Have you been busy, Sharon?

image from Magnific.com

Well, to be perfectly honest I haven't really been busy at all 😏  The weather definitely hasn't been tempting me out of the house, although we did have a couple of nicer days when we managed to get a bit more work done in the garden.  

I mentioned previously that we were going to tackle this border and we have managed to get it sorted out.  Thankfully it wasn't nearly as "weedy" as the border on the other side of the path 😱  I'm just trying to completely ignore that side of the garden at the moment 😄  Anyhoo, we got out the few weeds that were lurking ~ mostly dandelions, so we know full well that we haven't managed to entirely dig out their bloody roots! ~ and Adrian hauled the old sleeper edging over to the stone chipped area near the dining room window so that they were out of the way.  I then raked out the soil to make it a tad more level, although we did also take out a wheelbarrow load.  

As with the new path along the side wall, the weather gods were feeling kind again so laying the weed membrane wasn't too traumatic 😄  At some point we will be laying new sleepers running across from the concrete path over to the new raised bed border, which will separate the stone chippings (to the left of the manhole cover) from what will eventually be a new lawn area.  Unless we're very lucky with how well we manage to get the rest of the garden sorted out, I can't see the lawn being laid for a good two or three years though.  Obviously we needed the membrane beneath where the stone chippings will be spread out, but decided to just continue it all the way down the border to try to keep the weeds at bay.

Even though the sleepers were in short lengths (between 1m and 1.3m) they are still really heavy and poor Adrian was knackered by the time he'd shifted them.  I put them on our local Facebook marketplace page as "free to collect" and had a lot more interest than I thought I would!  Hopefully a chap from just down the road from us is coming to collect them on Sunday ~ weather permitting of course, as we've got Storm Boelo due to hit over the weekend 😳

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 😊  

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.  As 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 aside planted 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 🤞

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 😊

More done than it seemed!

Last week was a pretty mixed bag, weatherwise, but despite feeling that we didn't get much done, more was actually achieved that I had at first thought.

I think I mentioned that I was going to relocate the old wheelbarrow from the other side of the garden across to the new patio?  I got it moved ~ no easy task as the front wheel is bent to one side! ~ and emptied out, ready for new plants to be installed.  I've ordered a selection of alpines (along with a few herbs for the back garden) from Shire Plants, as I'm going to make a mini rockery in the wheelbarrow.  I also wanted a couple of low-growing plants to finish off the black wooden planter on the right and I really didn't have anything suitable I could "shop" from the garden. 

However, I was able to use what I already had to finish off this side of the long raised bed.  Unfortunately we've had to put some of the netting panels from the old kitchen garden beds around some of the new ones as a cat (most likely Mr Grumpy from next door 😒) has been digging in it.  As I said, I got this side planted up and then topped off with bark chippings.  Although it's not a fool-proof topping, the cats don't seem to like to dig in it as much as they do in nice fresh soil!

The dwarf buddleia and erigerons were temporarily being housed in the planter on the patio.  The little variegated shrub (which has lost its label, unfortunately) to the left of the hypericum was in the back garden, in a bed which I am going to plant up with herbs in due course.  I was worried for a while about the little rowan tree, in the centre of the bed, that I had uprooted from the other side of the front garden.  It was looking very sad and dropped all it's leaves, but I'm happy to report that it is looking much better now and is putting out fresh new foliage 😊

I also relocated another hypericum from the planter on the patio, which has now planted in the other side of the raised bed, next to the hypericum which has been there for a little while.  The fencing is still in place around this side of the bed as I can't really get any more plants moved into it until I've dug up another rowan ~ which is still on the other side of the garden 😖

I moved another plant from the back garden, which I can't remember the name of, to replace the two wooden blocks that I'd put there to try to keep the cats from digging.  Needless to say, they took advantage of the freshly turned over soil and have dug in there again 😠  Much as I don't like to crowd out my plants too much, I think I will have to put in a fair few more to try to fill the gaps as much as possible.

