Strawberry Plants for the Birds

We need to keep a walkway clear just at the back of the caravan, but I couldn't help saving more plants and have moved some of the little strawberry plants to this area. Hopefully they will fill out and spread. Summer Update: they have definitely taken over and I have seen the little chaffinches eating the strawberries:)!

Before

After

Finishing the Leftover Turf

Lee used up the rest of the turf by laying this on the very worn out pathway by the Beech Hedge. It was also on a slope so we've tried to level it out a bit. The area wasn't prepared as much as the Vegetable patch but fingers crossed, breaking and raking the soil a bit will be enough to get it going. The slabs have been lifted from the main lawn area and placed here where the soil gets a bit compacted in the Winter.

What a difference, so glad we started to take photos of our progress.

Before (Springtime)

After (Summertime)

Caravan Garden

We had some turf left over from the new lawn area, so decided to put a patch by the caravan. Added some pea shingle for the path. Looks like a nice little garden now. There's still a bit to do in this area as we are building a raised flower bed too.

Before

Path to Railway

After

New Lawn

At last the old Vegetable Patch has been lawned. No more weeding. Lee spent most of the day laying down the turf. Most people would fill it with borders but I love the open space we have created.

The Old Vegetable Patch "Before"

The Vegetable Patch "After"

Mum pulling the weeds that shot up 

Lee Starting to Lay the Turf

Luna too tired to help

Lee is the new Water Feature

Garden Pond Makeover

Bucket full of pond muck

We've had a really productive week in the garden and I am getting better at dry stone walls! The little pond was looking a bit shabby and needed a bit of a makeover. Using the bricks from the old chimney we had removed I've used some to extend the border. I think it looks better even though I'm not a great fan of dry stone walls.

Really difficult decision regarding cleaning out the pond. So much wildlife in there that I really didn't want to empty it out so I'm doing partial clean outs in stages and saving all the critters: frogs; toad; newts, water beetles, water flea (have only seen one) and leeches!

Eddy the Gargoyle was hidden under the Crocosmia, he's now got a new home overlooking the pond and watching the wildlife.

Before Photo

New Stone Border around the Pond

Whole Border

Border by the Pond

Although most of the major borders in the garden have been cleaned and re-stocked, the crocosmia still keeps coming back. So we had to tackle the border by the pond again by digging out the existing clumps that were thinned out before. Great excuse to go to the garden centre and buy a few more plants for the bees and butterflies.

This walkway not quite finished yet

This border cleared for the second time!

The Little Pond that is my next Project!

The Last Border !!!

Another Border full of Crocosmia and Geraniums. I really like Crocosmia but not everywhere. I have saved some for planting at the Side of the house at the front and the rest has gone to good homes.

So this is what the border looked like before I dug it out. As always mum has been helping and kept me going :)

More Crocosmia and Geraniums

Very Full and Messy and Plants Overcrowded

Border extended round to path

and more Geraniums to the Back

Pots and Wheelbarrow

All that digging and moving rocks has done my shoulder in, but the weather was so gorgeous I decided to sort out our pots with mum. Replanting, splitting and generally giving them a bit of TLC. They are nothing great but will be happy in their new homes for a few years now. I can't wait to see what the black pussy willow looks like and I'm looking forward to seeing the lovely white lillies that came with us from London from my Aunty Nieves.

Old Wheelbarrow

Fixed and Painted by Lee

Plant Stand with Pots on

More Pots

Mum certainly likes her Pots

Need to level out the lawn area now ...

Rose Border

We chopped back the Beech Trees so that we could extend the height of the chicken wire, it will probably take a few years to come back but it really needed to be done. We still have the top to do but that's for another day as all the hedges around the garden need trimming back too.

This border was very overgrown and the existing Roses were just smothered with bluebells (most without any flowers) and crocosmia. Mum and I cleaned this border and made it a bit narrower and I attempted to make a drystone wall using most of the rocks from around the garden.

