A raised garden circle.

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This blog was brought about by an observation in questions that someone was tired of clearing out leaf mess from her mulch. I was well ahead with my plan to clear my raised circle of its gradual takeover by Allium Cowanei, fallen hazle nuts and a large hardy geranium. I had planned to put weed fabric down and cover with slatey bits. Put flower pots on it and walk away…..job done. Then I thought of leaves, hazlenuts, and twigs……Oh dear. Then I thought grass….squirrels would bury nuts in it….blow. At the moment it is bare and being slowly hand picked to clear those ghastly little white allium bulbs/hazlenuts. I went to my favourite GC to look at the paving they had when I last looked……nothing to be seen. Landscapers went out of business, so they de stocked. I had fancied some sort of a circle….alas no circles. There are blowers and vacuums that pick up stuff in the garden, I do realise, but I hate all that noisy gear. Pricey and no where to store.

This is my raised circle. It is directly under a large Hazel tree which was not there when the circle was constructed. It did not produce nuts until recently. When it does make nuts, the squirrels come and bury them everywhere. In neighbours gardens too!.

Here are some of them growing sneakily in my little woodlandy place under the Camellias. I have a little mini ’woodpile ’there. They were even hidden in that.

These are the three main nuisances. The little white bulbs are produced in large quantities. They start off very tiny. Leaf up in October and by Spring the leaves are thin straps about 2 foot long. They flower in May, after the leaves have dried up. They arrived years ago as a ‘gift’ in an allium order. Muggins planted them. There are roots of the large hardy geranium to get out too.

Here is Allium person having a quiet smile at my efforts to get rid this pernicious pesky bulb.

This is the other approach to the circle from the main pathway to the back of the garden. I wish we had left it clear as a little sitting out area when the garden was landscaped about 24 years ago. There are lots of surface treatments but some of them no longer in stock at homebase or GC as I thought they would be. Any ideas?
I was thinking I might plod on with the clearing and then plant out heucheras in weed stopping stuff, and see how it goes.

By way of a little light relief. The Goodyear airship came chugging overhead while I was doing my circle. So I rushed and got the camera. We didn’t realise it still flew.

Here are these little bulbs. There was a shoot attached to half a bulb. I dug up the shoot and found this lot in the same place as the shoot. This is my later strategy for getting rid of them. They will give themselves away as they start to shoot. If the earth is bare I can spot them easily. Just planted a rooted test sprig of Heuchera Firefly to see how it likes the circle, which is rather shaded. Sounds obsessional but they are so annoying!

• 21 Jun, 2012
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