We finally got the old wall border emptied out ~ of course, I've forgotten to take a photo of it in its bare state 😄  I really wanted to keep the lupin plant that was growing in the corner next to the escallonia and Adrian managed to dig it out with a fair bit of root still attached.  I drastically cut it back, just leaving these small, fresh, shoots.  I was amazed at how much liquid came out of the stalks when I cut them!  I didn't know that lupins retain such a lot of water.  The plant seems okay, though, so fingers crossed that it will survive being treated so brutally 🤞

The rosa rugosa, which we inherited when we bought the house, is going to have to go I'm afraid.  Lovely shrubs as they are this one was such a terrible thug, sending up new shoots all over the place.  I got it all cut down ready for Adrian to dig out at some point soon.

I had a "supervisor" whilst I was cutting back the rosa rugosa.....

it sat on my leg for a good couple of minutes before flying off.  I guess it just needed a little rest before carrying on with its day 😊

I also repotted all the new pond plants, something which I should have done when they arrived to be honest but didn't really have time right there and then, so I just plonked them into the water!  I was glad to finally get the job done, and I'm happy to report that the water is also starting to look much clearer now.  

I turned my back for a couple of seconds and found that another butterfly had taken advantage of somewhere to have a little sit down!  Good job I noticed before I sat back down on my gardening stool, otherwise it would have been a squished butterfly 😄

No much going on

😉

It's been hard to get back into the swing of things since we've been away, not helped by the amount of wet days we've had.  Not that I'm complaining too much about that, to be honest, as I think the cooler, damp weather is helping the plants and shrubs that I've been moving to settle in to their new locations with a little less stress than they might otherwise have had. 

Adrian has managed to get the fourth bed in place, though.  Once again it's been positioned much more by eye rather than the spirit level!  As I've already mentioned, this may be the last bed we get moved this year.  It all depends on the weather (of course 😏) and how well we get on with replacing the old sleepers along the front wall border.  

Adrian was also able to get the pile of rubbly soil beside the bed shovelled into it before rain stopped play.  It's very slowly coming together in our revamped garden area, and we can most definitely see where we've been! 

 I managed to get some more plants moved into the third bed but still need to put a few more in there.  The wood blocks are a temporary measure to make it at least a bit more difficult for the local cats to poop in it 😒

We are planning to lay sleepers from where the second and third beds meet, running across the garden to join the path from the front gate.  This will give us a good solid edging to keep the stone chippings separate from what will eventually be the new grassed area.

Still plenty to do out there, as you can see, but I'm hoping that we can get a fair bit more done before the winter weather sets in 🤞

Before we went away...

image from Magnific.com

we managed to do a little more out in the garden ~ small steps, certainly, but progress nevertheless. 

I rather drastically cut back the rosa rugosa and the hypericum, which made it much easier for Adrian to dig them out of the wall border.  I then planted them into the third bed.  Hopefully they will settle down and forgive me for moving them at this time of year!  

Getting the two shrubs moved meant that Adrian could set-to and take up a couple more pieces of the sleeper edging along the old wall border.  He was going to leave it until we got back from Dad's birthday holiday, but in the end decided to get it done so we could get on more quickly when we got home. 

I did a little more "shopping from the garden" and got a few more plants put in the bed, including the sambucus nigra Black Lace that was in a pot in the kitchen courtyard ~ it's not easy to see it against the colour of the soil, but honestly it's there in the middle 😄  I forgot to take a photo of the bed before we went away, hence the evidence of where the local cats have been digging in the bloody thing ~ I suspect the most likely culprit is the cat that lives next-door 😒  I need to browse around the other borders to see what I can find to fill the bed up to deter the little bugger! 

The "holding bed" only has about three plants left in it now.  I shall probably put a couple of them in the latest bed and depending on how well we get on with relocating the next one, whatever is left may have to be temporarily moved into large pots.

Adrian got the last of the kitchen garden beds from this side of the garden lifted today, and has got half of it re-stained.

I suspect this will be the last bed we manage to get moved this year, even though we will only have one more to do.  He wants to replace the old railway sleeper edging along the border at the far end of the garden with new sleepers and to give us enough space to work in, we won't be able to get the last bed in position until that's been done.  We are going to set the new sleepers further in so that the border is 7" or 8" narrower, which will make it a little easier for me to reach across to weed, etc.  Whether or not we manage to get that done this year will depend on the weather, of course.   

I'm sorry to report that the pond is still green and murky but the little waterlily doesn't seem to care, as it is putting out a pretty pink flower 😊 

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!