bed 1a

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This is the bed to the left in the back garden – trying to number or name them so I’ll know what each is. Decided to split this one into three sections, counting from the front.

before:

April 1st
Under the quince was a mass of chives – the last people here must have loved chives! They and the forget-me-nots were taking over, choking everything else. I took out some chives and put them in pots for future (controlled) use and started to wreak havoc on the rest

I also took out some geraniums – there were about fifteen clumps of them, a tad more than strictly necessary. I put some into tubs and smaller sprigs into pots to give away

Once I’d cleared that much, I discovered a small shrub under the quince; it doesn’t look too healthy, so I thought I’d move it once I’d cleared some more ground – it can’t get much light there, and the quince and those choking chives must have been robbing the ground around it of any nutrients.

Between the quince and the flowering currant are some tulips; I’m not overfond of them, so they’ll be going.

There’s also a clump of bluebells – I’d bought four packs of 5 bulbs each in my “Sainsbury Splurge” – I don’t remember planting any but I’ve only got three now, so I must have. If these were from the 5 that I planted they’ve certainly done well! Took out about 30.

I did try to leave that geranium in place, but the bluebells were behind it, the ground was rock-hard and I was having to bend through three different angles at once. Besides, those @@!! chives were liberally mixed with the geranium; I had to pry the clump apart and check sprig by sprig for chive bulbs (picture apes grooming, that’s how picky I had to be).

April 18th
For some idiot reason, the soil level is higher than the paving at the end of the bed, which was causing minor landslides and heaping of soil. I made a (very!) rough retaining wall out of dug-up stones and bits of ceramic pipe – the area in front of the wall is where I’m going to have the path to the lawn – there was a paving stone here originally, but I had it moved next to the fence – that was where the rose was shoved in a corner. And just about between the trowel and the long wall-stone was the sink, planted with one bulb (to judge by results) and fifty million weeds.

April 26th
The garden slopes – may not notice to look at it, but it’s very obvious when you’re kneeling and find yourself leaning sideways to get level! I’d decided to “step” the beds (well, the whole garden, eventually, but the bed for now) – the concrete fence-posts seemed as good a place as any, and they both happened to be between major shrubs.

Cleared the rest of the “step”, saving bluebells to replant and tulips to give away. Still had that small shrub to relocate but wanted to refresh the soil first, it could probably do with it!

I had some dinky wire mini-fences, but they’d be no use for retaining soil. I did think of putting bricks in (found plenty of those in my excavations!) but wasn’t’ sure I’d get the line straight. Sudden brainwave: found a couple of long strips of polystyrene in my “craft when I get round to it” shed, used the mini-fence to hold it in place while I tried to level out the soil in that “step”. Seems to be holding ok for now.

Spread some of the bluebells all along the back; I was trying to give them room, but they’d been totally crowded before and didn’t seem to have minded (though maybe they did, only two or three were in flower) – I had enough left to plant up two tubs.

Then I could move the small shrub – I’ve no idea what it is. You can see how much light it didn’t get by the way it’s leaning; I turned it half-sideways cos the hole I’d dug for it hadn’t taken account of a long root run.

Then a couple of packs of seeds in front – I’d had these years, no idea if they’re still viable, but only one way to find out.

April 27th
Didn’t really want to do any more, I was aching rather a lot, but the rest of the bed had to be planted so it might as well be done now.

Put in six packs of seeds – I’d bought three “assortments” – easy, annual, and butterfly. Reading the individual packs was fun! Clear cellophane with tiny printing; I had four choices of how to turn each pack to read it, and it usually took me all four. I put “blue” and “white” plants in, trying to get the tallest towards the back.

The bulbs at the left end are what I found while I was digging, no idea what they are but at least they’re all together now.

Digging the left end of the bed wasn’t easy – the quince constantly got in the way, and there’s the fuchsia as well – just bare stems, which made it hard for me to know where to go round them, especially round the roots.

Another reason why digging that end was hard work …

This was all one root that I had to get out in pieces – and there’s still more of it that I couldn’t get out. Did worry that it was the fuchsia, but this was completely dead, or I wouldn’t have been able to snap it into bits (eventually!)

Watered it all in, then went and collapsed into a cup of tea and a bun.

It took me about a month to do all this (well, four days spread over a month). Shee, I need to find the “go-faster” pedal!

• 7 May, 2015
• 6 likes

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