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 😉
