off around the plants.  The pebbles and cobblestones were a mix of some we'd brought with us when we moved, and some we'd found in the garden here.

It's a simple little display but I am very pleased with how it's turned out 😊

Rhubarb and roses...

and a whole load of weeds, too!  This photo of stuff for the dump was taken way back at the beginning of July, and it was actually cleared away.  Sadly for us, we very quickly gathered up just as many more  bags full of weeds ~ which I, of course, forgot to photograph 😏~ but let me assure you that it was as bad as the pile above!  What is a teensy wee bit disheartening, despite the latest load having gone to the dump last week, is the sure and certain knowledge that we will have many more such piles to clear away before we've finished all the garden alterations 😒 

You may remember that we got the rhubarb bed from the front garden emptied out a few weeks ago.  We were able to move it round to the new, very much smaller, kitchen garden area in the back garden fairly easily and Adrian gave it a few coats of wood stain before setting it in its new position.  He then wheelbarrowed the rest of the rubbly soil that was left from the last bed we relocated in the front garden ~ which means there is now one less place out there for the cats to poop in 😉

He was hoping to make more of a dent in the little soil mountain to the right of the bed, but in the end not much was needed to top up the bed.  This was because he had to empty out the soil from second black wooden planter that was to be moved from the kitchen courtyard to the new patio.  By the time I'd put the rhubarb plants back into the bed, I didn't really need much more soil to fill in around them.  Still the mountain is further away from the stone chippings area now so that's some progress, and I shall need a fair bit of it to refill the wooden planter once it's been stained and is in position on the patio.

I needed "something" for said wooden planters, and there just wasn't anything I liked the look of that I could shop from the garden.  And, to be honest, what I really wanted was more roses ~ I do love roses 😍  So I treated myself to a couple more from David Austin, my go-to rose supplier.  I've had a number of plants from them over the years and can honestly say that I have never been disappointed.  

The three that I planted in the wooden barrels to the left of the wheelbarrow are doing very well, and so I thought I'd fill the patio with more beautiful roses 😊  I've only been able to get one of my new purchases planted but the other should be fine in its pot until the second wooden planter is ready for it.  The one in the photo above is The Poet's Wife, which has rich yellow flowers and a strong, fruity, scent.  The rose for the second planter is called Desdemona, which has white flowers with a pinkish hue, and has a strong, old rose fragrance.

The roses in the tubs have been fine through winter, up to now at least, so I'm hoping that these new ones will be okay as well.  If I feel that they are suffering at all I will wrap either some horticultural fleece or windbreak netting around the planters to give them some protection.

Phil and Adrian took away the huge pile of stuff that was piled here ready for the tip last week, so I was finally able to reach this bed to clear it out ~ hence yet another full bag of weeds already to the right of the photo there!  It's only a small bed but it took me bloody ages to clear it out, and I know it won't be too long before more of the dratted buttercups come back to taunt me as I couldn't get them completely out from where they have embedded themselves right at the back 😒  I'll have to just keep on top of pulling the buggers out!

The ivy was being swamped by all the weeds, so hopefully it will feel better now that it's got some space around it.  The little plant to the right of the bed is a fuchsia, Pink Galore, that I'd forgotten I'd planted in there!  I don't know if it will survive to be honest as it was only a seasonal bedding plant, but it's been in there a couple of years now so we'll just have to see how it gets on over this coming winter without all those weeds for protection 😉  The rest of the bed will be planted with a small selection of herbs, which I've ordered from Shire Plants.  

These were all in the kitchen courtyard, so I just moved them across to finish off the new herb bed whilst we decide what we're going to do there.  I think we will probably just have a bench, or perhaps a couple of garden chairs, where we can sit and catch the sun as it works its way around the house 😊

I don't often post photos of myself but thought I'd show you my new hairstyle ~ not sure quite why I appear to be gurning so much in this photo😄  It's been years since I had my hair coloured and now that it is so white, I thought a bit of colour would make a change 😉

Drunken fairies!

The fairies look like they've had a night on the town 😄  We've had some rather windy weather so I left them laying down for a day or two, rather than risk the poor little buggers ending up being blown into the pond!

We got this next bed lifted up ready for staining and being moved to its new position.  Thankfully it was very much easier ~ and a good bit lighter ~ than the bed when the pond now is 😳

We put it on top of the bed at the far end of the garden, which made it much easier for Adrian to tidy it up and apply a couple of coats of wood stain. 

