30 seconds of scarifying

Aaargh, and loads of broad leaf weeds too.

Know the enemy

Clear sign of the neglect of the garden. I've never had a daisy his far advanced before!

Erica's new bed

Slow start to the day, but worked hard once we got going. Decision made about our old rose penelope (dug out but lives on in her offspring and a slit trench cutting), but decision deferred on the mulberry tree.  We need to do some more research there.



Erica watched with interest throughout. We were joined by a very vocal robin at one stage.

We also managed to trim our little hedge and shred everything using the lovely Atco quiet shredder. I still enjoy putting big stuff through it. It must be a man thing.

penelope had to go, but she has a daughter plant that has sprung up from her old root so that went next to the piece in the slit trench.  It will be interesting to see which bit survives the best.  We planted her in the spot where the children run down the garden and leap off the wall.  She may prevent that but may get destroyed.  We'll see.


The first refugees (Sedum telephium) from the slowly disappearing island border.




The pukekos picking over where penelope used to live.

Erica Surveying the Curves

We are pondering executing the uninspiring Mulberry tree.  Judith has been lobbying for this for years. We gave it a decade to come good but it hasn't.  A new herbaceous border needs a wider bed so the island border probably gets the bullet too.

Oops

Working on the new bed and found the lazily placed pipe from a few years ago. Think I will re-route it now there are no plants in the way.

Back in Blighty.

The garden was in a sorry state when we got back from NZ, though it was about the worst day of the year to look at it again. The lawn is mostly moss. The roses are gone to seed and the vegetable garden is covered in grass. The raised beds were a cat toilet. We'll post photos when we remember but there are not too many. It was so upsetting!
We didn't get very far with the New Zealand garden. It was a short growing season and it is hard to motivate yourself to invest in a garden you are leaving after a year. 

The Return

A few pictures of the garden on the 1st of February. It was a miserable grey day, the worst day of the year to see the garden! No idea why the bench was like this, but it was.

Below is the vegetable garden (now vegetable lawn), the choisya has been cut back and the ceanothus pruned somewhat.

This is the bed we are remodelling. Behind is the pleached hedge whose framework has completely collapsed. One more for the list. We may well model the framework on the one outside St Paul's cathedral which has nice inverted V shapes.