Working our way up

The start of the Drystone Wall

Have done my shoulder in moving these :(

We cleaned the border and took out some of the Crocosmia and Bluebells. We found some Ferns and Irises struggling to be seen. There's also some Aquilegia, Foxgloves, Hollyhocks, Solomon's Seal and a Gladioli. We planted 5 small Pyracantha (with orange berries for the birds), 3 Apple Blossom, Lillies, Alliums, some Perennials and Roses. We also planted some Elephant's ears to fill the border with evergreen ground cover.

The Roses that I ordered from J Parkers were pitiful and I was really disappointed I won't be ordering from them again.

Look how tiny my Roses are! Little Sticks!

Something Lives in this Hole under the Fern

Before

... and After

Lovely Rocks

Another patch cleaned and we found lots of lovely Big Rocks. Really needed to clean this border so that we can plan our archery range. Targets are going to go on the side of the Garage which means we will be shooting down towards the targets. At least now we can see what's going on. There's lots of Crocosmia and plants emerging, which will stay on the left and lots of Ivy and a low Conifer on the right, this will stay also and some of the rocks will be put back once we are finished. We are planning to put some steps down the middle. Lee found 4 frogs!

Lovely Big Rocks

Border Trimmed Back

Pond Border

The cleaning continues in the border by the pond.

Lee has taken the old wheelbarrow to try and fix it up as the wheel has fallen off and some of it is rotten. He's also put in a wooden line edge so the grass doesn't get into the border so quickly and moved some big hefty rocks into the border.

Some overgrown plants were given a hard prune as they were too tall and leggy and I've moved some of the little plants like 'Lungwort" into little groups. There's quite a few ferns in here too so should look nice and full by the Summer.

This border already has a Mahonia, Forest Flame, Fuchsia, Azaleas, some lovely Ferns, Hardy Geraniums, a few Rockery plants and an established Weeping Cherry. Acquilegia is between some of the shrub roots so these will stay and also the little Primroses for the bees. I've planted some Irises, a tiny Magnolia Tree, Witch Hazel and Poppies.  There were a few Lupins in the Vegetable patch so I've moved these over as well. I'm just waiting for some evergreen plants to arrive and then I can finish this off.

There are a couple of not so healthy roses so I've dug these out and will replant them somewhere else as they don't seem to be doing very well here. I'd also like to put some ferns just behind the pond to soften up the back edge.

Before Photo

Before Photo

Before Photo

Rebuilt Wall End and found a Toad

Before

After

Willow Sticks

Just after Christmas I bought some Willow sticks to fill in the gaps in the hedging. I thought this would be a good idea as we can also used the wood for kindling. They are all shooting lovely, but then I found out that they might interfere with our drainage system so I've had to take quite a few out and replant them into pots. We'll just have to see how these do. I moved them to the Log Store Corner. This could work out quite well as we can chop them back for kindling and it makes the Log Corner a lot more cosy. I removed the Trellis fence as it was a bit crooked and planted a couple of the existing climbing roses here. Nothing much to see here yet but I'll update when they've grown up a bit.

Before Photo

Willow Pots in Place behind little hedge

Little Orchard Update #1

The Magnolia tree is out of it's pot with a little brute force from Lee. John the Gargoyle is guarding the patch and the little Robin likes to perch on his head. Dividing fence is down which opens it up a lot. Weed surpressing membrane is down and wood bark has been spread. I've bought a Cherry Tree and my favourite Eating Apple 'Egremont Russet'. So hopefully we can just leave this patch until we are ready to trim the hedge. We now have 9 Fruit Trees, 7 Fruit Bushes, a Magnolia and Little Weeping Cherry. I'm not sure what the bushes are, the leaves are just coming out but I think we have a Gooseberry Bush and some Blackcurrants.

Half Done, then I ran out of bark

Here we go again

All Done

Edges left clear for wood border

Left Side

Right Side

Before Left

Before Right

After