Changes

Welcome back! 'What a great job you have done'. Unrecognisable. Well done you...love it!

Wonderful transformation Samjp. It must be very satisfying when you look back at the "before" photos, compared to your garden now. Nice one, well done. Happy New Year ?

Blimey. What a transformation. Your hard work has certainly paid off. Well done.

Welcome back Sam, and a big welcome to Sunny even if he is a garden helper of the wrong kind, lol, I am lucky with mine neither dig holes but Brynner is a dab hand at the pruning of the Buddhlia, your garden has certainly changed, it looks amazing and so much bigger now, you must love being out there now, well done ....

You must be very happy with the results of your hard work.

Happy new year Sam :)
Your garden is lovely now. You should be proud of yourself !
Sunny is beautiful. He'll bring you much pleasure and company too ...
All the best for 2016. Hope you'll show us more photos of your garden through the year :o)

Sunny looks very happy, and your garden improvements are wonderful. I like the path .. added to GoYpedia. :o)

Wow, what a marvellous improvement you've made, I love the pathway. Sunny is a beauty and I can imagine how helpful he's been! Best wishes to you for 2016.

Hi Michaella, thanks am so glad to see the back of the old garden. glad to see your still on GoY, hope everything is ok with you.

Hi Alan, thank you. Yes it is very satisfying. When it was first done I'd just stand and grin at it lol, still do to be honest.

Hi digginfit, thank you. It's safe to say it was hard work, still can't get over how much mates tail root we dug out.

Hi Lincs, thank you. Much more pleasant out there now, well would be if it would be if it would stop raining lol. Lol I seem to have stopped the digging with a garden of canes lol. Sunny is lovely, he's got a fantastic temperament we just don't always see eye to eye lol. At least he hasn't tried his paw at pruning yet lol.

Hi peter I am pleased thank you, still needs some work on the borders to spruce them up though.

Hi Hywel, thank you. Lol Sunnys company is far more welcome now he's stopped eating my gloves. I'll do my best with more photos - managed to delete a load last year :-(. Glad to see your still on GoY. Think of you every time I see your hardy geraniums at my moms - they've been lovely. Hope everything is

Hi Terra good to see your still on GoY, hope everything's ok with you and your guys. I love that photo of Sunny, he does look so happy. We'd only had him about a month then. He seems to be fairly happy with is, I hopehe is anyway. Previous owners apparently abandoned him in a back garden - who could do that to him?

Hi Gee, thanks. The path didn't go quite as I envisioned but I think it works - always makes me think of abandoned train track :-) lol thank Gee not sure helpful is quite term is apply to Sunny. He's very good at rescuing his toys from the box when I'm vacuuming lol

Thank you for such lovely comments., certainly makes me wonder why I stayed away from posting for so long. it's great seeing so many of the people I remember. I hope your all ok. Looking forward to catching up a bit more.

Did I send some Geraniums to your mother ... ? I can't remember (old age creeping up ! lol)
Anyway, I'm pleased to know they're doing well :)

Yes you split your geraniums and sent me 4 I think when I was doing my moms garden about 4 years ago I think. They really brightened up the shade border.

I can empathise about the mares/horses tail. My garden was full of the damned stuff when we moved in here. I'm on top of it but it certainly hasn't been eradicated.

You have my deepest sympathies there. It's awful stuff isn't it. My mom managed to get rid of it in her garden. Unfortunately it's starting to make a come back - got to have been 10 years without it though. Doubt we'll ever manage it, we're surrounded on all sides :-(

Will be happy if we can at least keep it under control

Fantastic changes to your garden, Sam, no wonder you're pleased with it! I'm about a fortnight behind on GoY, hence the comment being late. Handsome dog too ... :o)

Thanks Shirley. He is a lovely looking dog, we often have people comment when we take him out - thing is he knows it lol.

A huge improvement Samjp. The path is very well done and so is your new patio.

Thanks Dorjac. It still makes me smile :-)

Hello Samjp, I do admire the work that you have done on your garden, you can be rightly proud of what you have achieved. Now, in winter is the time to evaluate how you want your garden to evolve, but take time to see if the Mares' tails reappear in any of the bare patches before the plants really get going again. Good Luck and good gardening.

Hello Samjp
You can be rightly proud of the improvement that you have done to your garden, it is looking good. Now is the time to look at how your garden might evolve and any tweeking needing doing, but watch for emerging Mares'tails and deal with them Asap. Good Luck and good gardening.

Hi Siris. Thank you, it's just a tad different isn't it lol. I'm still playing about with a planting plan for the White border - definately not my strong point lol. I tend to be more of a let loose in the garden centre type lol.

I can all but guarantee the mates tail will be back. It was weaker last year, but we're surrounded by it here so it comes in under the fence. Whenever I weed I dig through plant foliage looking for the blasted stuff.

I know Convolvulus (bindweed) is a less invasive than Marestail, but I got rid of it by digging down the stems as far as I could wrapping polythene around the offending root and green bits then putting a total weed killer on it in the 'bag', when died back dug down deeper and pulled as much of the root out as possible. Did this each time any green showed above the ground - gone now. Keep pets away. Also used this method on Acanthus, with success.

We spent months digging out roots from the ground. Where it started to grow back we were crushing and spraying it as well with weed killer. Mares tail has a very tough outer layer that stops weed killer penetrating. With the problem being large scale crushing individual stems is a huge job. Even then it typically takes several goes at it (so I understand) before it kills it.

I'm working on the grounds of controlling it by regularly pulling it up. Yes roots will still be there but so long as you pull it early the mares tail will eventually die. We'll never be free of it, there's too much in the neighbours gardens. So long as I can keep ours reasonably under control I'm happy lol.

Well done for getting rid of bind weed by the way. Thanks for the tips as well.

Just found your garden make-over and been reading your blogs. What a difference, an awful lot of hard graft but it's such a nice garden now, and it will get better and better once it all starts filling out.. I imagine you are still grinning?? Lovely use of slate btw

Thank you Resi. Lol yep still grinning, can't imagine stopping that any time soon.

Thanks, I do love the slate such a gorgeous colour.

What a difference you have made, it is great size, love what you have done, well done, impressed!!

Thanks Angela. It is a good size garden, I was amazed how big when it was cleared.

Adore Sunny, how are you getting on with him? has he settled down now?

I have to say Sunny is a great dog, he's got such a lovely temperament. He seems to have settled down and is calmer than when we first had him. Although he can still get dippy lol. When we first had him he didn't know what to do with his toys. Now he has favourites that he takes from room to room. Seems silly but it's so good to see him play with toys on his own (although that's still rare)

Saying all that the little so and so dived across me a couple weeks ago when I was out running with him and sent me flying. The bruise on my knee was quite impressive.

Hope your garden is really amazing in 2017 after all that work. Shame about the bruised knee. Never had a dog only cats and you can trip over them too! He looks lovely, like a dog that pulls a sledge.

Thanks Dorjac.

Pets are remarkably good at lying in awkward places. When I went for a shower this morning Sunny was lying at the bottom of our bed. When I came out he was lying full length across the bathroom door. Our furry trip hazard lol. Yet when he goes to mother in laws (who is a bit unsteady) he'll lie in awkward spots but then moves his legs out of her way so she can walk past.

Malamutes were bred as sled dogs. But they pull heavy sleds. I always use the analogy that huskies are like thoroughbred horses and malamutes are like shire horses. They say a healthy Mal on his own can pull up to a ton! We've never tried Sunny with a sled, hate to think where we'd end up lol.