Once we'd cleared out the first section of the wall border, he was able to remove the first of the sleepers that we'd used to edge it.  

This gave us enough space to get the newly-renovated bed moved into position.  It took a bit of fiddling about to get it in place but again, it wasn't as hard as that first bed had been!  As you can see, we are stepping the beds down to accommodate the slope.  Now, in the interests of transparency, I feel I should confess that we decided in the end to set the bed so that it looks "right" to the eye.  We did attempt to do this using the spirit level but it really looked more than a little odd, to be honest.  Now this may well come back to bite us on the proverbial bum at some point, of course, but it is what it is 😏 

We put a layer of the rubbly soil in the bed first, then we used the soil from the old rhubarb bed on top of that.  That completely emptied the rhubarb bed, so we'll be able to move it round to the back garden in due course.

There wasn't enough to fill the new bed, though, so we started to empty out the one beside the old rhubarb bed.  I'd been using it as a temporary home for plants that I moved last year, half of which have now been replanted.  This left enough clear soil to finish topping off the new bed.  I will be moving the hypericum and rosa rugosa from the wall border at some point into it, then I can go shopping in the garden again to see if I can finish planting it up without having to resort to buying new plants 😉

It's possibly not that easy to tell from this photo but the pond has started to go a little green and murky...

but fortunately, the pond plants arrived at the end of last week 👏 I bought them online, from Puddleplants, a company I've bought from previously.  Once again, I was very pleased with my purchases and hopefully the water will clear in due course now that there is some "life" in there 😊  

The lovely little delosperma sutherlandii in this pot seems very happy.  I can't remember what I planted in the little pocket above it, but it didn't survive the wet and cold winter.  I may see if I can divide the delosperma and put a section in the pocket instead of a different plant.  I must also try to remember to put the pot under cover this winter, as I don't think they really like to be very wet!  

Will the mystery finally be resolved???

Amazingly the "mystery plant" is now sending out a flower 😳  I keep looking at it feeling like I know what it is ~ but I just can't put my finger on it 😏   Hopefully once the flower opens it will become clearer and the mystery will indeed finally be solved! 

We're still plodding along with the garden project.  I moved the rest of my little garden knick-knacks from the back to finish off around the pond...

and also got the far end of the bed planted up ~ shopping from the garden, of course 😉  As I've already mentioned, I know that this isn't the best time of year to be digging out and relocating established plants and shrubs.  However, I really do think that I will simply run out of time before the winter weather arrives if I don't get on with it now.  I can tell you from previous experience that it's definitely not fun trying to dig things up when the soil is cold and claggy 😒

I can't remember what this shrub is called but when Adrian dug it up from the wall border for me, it rather conveniently split into two pieces ~ so two-for-the-price-of-one meant that I could put them in two different beds 😊 

The wall border is starting to be emptied out.  Eventually we will have a stone chippings path running beside it virtually all the way along.  Whilst we've already moved stones up to the area near the pond, we will leave the path until after we've got George in to re-do the mortar in this last section of the wall.  Hopefully we'll be able to get that done some time next year 🤞 

Then it was back to shopping from both the front and back gardens...

to get this second bed planted up.  So far, whilst some of the plants did sulk at first, everything seems to be okay.  We have had some warm weather up here but also a fair bit of rain too, which I'm sure must help the plants to settle into their new homes ~ even if it delays us from getting on with the job in hand!

And to finish off this post, I thought I'd show you how nice the raised bed on the other side of the garden is looking 😊

Slow progress...

...but progress nevertheless 😊  Beverly came over on Saturday and we of course put her to work, despite the photo above seemingly showing her just taking life easy 😄 

I'm afraid that once again not only am I somewhat behind with my garden posts, I've also been a tad remiss with taking photos of our progress ~ oh well, I'm sure you are used to that by now 😉

In my last garden post, we had got the old strawberry bed moved into its new position and the stone chippings paths started.  Since then we've filled what is now the new pond bed with soil and Beverly helped us to get the pond in position.  Unsurprisingly it wasn't easy to get level, despite setting it on a good layer of sand, as I'm sure you can tell!  In the end we decided that it was just going to have to be "good enough"  Hopefully when it's got the aquatic plants in it (which should be arriving by the end of next week) and the plants around the edge have filled out it won't be quite as noticeable 😏

I somehow managed to bruise my right thumb at some point.  I really don't recall doing anything dramatic and can only think that perhaps it was when I was digging out the chunky wooden log that the windchime hook is set into, as it was harder to get out that I was expecting!

