He’s digging it

Jiri is back after having to rest his shoulder and neck for 3 weeks.  It’s good timing because the weather has been glorious and there hasn’t been a drop of rain all week.

He has dug out more of the excess earth in what is going to be the sunken-garden, put up a low sleeper wall and built some steps.

Now there’ll be another two week break while he does some work for my neighbour in order to help her get a structure ready for summer gardening.  But he has left me with some stuff I can get on with, including shifting some of the earth into the empty steps to build them up ready for topping off with chippings, and also I can paint the woodwork that has just gone in.  Yes…more black!

Trystan is coming next week for two days gardening.  I want him to spend one day on the roadside verge, working with me to rake it, add some nutrients and compost, put some grass seed down with wildflower seeds, and also plant some of the spring bulbs I have no use for in the garden but they’ll be bee-friendly on the roadside next year.

On the second day he’s with me, we can work on the bottom bank.  Something has gone very wrong with the fir that has been planted there happily for years.  We’re not sure whether it is because all the plants have been taken out and structures put in, but I don’t think so because the structures have been there for a while now and the plant was healthy until about 4 weeks ago.  Interestingly, another plant (that I thought was a Laurel but it isn’t), has also started to deteriorate near the fir.

In this photo it looks even worse than it does in real-life!   It has to go, so that’s one of the jobs for next week.

Contrastingly, the Alatus growing in front of each sleeper section has suddenly sprung into action after being dormant for well over a year.

The purple and white Alium that are planted in troughs dug into the ground behind the sleepers are also doing really well.  They look healthy and strong and I can’t wait to see them flower.

I’ve had moderate luck with the black and white Tulips in the triangular bed by my son’s parking area.  I say moderate because I didn’t plant enough, and I’m sure the cat used the bed as a litter box and destroyed some too.  So now the impact is a bit…..’meh’ and not what I’d hoped.  I’ll try again next year, and treble the amount of tulips at least.

 

One of the things I am pleased with is how Anne Hathaway’s shed has turned out after using Ty Mawr Limewash Paint on it.  I’ve only given it two coats of ‘Strong Red Tint’ and it’s already nearly the colour I was looking for.  Perhaps one more coat will do it.

There are Aquilegia plants popping up everywhere, including some large ones at the front of the shed.

I had planned on putting two Hydrangea here, the Black Steel Zaza variety that are purple and blue with black stems.  They arrived from dutchbulbs.co.uk safely enough and they were very healthy…until….the good old frost.  I am kicking myself because I was keeping them in the growhouse and then on a beautiful day last week, I took them out and left them outside.  That night we had a very bad frost and it went down to minus 2, and by the morning they had blackened.  There are some new shoots on them, so perhaps they’ll come back, but I’ll have to wait and see.  Perhaps they’re not the right plant for our weather conditions here – I don’t really want to mollycoddle plants in a garden that is going to be difficult enough to maintain as it is, but I’ll see if they can be revived.

There is rain forecast tomorrow and for the weekend, but I’m hoping to get out and pot some plants on to make some room in the growhouses ready for a delivery of summer bulbs.