I finished planting around the pond, "shopping" from elsewhere in the garden.  I also hunted around in the wilderness on the other side of the garden to find the little frog house that I'd put there a few years back.  It had a fair few snails inside and I don't think any of the frogs that visit/live in our garden have ever used it to be honest, but it looks quite cute set out beside the pond 😊

Adrian filled the second bed with soil from the other two old kitchen garden beds on this side.  There wasn't quite enough of the "good" soil to completely fill it up, so I moved the three rhubarb plants into very large pots so we could start to empty the bed they were in.  The rhubarb will be found permanent positions in the back garden in due course.

You may recall that way back-in-the-mists-of-time we had a soil mountain that had to be sifted to get out all the pieces of rubble that was mixed in with it.  We did make use of some of that rubbly soil though as a base layer in all the old kitchen garden beds, except for the ones where we relocated the strawberries and the rhubarb bed (pictured above), as an added layer of drainage.  We've used some of the rubbly soil in the base of the second new bed but what is left will simply be spread over the ground to level the areas out. 

It's not a very good photo, I know, but I thought you'd like to see the flower on my pink ornamental dandelion (taraxacum pseudoroseum) ~ it's very pretty and I'm hoping that the white one I have in the same tub will flower this year, too 😊

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 😊

Front and back

image from Magnific.com

Yup, I'm still jumping from the front to the back garden ~ then round to the front again 😏

That's one of the two little soil mountains we currently have in the back garden.  We managed to get rid of some of this one when we filled in the hole where the old pond had been in the front garden.  Since this photo was taken, we've used the rest of the soil to start filling the new raised beds along the retaining wall in the front garden.  Hopefully we'll soon get the other soil mountain whittled away to nothing once we get going on remaking the pond/wildlife area out there 😊

This bed is situated between our garden shed and original log store, and in some ways its a bit of a nuisance to be honest.  We have wondered if we should dismantle the bloody thing but that would take a lot of time and effort that we just don't have the enthusiasm for.  Adrian dug up the bulbs and leftover bits of rosa rugosa that were in there and I knocked off the soil from the roots ready to get rid of it all. 

We've had a bit of a rethink about digging a new hole to accommodate the old pond that we moved in the front garden.  We had already bought a shallower, rectangular, pond which we were going to position beside the old one but of course everything changed when we had to have the wall rebuilt.  We will still use the new one out the front but have decided that the raised bed above will be ideal for the old pond.  Obviously we've still got to dig soil out of the bed, but hopefully it won't be as back-breaking as digging down into the ground!

We won't be tackling this little project for quite some time, I suspect, as we've got such a lot of other work to get done first.  Still, at least it will give any lurking weeds a chance to show themselves so we can whip the buggers out 😏

It was a pretty chilly and windy day when we cleared that bed, but I was on a roll and full of good intentions to get this side of the back garden tidied up too.  I plonked myself down to start on this bed but omg, it was like sitting in a bloody wind tunnel 😱 It was obviously much more sheltered between the shed and log-store!  I started to get ear-ache so decided to leave it for another day 😉 

I don't think it will take too much time to work my way around once I get going.  The second soil mountain, by the way, is just out of sight in this photo to the right ~ you can see a tiny piece of the blue tarp that's covering it in hopes of stopping it getting too wet and claggy when it rains!

This is the gathering-place for the bags of stuff that need to go to the tip at some point.  I don't think I'll be able reach across to sort out the bed until it's all gone.

I can easily reach these pots of dahlias, though.  I was surprised to see they were sending up shoots as they've been out all winter and there isn't so much protection for the tubers in these smaller pots.

It looks like the little fuchsia plants (Pink Galore) also survived the winter.  They must be pretty well protected beneath this escalonia as I believe they are only half-hardy.

After forgetting to take "after" photos of this bed when I'd tidied it up, I did remember a few days after the event 😄 

Along with the ferns, it also has some other nice little plants in it .  A fair few of them, though, have lost their labels and unfortunately I can't remember what most of them are called 🤷

I do know that this is a lamium but can't remember the variety.  It's a pretty little plant and is growing really well in this bed after being moved from elsewhere in the garden.

The bed is fairly densely planted, which all the plants seem to be happy with.  I do have to keep the lamium in check a little to stop it taking over, but all-in-all I'm pretty pleased with how it's looking and it's really nice to have at least one part of the garden that I feel satisfied with 😊